German Consul to Speak at Public Symposium on Immigration and Migration

Dr. Lutz Hermann Görgens, the Consul General of the Federal Republic of Germany, will deliver a keynote address at “Becoming Alabama: Immigration and Migration in a Deep South State,” January 20-21, 2012 at the Hotel at Auburn University and Dixon Conference Center. The two-day public symposium will feature scholars and professionals exploring immigration and migration from Spanish exploration to the 1813 Creek War through the present.

Görgens, a native of Düsseldorf, Germany, is the official representative of the German government to the Southeastern United States. During his career, Görgens has worked as a desk officer for the Federal Foreign Office in Bonn, Germany, and later as first secretary and head of the Economic Section for the Germany Embassy in Mexico. He later became a deputy consul general in Boston, head of the Economic Section in the German Embassy in Ankara, Turkey, and head of the European Internal Market Affairs Unit of the Federal Foreign Office in Berlin. He holds a Ph.D. in German history and literature from the University of Tübingen.

“It is a delight to welcome Dr. Görgens to our campus,” said Anne-Katrin Gramberg, Dean of the College of Liberal Arts.  “He has a great deal of personal and professional knowledge on the subject of immigration and acculturation in the southern United States.   He is also a dynamic speaker and personable representative of the German culture.”

Prominent scholars of history and political science from Auburn University, as well as other institutions, will present on topics ranging from Spanish Exploration to how Alabama's immigrant population, including Germans, Koreans, Southeast Asians, and Hispanics, among others, have shaped art, politics, education and culture in the state.

The symposium is a “Becoming Alabama” event. Designed to commemorate major Alabama anniversaries of the Creek War/War of 1812, the Civil War and Emancipation and the Civil Rights era, “Becoming Alabama” is a statewide initiative begun by the Alabama Department of Archives and History.

 “Becoming Alabama: Immigration and Migration in a Deep South State” is supported by a generous grant from the Alabama Humanities Foundation, the state office of the National Endowment for the Humanities. It is co-sponsored by the Alabama Department of Archives and History, the Auburn University College of Liberal Arts, History Department, and Caroline Marshall Draughon Center for the Arts & Humanities in the College of Liberal Arts, as well as the Office of the Vice President for International Programs and the Office of Access and Community Affairs. The East Alabama Memory Project, a program of Southern Public Media Group, is also serving as a sponsor.

Registration for the conference is $50. Registration for meals, which will feature keynote speakers, is separate. Students may register at a discounted rate. For a schedule and a list of presenters, visit www.auburn.edu/cah or call 334-844-4946.

“Of Men and Gods” screening kicks off 2012 “Art at the Threshold” Series

AU Connects! and Art at the Threshold announce a screening and discussion of the film Of Men and Gods on Tuesday, Feb. 14, at 5 p.m. in Biggin Hall Auditorium.

The film is the first in a series of Art at the Threshold programs on the role of the arts, language and ritual in the context of social issues. Designed to support the 2011-12 Common Book Program, the programs focus on Haiti, Guatemala and Mexico, three areas in which Paul Farmer’s Partners in Health is currently active.

Of Men and Gods is a documentary by anthropologist and film-maker Anne Lescot. Set in Haiti, it examines the daily existence of several men who are openly gay. Prevalent, yet still taboo, homosexuality and gay culture are allowed to flourish within the context of Haiti's Vodou religion. As "children of the gods," the men find an explanation for homosexuality as well as divine protection. They also find an outlet for theatrical expression through exhilarating performances in which they embody the gods. Meanwhile, the AIDS epidemic looms as a continual threat and adds a disquieting degree of nihilism to their relatively optimistic attitudes toward life and happiness in Port-au-Prince.

Lewis Nordan: Humor, Heartbreak, and Hope

The Caroline Marshall Draughon Center for the Arts & Humanities in the College of Liberal Arts will host a book talk celebration on the publication of Lewis Nordan: Humor, Heartbreak, and Hope at Pebble Hill on January 11 at 4:00 p.m.

Lewis Nordan: Humor, Heartbreak, and Hope examines and celebrates the work of southern writer Lewis “Buddy” Nordan. Written by scholars and fiction writers who represent a fascinating range of experience—from a Shakespearean scholar to a former student of Nordan’s—this is a rich array of essays, poems, and visual arts in tribute to this important writer. The collection deepens the base of scholarship on Nordan and contextualizes his work in relation to other important southern writers such as William Faulkner and Eudora Welty.

