CONFERENCE PROGRAM
The 2015 Faulkner and Yoknapatawpha Conference, “Faulkner and Print Culture,” will gather writers, teachers, students, and other lovers of Faulkner’s work for five days of lectures and discussions exploring Faulkner’s multifaceted engagements, as writer and reader, producer and consumer, with the print cultures of his era, along with the ways in which these cultures have mediated his relationship with a variety of twentieth- and twenty-first-century readerships spanning the low, middle, and high “brows.”
In addition to five keynote lectures, the conference program will include panel presentations, guided daylong tours of North Mississippi and the Delta, and sessions on “Teaching Faulkner” led by James B. Carothers, University of Kansas, Terrell L. Tebbetts, Lyon College, Brian McDonald, J. P. McCaskey High School (Lancaster, Pennsylvania), Charles Peek, University of Nebraska at Kearney, and Theresa M. Towner, University of Texas at Dallas.
The conference will begin on Sunday, July 19, with a reception at the University Museum, after which the academic program of the conference will open with a keynote address and panel presentation, followed by a buffet supper on the grounds of Faulkner’s home, Rowan Oak. Over the next four days, a busy schedule of lectures and panels will also make room for an evening salon at the Southside Gallery, an afternoon cocktail reception, a picnic served at Rowan Oak, the guided tours, and a closing party on Thursday afternoon, July 23. Throughout the conference, the University’s J. D. Williams Library will display Faulkner books, manuscripts, photographs, and memorabilia. The University Press of Mississippi will exhibit Faulkner books published by university presses throughout the United States, and there will be a display, with books for sale, by Faulkner collector Seth Berner, who will also give a brown bag lunch presentation on “Collecting Faulkner.” In addition, collaborators on the Digital Yoknapatawpha Project, a database and digital mapping project led by Professor Stephen Railton of the University of Virginia, will present updates on its progress at a special conference session.
FAULKNER CLASS IN CONJUNCTION WITH CONFERENCE
High school teachers, students enrolled at other universities, and other interested parties who may be seeking a more intensive conference experience are invited to enroll in a 3-credit-hour course, ENGL 566, that will be offered in conjunction with “Faulkner and Print Culture.” ENGL 566 may be taken for graduate as well as undergraduate credit. The course, which will be offered during the “Second Summer” session on the University of Mississippi academic calendar, will meet on the Oxford campus from July 13 to July 24, and will include all conference lectures, panels, and related sessions in its schedule of contact hours. The intent is to complement the conference program by providing students with a deeper interpretive and pedagogical encounter with Faulkner’s life and work in its relationship to the print cultures of his era, in the form of transferable credit hours that can be applied to degree programs or teacher certification requirements. Conference registration will be included in the course tuition, dormitory housing will be available on the Oxford campus for enrollees, and out-of-state teachers will be eligible for scholarship assistance with non-resident tuition. The application deadline for summer 2015 enrollment at the
U of M is March 30, 2015. Contact the instructor of record, Professor Jaime Harker, at jlharker@olemiss.edu for more details.
