SPARTANBURG, S.C. – Highlights of the Wofford College calendar during October include the Chapman Lecture in the Humanities, presented by artist LaToya Ruby Frasier; the MENA (Middle Eastern and North African) Lecture Series and the “50 and Forward: The Sandor Teszler Library Since 1969” exhibit celebrating the 50th anniversary of the Sandor Teszler Library.
All events listed are open to the public and are free of charge unless otherwise noted. Please check the online calendar at calendar.wofford.edu for frequent updates. For athletics events, visit athletics.wofford.edu.
For more information, contact Laura Corbin at woffordnews@wofford.edu or 864-597-4180.
Thursday, Oct. 3
Chapman Lecture in the Humanities: “Art as Transformation: Using Photography for Social Change”
Speaker: Artist LaToya Ruby Frazier
7 p.m., Jerome Richardson Theatre, Rosalind Sallenger Richardson Center for the Art
The Chapman Lecture in the Humanities at Wofford invites noted scholars from the fields of the humanities to speak at Wofford. This year, LaToya Ruby Frazier will present the Chapman Lecture “Art as Transformation: Using Photography for Social Change” as a complement to her works from “The Notion of Family” currently exhibited in the Richardson Family Art Museum in the Rosalind Sallenger Richardson Center for the Arts.
Wednesday, Oct. 9
Blessing of the Animals
12:30 p.m., The Galleria patio
The Rev. Dr. Ron Robinson, Perkins-Prothro Chaplain and Professor of Religion, will bless pets (or photos of pets) of students, faculty and staff.
Friday, Oct. 11
Fall break; no classes.
Wednesday, Oct. 16
MENA Lecture Series Talk: Islam and Globalization
Speaker: Dr. David Damrel, University of South Carolina Upstate
4 p.m., McMillan Theater, Campus Life Building
Dr. David Damrel, professor of religion at the University of South Carolina Upstate, will discuss “Islam and Globalization: Lessons from the Silk Road Then and Now,” exploring what the fabled Silk Road – the vast and varied trade route that bound the Muslim world with east Asia and Europe for centuries – can teach us about globalization and how religions and cultures affect one another and the implications of the modern Chinese initiative to revive the Silk Road for Muslim religious life across Asia in the 21st century.
Wednesday, Oct. 16
Guest Lecture: “U.S. Latino Digital Communities: An Overview”
Speaker: Dr. Isis Campos, Recovering the U.S. Hispanic Project
5 p.m., Olin Teaching Theatre, Franklin W. Olin Building
Dr. Isis Campos, a research fellow with the Recovering the U.S. Hispanic Project at the University of Houston, will discuss the program’s findings. The Recovery Project seeks to locate and preserve the U.S. Latino literary heritage and to disseminate its cultural projects. The Recovery Project has helped establish the first U.S. Center for Latinx Digital Humanities. Laptops and tablets are encouraged for the presentations so that attendees can interact with the sites.
Thursday, Oct. 17
Curator’s Talk: “Southern Gothic: Intersections of Art and Literature in the Johnson Collection”
Speaker: Elizabeth Driscoll Smith
7 p.m., Richardson Family Art Gallery, Rosalind Sallenger Richardson Center for the Arts
(See exhibition description below.)
Friday, Oct. 18, through Sunday, Oct. 20
Homecoming Weekend
Tuesday, Oct. 22
Fiction Reading: Author David Lynn
6 p.m., Hub City Bookshop, 186 W. Main St., downtown Spartanburg
David Lynn, author of “Children of God” and former editor of the Kenyon Review, will speak in the program sponsored by the Wofford Creative Writing Program.
Wednesday, Oct. 23
MENA Lecture Series: “Making Order Out of Chaos”
Speaker: Dr. Victoria Gilbert, Wofford Visiting Professor of International Affairs
4 p.m., McMillan Theater, Campus Life Building
Dr. Victoria Gilbert, Wofford Visiting Professor of International Affairs, will speak on “Making Order out of Chaos: Rebel Governance and the Syrian Conflict.” Since 2011, Syria has been rocked by violence and bloodshed. The international press has highlighted the atrocities of ISIS, the use of chemical weapons and the role that foreign states, such as Russia, have played. While these are all extremely important issues, they give rise to a misperception about life on the ground in Syria. Amidst violence and chaos new institutions emerged to provide public goods and governance in rebel-controlled areas. In a country that had known authoritarianism for decades, some cities and towns held democratic elections, had public meetings to discuss affairs and secured a place for women at the table. This talk will discuss this process, its effects and some of the potential long-term ramifications of local governance in Syria.
Friday, Oct. 25, through Sunday, Oct. 27
Family Weekend
Saturday, Oct. 26
Curator’s Talk: “Siendo mujer: A Short Study of the Female Experience in South America”
Lydia Estes, former Presidential International Scholar
9 a.m., Richardson Family Art Gallery, Rosalind Sallenger Richardson Center
(See exhibition description below.)
Saturday, Oct. 26
“50 and Forward: Show and Tell” with Library’s Special Collections
11 a.m., Martha Cloud Chapman Gallery, Sandor Teszler Library
A look at the “50 and Forward: The Sandor Teszler Library Since 1969” exhibit, featuring the library’s Special Collections.
Wednesday, Oct. 30
MENA Lecture Series: “Situating the Arabian Gulf: An Anthropologist’s Perspective”
Speaker: Sharon Nagy
4 p.m., McMillan Theater, Campus Life Building
Sharon Nagy, an ethnographer with over a decade of experience in the Arabian Gulf States, reflects on how the unique location and flows through the Gulf have shaped the society and cultures and influenced her work. The Arabian Gulf (sometimes called the Persian Gulf) sits between Arabia and Persia and in easy reach of Africa and India. Nagy will discuss such questions as “what has this meant for the states along its shores?”
