Celebration of A FORD IN THE RIVER by Charles S. Rose

Please join us for a celebration of the publication of A Ford in the River by Charles S. Rose on Thursday, September 8 at 7:00 pm at The Gnu’s Room, 414 South Gay Street, Auburn. The celebration will feature readings by John Williams and Marian Carcache, who together wrote the foreword to A Ford in the River.

A Ford in the River by the late Charles Rose, a beloved teacher, friend, and writer, includes stories that first appeared in The Sewanee Review, The Georgia Review, The Southern Review, Southern Humanities Review, Willow Springs, Crazyhorse, The Chattahoochee Review, Alabama Literary Review, Blackbird, and Shenandoah, among others. A Ford in the River was released this August by NewSouth Books.

This lecture is co-sponsored by the Caroline Marshall Draughon Center for the Arts and Humanities in the College of Liberal Arts and The Gnu’s Room. For more information on the program and the series, contact the Center at 334.844.4946 or visit www.auburn.edu/cah.

SUPER Emerging Scholars

SUPER Emerging Scholars, a set on Flickr.

This week, high-school students from across the state will converge on Auburn to participate in the Alabama Humanities Foundation’s SUPER Emerging Scholars (SES) program. Dr. Kevin Roozen, associate professor in the Department of English, will lead the weeklong residential workshop for upper-level high-school students.

The SES institute will target students’ writing, reading and critical thinking abilities by investigating the rhetoric of public discussions addressing the purposes and functions of education. Through activities, lectures and field trips, SES participants will immerse themselves in conversations about learning and schooling, as well as their roles in building society and citizens. As they hone their skills by analyzing a variety of historical and contemporary texts, participants will write their own philosophy of learning, outlining their own understanding of what learning entails and the functions it can serve them now and in the future.

“I am particularly excited to host the first SES program to be held at Auburn University, and I am looking forward to it being a huge success,” says Roozen. “The guest scholars and I have worked hard to create an experience that will involve the students in the exciting intellectual work that can occur when scholarship addresses the public's pressing issues and concerns.”

The SES institute at Auburn University is the result of a partnership between the Alabama Humanities Foundation, Auburn University Outreach Office and the Caroline Marshall Draughon Center for the Arts & Humanities in the College of Liberal Arts.

For more information about the SUPER Emerging Scholars program, visit the Alabama Humanities Foundation website at www.ahf.net.

Come join the discussion!

Over the last year, the Caroline Marshall Draughon Center for the Arts & Humanities has partnered with the Gnu’s Room, a local bookstore and coffee shop, to host music, film and literary events for the public. It has been a rich and rewarding experience to work closely with a community partner as dedicated as the Gnu’s Room.

This summer, the Center and the Gnu’s Room have formalized their partnership and committed to long-term collaboration. A logo representing their collaboration is in the works, and you will see it on future notices of joint programs.

According to Jay Lamar, director of the Center, this is “exactly the kind of work the Center was founded to do. As the center for engagement for the College of Liberal Arts, the Center’s mission is to create opportunities for dialogue and learning, link to the community and model how much more can been done collaboratively than alone. We are very excited and so pleased to be in partnership with the Gnu’s Room.”

This fall, the Gnu’s Room will become a nonprofit organization, supporting literacy, reading, publishing, the arts and community.

“The Gnu’s Room has always been about community,” notes owner Tina Tatum. “Becoming a nonprofit will help us make an even greater contribution by bringing more people and resources together to benefit our community.”

On Thursday, July 21, the Gnu’s Room will host a community listening session at 7:30 p.m. at the Boykin Community Center (400 Boykin Street, Auburn). Like a town hall meeting, the session will focus on ideas, hopes and dreams for the future of the Auburn-Opelika and Lee County area with plenty of time to share and discuss. Please feel free to download the flyer and spread the word to your friends and neighbors.

For more information

Contact The Gnu's Room at (334) 821-5550 or thegnusroom@gmail.com.

Book Talk by Allen Tullos, author of ALABAMA GETAWAY

Allen Tullos, author of the just released Alabama Getaway: The Political Imaginary and the Heart of Dixie, will give a reading and sign books on March 8^th, 7 p.m., at the Gnu’s Room, 414 South Gay Street.

