ENID, Okla. — A program on the legacy of the Declaration of Independence on its 250th anniversary will be presented at the Northwestern Oklahoma State University Enid campus Feb. 20, 2026, thanks to a free seminar offered by Teaching American History.
Northwestern’s Department of Social Sciences will play host to the program from 8:30 a.m. to 2:15 p.m. in Room 124. Breakfast and lunch will be provided for attendees, courtesy of Teaching American History.
Jana Brown Pittman, coordinator of social science teacher education at Northwestern and organizer of the event, says the goal when hosting these professional development workshops is to bring opportunities to attend events conducted by national organizations to teachers in Northwest Oklahoma and Southern Kansas.
“We want to make it easier for our educators to gain a deeper understanding of our history and government and to gather classroom resources,” Pittman said.
The seminar, led by Dr. Donna Devlin, will focus on the Declaration of Independence and the context in which its authors understood it. The group will discuss the primary sources that best illuminate the Declaration’s meaning and imbue its words with living significance.
Devlin was raised on her family’s farm near Jewell County, Kansas. She earned bachelor of arts and education degrees from Fort Hays University in 2006, completed her Master of Arts in American History degree from Ashland University in Ashland, Ohio, in 2012 and finished her Doctorate of Philosophy in History from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln in 2023. Devlin served 11 years in the Kansas public school system teaching social studies and currently works as an assistant professor of history at Sterling College in Sterling, Kansas.
Teaching American History provides more than 150 one day seminars per year at no cost to the host or the teachers. The Feb. 20 program will be conducted as a discussion, utilizing primary source documents as the only readings, with Devlin facilitating the conversation instead of lecturing or presenting. Registrants will receive the readings prior to the seminar and are highly encouraged to read all the documents in advance and come ready with questions. Teachers will receive a letter of attendance at the conclusion of the seminar.
“The Declaration of Independence is a timeless document,” Pittman said. “As Abraham Lincoln noted in 1859, the Declaration of Independence is a, ‘revolutionary document…applicable to all men and all times…that to-day, and in all coming days, it shall be a rebuke and a stumbling-block to the very harbingers of re-appearing tyranny and oppression.’ Lincoln’s statement highlights the importance of teaching and remembering the Declaration of Independence alongside other primary sources from early American history, so that our students develop a deeper understanding of the principles we, as individuals and as a nation, should always aim to uphold.”
To register for this free event, visit Teaching American History online.
For more information contact Pittman at jdbrown@nwosu.edu or (580) 327-8519 or visit the Northwestern Department of Social Sciences online at www.nwosu.edu/school-of-arts-and-sciences/social-sciences.
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Media Contact:
Sean J. Doherty, University Relations Specialist
Email: sjdoherty@nwosu.edu
Phone: (580) 327-8480