GALLERY AND MUSEUM EXHIBITIONS
Through Saturday, Oct. 12
“Otherness²: Hiding in Plain Sight” by Lee Ann Harrison-Houser
Richardson Family Art Gallery, Rosalind Sallenger Richardson Center for the Arts
“Otherness²: Hiding in Plain Sight” explores the outsider’s perspectives and the impact of “othering.” During the creative process, Lee Ann Harrison-Houser pursues authenticity and begins to reveal untold stories in her work. However, she instinctively hides within the mark-making with her use of symbolism, graffito and abstraction. Layer after layer of gesso and paint erase her disclosures. Subsequently, the art installation shares these stories only in a type of hide-and-seek game for the viewer. For deeper connections, the viewer physically moves to a separate space to match the conceptual titles back to the abstract squares. Through this physical movement and mindfulness, the storyteller role shifts away from the artist and moves to the viewer to create awareness, conversation and the momentum for change.
Through Saturday, Dec. 14
Richardson Family Art Museum, upper level, Rosalind Sallenger Richardson Center for the Arts
“Southern Gothic: Intersections of Art and Literature in the Johnson Collection”
From the unsettling novels of William Faulkner to the gritty short stories of Flannery O'Connor, the Southern Gothic literary tradition has exhumed the American South’s aberrations, contradictions, otherworldly landscapes and unique sense of dark humor. Drawing exclusively from the Johnson Collection, “Southern Gothic” examines how 19th- and 20th-century artists borrowed from their literary peers, using a potent visual language to address the tensions between the South’s idyllic visions and its historical realities. The exhibition is guest curated by Elizabeth Driscoll Smith, a Ph.D. candidate in the history of art at the University of California, Santa Barbara, and the Johnson Collection’s 2019 graduate fellow.
Special event: Curator’s Talk: 7 p.m., Oct. 17, Elizabeth Driscoll Smith
Through Saturday, Dec. 14
“Props: Personal Identities in the Portrait Photography of Richard Samuel Roberts”
Richardson Family Art Museum, lower level, Rosalind Sallenger Richardson Center for the Arts
The term “props” brings to mind objects used in the theater that help establish the meaning of a scene. In this theater context, the word is shortened from “properties,” things collectively owned by a theater group. But could the term also reflect the notion that props show “properties” of a character, offering layers of information and meaning to a viewer? “Props” is also a slang term, meaning “proper respect.” This show analyzes props in photographic portraits taken by Richard Samuel Roberts between 1920 and 1936 to see the way that the “props” – most often objects chosen by the sitters themselves – tell us something about the self-identity of the sitters. The objects chosen often underscore the proper respect due the sitters based on their attainments, but also can give insights – in an otherwise formulaic genre – into the inner desires and predilections of the sitters. Props can help us see beyond the surface, or, perhaps conversely, can reify socially-agreed upon tropes.
Through Saturday, Dec. 14
“The Notion of Family” by LaToya Ruby Frazier
Richardson Family Art Museum, lower level, Rosalind Sallenger Richardson Center for the Arts
“The Notion of Family” celebrates the African-American identity of LaToya Ruby Frazier and her family in Braddock, Pennsylvania. In the photographs, Frazier documents her family and herself as a response to how African Americans have been ignored in Braddock’s history as well as American and global history. In several of these photographs, Frazier includes herself, which also challenges the traditions of social documentary photography. Unlike the typical social documentary photographer who is detached from their subjects’ struggle, Frazier is a part of the same struggle her family experiences as African Americans who are not always acknowledged in their community and its history. In “The Notion of Family,” African Americans become focal points in history rather than footnotes or omissions.
Special Event: Chapman Lecture, 7 p.m., Oct. 3, LaToya Ruby Frazier
Tuesday, Oct. 1, through Friday, Dec. 20
“50 and Forward: The Sandor Teszler Library Since 1969”
Martha Cloud Chapman Gallery, Sandor Teszler Library
The Sandor Teszler Library celebrates its 50th anniversary this year. This exhibition showcases the life of the library.
Special event: “50 and Forward: Show and Tell” with Library’s Special Collections: 11 a.m., Saturday, Oct. 26
Special event: Gallery Talk: 4 p.m., Wednesday, Nov. 13
Thursday, Oct. 17, through Friday, Dec. 20
“Siendo Mujer: A Short Study of the Female Experience in South America”
Richardson Family Art Gallery, Rosalind Sallenger Richardson Center for the Arts
As Wofford College’s 35th Presidential International Scholar, Lydia Estes attempted to uncover the visual representation of “la mujer,” or the woman, in the South American countries of Chile, Argentina, Uruguay and Peru. “Siendo mujer” means “being a woman,” and this exhibition represents the conversations she shared with resilient, creative women for whom art plays a significant role in their female experiences and vice versa. It is further a collection of their artwork and Estes’ photographs of these women, their spaces and moments that contribute to the story each is trying to tell through their work. Her research revealed more questions, such as how are women stereotypically portrayed in their societies? How are female artists confronting these images through their artwork, and how are the mediums they work in an aspect of their protest? And lastly, how will art change the female experience in future South American societies?
Special Event: Curator’s Talk: 9 a.m., Oct. 26, Lydia Estes
Special event: Artist’s Talk: 7 p.m., Thursday, Nov. 1, Lydia Estes
Hours for Richardson Family Art Gallery and Richardson Family Art Museum:
Tuesday, Wednesday, Friday, Saturday, 1-5 p.m.; Thursday, 1-9 p.m.; Sunday-Monday, closed.