Andalusia lecture series talks O’Connor, more

     The Flannery O’Connor- Andalusia Foundation is sponsoring a lecture series at Andalusia throughout the month of February.
     A tradition which began in 2006, the events are held in the main house dining room each Sunday, beginning at 3 p.m.. A reception follows each lecture, where guests are invited to join the speaker for further discussion and may browse the gift shop if they so choose.
     Mr. Craig Amason, executive director of The Flannery O’Connor – Andalusia Foundation, believes the series is very informative and allows visitors to feel welcome.
“We co-sponsor programs held at institutions, such as the college, but having lectures in the house at Andalusia provides a more relaxed atmosphere for the guests. I only wish we had more space,” Amason said.
     Dr. Marshall Bruce Gentry, professor of English and editor of the “Flannery O’Connor Review” at GCSU and Andalusia Foundation board member, encourages divrse visitors.
     “We want people with all sorts of different interests to find something they like out at Andalusia, and the lecture series, in February, is an introduction for people who are interested in anything the place has to offer,”  Gentry said.
     Special guest welcomed to the O’Connor home this February include Dr. William Sessions, Dr. Melanie Devore, Dr. Cathy Fussell and Dr. Marjorie Johnson.
     On Feb. 3, Sessions, regents professor emeritus at Georgia State University, and member of the Board of Directors of the Andalusia Foundation, discussed the relationship between Flannery O’Connor and Betty Hester. Sessions, literary executor of Hester, identified as ‘A’ in O’Connor’s published letters, “The Habit of Being,”  vividly revealed insight into the life Hester, and told about the biography he is currently writing regarding O’Connor.
     Devore, Georgia Power Endowed professor of environmental science at GCSU, will be discussing plant species at Andalusia, as well as specific flowers grown on the property during the time in which O’Connor lived there.
     Director of the Carson McCullers Center for Writers and Musicians, Fussell will give a lecture on Feb. 17 concerning the writer, who was only twenty-three at the time her first novel was published. She will also explain the creation of the residency program located at McCullers’s childhood home in Columbus, Ga.
     Johnson, assistant professor in the Graduate Nursing Program at GCSU, will give a synopsis of lupus, the disease that claimed the lives of both Flannery O’Connor and her father, Edward O’Connor, Jr. She will also be joined by her daughter-in-law, Jenny Johnson, who is diagnosed with lupus.
     The February lectures are free and open to the public. For the first time this year, three of the lectures will be available on Podcast, and can be accessed through the GCSU website and the Andalusia website. The websites for the Podcasts can be found at: itunes.gcsu.edu (under the Public Access link) and at http://www.andalusiafarm.org.
     Ms. Beth Lanier, a junior psychology major who attended the first lecture on Feb. 3, is looking forward to this month’s program.
     “I am excited (that there are) so many different perspectives (presented) both about O’Connor and about Andalusia,” Lanier said. “I think the lecture series is diverse enough to interest students of any major.”

Posted by Colonnade Archives on Feb 8 2008. Filed under News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry