Upcoming Readings and Book Signings

Thursday, December 4, 2 pm, Special Collections and Archives Department of the Ralph Brown Draughon Library: Madison Jones, author of The Adventures of Douglas Bragg

Jones, former writer-in-residence at Auburn University, is the award winning author of twelve books, including Nashville 1864: The Dying of the Light, which was awarded a Michael Shaara Award for Civil War Fiction from the United States Civil War Center. His new book, The Adventures of Douglas Bragg, follows a long tradition of Southern humorists, including Mark Twain, Erskine Caldwell and Harry Crews. A coming-of-age novel, it is, according to reviewer Hugh Ruppersburg, "full of jokes, pranks, shenanigans, tall tales, country music, drug-running morticians, houses of ill repute, hypocritical preachers, communes, and fun." In addition to membership in the prestigious Fellowship of Southern writers, Jones has held fellowships from the Sewanee Review, Rockefeller Foundation and Guggenheim Foundation. He is also the recipient of the Harper Lee Lifetime Literary Award.

The reading and book signing is sponsored by the Auburn University Libraries, the Caroline Marshall Draughon Center for the Arts & Humanities in the College of Liberal Arts and the Auburn University Bookstore.



Wednesday, December 10, 5 pm, Arriccia Fireplace Lounge: Paul Hemphill, author of A Tiger Walk Through History: A Compete History of Auburn Football from 1892 to the Tuberville Era, with an introduction by David Housel

A Tiger Walk Through History is the second title in the Pebble Hill Books imprint series, a cooperative publishing venture of the Caroline Marshall Draughon Center for the Arts & Humanities in the College of Liberal Arts at Auburn University and the University of Alabama Press. This groundbreaking joint enterprise between Auburn and the University of Alabama is designed to publish works that grow out of or contribute to the Center's programming.

The reception is sponsored by the Caroline Marshall Draughon Center for the Arts & Humanities in the College of Liberal Arts at Auburn University, the College of Liberal Arts Development Office, the Auburn Alumni Association and the Auburn University Bookstore. Copies of the book will be available for purchase.

Hemphill was sports editor of the Auburn Plainsman during the National Championship season of 1957 and is the author of sixteen books. In A Tiger Walk Through History, he tells the story of the progress of Auburn from that first game-coached by Auburn legend George Petrie-through the team's growth and development into the national force it is today. Contributors to the volume include David Housel, Rheta Grimsley Johnson, Ken and Joy Ringer, Anne River Siddons, Jim Stewart and Cynthia Tucker.

Eugene Walter: Last of the Bohemians

Join us for a screening of Eugene Walter: Last of the Bohemians, a documentary by Robert Clem, on Wednesday November 12, at 3 p.m. in the Special Collections and Archives department of the Ralph Brown Draughon Library.

Preview Last of the Bohemians





Last of the Bohemians documents the life and career of writer, poet, actor, artist and raconteur Eugene Walter. Born in Mobile in 1921, Walter lived at the hub of 20^th-century cultural life, first in New York and later in Paris and Rome. He collaborated with George Plimpton and others in founding the Paris Review, edited Europe's preeminent multilingual literary journal Botteghe Oscure, and worked with film director Federico Fellini as a set and costume designer, translator, actor and songwriter.  His books include the now classic Time Life volume on Southern cuisine, a Lippincott Fiction Prize winning novel, The Untidy Pilgrim, and many other works.

Alum’s Book Chronicles Tiger Experience in the ‘70s

Actor, author, athlete and Auburn alumnus Thom Gossom, Jr., will read from his memoir, Walk-On, on Thursday, Nov. 6, 2008 from 6 - 7 p.m. at the Jule Collins Smith Museum of Fine Art in Auburn, Alabama. A reception will follow the reading, and both the reading and the reception are free and open to the public.

