Panels & Presentations

Seodial Deena presented "History and Religion: from Monoculturalism to Multiculturalism, the New International Order for the 21st Century" at the Oxford Round Table, University of Oxford, England, August 13-18.  Deena was also the discussion leader for "From the Mayflower to 9/11: A Brief History of United States Globalization," and "Realist International Relations Theory as a Guide to the Current International Politics of the U.S., Europe, and China," also at the Oxford Round Table.  In Panama City, Panama, Deena presented "Finding A Place to Call Home in the Mother Country" at the 28th Annual Conference of the Association of Caribbean Studies in Panama City, Panama, July 27 - August 1.  At this same conference, Deena chaired a session titled "Postcolonial Caribbean."  From September 19 to October 7, Deena traveled from Amritsar, Punjab to Lucknow, Uttar Pradesh to Bhopal, Madhya Pradesh and onto New Delhi visiting "The Golden Temple in Amritsar," http://www.sacredsites.com/asia/india/amritsar.html, Rumi Darwaza or the Turkish Gate in Lucknow, http://www.indiasite.com/uttarpradesh/monumentsoflucknow.html, and the Indian-Pakistan Border in Punjab, http://www.pu.edu.pk/glance/defaultlhr.asp?aboutid=9  where he presented "Topics on Literature, Religion, Culture and Globalization" at the University of Punjab.  For a blog that summarizes the dramatic closing of the border, please see: http://vsequeira.blogspot.com/2006/01/visting-india-pakistan-border.html

Mike Hamer and Marty Silverthorne presented their "8 Wheels and Nowhere To Go" program of original songs and poetry at Emerge Gallery in downtown Greenville on July 14.

Thomas Herron delivered a lecture titled "New English Readers of Spenser's Irish Allegories:  Parr Lane and Ralph Birkenshaw" for The Fourth Annual British and Irish Spenser Seminar heldt at Queens College, Cambridge, England, on Sept. 9.

Tom Douglass presented "Davis Grubb and the Making of The Night of the Hunter" at the West Virginia Book Festival in Charleston, Oct. 21-22.  The 1955 film directed by Charles Laughton is unusual in its history and the extent of the author's involvement with the realization on screen. Grubb, the author of the novel of the same title, was also an aspiring cartoonist, and he composed 119 sketches for Laughton and cinematographer Stanley Cortez.  Remarkably, the film's composition follows much of the author's visual direction. The rare sketches were purchased by Martin Scorcese and donated to the Margaret Herrick Library of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences in Los Angeles.

Pat Bizzaro conducted two writing workshops at Crystal Coast Book Festival in Morehead City, NC: "Making Poems at the Beach (or Anywhere Else)" and "Learning from Other Writers: What's Genre Got to Do With It?" on Friday, October 20.  The 2d Annual Crystal Coast Book Festival was held Oct. 20-22, in and around Beaufort and Morehead City at various locations, and included "programs and readings from current fiction and nonfiction authors, autographing sessions, theatre style performances by popular authors, poetry readings, and children's literature.  Readers and writers of all ages and backgrounds [were] able to meet and interact with their favorite authors."  At the festival, Peter Makuck and Pat Bizarro read from their work at Webb Memorial Library on Saturday Oct. 21, and Robert Morgan, who was there at a different session reading from his latest novel Brave Enemies, joined his fomer colleagues.  For the festival website, please see: http://www.crystalcoastbookfestival.com/index.html

Brent Henze and Debbie Andrews of the University of Delaware presented "Teaching Professional Writing to American Students in a Study Abroad Program" at the 33d Annual Council on Programs in Scientific and Technical Communication Conference held October 12-14, at San Francisco State University.  This year's theme was "Meeting Challenges of the New Economy."  The many sponsors for this year's CPSTC conference included: Clemson University, Michigan State University, North Carolina State University, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, Texas Tech University, and East Carolina University.

Marie Farr presented "Critical Response to Gone with the Wind" on Sept. 19, at the Pamlico County Library in Bayboro, NC.  On October 19, she spoke on The Space Merchants a science fiction classic by Frederick Pohl at Edgecombe County Library in Tarboro.  The NC Humanities Committee-sponsored "Let's Talk About It" series (LTAI) is "a reading and discussion program designed for libraries that brings scholars and community members together to explore how selected books illuminate a particular theme.  Participants read five books over a nine-week period.  In addition to the traditional LTAI programs which have focused on the Civil War, mysteries, Tar Heel fiction, and women's autobiographies, among others, the Humanities Council has developed several new programs including, 'Twentieth-Century African American Literature.'  In all, the Humanities Council offers eighteen programs to choose from."  For more information, please see: http://www.nchumanities.org/ltai.html

Don Palumbo spoke on Isaac Asimov's I, Robot short story collection on October 5, at the Rocky Mount Braswell Memorial Library as part of the NC Humanities Council "Let's Talk About It" reading and discussion series. I, Robot published in 1950 was the first collection of Asimov's robot stories, and in 1963, there was an "Outer Limits" (television show) episode titled "I, Robot."  The word "Robot" was first used in the play R.U.R. (Rossum's Universal Robots) written by Karel Capek in Czechoslovokia in 1920.

Jerry Leath Mills spoke on "Remembrances of O.B. Hardison" at the sixteenth annual presentation of the O.B. Hardison, Jr., Poetry Prize at the Folger Shakespeare Library in Washington, DC, on October 27.  Poet David Rivard is the 2006 winner of the Folger Shakespeare Library's O. B. Hardison, Jr. Poetry Prize established in 1991, a year after Hardison's death. Osborn B. Hardison (1928-1990), referred to as "O.B.," directed the Folger Shakespeare Library from 1969 to 1983.  During that time, he founded the Folger Shakespeare Theater Group, established the Folger Consort which specializes in medieval and Renaissance music, and was instrumental in raising the international reputation of the Folger as a center for Renaissance scholarship.  He also organized a Folger poetry reading series that has become one of the most prestigious in Washington, D.C.  O.B. Hardison, editor, essayist, author, and teacher at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and at Georgetown, published poetry, commentary, and literary history.  His books include: Toward Freedom and Dignity: The Humanities and the Idea of Humanity (1942), Christian Rite and Christian Drama in the Middle Ages: Essays in the Origin and Early History of Modern Drama (1965), The Enduring Moment: A Study of the Idea of Praise in Renaissance Literary Theory and Practice (1973), Pro Musica Antiqua: Poems (1977), Prosody and Purpose in the English Renaissance (1989), and Disappearing through the Skylight: Culture and Technology in the Twentieth Century (1989), among others.