Emory Report

September 18, 2000

 Volume 53, No. 4

Oxford hosts varied reconciliation events

By Eric Rangus

The Year of Reconciliation is not limited to Emory's Atlanta campus. The University, after all, was born down the road in Oxford, and Oxford College will play a major role in reconciliation festivities.

"We think this is a great theme," said Oxford Dean Dana Greene. "It can be construed so broadly. It's an attempt to bring any groups or ideas that have been disparate together. It's a great idea."

The Lyceum Committee, a faculty/staff group that plans and promotes cultural programs in the Oxford community, has played a significant role in gearing Oxford's cultural events calendar toward the reconciliation theme.

Lyceum sponsors programs at Oxford every year, often involving outside speakers as special guests. For this year's schedule, Lyceum decided to focus on Oxford faculty and allow them the opportunity to present reconciliation-themed work.

"People were eager to cooperate," said Delia Nesbet, who heads the Lyceum Comm-ittee. She said the schedule was finalized in just one month. "It's very exciting to have a theme and be able to coordinate a program around that theme."

Chancellor Bill Frye, co-chair of January's Reconcili-ation Symposium, opened Oxford's festivities on Aug. 30 with a convocation at Allen Memorial Church.

Future planned activities include the following:

Sept. 11: artist Susan Cipcic and sculptor Bill Nixon will host a lecture and an exhibit of their work.

Oct. 2: Christine Loflin, assistant professor of English, will speak on "Truth and Reconcili-ation in South African Litera-ture."

Oct. 23: Gayle Doherty, assistant professor of physical education, will speak on "Reconcili-ation of the Self Through the Arts."

Nov. 16: Philip Callaway and Lucy Cline Huie present "Acts of Courage: One Woman's Fight Against Segregation," a discussion and exhibit centering on Huie's experiences during the Civil Rights movement of the late 1950s and early 1960s. Photographs and other items are part of Emory's Special Collections.

Feb. 4, 2001: Organist Timothy Albrecht will perform the music of Johann Sebastian Bach, as well as more recent pieces composed by English organist Gerald Hendrie (and dedicated to Albrecht). The organist will also perform some of his own compositions. The concert will take place at the First Pres-byterian Church in Covington.

Feb. 15: Benjamin Hirsch, architect and planner of the Bremen Jewish Museum of Atlanta, and Rosalind Edelstein, a therapist for families of Holocaust survivors, will participate in a discussion entitled "Reflections on the Holocaust." An exhibit in the Oxford College library will accompany the discussion.

March 5: Reza Saadien, associate professor of chemistry, will discuss, "Islamic Interpre-tation of Christianity."

March 26: William Cody, associate professor of political science, will discuss, "Recon-ciliation and the University."

April 9: John Stone, professor of medicine and co-chair of the Reconciliation Symposium, will give a poetry reading entitled "Tales from the Country of Hearts: Notes of a Poet-Writer."

Another faculty lecture is scheduled for Jan. 29, but a speaker and subject have not been confirmed.

In addition to its own schedule, Oxford is going to significant lengths to participate in festivities on the Atlanta campus. Shuttles will carry interested Oxford students to Atlanta to attend events and Oxford will set up a video conference room that will beam pictures in as they happen on the main campus.

All Oxford reconciliation events are free and open to the public.


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