Dear Faculty and Staff Colleagues,
During the pandemic, communication and connection are more important than ever. Many of you are friends of mine on Facebook, and I’m happy for others to reach me on that platform. I’d like to invite you to join with me on Twitter, which I am increasingly using as one good way to share with faculty, staff, alumni, students, and friends of Oxford. Please follow me on Twitter: @DougAHicks.
This has been an extraordinary fall semester, to be sure. Thank you, Oxford faculty and staff, for showing your resolve and resilience to offer our students a world-class education and a strong community. When I walk across campus, I see socially distanced and masked students, connecting and forming friendships. Both on-campus and online, the Oxford community is persevering and thriving.
Thank you for all that you do for Oxford.
Best,
Doug
|
Notes from ChapLyn — Healing Through Art
|
I want to introduce to you a joint project my office has been working on with the Office of Spiritual and Religious Life on the Atlanta campus. Healing through Art is a way for the Emory community to share grief, loss, and changes that have come during 2020 and COVID-19. As the website says, this has been a traumatic time and “the illness, deaths, and life changes brought about by the COVID-19 pandemic alongside continued anti-Black violence, and serious immigration concerns have undoubtedly taken a toll on our Emory community.”
With this project, we invite you to consider your own grief and loss and to share a representation of it as we begin this academic year. The steps to this process and some examples (including one from our own Tasha Dobbin-Bennett) are on our website. We will compile all submissions to share as a virtual gallery on a common Instagram account (@emory_hta). We hope further conversations will emerge from this initial process of sharing as we continue to honor our grief and loss and move toward healing together. Let me know if you have any questions.
|
|
Southern Circuit Film Series 2020-21 |
|
Oxford's seventh academic year hosting the Southern Circuit Film Series kicked off on September 15. This fall, the screenings and Q&A sessions will be held online.
Oxford is one of 17 screening partner organizations across the southeastern United States including two others in Georgia: the City of Hapeville and Georgia Southern University in Statesboro.
Fall screening dates and films screened virtually:
September 20: rescreening of Coded Bias and Q&A with Director, Producer Shalini Kantayya.
Coded Bias explores the fallout of MIT media lab researcher Joy Buolamwini’s startling discovery that facial recognition does not see dark-skinned faces accurately, and her journey to push for the first-ever legislation in the U.S. to govern against bias in the algorithms that impact us all.
October 6: Hurdle Screening and Q&A with Director, Producer, Cinematographer, and Editor Michael Rowley.
November 2: Fandango at the Wall Screening and Q&A with Director and Co-Writer Varda Bar-Kar.
“Access to independent documentary filmmaking is more important than ever. We have taken steps to ensure that our audiences and filmmakers can share these essential conversations, regardless of the circumstances,” says Teresa Hollingsworth, South Arts program director for film and traditional arts. "Through Southern Circuit, audiences interact with filmmakers directly, learning about the art of filmmaking and engaging with issues relevant to their community through a new lens.”
Since the fall of 2014, Oxford College has participated in the Southern Circuit Film Series and played host to independent filmmakers bringing to light powerful, inspirational, and moving stories through their films. A Q&A session at each screening is a defining aspect of the program that allows community members and viewers to connect with the filmmakers. The series is coordinated by South Arts and is funded in part through a partnership with the National Endowment for the Arts.
|
|
Nicholas Fesette, assistant professor of theater, recently published a chapter in the volume Race and Performance After Repetition (Duke), edited by Soyica Diggs Colbert, Douglas A. Jones Jr., and Shane Vogel. Fesette’s chapter, “Carceral Space-Times and The House that Herman Built,” examines an art collaboration between Jackie Sumell and Herman Wallace, the latter of whom spent over forty years in solitary confinement in Louisiana State Penitentiary.
|
|
Ken Carter, Charles Howard Candler Professor of Psychology, joined the Center for Mind, Brain, and Culture Director Lynne Nygaard for a candid discussion about his long, distinguished career at Emory and some thrilling publications on an episode of "Inside the Lab with the CMBC."
|
|
Oxford College faculty and staff are ready to run to raise funds for the Winship Cancer Institue.
Oxford College is participating in this year's virtual Winship Win the Fight 5K benefitting the Winship Cancer Institute of Emory University. Oxford's Team Hardin will run and walk in celebration of Oxford College head men's and women's tennis coach, Pernilla Hardin, and those treated at the Winship Cancer Institute.
Our team fundraising goal is $15,000 and our team member goal is 30 participants. You can help the team reach these goals by registering to run/walk or by donating at the online team page.
The race this year will be virtual and is being promoted for the week of September 26-October 3. We want to plan a safe 5K group run in Oxford the weekend of September 26-27 with the annual post-run "runch" to be hosted by Catherine Bagwell. More information on this Oxford run and the runch will be sent to team members closer to the date.
|
|
Oxford Recreation Services activities this week |
|
Oxford Recreation Services offers pickleball, Esports, singles tennis, and Bike Oxford activities. Sign-up online here to participate and share with students you think would enjoy activities.
|
|
A message for the community from Oxford Chaplain Lyn Pace:
It is with deep sadness that I let you know of the death of Dr. Neil Shaw Penn, aged 88, emeritus professor of history at Oxford College. He and his spouse Carol have been members of the Oxford community for decades as he taught and Carol worked at the college. Please join me in keeping Carol and the family in your thoughts or prayers at the time of this loss and in the days ahead.
Penn's obituary is available to read here. A Celebration of Life gathering will be planned at a later date due to the pandemic. In lieu of flowers, donations may be made to the Penn Book Fund, Office of Advancement and Alumni Engagement, Oxford College, 801 Emory Street, Oxford, Georgia 30054.
Contact information for Carol and family:
Mrs. Carol Penn
304 Stone Street
Oxford, GA 30054
Phone: 770.786.8004
|
|
Lyceum fall calendar of events
The Oxford College faculty's Lyceum Committee announces its lineup for fall semester. Faculty and staff, along with students, are invited to join via Zoom.
|
|
Performance: Emily Wells, "The World is too ____ for You: Queering Dystopia
|
|
Southern Circuit Film Series re-screening of Coded Bias and Q&A with Director, Producer Shalini Kantayya.
|
|
"Take a Break Tuesday," hosted by the Office of Religious and Spiritual Life (RSL)
Front patio, Oxford Student Center | 1:30 p.m.- 2:45 p.m.
|
|
Lecture: Tim Wise, "The Pathology of Privilege. Racism, White Denial & the Costs of Inequality"
|
|
Take a Break Tuesday, hosted by the Office of Religious and Spiritual Life (RSL)
1:30-2:45 p.m.
|
|
Lecture: Pablo Palomino, "Names and Meanings: the uses of Latin, Latino, Hispanic, Brown, Mestizo, South American, Spanish-Speaking, and Latinx tags in academia."
|
|
Winship Win the Fight 5K, Team Hardin walk/run in Oxford
Date will be announced soon.
|
|
To submit a news item for the next Campus Update, please email Ansley Holder.
The newsletter is distributed weekly on Wednesday.
Please send any submissions by Monday afternoon. Thanks for reading!
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
