Dancewise: Spark! showcases choreography and performances by students, faculty, and guest artists under the artistic direction of Associate Professor of Dance Courtney World. Spark! features the choreography of guest artist Jean Appolon, artistic director of a Boston-based contemporary dance company rooted in Haitian folkloric culture. Admission to the evening performances and Sunday matinee is free, but seating is limited. Reserve your spot!
This fall, the Roberson Project on Slavery, Race, and Reconciliation has hosted a reading group and two panel discussions on the topic of reparations. The events are in preparation for the Nov. 18 and 19 campus appearances of William A. Darity Jr. and Kirsten Mullen, authors of From Here to Equality: Reparations for Black Americans in the Twenty-First Century.
Students of the Sewanee Voice Studio will present an exciting and eclectic concert of vocal works from musical theatre, pop, folk, and classical repertoires. The performers, all students of Sewanee faculty Kerry Ginger and Erik Gustafson, will be joined by piano faculty Bernadette Lo. From Adele to Sondheim, Simon and Garfunkel to Man of La Mancha, and Britten to Bring It On, the program draws on many traditions, all under one banner: connecting through song.
If you've ever wondered (or been asked) what you can do with an English degree (besides being a teacher or a writer), we have answers for you from alumna and English major Caroline Morton Huffman, C'86, clinical research specialist site manager in oncology with Janssen Research and Development of Johnson & Johnson. Communicating clearly is a skill she uses daily to successfully meet business deadlines.
Alice McDermott will give the 28th Haines Lecture, including reading from new fiction. McDermott is the author of eight novels, and won the National Book Award for Charming Billy. Sewanee's masking and social distancing policies will be in effect.
In this classic Shakespeare tragedy, Prince Hamlet contemplates life, death, sanity, love, and revenge after the death of his father, the king of Denmark. The production, directed by James Crawford, will run October 22-24 and 28-31. Most performances at 7:30 p.m., with Sunday matinees. The actors will not be wearing masks; masks are required for audience members. (Photo by Max Muselmann on Unsplash)
Halsey Cook Jr., C’85, president and CEO of Milliken & Company, is the Babson Center’s 2021 Graham Executive-in-Residence. With 30 years of experience in global business, Cook has taken a values-based approach to leadership at Milliken. Founded in 1865 and now with more than 7,000 employees, Milliken has been named to the World’s Most Ethical Companies list by Ethisphere Institute for 15 straight years. Upholding Milliken’s purpose, “Together we strive to positively impact the world around us for generations to come,” the company has proven that it can be profitable while being socially and environmentally responsible. Join the Babson Center for a fascinating discussion about the roles ethics and innovation play in leading a large corporation and creating a sustainable environment. Co-sponsored by the Department of Chemistry and the Department of Philosophy.
A night of fun, music, language, and culture! All students are encouraged to participate by learning a song in the foreign language that they are studying. There will be prizes for 1st, 2nd, & 3rd places for solo acts, group acts, and whole-class acts.
Jimmie Lee Kirkpatrick and H.D. Kirkpatrick will be on campus for two days to share their histories and stories with our community. Together, they tell a remarkable story of their intertwined lives and shared legacies of slavery and racial injustice in American life. The Kirkpatricks were high school classmates who decades later found that H.D. Kirkpatrick’s ancestors had enslaved Jimmie Lee Kirkpatrick’s ancestors. Their journey from that moment of discovery to honest reckoning and finally friendship and racial healing is the subject of an upcoming documentary. A viewing of the documentary trailer and Q&A with the Kirkpatricks will be held Oct. 13.
The community is invited to join the Sewanee Review in celebrating Vievee Francis, recipient of the 2021 Aiken Taylor Award for Modern American Poetry. On Tuesday, Oct. 12, poet and critic Phillip B. Williams will present a lecture on Francis’s poetry at 4 p.m. in Guerry Auditorium. Francis will accept the award and give a reading from her work at 4:30 p.m. Wednesday, Oct. 13, in Convocation Hall. A reception will follow each event. Both events are free and open to the public. Sewanee's mask mandate and social distancing protocols will be in effect.
The Babson Center will bring two speakers to campus for talks Sept. 30 and Oct. 1. The Bryan speaker series give Sewanee students regular opportunities to hear directly from global business leaders whose experience, knowledge, and skills have carried them to the top of their fields.
