Flannery O'Connor Institute
Executive Director's Message
I’m thrilled to introduce myself as the incoming Interim Director of the newly-named Flannery O’Connor Institute for the Humanities (FOIH). This is an exciting year in Flannery O’Connor Studies, and there is certainly a buzz in the air as we head into the 100th birthday celebration in March!
With the release of the new Ethan Hawke film Wildcat (starring Maya Hawke from Stranger Things), a whole new generation is finding O’Connor’s work and life relevant. With the birthday, we join colleges and universities around the country in celebrating and highlighting O’Connor’s importance.
We hope, with the name change, to capture some of that momentum and signal how O’Connor’s work relates to wider networks of interdisciplinary humanities studies. Indeed, her work inspires discussion about the BIG IDEAS that matter today. Name a topic and I challenge you NOT to find an O’Connor work that relates to it somehow.
We will have a robust year of programming for this birthday year! In addition to our popular monthly Book Club (still hosted by Bruce Gentry) and our Zoom Speakers series, we will offer a number of in-person lectures and symposiums.
We kicked things off with a lecture by Alex Taylor, the Laidlaw Fellow who came to campus to work in Special Collections this summer. Sept. 12-15, we're hosting a big O'Connor conference on the Georgia College campus, supported by our NEH grant. We can’t wait for our 90 presenters to descend upon Milledgeville!!
Visit our website to check out the program and the bios of the presenters. You can also register for the conference (it’s free!) at that same website. In October we will be screening Wildcat. In the spring we will debut our new Southern Gothic Lecture series, and we will host a gala birthday event.
Work continues on Collecting the Past, another NEH grant headed up by historian Stephanie Opperman. We can’t wait to share the interesting oral histories we’ve gathered that offer insight into Flannery and her times. The September conference will feature a symposium on these histories, and we will host a fall event as well.
The Writing for Success Grant, funded by the U.S. Department of Education and led by Project Coordinator Jessica McQuain, wrapped up its successful two years of programming in partnership with community and school stakeholders. We hosted a Symposium in June that was well-attended and provided invaluable content for area educators. See below for a sample of some of the wonderful speakers and panels we offered.
Finally, I want to announce some staffing changes at the Institute. Former Executive Director Jordan Cofer has taken a new position as Vice Chancellor for Academic Affairs and Dean at the University of Minnesota, Morris. We congratulate him and thank him for his stewardship of the Institute. We also want to thank Tammie Burke, our stellar administrative assistant, who is moving to another unit on campus. Jessica McQuain has agreed to move from her grant-funded position into a new role as Programming Coordinator of the Institute, and her work has already been so impactful. We are also happy to have Lani Daniels, who previously was a Lead Mentor with Writing for Success and grant writing intern for the Institute, to serve as Project Coordinator for the NEH grant.
Join us Thursday, August 15 for our first Book Club of the year, hosted by Bruce Gentry. We will discuss O’Connor’s A Prayer Journal, which helped inspire Maya Hawke’s work in the film Wildcat. The in-person meet up is at 2 p.m., at the Georgia Writer’s Museum on the square in Eatonton, Georgia. In the evening we’ll meet via Zoom at 7 p.m.
Hope to see you there!
Katie
Dr. Katie Simon
Interim Executive Director
Flannery O'Connor Institute for the Humanities
Assistant Editor, The Flannery O'Connor Review
