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Providence, R.I.--The Providence College Randall Chair Professor and two longtime Stanford University professors will lead the annual Randall Chair Conference on Saturday, February 28, in Aquinas Hall. The daylong event is slated to run from 10:00 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. and is open to the public.
This year's conference, "After Exodus: Exile, Flight, and the Promised Land in the American Literary Tradition," will address the history of movements toward racial and gender equality in America.
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| Dr. Robert J. Kiely |
The conference is held in honor of the Rev. Robert J. Randall Distinguished Professor in Christian Culture, the College's first academic chair, which was established in 2002. It is named for the scholar, priest, artist, and longtime PC faculty member in the Department of English.
The Randall Professorship is held by a recognized scholar whose work concentrates on an understanding of culture that embodies a Christian view of human achievement.
The first lecturer will be Dr. Robert J. Kiely, the 2008-09 Providence College Randall Professor. Kiely will present on the subject of "The African-American Experience." A response will be given by Dr. Tuire Valkeakari, assistant professor of English.
Kiely is in his 46th year on the faculty at Harvard University, where he currently holds the position of Loker Research Professor of English. He teaches courses on the Victorian, modern, and postmodern novel, the English Bible, Classics of Christian Literature, and the Rhetoric of Belief.
The second lecturer will be Dr. Barbara Charlesworth Gelpi, a professor emerita at Stanford, who will deliver "The View from Pisgah: John La Farge, S.J. and the Civil Rights Movement." Father La Farge, a Jesuit priest born in Newport, R.I., in 1880, was the son of a famed 19th century painter and became renowned in his own right for speaking and acting against racial policies in America. A response will be given by Dr. Patrick H. Breen, assistant professor of history.
Gelpi's fields of interest are Victorian and Romantic literature and feminist literary criticism. Her published essays and books are also in these areas.
The final presenter will be Gelpi's husband, Dr. Albert Gelpi, a professor emeritus at Stanford. He will lecture on "Jack Kerouac: The Road to the Promised Land." Kerouac was a 20th century American novelist/poet known for his controversially explicit focus on sexual orientation and drug use. A response will be given by Dr. William P. Hogan, associate professor of English.
Gelpi taught American Literature at Stanford from 1968 to 2000. He also was associate dean of graduate studies and research and directed the American Studies Program four times. He has published a number of analytical books and essays on American literature, particularly poetry.
For further information on the Randall Conference, contact Dr. James F. Keating, PC associate professor of theology, at jkeating@providence.edu or 401-865-1349.
- Allen Daniel '11
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