This Is Centenary

This episode of This Is Centenary features a discussion on the war in Ukraine hosted by and Centenary president Dr. Christopher Holoman and assistant professor of political science Dr. Amanda Donahoe on March 17, 2022. As the conflict neared its one month mark, Dr. Holoman and Dr. Donahoe brought together their combined expertise in international politics and international relations to provide some context on the conflict for the Centenary community. 

This episode of This Is Centenary features retiring English professor Dr. Steve Shelburne's address at the annual Founders' Day Convocation, held in Centenary's Brown Chapel on February 17, 2022. During more than thirty years of teaching and scholarship at Centenary, Shelburne has shared his expertise in Shakespearean and other early modern English literature but has also led students on explorations of mystery and detective fiction, literary theory, and interdisciplinary collaborations weaving together religion, visual arts, literature, film, and theater.  Shelburne taught Daily Bread: Sustainability in Paris as part of the Centenary in Paris program and led May Modules in the British Isles. His address at the Founders' Day convocation was titled, appropriately, “What is ‘a Founder'?”

This episode of This Is Centenary addresses a crucial and timely issue: COVID-19 vaccines. On January 27, Centenary hosted a virtual Q&A with local medical and scientific experts to discuss COVID-19 vaccine myths and facts. The full Zoom webinar recording is also available on Centenary’s YouTube channel.

This episode of This Is Centenary features a recent virtual convocation presented by Elizabeth DiSavino, associate professor of music at Berea College in Kentucky. DiSavino joined the Centenary community via Zoom webinar on Tuesday, October 27, to discuss her new book about former Centenary professor and Shreveport civic leader Katherine Jackson French.

In this episode of This Is Centenary – the first Centenary podcast produced via Zoom! – artist Michelle Burdine discusses her interdisciplinary work and highlights her current exhibition, “And Time Passed.” Meadows Director Heather Wetzel moderated this conversation, the first in a series of virtual artist talks scheduled for fall 2020, on September 24. “And Time Passed” is an examination of the intersections of time loss, grief, and family, and is currently installed in the downstairs gallery at the Meadows Museum of Art. Although the Museum is closed to the public during the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, a 3D tour is available on the Meadows website at themeadowsmuseum.com.

This bonus episode of This Is Centenary highlights one of the College’s most beloved traditions, the Easter Sunrise Service presented by the Centenary College Choir. This archival recording, made in Brown Chapel in 2014, includes the talents of: Director - David Hobson ‘98 Narrator – Travis Orr ‘09 Mary – Elena Hibbs ‘16 Soloist for “Christ Went Up Into the Hills” – Hayley Cooper ‘15 Accompanist – Kieley Simonsen ‘18

his month’s episode of This Is Centenary features a celebration of two Centenary alumni from different generations who will now be forever linked. In a ceremony that was alternately funny, moving, and inspirational, Centenary alumnus Jonathan Ferrell, of the class of 2005, received the inaugural Mary Celeste Reagan Trailblazer Award, named for Centenary’s first African-American graduate. Ms. Reagan, who graduated in 1969, was honored during the award ceremony held during the College’s 2020 Dream Week in January, and offered words of encouragement and hope that resonate in both ordinary and extraordinary times.

Retired educator Eileen Sanchez visited Centenary last month to discuss her new novel, Freedom Lessons. Freedom Lessons draws heavily on Sanchez’s own experiences as a young, white teacher in the Jim Crow South during desegregation. The story alternates between the viewpoints of three very different characters during the period known as “the crossover,” when white teachers were sent to work in predominantly black schools for the first time. In Louisiana, this process began in the 1969-1970 school year. Sanchez’s public lecture and discussion evening from February 13 is our feature for this episode of This is Centenary.

In this episode of This is Centenary, two accomplished Centenary graduates visit their alma mater to celebrate the culmination of a unique project that began more than ten years ago. Dr. Aleksandra Kasztalska (Kaz-tal-ska), a linguist, and Dr. Elinora Madrid, a primary care physician, discussed their edited French-language volume of Benjamin Franklin’s Les Bagatelles, during a special event at Centenary’s Meadows Museum of Art on Monday, January 13. Les Bagatelles was published by Les Éditions Tintamarre, Centenary’s French-language academic press.

This episode of This is Centenary features remarks from Shreveport civil rights pioneer Dr. C.O. Simpkins, who passed away in December 2019, at the age of 94. Simpkins, a founding member of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference and close associate of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., visited Centenary several times to share his experiences during the civil rights struggle in Shreveport and his perspectives as an Air Force veteran, dentist, state legislator, and community activist. Dream Week is the College’s annual celebration of the life and legacy of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Dream Week 2020 begins Sunday, January 19, with a Unity March on Jones-Rice Field. A full schedule of events is available at centenary.edu/dreamweek.

In this episode of This is Centenary, we drop in on the monthly Colloquium sponsored by the Department of English. In November 2019, the department invited Jim Warren, founding artistic director of the American Shakespeare Center and guest director for the Marjorie Lyons Playhouse production of The Tempest, to lead a conversation about the play.

This episode of This is Centenary features a conversation between Dr. Jefferson Hendricks and Dr. Emily Leithauser, from Centenary's English Department, and award-winning poet and Shreveport native Jericho Brown. In the second half of the episode, Brown reads some of his poetry during the Corrington Award ceremony held at Centenary on October 7.

This episode of This is Centenary reaches back into the archives to a 2009 campus visit by journalist and author Doug Fine, whose accounts of high-adventure travel and living off the grid gained wide acclaim. His most recent books explore the production of cannabis and hemp for commentary on the future of both farming and drug policy. During his Centenary visit, Fine talked about his 2009 book Farewell, My Subaru, which documented his quest to live a sustainable life on his Funky Butte Ranch in New Mexico alongside a pack of mischievous goats.

In this episode of This is Centenary, we hear from Keith Plessy and Phoebe Ferguson, descendants of the namesakes of the famous 1896 Supreme Court case that established the doctrine of separate-but-equal and allowed legal protection for economic and social discrimination against African-Americans. Keith Plessy and Phoebe Ferguson are also co-founders of the Plessy and Ferguson Foundation, an organization dedicated to teaching the history of the Plessy v. Ferguson case and highlighting its continued relevance in today’s world. Plessy and Ferguson visited Centenary in February 2017 and had the opportunity to interact with students, faculty, staff, and community members.

This episode of This is Centenary takes us back to the inaugural English Department Colloquium of the 2018-2019 academic year, when English professors David Havird, Jeff Hendricks, and Jeanne Hamming shared stories of Centenary graduates who have translated their liberal arts education into personally and professionally meaningful lives. The English Department Colloquium is an eclectic lunchtime presentation series held the first Wednesday of every month in the Centenary Room in Bynum Commons. This edition, entitled “Storytelling and the Meaningful Life,” was recorded on September 12, 2018.

In this episode of This is Centenary, Nicolas Torres, Attaché of Cooperation for French at the Consulate General of France in New Orleans, delivers a bi-lingual presentation on Francophone language and culture in Louisiana with the assistance of Dr. Andia Augustin-Billy, assistant professor of French and Francophone Studies at Centenary. Entitled, “Louisiana: The Rising Star of the Francophone World,” the presentation highlighted Louisiana’s efforts to preserve and promote French language and culture and the state’s recent election to the Organisation international de la Francophonie as an observer member. Torres delivered the lecture during a November 2018 visit to Centenary and Shreveport, during which he also opened the Centenary Film Society’s annual French Film Week at downtown Shreveport’s Robinson Film Center.

In this episode of This is Centenary, artist Joan Hall discusses her exhibit Global Contamination: A Gulf Project, which was presented at the College’s Meadows Museum of Art from January through March, 2019. Hall’s work reflects her passion for ocean environments and uses information on climate change and scientific data as “points of departure” for creative exploration. Hall delivered the lecture on January 17, 2019, at the Meadows Museum.

In this episode of This is Centenary, provost and dean of the College, Dr. Jenifer K. Ward, sits down for a conversation with several Centenary faculty members who are completing their first year at the College. We hope you enjoy hearing about what drew them to Centenary and how their students have surprised them this year, as well as learn to recognize them by their “catchphrases.” This episode has a companion piece in the spring edition of Centenary Magazine, which can be found online at centenary.edu/magazine.

In this episode of This is Centenary, we reach back into the archives to hear the voice of a beloved friend of the College, Rose Van Thyn. Rose and her husband Louis were both survivors of the Holocaust who emigrated to Shreveport from their native Holland in 1956. Rose spent more than 30 years speaking and writing about the Holocaust in order to educate people about its horrors and to ensure that they were never repeated. This episode was originally recorded on January 29, 2009.

In this episode of This is Centenary, 1979 Centenary graduate Elaine McArdle discusses and reads from her critically-acclaimed book, The Neuroscientist Who Lost Her Mind, co-authored with neuroscientist Barbara Lipska. The book traces Lipska’s poignant journey after she developed symptoms of dementia and schizophrenia – similar to the conditions she studies in others – but discovered that her behaviors were related to nearly 20 cancerous tumors growing in her brain. This episode was recorded on November 6, 2018, during a 2018 Homecoming Week event at Centenary’s Meadows Museum of Art.

In this inaugural episode of This Is Centenary, John Atkins reflects on Centenary’s 110th anniversary in Shreveport and his family’s role in bringing the College to the city in 1908. John is a member of the College’s Board of Trustees, and he gave this address during the annual Founders Day Convocation in Brown Chapel on February 22, 2018. This year’s Founders Day Convocation is Thursday, February 14 at 11:00 am, and we hope you’ll consider joining us if you’re in Shreveport.