Reading, discussion and book-signing with author Mark Auslander

Mark Auslander is the author of “The Accidental Slaveowner: Revisiting a Myth of Race and Finding an American Family.” The book details the various myths circulating in Oxford, Georgia, about Catherine Boyd, known as “Miss Kitty,” an enslaved woman owned by Methodist Bishop James Osgood Andrew, the first president of Emory’s board of trustees.

The book also examines the effects of these stories on perceptions of race in Oxford and among southern Methodists, and chronicles Auslander’s efforts to find out the true story of Miss Kitty and her family.

A former professor at Oxford College and in Emory’s Graduate Institute of Liberal Arts, Auslander is now an associate professor of anthropology and director of the Museum of Culture and Environment at Central Washington University in Ellensburg, Washington.

The event is sponsored by PCORE (President’s Commission on Race and Ethnicity at Emory), the Office of Community and Diversity, and MARBL. Books will be available for sale and signing outside the Jones Room.