It's hard to believe one year has gone by since I began this Executive Director position! So much has happened--in the world, on our campus, and in Flannery land! It's enough to make your head spin. At a Liberal Arts College, problem-solving, creative approaches, teamwork, and critical thinking are the air we breathe, so we will be applying these skills to the Institute in the year to come. Summer is always a time for reflecting upon where we have been, where we are now, and how we want to move forward in the coming year, and this summer that reflective mood feels ever so important! My charge to focus on grant-writing in the coming year feels daunting in the current political climate, but I've already felt a kind of creative surge as we pursue different funding streams and creative collaborations with institutions, scholars, and artists. Our 24 events last year are a legacy we hope to build upon, as we work to build sustainable scaffolding for the interdisciplinary humanities programming at GCSU that Flannery O'Connor's work inspires. I'm profoundly grateful to everyone who helped the Institute this year. I love the talented team of staff, students, colleagues, and administrators on campus who make this such a vibrant and engaging place to work!

Katie

Dr. Katie Simon

Interim Executive Director of the Flannery O'Connor Institute for the Humanities

We were thrilled to participate in the International Flannery O'Connor conference hosted by Fordham University in London, England! Dr. Bruce Gentry, Professor Emeritus and editor of the Flannery O’Connor Review, gave a plenary speech titled "My Decades at the Circus: Thoughts on Editing the Flannery O'Connor Review".

The O’Connor Institute’s Interim Executive Director Dr. Katie Simon chaired a session titled “Flannery in Georgia: What Scholars Abroad Can Learn in Milledgeville” presented by Simon and Programming Coordinator Jessica McQuain, with a virtual appearance by GCSU graduate student and 2025 valedictorian Charlotte Aexel. They discussed the plethora of research materials available in Ina Dillard Russell Library’s Special Collections, as well as the must-see O’Connor sites like Andalusia, the historic home of Flannery O’Connor, Sacred Heart Catholic Church, and Memory Hill Cemetery. Attendees received information on how to access oral histories gathered by the Collecting the Past project as well as how to plan research trips to Milledgeville. Dr. Simon also presented a paper titled, “Traveling Blues: O’Connor’s ‘A Good Man is Hard to Find.’”

We were joined by Department of English lecturer Shannon Skelton, presenting on “When Death is Out of Fashion: Flannery O’Connor and Zadie Smith on Being Pilgrims at Home” as well as GCSU alumna Penny Dearmin, now a professor at Georgia Southwestern State University. Dearmin presented on the topic “Grotesquerie: Finding O’Connor in Today’s Crime Stories.”

"My visit to Milledgeville as the Laidlaw Fellow in late May allowed me to jumpstart my dissertation research and writing. I was able to identify key materials that will help me in my research on O’Connor. This fellowship has been such a great resource for my research, and I am very grateful for it. I want to especially thank Holly Croft, Cassie Munnell, Jessica McQuain, and the GCSU students for their assistance during my trip. I had a wonderful time thanks to all of you!"

Check out our YouTube channel for recordings of our virtual events.

Interviews and resources from the Flannery O'Connor and Milledgeville: Collecting the Past project continue to be made available via YouTube. A recent interview features Al Matysiak, who came with his family to middle Georgia after being displaced in World War II.

Students in Dr. Stephanie Opperman's Local History course also created a Google Earth resource featuring historic sites around Milledgeville. Some sites include snippets of oral history interviews.

Interviews and transcripts are available through the Knowledge Box, GCSU's online repository.

Copies can be purchased by mailing a check or money order for $15 made out to "Flannery O'Connor Review" to:

Bruce Gentry, Editor

Flannery O'Connor Review

English Dept., Campus Box 44

Georgia College

410 W. Greene St.

Milledgeville, GA 31061