Lewis Nordan: Humor, Heartbreak, and Hope is edited by Dr. Barbara Baker, director of the College of Liberal Arts Women’s Leadership Institute and author of The Blues Aesthetic and the Making of American Identity in the Literature of the South. Her most recent publication is an edited collection of essays on Albert Murray, entitled Albert Murray and the Aesthetic Imagination of a Nation.

The program will feature Baker and several contributors and will be followed by a reception. The public is invited. Copies of the book will be available for purchase and signing.

Lewis Nordan: Humor, Heartbreak, and Hope is published jointly by the Caroline Marshall Draughon Center for the Arts & Humanities and The University of AlabamaPress.

Lewis Nordan was born and raised in Mississippi before moving to Alabama to pursue his Ph.D. at Auburn University. He taught for several years at the University of Arkansas in Fayetteville and retired from the University of Pittsburgh, where he was a professor of English. Nordan has written four novels, three collections of short stories and a memoir entitled Boy with Loaded Gun. His second novel, Wolf Whistle, won the Southern Book Award, and his subsequent novel, The Sharpshooter Blues, won the Notable Book Award from the American Library Association and the Fiction Award from the Mississippi Institute of Arts and Letters. Nordan is renowned for his distinctive comic writing style, even while addressing serious personal and cultural issues such as heartbreak, loss, violence, and racism. He transforms tragic characters and events into moments of artistic transcendence, illuminating what he calls the “history of all human beings.”

For more information, please call 334-844-4946 or visit our website at www.auburn.edu/cah. 

George Washington Carver Day Programs to be presented in Tuskegee and Auburn

Tuskegee Institute National Historic Site invites the public to attend Carver Day programs on Saturday, January 7, 2012. The National Park Service is partnering with Tuskegee University, Auburn University and Eastern National to discuss this renowned scientist, teacher, and humanitarian.

At 10:00 a.m. a panel discussion will explore the life of Dr. George Washington Carver in Tuskegee at the George Washington Carver Museum and again at 3:00 p.m. in the Special Collections and Archives Department of Auburn University’s Ralph Brown Draughon Library. His life will be explored through a panel discussion with guest speakers Dr. Mark Hersey, Dr. Gary Kremer and Dana Chandler. 

Dr. Mark Hersey is an assistant professor of history at Mississippi State University and author of My Work is that of Conservation:  An Environmental Biography of George Washington Carver. Dr. Gary Kremer is executive director of the State Historical Society of Missouri, an adjunct professor of history at the University of Missouri-Columbia, and author of George Washington Carver: A Biography.  Dana Chandler is the archivist and adjunct professor of history at Tuskegee University, Tuskegee, Alabama.  A book signing will follow the presentation.

In addition to the Tuskegee panel discussion, the following activities will be held at the Carver Museum:

•       At 1:00 p.m., a children’s art workshop on Dr. Carver will be conducted at the Museum Participants will each create a Carver collage which will be on display at the museum throughout the month of January.

•       Refreshments, featuring peanuts and sweet potatoes, will be served after the panel and the workshop reflecting the influence of Carver’s agricultural and nutritional work.  Seldom seen Carver artifacts from the Tuskegee University Archives, including the Carver meteorite, will also be on display at the museum. 

All programs are free and open to the public.  Tuskegee Institute National Historic Site is open daily from 9:00 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. For more information about the programs, please contact Park Ranger Shirley Baxter at 334-727-3200 or shirley_k_baxter@nps.gov.

Steps to Becoming Alabama

Lovers of Alabama and her history: plan to be on the road, the Cultural Crossroad, as Landmarks Foundation of Montgomery, the Alabama Department of Archives and History, Auburn University College of Liberal Arts Caroline Marshall Draughon Center for theArts & Humanities and the Montgomery Museum of Fine Arts join hands with the Alabama Humanities Foundation for the annual January history symposium.

Scheduled at the Alabama Department of Archives and History for January 14, 2012, “STEPS TO BECOMING ALABAMA” will feature talks and tours highlighting the new exhibits in the Archives’ Museum of Alabama.  This presentation is a part of the multi-faceted, on-going BECOMING ALABAMA SERIES. Dr. Ed Bridges, Director of ADAH, will introduce the day’s program with a talk on the ideas and topics that are the foundations for BECOMING ALABAMA.

Speakers, who were also instrumental in the development of the exhibitions, are Dr. John Hall (The Land), Dr. Craig Sheldon (The First People), Dr. Kathryn Braund (The Creeks), Bob Bradley (Road to War and the next STEPS) and Debbie Pendleton (The Gold Star Collection). Following their discussions, these noted Alabama historians and archaeologists will lead the audience through their special exhibitions.  Karren Pell, the Alabama Troubadour, will entertain with some old and new Alabama songs.

