YHC’s Ragsdale Lecture to feature Dr. Jordan Rowan Fannin

The annual Ragsdale Lecture at Young Harris College will feature Dr. Jordan Rowan Fannin on Thursday, Sept. 12, at 6pm in the Rollins Campus Center’s Hatcher Dining Room. The campus is located at 1 College Street in Young Harris, Georgia. This event is part of YHC’s academic lecture series and is free and open to the public.  Dr. Fannin serves as an assistant professor of Christian theology at Berry College in Rome, Georgia. Her presentation is titled “Can Lawn Jockeys and Confederate Generals Save our Souls?! Finding Flannery O’Connor’s Jesus in the Strangest Places.” The lecture will examine the memorializing of suffering and death by arguing that the current discourse around monument removal in American cities has been incomplete, ignoring the question of how we remember. Dr. Fannin will review three kinds of monuments; one fictional, one from Christian history and one from American history, to explore the complex relationship of memory and memorial and the potential for memory-making to divide or reconcile the communities who remember.  Dr. Fannin completed her Ph.D. in theology at Baylor University with special emphasis in theology and literature. In addition to literature (and in particular the work of Flannery O’Connor), her research interests include the significance of place and displacement in the Christian tradition and contemporary moral theology, as well as theology of material culture and the lived environment. “Dr. Fannin’s topic is timely and relevant to us all,” said YHC’s Associate Professor of Philosophy and Religious Studies Dr. Nathan Eric Dickman. “How do we remember and memorialize our difficult and for some, traumatic, national past? Dr. Fannin will address questions we confront often in the Southern U.S. about slavery and enduring legacies of racial inequities, where some of us simultaneously try to remember and memorialize family inheritances. This is a chance to join the conversation and to get a unique perspective. Dr. Fannin brings these questions together with religion, fiction, politics and more, all the things you aren’t supposed to talk about at the dinner table. I hope to see you there!”  The annual Ragsdale Lecture brings national speakers to YHC to discuss relevant governmental and political issues. It was established in 1983 by Mr. and Mrs. H.D. Paris to honor Mrs. Paris’ cousin, Warner B. Ragsdale. Ragsdale was a 1917 YHC graduate who achieved a long and distinguished career in journalism. Young Harris College is a private baccalaureate and master’s degree-granting institution located in the beautiful mountains of North Georgia. Founded in 1886 and historically affiliated with The United Methodist Church, Young Harris College educates, inspires and empowers students through an education that purposefully integrates the liberal arts and professional studies. The College has four academic divisions: Fine Arts; Humanities; Mathematics, Science and Technology; and Professional Studies. More than 1,400 students are enrolled in its residential and Early College programs. The College is an active member of the NCAA Division II and remains a fierce competitor in the prestigious Peach Belt Conference. For more information, visit yhc.edu.