Flannery O'Connor Institute
Directors Note
What a year it's been! Last May when I started this position, I had a vision of moving the Institute in a new direction, but I had no idea how exhilarating and meaningful the work would be. I'm very grateful for the opportunity to grow. With the change of name from the Andalusia Institute to the Flannery O'Connor Institute for the Humanities, we hoped to signal a wider interdisciplinary engagement with the Humanities writ large. Flannery O'Connor's work, like most "classic" literature, lends itself to the kinds of interdisciplinary conversations that matter to students today. We are still reading her because she prompts us to inquire into the BIG QUESTIONS that continue to engage us, questions that occupy a seat in every discipline. Moreover, we are still discovering ways that O'Connor, herself, was truly interdisciplinary. When we celebrated O'Connor's Centennial, we got busy with an interdisciplinary team to put on a unique art opening, and we celebrated in style with a music festival, a song-writing workshop, and a film screening. We also, with support from the Mary Flannery O'Connor Trust, hosted six visiting artists and scholars who take inspiration from her work. When we initiated the Southern Gothic Lecture Series this spring, we considered more contemporary modes of the genre that O'Connor helped define, moving into conversations about the environment and social justice in the south. Our guest speakers focused on the rising subgenre of the Eco-Gothic. Making interdisciplinary connections-- whether its between literature and art, or literature and music, or literature and film-- has been the focus of the year. We have only just begun! Our on-going oral history projects, our interest in philosophy and religious studies as approaches to O'Connor, and the new acquisition of the Cline House, O'Connor's family home, offer many more possibilities to engage with disciplines and ideas that matter across the college campus. I'm looking forward to seeing what this next year will bring.
Katie
Dr. Katie Simon
Interim Executive Director of the Flannery O'Connor Institute for the Humanities
