Glenn Ligon: Narratives

The exhibition on display at Schmucker Art Gallery, a suite of nine prints entitled Narratives by prominent contemporary artist Glenn Ligon, has been made possible by a generous gift to Gettysburg College by Dr. Kimberly Rae Connor ’79. Ligon’s works have been exhibited widely at major museums, and Gettysburg College is fortunate to have the opportunity to engage with work that examines issues of race, sexuality, history and representation. The artist is well known for his use of quotations and texts from a variety of literary writers and cultural critics such as James Baldwin, Frantz Fanon, bell hooks and Ralph Ellison, in his continuously successful examination of the critical place of slavery, oppression and freedom in African-American history and identity. In Narratives, Ligon’s emphasis on the text takes the place of a traditional image. He includes quotations from Hilton Als, Josephine Baker and Derek Walcott, but the story is his own. The format and font of these prints mimic the title pages of mid-nineteenth-century slave narratives. Not only does Ligon borrow the typographic style of these historic title pages, he also adopts a particular nineteenth-century vernacular. In the act of reading and seeing Ligon’s late twentiethcentury prints, the viewer must also consider the context and history of the original, personal, heart-wrenching, realistic and persuasive accounts of slavery. Slave narratives bolstered the abolitionists’ movement, often reached wide audiences and gained considerable popularity among northern readers, such as Frederick Douglass’s narrative, which sold 30,000 copies between 1845 and 1860. While Douglass was the author of his own book, many of the slaves were illiterate. Their horrific stories of abuse, familial separation, severity of the workload and dreadful living conditions were recorded by white abolitionists. Regardless of who transcribed the stories, the books often emphasized the veracity and authenticity of the author’s accounts. Correspondingly, Ligon tells of his own life and stresses the truth of this kind of honest and suggestive autobiography. [excerpt]https://cupola.gettysburg.edu/artcatalogs/1013/thumbnail.jp

“Traveling Up and Down”: Reading The Sum of Us

Kimberly Connor analyzes and recognizes similarities between Heather McGhee’s The Sum of Us and The Narrative of the Life of Sojourner Truth. Similarities include styles of composition, reforming inspiration, and social impact aimed at recognizing diversity as a “superpower.

A Way of Proceeding: Ethical Decision-Making for Management Students at Jesuit Colleges

This textbook includes assignments (group and individual) suggested readings, and lectures for a 7 week course in Ethical Decision making. Although it was designed for an MBA program, the content has been adapted for other students and programs. Also included in the appendix is the full text for Management Exercises, a professional and spiritual development formation program based on the Spiritual Exercises that accompanies students and can be offered as a co-curricular or for credit. The content is designed to be built online on a Canvas platform. Kimberly Rae Conner is a Professor of Ethics in the School of Management at the University of San Francisco. She has a PhD in religion and literature and has published widely on African American religious life and cultural production, multicultural pedagogy, and Ignatian Spirituality. This work was made possible by the Open Education pilot grant at Gleeson Library | Geschke Center.https://repository.usfca.edu/faculty_books_2020/1006/thumbnail.jp

A Way of Proceeding: Ethical Decision-Making for Management Students at Jesuit Colleges

This textbook includes assignments (group and individual) suggested readings, and lectures for a 7 week course in Ethical Decision making. Although it was designed for an MBA program, the content has been adapted for other students and programs. Also included in the appendix is the full text for Management Exercises, a professional and spiritual development formation program based on the Spiritual Exercises that accompanies students and can be offered as a co-curricular or for credit. The content is designed to be built online on a Canvas platform. Kimberly Rae Conner is a Professor of Ethics in the School of Management at the University of San Francisco. She has a PhD in religion and literature and has published widely on African American religious life and cultural production, multicultural pedagogy, and Ignatian Spirituality. This work was made possible by the Open Education pilot grant at Gleeson Library | Geschke Center.https://repository.usfca.edu/faculty_books_all/1059/thumbnail.jp

The Management Exercises: A Way Forward with Purpose

This paper outlines the Management Exercises, a co-curricular program that reflects the more — the magis — to better prepare students as future leaders and citizens. The Management Exercises seek to further orient students toward a life of questioning and engagement as students learn to exercise discernment, to build character, and to enact citizenship. The four modules that comprise the Management Exercises are outlined in conjunction with the implementation of the Management Exercises into the school’s MBA program

The James Webb Space Telescope Mission

Twenty-six years ago a small committee report, building on earlier studies, expounded a compelling and poetic vision for the future of astronomy, calling for an infrared-optimized space telescope with an aperture of at least $4m$. With the support of their governments in the US, Europe, and Canada, 20,000 people realized that vision as the $6.5m$ James Webb Space Telescope. A generation of astronomers will celebrate their accomplishments for the life of the mission, potentially as long as 20 years, and beyond. This report and the scientific discoveries that follow are extended thank-you notes to the 20,000 team members. The telescope is working perfectly, with much better image quality than expected. In this and accompanying papers, we give a brief history, describe the observatory, outline its objectives and current observing program, and discuss the inventions and people who made it possible. We cite detailed reports on the design and the measured performance on orbit.Comment: Accepted by PASP for the special issue on The James Webb Space Telescope Overview, 29 pages, 4 figure

Redeeming the Age in Which We Live: Ignazio Silone’s The Story of a Humble Christian

This essay explores Ignazio Silone’s seldom considered book, “The Story of a Humble Christian.” Part memoir, history, and theatre, this book tells the story of Pope Celestine V, the first, and until Benedict XVI, the only pope to resign. The book lends itself to an interpretation that applies a consideration of Silone’s recently revealed and complicated biography with a reflection on the current occupant of the papacy, Pope Francis, as a way to articulate how flawed humans can experience transcendent and transformative possibilities when they lead with humility

More Heat than Light: The Legacy of John Brown as Portrayed in Cloudsplitter

Russell Banks prit une voie nouvelle lorsqu’il publia Cloudsplitter, un roman à propos de John Brown et ce, principalement parce qu’il s’agissait d’un roman historique avec des implications dans le présent. Il commença le roman avec les faits tels qu’ils furent établis par les deux parties. Mais il comprit qu’en tant qu’écrivain il fallait partir des faits et écrire sur ce que l’on ne savait pas. Le personnage d’Owen peut alors faire pour John Brown ce que l’histoire n’a pas su faire. C’est cet homme moderne qui parle d’un autre siècle qui est créé par Banks pour répondre aux questions posées par les expériences comparées de Clinton et de Brown. Pourquoi seul un homme blanc moderne semble-t-il digne d’être reçu au panthéon des Noirs et comment se fait-il que les critères de la négritude restent inchangés

More Heat than Light: The Legacy of John Brown as Portrayed in Cloudsplitter

Russell Banks prit une voie nouvelle lorsqu’il publia Cloudsplitter, un roman à propos de John Brown et ce, principalement parce qu’il s’agissait d’un roman historique avec des implications dans le présent. Il commença le roman avec les faits tels qu’ils furent établis par les deux parties. Mais il comprit qu’en tant qu’écrivain il fallait partir des faits et écrire sur ce que l’on ne savait pas. Le personnage d’Owen peut alors faire pour John Brown ce que l’histoire n’a pas su faire. C’est cet homme moderne qui parle d’un autre siècle qui est créé par Banks pour répondre aux questions posées par les expériences comparées de Clinton et de Brown. Pourquoi seul un homme blanc moderne semble-t-il digne d’être reçu au panthéon des Noirs et comment se fait-il que les critères de la négritude restent inchangés