On April 3-4, 75 Students from 10 Georgia colleges will participate in “The Culture of Conflict,” Macon State’s first interdisciplinary, undergraduate conference. Conference papers and presentations include video, fiction, creative non-fiction, poetry, and scholarly research in literature, rhetoric, history, political science, sociology, economics, and philosophy. Macon State College is well represented at the conference, with 30 students presenting a total of 34 scholarly papers, creative works, and videos.
In addition to student presentations, which will take place in the Macon State Conference Center from 8:30 am – 4:15 pm on April 4th, the conference will feature two speakers:
Kelly Cherry will offer a poetry reading on Friday, April 3rd, at 7:00 pm in the Learning Support Auditorium. Professor Cherry is the author of seventeen books of poetry, fiction, and nonfiction (essay, memoir, criticism), eight chapbooks, and two translations of classical drama. She has received the Hanes Award for Poetry from the Fellowship of Southern Writers, and her short fiction has been represented in Best American Short Stories, Prize Stories: The O. Henry Awards, and The Pushcart Prize. Forthcoming in 2009 are Girl in a Library: On Women Writers and the Writing Life and The Retreats of Thought: Poems. She is Eudora Welty Professor Emerita of English and EvjueBascom Professor Emerita in the Humanities at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. She currently serves as Master Artist at the Atlantic Center for the Arts.
Cultural critic and historian Jelani Cobb, Associate Professor of History at Spelman College, will offer a keynote address on Saturday April 4th at 4:30 pm in the Convention Center Banquet Hall. Dr. Cobb has published widely on African American history, culture and politics. His publications include To the Break of Dawn: A Freestyle on the Hip Hop Aesthetic and The Devil and Dave Chappelle and Other Essays. He also edited The Essential Harold Cruse: A Reader. Professor Cobb’s forthcoming books are In Our Lifetimes: Barack Obama and the New Black America and Antidote to Revolution: African American Anticommunism and the Struggle for Civil Rights, 1931-1957.
In addition to his academic career, Professor Cobb has made a name for himself as an essayist and commentator. His work has appeared in The Washington Post, Essence, Vibe, Emerge, The Progressive, The Washington City Paper, ONE Magazine, Ebony and online at TheRoot.com. Professor Cobb has also appeared on National Public Radio, CNN, Al-Jazeera, and CBS News. In 2008, Professor Cobb served as a delegate to the Democratic National Convention, representing Georgia’s 5th Congressional District.
All events are free and open to the public.
To learn more about the conference, see the official web site. A complete schedule of student presentations is also available here. For more information, contact Dr. Mary Wearn at 471-2989 or Dr. Jeffrey Burson at 471-5747.
The Culture of Conflict conference is sponsored by the Macon State Foundation, the School of Arts and Sciences, the English Studies Organization, and the History Students Organization.
Participating Colleges
- Macon State College
- Columbus State University
- Wesleyan College
- University of West Georgia
- Georgia Southwestern State University
- Georgia Southern University
- Armstrong Atlantic University
- Georgia State University
- Kennesaw State University
- Georgia College and State University
I have posted photographs from this week’s Arts Festival: “Borderlines: Reading, Writing, Performing in American Spaces.” All four speakers were excellent — Lillian Allen, Tayari Jones, Carmen Agra Deedy, Lorna Goodison. Many thanks to Sharon Colley and Derrilyn Morrison for asking me to play a small part as photographer. Well done, Drs!
Please check out the 2009 Arts Festival gallery.
The Georgia Poetry Circuit will present poet, David St. John on Wednesday, January 28, 2009. The reading and Q&A will take place at 11 am in the H/SS Theatre. Books will be on sale. Samples of St. John’s work are available at Poets.org.
Supported by the Artists and Lecturers Committee
Heather Braun will host the book group’s discussion of William Thackeray’s Vanity Fair March 6 at 130 p.m. Directions will be forthcoming in an email. See you there!
The Humanities Department created an informal book group–a venue where we get together and talk about what we love–literature. Interested faculty suggested titles from Great Books, Classic Texts, or Pulitzer winners that we wish we had read but did not or that we read too quickly to savor because it was assigned or became a film before we read the print version. Titles with the most votes generated the year’s reading list. During 2008-2009 we will read The Kite Runner, Vanity Fair, and The Year of the Locust.
The Rules of Engagement ask only for an interest in the book, but completing the book is not a requirement for attending. There are no assigned leaders, no formal discussion structure, and no expectations for critical methodology. The book group provides an opportunity to gather informally and share our readings with each other. All are welcome!
“Borderlines: Reading, Writing, Performing Within American Spaces” is the theme for the Macon State College 2009 Arts Festival. Scheduled for March 3-5, the Arts Festival will feature Caribbean poets Lorna Goodison and Lillian Allen, African American novelist Tayari Jones, and Cuban American storyteller and children’s author Carmen Agra Deedy. All presentations will be on the Macon State College main campus in Macon or satellite campus in Warner Robins. All presentations are free and open to the public.
March 3, Tuesday
- Poet, Lillian Allen 5:30 pm in the H/SS Theatre; Caribbean poet
- Poet, Lorna Goodison Reading Performance, 11 H/SSTBD; Caribbean poet (Supported by Artists & Lecturers Committee)
March 4, Wednesday
- Novelist, Tayari Jones; Readings, 11 am H/SS Theatre, 7 pm WRC (Supported by the Black History Month Committee)
March 5, Thursday
Georgia Poetry Circuit
April 3, Friday
Poet, Kelly Cherry, 7:00 pm
Cherry will read as part of the first MSC undergraduate conference.
Supported by the Artists and Lecturers Committee.
What was once LitMUSE has become “MSC Humanities Online.”
I have installed the Moodle course management system on the upgraded Humanities server. I used to be on a separate server, but since updating our departmental Xserve to Leopard, I was able to finally get Moodle to run on the Mac. Other than a server relocation, nothing has changed about LitMUSE but the name. Therefore, current users will login in with their same credentials. You should have no problems.
You can login by clicking the large, square banner on the upper-right of our web site. If you want more information about Moodle, or are a faculty member who would like to use this system for your classes, let me know.
The transition from Drupal to Wordpress is now complete. The MSC Department of Humanities now has a squeaky clean new web site.
As you will notice, the first thing that’s changed is the design, incorporating a more dynamic layout that uses lots of photography and images. I have tried to make navigation as intuitive as possible. I invite you to look around. If something seems to be missing, try a search. If it is really missing, shoot me an email (gerald [dot] lucas [at] maconstate [dot] edu).
I have made all member of faculty and staff accounts on the web site. As I mentioned above, it’s built with Wordpress, so posting to the site is as easy as using a word processor. If you’re interested in contributing, email me for your user name and password. If we have enough interest, I can even hold a brief training seminar about the web site early next year.
I’d like to encourage everyone to use the site. Part of having a web presence is providing frequent updates. You might consider: instead of sending email to everyone about an upcoming meeting or event, post it to the web site. This will encourage interested folks to make frequent stops at our site. You can even subscribe to our RSS feed using your favorite syndication reader. The more folks that subscribe, the better our web presence and the more potential for growth in our programs. You might also consider making comments on various posts — another way to show how vibrant and engaged our academic community is.
So welcome. Leave any comments or suggestions below.
All declared English majors should join the English listserv to receive important information about advising and registration issues, as well as program updates, upcoming events, and opportunities relevant to English majors.
- To join the English listserv, go the MSC listserver
- Select the ENGLSTUDENTS list
- Select “Join”
- Enter your name and email address
- Click “Join”
- Reply to the confirmation email
Remember to check your e-mail regularly.