Walk-On is a coming of age memoir set in the culturally changing Alabama of the 1970's. The memoir chronicles Gossom's barrier shattering journey to become the first black athlete to graduate from Auburn University. It is a story of overcoming adversity, gaining success, losing it, regaining it and in doing so making history. The author will sign copies and Walk On will be available for purchase at the Museum.

Lewis Nordan and the Heartbreaking Laughter of Transcendence and Hope: A Symposium

Writer Lewis "Buddy" Nordan will be the focus of the second annual Pebble Hill Books Symposium, scheduled for Jan. 23, 2009, in Auburn. An international slate of scholars and writers-including Nordan himself and his friend and colleague Clyde Edgerton-will convene to celebrate the much beloved author of four novels, three short story collections and a memoir.

The symposium, sponsored by the Caroline Marshall Draughon Center for the Arts & Humanities in the College of Liberal Arts and designed to showcase significant literary, arts and cultural figures with connections to Alabama, follows the successful 2008 symposium on writer and critic Albert Murray.

Details can be found here.

Noted Public Engagement Scholar on Campus in November

The Caroline Marshall Draughon Center for the Arts & Humanities in the College of Liberal Arts will host a campus visit from Dr. David Scobey on Thursday November 20.  Dr. Scobey is the founding director of Arts of Citizenship at the University of Michigan, inaugural director of the Harward Center for Community Partnerships at Bates College, and past chairman of Imagining America: Artists in Public Life, a national consortium of institutions that supports the civic work of university artist, humanists, and designers.  Nationally recognized as a leader in the theory and practice of community-based learning, Scobey is the author of several well-respected publications including "Putting the Academy in its Place" and Empire Study: The Making and Meaning of the New York City Landscape.  Scobey will discuss Imagining America's recent report, "Scholarship in Public:  Knowledge Creation and Tenure Policy in the Engaged University" with the Pebble Hill Faculty Committee.  All Auburn University Faculty, students, and staff are invited to visit with Scobey during a reception to be held from 3:30 to 5:00 at the Caroline Marshall Draughon Center on November 20.  For more information, contact the Center at (334) 844-4946.

Panel on Higher Education Available Online

Should a university foster diversity and democracy and produce responsible citizens?  Is this part of its public mission?  Stanley Fish thinks not.  A panel discussion addressing these questions and Fish's recently published Save the World on Your Own Time (Oxford) will be held on Tuesday, Oct. 21 at 3pm in room 239, Broun Hall.

The event will also be available via the web at http://connect.auburn.edu/savetheworld.

CLA Speakers Bureau

Each year the Auburn University College of Liberal Arts Speakers Bureau offers free talks on topics ranging from leadership and democracy to souther literature and child psychology. The faculty selected to participate are seasoned speakers with something to say about a subject that interests you, and the programs are offered free of charge on a first come, first served basis. This year's line up focuses on government, citizenship, and politics.

For more information, or to book one of the programs listed below, call (334) 844-4946 or email claspeakers@auburn.edu.

Murray Jardine -- "The Meaning of Freedom in America"

Rene McEldowney -- "Universal Health Care"

Lindy Biggs -- "Sustainability as Citizenship"

Margaret Fitch-Hauser -- "Can You Hear Me Now?"

Clifton Perry -- "Citizenship Rights of Native Americans"

Join us for the second lecture in the Discover Auburn series!

Dr. Thomas Vaughn will present a lecture entitled "History of the Horse Throughout Time" on Thursday October 16 at 3:00 p.m. in the Special Collections and Archives department of the Ralph Brown Draughon Library. Vaughn earned his doctor of veterinary medicine degree from Auburn University in 1955. An internationally recognized equine surgeon, Vaughan was dean at Auburn from 1977-1995. The Large Animal Hospital was named in his honor.

A reception will follow the talk. The third lecture in the Discover Auburn Series will be held on Wednesday, November 5.