The Sewanee Summer Music Festival presents a concert honoring JoAnn Falletta on the occasion of her honorary degree. It will feature 2021 SSMF Jacqueline Avent Concerto Competition winners along with Festival artist-faculty. Falletta is a long-time conductor of the Sewanee Summer Music Festival, and will return for another season during the summer of 2022.
The University of the South will hold a Fall Convocation on Friday, Sept. 17, coinciding with Family Weekend. Conductor and recording artist JoAnn Falletta will be the convocation speaker and will receive an honorary degree.
Jonathan Meiburg, C’97 and lead singer of the well-known indie rock band Shearwater, discusses his new book, A Most Remarkable Creature: The Hidden Life and Epic Journey of the World’s Smartest Birds of Prey, which traces the social and ecological history of the caracara, a South American bird of prey. The Wall Street Journal calls Meiburg “a lavishly talented nature writer” whose “beautifully written book shares in the zanily meditative, wistful ambivalence of [Shearwater’s] songs.”
Join us for a webinar lecture by Michelle Caswell, associate professor of archival studies, Department of Information Studies, UCLA. Caswell is one of today’s most compelling voices in archival theory. Her talk is based on more than a decade of ethnographic work building community archives sites. She advocates for alternative methods and practices that members of minoritized communities can use to create independent archives that build community ties and disrupt historic cycles of oppression.
This webinar is sponsored by the Roberson Project on Slavery, Race, and Reconciliation in partnership with colleagues at Centre College, Fisk University, Rollins College, University of Richmond, and Washington and Lee University. It is funded by grants from the Associated Colleges of the South and the Council of Independent Colleges.
The Roberson Project on Slavery, Race, and Reconciliation invites community members to the third St. Mark's Community history reunion, devoted to celebrating and preserving the history of African Americans in Sewanee. 9 a.m. to 3 p.m.; lunch will be available.
The Roberson Project on Slavery, Race, & Reconciliation will introduce its “Save Sewanee Black History” website and virtual archive on June 6. All are welcome to join the launch party in celebration of this important and living achievement.
Outdoor theatre returns to Sewanee! In contemporary, energetic Men on Boats, the cast navigates the Green and Colorado Rivers of the Grand Canyon. The historic 1869 expedition was an all-male/all-white crew of 10 led by Civil War veteran Major John Wesley Powell. Men on Boats asks the question, "how do you experience this story when non-traditional voices lead the way?" For this outdoor performance, the actors will not be masked. The audience is encouraged to wear masks, and to bring blankets and low beach chairs. Performances are Wednesday-Sunday, May 5-9. Reserve your free tickets. (Mature language.)
Scholarship Sewanee, an annual celebration of undergraduate research, scholarship, and creative activity, will be held on Friday, May 7. Thirty-three students will give oral presentations (almost all in person), and 50 students will share their research insights by means of posters. Students will be displaying their posters and video explanations starting the week of May 3; return to chat with the students during the actual poster session from 3-5 p.m. May 7. The complete schedule of events and the poster exhibits may be found at the virtual conference site.
The McCrady Lecture will be presented the evening before, at 7:30 p.m. Thursday, May 6, by Dr. Katharine Wilkinson, C' 05. Her talk is entitled "All We Can Save: Leading on Climate with Truth, Courage, and Solutions."
Dr. Katharine Wilkinson, C’05 and a Rhodes Scholar, will give the McCrady lecture as part of Scholarship Sewanee 2021. Wilkinson is an author, strategist, and teacher. Her books on climate include the bestselling anthology All We Can Save, The Drawdown Review, the New York Times bestseller Drawdown, and Between God & Green. Wilkinson co-founded and leads the All We Can Save Project with Dr. Ayana Elizabeth Johnson, in support of women leading on climate, and she co-hosts the podcast “A Matter of Degrees.” She speaks widely, including at National Geographic, Skoll World Forum, and the United Nations, and her TED talk on climate and gender equality has more than 1.9 million views. Her talk will address environmental concerns and solutions.
Join the singers of the Sewanee voice program in a concert and dialogue about music's capacity to empower, heal, and connect us. These are hybrid (in-person and Zoom) events.