Co-sponsored by the Gnu’s Room and the Caroline Marshall Draughon Center for the Arts & Humanities in the Auburn University College of Liberal Arts, the program is free and open to everyone.

Alabama Getaway, explores recent state history in terms of government, politics and popular imagery. Noted writer and former New York Times editor Howell Raines says, “This is a masterful book.”

“We are delighted to partner with The Gnu’s Room to host Dr. Tullos,” notes Jay Lamar, director of the Caroline Marshall Draughon Center. “Allen’s book is also one of the most important and rich studies of the state I know, and he is an excellent speaker. I think his work will appeal to anyone who has ever wondered what makes Alabama the fascinating, sometimes frustrating and often beloved place it is.”

Dr. Jeff Jakeman, founding editor of the online Encyclopedia of Alabama and professor of history at Auburn, will introduce Tullos. Copies of the book will be available for purchase and signing.

Tullos, professor of American Studies at Emory University and co-founder and editor of the Internet journal Southern Spaces, is also author of Long Journey Home: Folklife in the South.

For more information visit www.auburn.edu/cah or www.thegnusroom.com.

Lost (and Found) in Translation Programs Continue

Dr. Kathryn Floyd, art historian in the Auburn University Department of Art, will kick off the spring College of Liberal Arts Common Reading Series at 5 p.m. on Tuesday, Feb. 1 in Biggin Hall auditorium. The public is invited.

Speaking on “Creating Visual Narratives: Exhibitions in Space and Time,” Floyd will develop the connections between visual narrative and literary narrative. The College of Liberal Arts common book selection, The Arabian Nights, represents one of the oldest and best known traditions of storytelling. Exhibitions can also tell a story and Floyd will expand on the capacity for narrative represented by visual art and its display.

Floyd teaches courses in modern and contemporary art, as well as in the history of the arts of Africa and the United States. She has a B.A. degree in fine arts and anthropology from Vanderbilt University, an M.A. degree in art history from the University of Georgia, and a Ph.D. in art history from the University of Iowa. Before coming to Auburn, Dr. Floyd served as a visiting assistant professor at Skidmore College. Dr. Floyd's research is concerned with the history of exhibitions as well as the history of art in Germany. She has written about the expressionist artists Käthe Kollwitz and Wilhelm Lehmbruck as well as about the German Dada movement.

Her current research examines postwar German art and art institutions. The structure and format of Documenta, an international mega-exhibition of contemporary art that takes place every five years in Kassel, Germany, was the focus of her dissertation, which won the University of Iowa Graduate Deans' Distinguished Dissertation Prize in the Humanities for 2006. She is currently writing a book manuscript that examines Documenta in the context of postwar German debates about art, culture, and identity.

Based on the idea that reading and discussion can build community and engagement among faculty, staff and students, CLA’s Common Book Program features The Arabians Nights in classes and public programs. All CLA students, as well as faculty and staff, are encouraged to read the book and join in discussions and other events that explore themes of storytelling, translation, adaptation and appropriation.

Upcoming “Lost (and Found) in Translation” programs include part two of “Creating Visual Narratives,” a lecture by Auburn University history professor Aaron Shapiro on Feb. 15 and a panel discussion by Foreign Language Department faculty on Feb. 21. A complete list of events may be found here.

Celebrate Auburn's National Championship with Tony Barnhart!

Planning on attending the National Championship Celebration? Celebrate with Tony Barnhart first! Tony “Mr. College Football” Barnhart and Pulitzer Prize winner Rick Bragg will speak at Auburn University on January 21-22, 2011.

Barnhart will give a luncheon address on Saturday, January 22, at 11:30 a.m. For those attending the National Championship Celebration, transportation will be provided to and from Jordan-Hare Stadium. Tickets to the lunch with Barnhart are $30.

