The Zoar Community Association will kick off the Saturdays in Zoar Free Speaker Series with a feature presentation by professor Dr. Catherine Rokicky, author of Creating a Perfect World: Religious and Secular Utopias in Nineteenth-Century Ohio. Visit the Historic Zoar Village Schoolhouse on Saturday, Feb. 4, from 1-2 p.m., to listen to Dr. Rokicky discuss the early development of utopian societies here in Ohio.

Rokicky earned her Ph.D. in history from Kent State University. She is a professor of history and program coordinator at Cuyahoga Community College, Western Campus, where she teaches United States history, Ohio history, Native American history, Women in American History, and Latin American history. She has also published James Monroe: Oberlin’s Christian Statesman and Reformer. She has contributed an article on utopian movements in the United States to the forthcoming Oxford Encyclopedia of American Social History.

This event is free and open to the public. Parking is available near the Zoar Schoolhouse.

The next event in this series will be held on Saturday, March 3, from 1-2 p.m., when Carolyn Caskey presents her unique first-person performance bringing Civil war nurse Mother Bickerdyke to life.

For more information, contact the Zoar Community Association at 330-874-3011 or visit the website at http://www.zca.org.