The 13th annual Symposium on Democracy will be held in the Kiva April 23-25.

Democracy and the American Civil War is this year’s theme.

This year’s keynote speaker is Jeff Shaara, the author of “Gods and Generals” and “The Last Full Measure.”

Shaara’s session, “The Civil War as an Enduring Phenomenon,” will begin Monday at 5 p.m.

There will be two sessions on Tuesday at 9 a.m. and 2 p.m. The first session is “Race and the Civil War.”

Panelists for the session include Mitchell Snay from Denison University, and John David Smith from University of North Carolina Charlotte.

The second session on Tuesday is “The Civil War Home Front.” The Ohio State University’s Mark Grimsley and University of Florida’s Matt Gallman will be panelists for the session.

The symposium will end on Wednesday with “Reconstruction and the State of the Nation After the Civil War” session at 9:30 a.m. Stanley Harrold from South Carolina State University, and Fay Yarbrough from University of Oklahoma will be panelists.

All sessions will be held in the Kiva and are free to the public.

Emily Vincent, director of university media relations, wrote in an email that the symposium commemorates May 4.

“Symposium on Democracy is to honor the memories of the four students who lost their lives on that day — Allison Krause, Jeffrey Miller, Sandra Scheuer, and William Schroeder — with an enduring dedication to scholarships that seek to prevent violence and to promote democratic values and civil discourse,” Vincent wrote.

Contact Sade Hale at [email protected].