Barnhart’s talk is entitled “College Football Is Not a Game. It Is a Way of Life.” Now in his 34^th season as a reporter for television, radio and the internet, Barnhart can be heard on “The Tony Barnhart Show” (CBS) and is a regular commentator on “College Football Today” (CBS). His “Talkin’ Football” airs weekly on CSS. The 1999 Georgia Sports Writer of the Year, Barnhart was the 2009 recipient of the Bert McGrane Award, which represents the Football Writers Association of America wing of the College Football Hall of Fame. A reporter for the Atlanta Journal-Constitution for 24 years, he continues to write a daily college football blog, Mr. College Football, on ajc.com.

Bragg will give a dinner address on Friday, January 21 at 6 p.m. Tickets to the Bragg program are $50.

After growing up in the community of Possum Trot near Jacksonville, Alabama, Bragg worked at several newspapers before joining the New York Times in 1994. He covered murders and unrest in Haiti, then wrote about the Oklahoma City bombing, the Jonesboro killings, the Susan Smith trial and more as a national correspondent based in Atlanta. He currently teaches at the University of Alabama's journalism program in its College of Communications. His most recent book is The Most They Ever Had, set in Jacksonville and described as a brilliant evocation of the “hardscrabble lives of those who lived and died by an American cotton mill.”

Both speakers are part of the Auburn University College of Liberal Arts two-day public symposium, Becoming Alabama: Who, What, When, Where and Why. Focusing on how the press has recorded, reported and shaped Alabama politics, culture and opinion, Becoming Alabama will also feature popular columnist Rheta Grimsley Johnson, NPR’s Debbie Elliott and faculty and students from the College of Liberal Arts’ Department of Communication and Journalism.

Reservations may be made online at www.auburn.edu/cah or by calling 334-844-4946. Registration deadline for meals is Tuesday, January 18. The conference is open to the public. For additional information and a list of presenters, visit our website or call 334-844-4946. Students may register at no cost.

"Becoming Alabama" Pre-Conference on Media Archives and Resources Scheduled in January

To kick off its 2011 “Becoming Alabama: Who, What, When, Where and Why” public symposium, Auburn University College of Liberal Arts announces a pre-conference on state resources for media and newspaper archives. Free and open to all interested, the pre-conference will be held 8:30 to 11:30 a.m. at the Hotel at Auburn University and Dixon Conference Center.

The pre-conference will include talks by Auburn University professor emeritus of history and one of the state’s foremost archival experts Dr. Allen Jones, as well as Dana Chandler, archivist at Tuskegee University, Laura Anderson, archivist at the Birmingham Civil Rights Institute in Montgomery, and Meredith McLemore, archivist at the Alabama Department of Archives and History in Montgomery. Dr. Jeff Jakeman, professor of History at Auburn and editor of the online Encyclopedia of Alabama, will moderate.

Speakers will focus on how state history is captured and interpreted through the media, especially newspapers. “Newspapers can offer surprising insight and background on historical events and perspectives, not at all always what we expect to find,” notes Jay Lamar, director of the Caroline Marshall Draughon Center for the Arts & Humanities in the College of Liberal Arts. “In addition, the pre-conference speakers are dynamic, and the stories from the holdings they describe will be fascinating even to those not actively researching newspapers or other media.”

The pre-conference opens “Becoming Alabama: Who, What, When, Where and Why,” a public symposium that will take place on January 21-22 at the Hotel at Auburn University and Dixon Conference Center. It will feature scholars and professionals exploring the role of the press and media from the 1814 massacre at Fort Mims, a galvanizing event in Alabama and U.S. history, through the Gulf oil spill.

Pulitzer Prize-winning writer Rick Bragg will join syndicated columnist Rheta Grimsley Johnson in offering perspectives on writing and media representations of the state. Tony Barnhart, Mr. College Football and CBS Sports journalist, will talk about the state’s fascination with sports. Debbie Elliott will address NPR’s coverage of the oil spill.

Prominent scholars of history and media from Auburn University, as well as other institutions, will also present on topics ranging from how early newspapers supported an emerging literary culture in the state to how a handful of remarkable editors shaped both Alabama’s opinion and its image.

Registration for the conference is $25. Registration for meals, which will feature keynote speakers, is separate. Students may register at no cost. For a schedule and a list of presenters, please visit www.auburn.edu/cah or call 334-844-4946.