 The day’s activities begin with sign-in and coffee from 8:30 and conclude at 4:00. The registration fee includes a light breakfast , refreshments and lunch. Members of the sponsoring organizations receive a small discount while teachers and students attend at a reduced fee. A registration form may be found here.  Please call Landmarks Foundation at 334-240-2500 or 888-240-1850 for more information.  The Alabama Department of Archives and History is located across Washington Avenue from the Capitol. Parking will be on the street on in the parking lot  directly across from the Adams Avenue entrance to ADAH.

Join us for "Kings of Pastry"

On Friday, December 16, 7 p.m., The Gnu’s Room will screen “Kings of Pastry” a documentary from PBS’s POV Series. The screening is free and open to the public.

When Chris Hegedus and D A Pennebaker, award-winning filmmakers of The War Room, Startup.com and Don't Look Back, turn their sights on the competition for the Meilleurs Ouvriers de France, the country’s Nobel Prize for pastry, you’re in for a treat. In Kings of Pastry, 16 chefs, including Jacquy Pfeiffer, co-founder of Chicago’s French Pastry School, whip up the most gorgeous, delectable, gravity-defying concoctions and edge-of-your-seat drama as they deliver their spun-sugar desserts to the display table. The inevitable disasters and successes prove both poignant and hilarious. (90 minutes)

The Gnu’s Room, in partnership with the Caroline Marshall Draughon Center for the Arts & Humanities in the Auburn University College of Liberal Arts, will screen POV films throughout the year. PBS’s POV (Point of View) is television's longest-running showcase for independent non-fiction films.

Public Symposium on Immigration and Migration in Alabama to be Held in January

Auburn University College of Liberal Arts announces a public symposium on immigration and migration in Alabama. Isabel Wilkerson and Carmen Agra Deedy headline a roster of presenters who will provide historical context for the people who came to, left, and moved within Alabama over the last two hundred years.

The two-day public symposium, “Becoming Alabama: Immigration and Migration in a Deep SouthState," will take place on January 20-21 at the Hotel at Auburn University and Dixon Conference Center. It will feature scholars and professionals exploring immigration and migration from Spanish exploration to the 1813 Creek War through the present.

Symposium director, Dr. Mary Helen Brown, Breeden Eminent Scholar for the Caroline Marshall Draughon Center for the Arts & Humanities at Auburn, notes, “Alabama is a complicated place, and we can learn much by looking at the state through the lens of history and thinking about the future.”

The symposium is a “Becoming Alabama” event. Designed to commemorate major Alabama anniversaries of the Creek War/War of 1812, the Civil War and Emancipation and the Civil Rights era, “Becoming Alabama” is a statewide initiative begun by the Alabama Department of Archives and History.

Pulitzer Prize-winning writer Isabel Wilkerson will give a presentation based upon her Pulitzer Prize-winning book, The Warmth of Other Suns: The Epic Story of America's Great Migration. Carmen Agra Deedy, the award-winning writer of children's literature, will present on her experiences of growing up Cuban in Decatur, Georgia.

Prominent scholars of history and political science from Auburn University, as well as other institutions, will also present on topics ranging from Spanish Exploration to how Alabama's immigrant population, including Germans, Koreans, Southeast Asians, and Hispanics, among others, have shaped art, politics, education and culture in the state.

Brown, an associate professor in the Auburn University Department of Communication & Journalism, adds, "We are excited about the quality and variety of speakers coming to this conference.”

A genealogy workshop will kick off the conference  from 1 – 5 p.m. on Thursday, January 19^th. Presenters will introduce family research and focus on using the census for both African American and Native American genealogies.  The workshop is co-sponsored by OLLI at Auburn, and may be registered for separately.  Visit our website for more information.

“Becoming Alabama: Immigration and Migration in a Deep South State” is supported by a generous grant from the Alabama Humanities Foundation, the state office of the National Endowment for the Humanities. It is co-sponsored by the AlabamaDepartment of Archives and History, the Auburn University College of LiberalArts, History Department, and Caroline Marshall Draughon Center for the Arts& Humanities, as well as the Office of the Vice President for InternationalPrograms and the Office of Access and Community Initiatives. The East Alabama Memory Project, a program of the East Alabama Arts Association, is also serving as a sponsor.

Registration for the conference is $50. Registration for meals, which will feature keynote speakers, is separate. Students may register at a discounted rate. For a schedule and a list of presenters, visit our website or call 334-844-4946.