The Discover Auburn series is co-sponsored by the Caroline Marshall Draughon Center for the Arts and Humanities in the College of Liberal Arts at Auburn University, the Auburn University Libraries, and the Auburn University Bookstore. For more information on the program and the series, contact the Caroline Marshall Draughon Center at 334-844-4946.

Liberal Arts Invites Campus to Join Online Discussion of Provocative New Book

Should a university foster diversity and democracy and produce responsible citizens?  Is this part of its public mission?  Stanley Fish thinks not and says so in his provocative new book, Save the World on Your Own Time.  The College of Liberal Arts wants to know what you think.

Fish-literary theorist, legal scholar, New York Times columnist, and academic provocateur-argues that there is but one proper role for the academe in society: to advance bodies of knowledge and to equip students for doing the same. But how does that square with Auburn University’s “commitment of service to all Alabamians” and goal of producing students who are “informed and engaged citizens of the United States and the world”?

A discussion board is available at www.cla.auburn.edu/savetheworld and includes links to Fish’s New York Times op-ed piece “Why We Built the Ivory Tower,” recent interview on National Public Radio, and information on his new book.

This online discussion precedes a panel discussion of Save The World on Your Own Time scheduled for Tuesday, Oct. 21 at 3pm in room 239, Broun Hall. The panelists will include Dr. Royrickers Cook, Assistant Vice President for University Outreach; Dr. Christa Slaton, College of Liberal Arts’ Associate Dean for Educational Affairs, professor of political science, and winner of the 2007 Award for Excellence in Faculty Outreach; and Al Head, Executive Director of the Alabama State Council on the Arts.

Constitution Day Program September 17

Auburn University will recognize Constitution Day on Wednesday, Sep. 17 at 4:00 p.m. with a lecture by Dr. Steven Harmon Wilson titled "Living the Constitution: Foundations, Fractures, and Future," in Room 2223 of the new Student Center.

Wilson, Associate Dean of Liberal Arts at Tulsa Community College's Metro Campus, will explain the context that has given rise to the question "what does the Constitution mean?", describe major controversies that arose primarily from interpretive disagreements about the Constitution, and offer a modest proposal for moving beyond the current partisan acrimony over judges and courts-an approach that will encourage Americans to "live the Constitution," rather than arguing about it.

Discover Auburn launches Fall programming!

Discover Auburn is a year-long series features programs on Auburn University research, history, and other topics of interest. The first lecture, "Early Engineering at Auburn" by Art Slotkin, will be held September 17, 2008 at 3:00 p.m. in the Special Collections Department of the Ralph Brown Draughon Library.



Art Slotkin received his Bachelor's in aerospace engineering form Auburn in 1968. He earned an MS in flight structures at Columbia University in New York City in 1969. Retiring in 2003, he attended the Georgia Institute for Technology where he earned another Master of Science degree in the sociology and history of technology and science. He is currently writing a book, They Came From Auburn: A History of Engineering in the New South.

This lecture is co-sponsored by the Auburn University Libraries, the Caroline Marshall Draughon Center for the Arts & Humanities in the College of Liberal Arts, the Auburn University Bookstore and the Samuel Ginn College of Engineering.

Discover Auburn will continue with a lecture by Dr. Tom Vaughan on "The History of the Horse Throughout History" in October, and "Bats:Friendly Masters of the Sky," a lecture by Dr. Troy Best, in November. Check our events page for updated information.

Pebble Hill Books

Pebble Hill Books is a cooperative publishing venture of the Caroline Marshall Draughon Center for the Arts & Humanities and the University of Alabama Press. Designed to publish works that grow out of or contribute to the Center’s programming, Pebble Hill Books preserves and disseminates scholarship and creative works by Auburn University College of Liberal Arts faculty and by Center associates. The inaugural title, In the Path of the Storms: Bayou La Batre, Coden, and the Alabama Gulf Coast by Frye Gaillard, was published in 2008. Albert Murray and the Aesthetic Imagination of a Nation, a collection of papers delivered at the Albert Murray Symposium in January 2008 and edited by Dr. Barbara Baker, will be published in 2009. Paul Hemphill’s A Tiger Walk Through History: A Compete History of Auburn Football from 1892 to the Tuberville Era also appears under the Pebble Hill Books imprint.

