Laura L. Davis, Ph.D.
Biography
Laura Davis, Ph.D., was a freshman at ΒιΆΉΣ°ΤΊ when she witnessed the shootings on May 4, 1970. She became a faculty member at ΒιΆΉΣ°ΤΊ State, team teaching βMay 4, 1970 & Its Aftermathβ with Carole Barbato, Ph.D. With Dr. Barbato, she co-created the May 4 Walking Tour and May 4 Visitors Center, through consultation with hundreds of members of the campus, public, scholars and design professionals and supported by funding from the Ohio Humanities Council and the National Endowment for the Humanities.
Dr. Davis has provided many May 4 tours and interviews to students and the media and has appeared in documentary films on May 4, including Emmy-winner βΒιΆΉΣ°ΤΊ State: The Day the War Came Home.β Her collaborative May 4 publications include βDemocratic Narrative, History, and Memoryβ and βThis We Know: A Chronology of the Shootings at ΒιΆΉΣ°ΤΊ State, May 1970.β Dr. Davis, Dr. Barbato and Jerry Lewis, Ph.D., worked with Mark Seeman, Ph.D., to have the May 4 site placed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2010. Dr. Davis and Dr. Seeman worked with colleagues Brad Keefer, Ph.D., Mindy Farmer, Ph.D. and Lori Boes to achieve National Historic Landmark status for the site in 2016.