Marlowe to discuss transcendentalism in the Gilded Age as part of Community Lecture Series
Sep 16th
New York Times editorial writer David Brooks once wrote that reverence for simplicity and self-reliance gave way to the ostentatious display and consumption that characterized the Gilded Age. Brooks argued not only that this happened but that it should have happened.
When Flagler College assistant professor Hugh Marlowe kicks off the 2012 Community Lecture Series
on Sept. 25 with a talk on “Strange Bedfellows: Transcendentalist Simplicity and Gilded Age Excess,” he will attempt to explain not only how Brooks is wrong but how the path taken may have stunted the country’s soul.
“While there are clear dimensions where we can point to the Gilded Age’s self-interested drive for progress, there are other important dimensions which have become atrophied as a function of it,” said Marlowe. “More specifically, moral and spiritual dimensions.”
Marlowe cites 20th century mythologist Joseph Campbell who said that the purpose of society is to aid in the spiritual development of the individual.
“This would be a view shared by transcendentalists such as Thoreau and Emerson,” said Marlowe. “On that scale, the narrow economic values of the Gilded Age fail pretty miserably.”
Marlowe received his Ph.D. from the University of California, Riverside and wrote his dissertation on “The Problem of Freedom,” investigating two-standpoint style arguments as a means of preventing a notion of ourselves as agents from disappearing into the event-causal flow, and exploring issues of reflective evaluation, identity, and moral realism. He currently teaches courses in philosophy and ethics at Flagler.
Marlowe’s lecture is the first in this year’s lecture series entitled “Reconstruction & Gild: Wealth, Innovation and the Pursuit of Status in Late 19th Century America” which focuses on defining moments in American history during the mid to late 1800s. Speakers will discuss the topic through the lens of their particular discipline.
Tickets are $5 per person for a single lecture, or $15 for four lectures. Active military personnel may attend at no charge.
Lectures begin at 10 a.m. in the Flagler Room at Flagler College, 74 King St. Reservations are required, but space is limited. The lecture will last approximately one hour and will be followed by a coffee and pastry reception.
Call (904) 819-6282 for reservations or more information. To watch a live stream of these lectures, visit ustream.tv/channel/community-lecture-series
Source: Flagler College
Flagler College welcomes writer and humorist Michael Martone
Sep 14th
Michael Martone is a busy man.
The two-time NEA fellowship recipient and University of Alabama professor is one of the most widely-published fiction writers
and essayists of the last two decades, with work anthologized in such prestigious collections as the “Pushcart Prize Stories,” “Best American Short Stories” and “Best American Essays.”
Martone, known for his funny readings and biting wit, will visit Flagler College on Sept. 26 at 7 p.m. for a reading and discussion of his work.
“I am looking forward to returning to St. Augustine,” Martone said. “I made a visit there during a very stormy spring break of 1995.”
Many Flagler College students are well acquainted with Martone’s work through his co-editing of the renowned short fiction anthology “The Scribner Anthology of Contemporary Short Fiction,” a mainstay in several creative writing courses at the College. The visit offers the community a chance to experience Martone reading his own work, in his famously humorous style.
“This time, I will probably be reading various short fiction pieces from the books ‘Michael Martone,’ ‘The Blue Guide to Indiana’ and the newest one, ‘Four for a Quarter,'” he said. “Unless someone there would like me to read something else,” he added congenially.
Martone was born and grew up in Fort Wayne, Indiana. He attended Butler University and graduated from Indiana University. He holds the MA from The Writing Seminars of The Johns Hopkins University, and he has won two Fellowships from the NEA and a grant from the Ingram Merrill Foundation. His most recent books are “Four for a Quarter;” “Not Normal, Illinois: Peculiar Fiction from the Flyover”; “Racing in Place: Collages, Fragments, Postcards, Ruins,” a collection of essays; and “Double-wide,” his collected early stories.
A professor at the University of Alabama, Martone has also been a faculty member of the MFA Program for Writers at Warren Wilson College since 1988. He has taught at Iowa State University, Harvard University and Syracuse University.
The reading will be held in the Gamache-Koger Theater at the Ringhaver Student Center at 50 Sevilla Street. The event is free and open to the public, but seating is limited and is on a first-come, first-served basis. If you are a person with a disability and need reasonable accommodations, please contact Lynn Francisco at 904-819-6460. Sign Language Interpreters are available upon request with a minimum of three days’ notice. Call (904) 819-6339 or visit www.flagler.edu/our-community/events/writers-in-residence for more information.
Source: Flagler College
Flagler comes in at 11 on U.S. News “Best Colleges” list
Sep 14th
Flagler College ranks 11th in the South for Best Regional Colleges according to U.S. News and World Report’s new 2013 edition
of “Best Colleges.” The widely used college guide includes rankings on more than 1,600 schools nationwide.
of “Best Colleges.” The widely used college guide includes rankings on more than 1,600 schools nationwide.
The guidebook will be available on newsstands Sept. 18.
The Best Regional Colleges category includes schools whose focus is almost entirely on the undergraduate experience and who offer a broad range of programs in the liberal arts, as well as fields such as business, nursing and education. The 370 colleges in the category draw heavily from nearby states and are divided into four regions.
Flagler was also named an “A-Plus School for B Students” based on its proportion of accepted students who had B-level grades but were admitted based on “spirit and hard work,” according to the U.S. News and World Report.
The Best Colleges guide compares the quality of schools based on “indicators of excellence” such as freshman retention, graduation rates and the strength of the faculty. Colleges and universities are sorted into categories that the publication bases on the Carnegie Classification of Institutions of Higher Education.
In August, Flagler was also included in the Princeton Review’s annual college guide, “Best 377 Colleges – 2013 Edition.”
Flagler College is an independent, four-year, comprehensive baccalaureate college located in St. Augustine, Fla. The college offers 24 majors, 29 minors and two pre-professional programs, the largest majors being business, education and communication. Small by intent, Flagler College has an enrollment of about 2,500 students, as well as a satellite campus at Tallahassee Community College in Tallahassee, Fla. U.S. News & World Report and The Princeton Review regularly feature Flagler as a college that offers quality education at a relatively low cost; tuition is $23,690, including room and board. A relatively young institution (founded in 1968), Flagler College is also noted for the historic beauty of its campus. The main building is Ponce de Leon Hall, built in 1887 as a luxury resort by Henry Flagler, who co-founded the Standard Oil Company with John D. Rockefeller. For more on Flagler College, visit www.flagler.edu
Source: Flagler College
