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The National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) has awarded Georgia College & State University a $235,000 grant to help scholars learn teaching strategies on the life and works of author Flannery O’Connor.
The grant will fund the university’s third NEH Summer Institute on its famed alumna, entitled “Re-Considering Flannery O’Connor.” In June, 25 educators, scholars and artists will attend the four-week institute to learn about O’Connor in the surroundings of her alma mater and Andalusia, the dairy farm where she lived and wrote in the remaining years of her life.
“The Summer Institute will serve as a boot camp for people who want to do a better job of teaching the works of Flannery O’Connor. We like to show college teachers that O’Connor can be a significant part of a successful career as a teacher and scholar,” said Dr. Bruce Gentry, professor of English and co-director of the institute.
Gentry joins fellow O’Connor scholar and co-director, Robert Donahoo, from Sam Houston State University in Texas. Dr. Irene Burgess, executive director of Georgia College’s Andalusia Institute, is the project administrator for the June 1-29 seminar.
“Re-Considering Flannery O’Connor” will examine the entirety of the author’s work— from award-winning short fiction and satirical cartoons drawn for her college newspaper to the manuscript of a novel left unfinished at the time of her death from Lupus in 1964.
Georgia College previously hosted NEH Summer Institutes on O’Connor in 2007 and 2014. After learning about O’Connor from a variety of scholarly approaches, participants of the 2014 summer institute produced 39 presentations and 20 publications on the beloved southern author.
“Re-Considering Flannery O’Connor” is one of 226 humanity projects nationwide receiving grants from the $31.5 million NEH allotted this year. The organization supports scholars, curators, storytellers, filmmakers and teachers in preserving the nation’s rich and expansive history and culture, according to a statement by NEH Chair Shelly C. Lowe (Navajo). More about NEH can be learned at www.neh.gov.
Receiving a third NEH grant to expand appreciation of O’Connor shows the support the organization has for Georgia College and its most famed alumni. Funding allows scholars a chance to increase their knowledge of what O’Connor has to say about the South and mid-1950s America.
“That’s gratifying to see,” Burgess said. “This award recognizes the strength of prior institutes, allowing a new generation of Flannery O’Connor teachers and scholars to learn about the renowned writer, so closely associated with Milledgeville.”
– Contributed