Book and Buffet: An Evening with Rheta Grimsley Johnson

For ticket information call the Arts Association of East Alabama at 334-749-8105.

The Auburn University Community Orchestra, the Caroline Marshall Draughon Center for the Arts & Humanities and the Jule Collins Smith Museum of Fine Art will join with the Arts Association of East Alabama, Envision Opelika and the Auburn Chamber Music society to sponsor “Book and Buffet: An Evening with Rheta Grimsley Johnson” on Thursday, August 28 at 6:30 p.m. at the Museum.

The evening is a benefit for the restoration of historic Miriam S. Brown School in Opelika into an area-wide community cultural and small conference center and has two options for tickets:

“First Edition” includes a conversation by Johnson, “The South Did This to Me”; a copy of her latest book, “Poor Man’s Provence”; a book signing; and a Buffet of Southern Specialties and cash bar provided by caterers Ursula Higgins, Martha Hicks and Billy Lee. ($75 per person, 6:30 p.m. in the Auditorium, limited to 150)

“Second Edition” includes a copy of “Poor Man’s Provence,” book signing, and Buffet of Southern Specialties and cash bar by caterers Ursula Higgins, Martha Hicks, and Billy Lee. ($45 per person; Buffet and cash bar opens at 7 p.m. in the Grand Foyer.)

Roundtable Technology Exchange: Arts, Humanities, and Technology in the 21st Century

How can we use technology for marketing? What is its role, or potential role, in development? What about education? And social networking? How can we collaborate through technology? Can it help us share resources? What does technology offer us collectively?

Join us on July 31, 1 to 5 p.m., at the Alabama Department of Archives and History in Montgomery for the state's first Roundtable Technology Exchange. The roundtable will convene Alabama cultural, historical, art, and educational organizations to discuss our individual and shared tech opportunities and challenges.

The Roundtable Technology Exchange, a pre-conference event for Face the Future: Humanities and Technology in the 21st Century, is sponsored by the Alabama Department of Archives and History, the Alabama Humanities Foundation, the Alabama Shakespeare Festival, the Alabama Writers' Forum, the Caroline Marshall Draughon Center for the Arts & Humanities in the College of Liberal Arts at Auburn University, the Southern Poverty Law Center, the Troy University Rosa Parks Museum, and the University of Alabama Press.

To register for the Roundtable Technology Exhange, click here.

This Goodly Land - New features!

A program of the Alabama Center for the Book, This Goodly Land: Alabama's Literary Landscape is an online literary map for the State of Alabama, a website that connects Alabama authors to the parts of the state that are/were significant to them.

A new feature of the site is "This Day in Alabama Literary History". When you access the home page, a program embedded in the page code automatically checks the day's date and presents you with a list of events in Alabama literary history associated with that date. You can subscribe to an RSS feed for "This Day in Alabama Literary History" by clicking on the feed icon in the lower left corner of the TGL home page.

This Goodly Land also has a blog - check out the video "Where are you from?" by writer Todd Keith, videos of presenters at the Albert Murray symposium, and a podcast of a lecture on William Bartram by Draughon Scholar Dr. John C. Hall.

Welcome!

Welcome to our blog for the Caroline Marshall Draughon Center for the Arts & Humanities in the College of Liberal Arts at Auburn University. The Center's purpose is to strengthen the bonds between the academic community, the arts, and the general public through quality programs in schools, towns, and communities around the state.

We'll be using this blog as a place to highlight our programs and upcoming events, as well as quotes and images that inspire us.

Feel free to contact us at (334) 844-4946 or cah@auburn.edu.