Monday, April 26, 6 p.m., Guerry Auditorium and Zoom
Tuesday, April 27, 7 p.m., Spencer Lawn Tent and Zoom
Based on works by Afro-German poet May Ayim and Italian-German writer and director Angelina Maccarone, engage with issues of everyday bigotry, transgressions, and systemic racism. The program aims to give voice to those denied a say, and visibility to those deprived of representation. With German actor Sissi Zängerle (via Zoom). April 24 and May 1.
Phi Beta Kappa 2019-2020 Visiting Scholar R. Jay Wallace of UC Berkeley will be giving a lecture and holding a "night owl" session via Zoom. Wallace was originally scheduled to visit campus in March 2020; his visit was postponed due to the pandemic and now will take place online.
R. Jay Wallace is the Judy Chandler Webb Distinguished Chair for Innovative Teaching and Research, Department of Philosophy, University of California, Berkeley. His lecture will discuss the ways that reactive attitudes, such as resentment and indignation, involve forms of social power, and the implications of this for the understanding and assessment of blame. His related night owl conversation will address "Why is everyone so angry?"
Leonidas Polk—the University’s founding Episcopal bishop who enslaved hundreds and left his church office to serve as a high-ranking officer in the Confederate military—is a familiar name and face on the Sewanee campus. There is more to learn about the Rt. Rev. Polk as a leading force in a southern family whose network of investments across the region helped fuel the growth of the 19th century’s “Empire of Cotton” and the enslaved labor force that enabled that expansion.
Kelly Houston Jones, assistant professor of history at Arkansas Tech and author of A Weary Land: Slavery on the Ground in Arkansas, will place Bishop Polk within the context of the Polk clan, who from their outpost in nearby Columbia, Tennessee, built their own mini-empire across the southern Mississippi Valley. Her web lecture on the Polk family’s business network in the global trade of cotton, sugar, and human beings is presented by the Roberson Project on Slavery, Race, and Reconciliation and open to the public.
“Sex, Rage, & Change: Feminist Adaptation of Ovid’s Metamorphoses” is a public conversation with Nina MacLaughlin, Paisley Rekdal, and Stephanie McCarter. Contemporary women have found a fruitful source of inspiration in Ovid’s Metamorphoses. Nina MacLaughlin’s Wake, Siren: Ovid Resung creatively rewrites Ovid in a series of stories narrated by the many silenced women of the epic, while Paisley Rekdal’s Nightingale poignantly weaves the Metamorphoses into a poetry collection that tackles the themes of sexual violence, identity, and change. Stephanie McCarter, associate professor of classical languages at Sewanee, will speak with them about their complicated relationships with Ovid as well as the broader presence of sexual violence in art.
The Center for Religion and Environment presents a Deep Green Faith webinar featuring Norman Wirzba, the Gilbert T. Rowe Distinguished Professor of Theology at Duke University and a senior fellow at Duke’s Kenan Institute for Ethics. Wirzba will speak on “The Future of Food: A Faithful Response." Free event; registration needed.
The Department of Theatre & Dance presents this play, which tells the story of Christopher, a teenager who’s gifted in math and is on the autism spectrum. He sets out to solve the mystery of a neighbor’s dog who was killed, and winds up on a harrowing journey of self-discovery. The play won the Olivier Award for Best Play (London), followed by the Tony Award (New York City). Actors will be masked and distanced, and audience capacity in the theatre is limited. March 18-20 and 25-27 at 7:30 p.m., and March 21 & 28 at 2 p.m.
A virtual lecture by Dr. Jada Watson, musicologist and digital humanities specialist at the University of Ottawa, will discuss the status of gender representation in the American country music industry. Examining data from country format radio, Billboard charts, and professional awards, Watson will highlight challenges and possibilities for inclusion in the Nashville-based industry and beyond. Sponsored by the Center for Southern Studies, the Department of Music, and the Center for Teaching.
TEDxUniversityoftheSouth includes seven nights of talks and performances followed by live Q&A with the speakers. A TEDx event is a local program of TED-like talks organized by and shared with the community. The series begins on Tuesday, Feb. 23, continues every Tuesday through March 30, and concludes Wednesday, April 7. Speakers and performers include Patrick Dean (Feb. 23), Sherry Hamby (March 2), Jason Carl Rosenberg (March 9), Deborah McGrath (March 16), Bea Troxel (March 23), Karen Yu (March 30), and Mandy Moe Pwint Tu (April 7).
