In 2020, three books were published by professors in the College of Arts and Sciences. Ben Hagen, Marcella Remund and Sara Lampert all discussed their new books with professor Zoli Filotas during an author panel. The panel was held online to celebrate the teacher’s publications.
All three teachers said they participated in the author panel to increase awareness for their books and the work of the College of Arts and Sciences.
“We like to support and celebrate those who achieve something like publishing a book,” Hagen said. “I think it’s nice to feel that we’re part of a community that’s interested in each other’s ideas.”
Lampert said this panel was a way for her to have a book release party while in a pandemic.
“Sometimes folks don’t really get as much exposure to what humanities research is and so I thought that there was an opportunity to kind of give people a sense of all the different ways that a little literary scholar, a poet, (and) a historian are trying to increase our knowledge and our experience of our world,” Lampert said.
Lampert said getting to know about her colleagues work and share her own work was part of what drew her to the event. The topics of these books are all different, as Hagen focus on the teaching styles of D.H. Lawrence and Virginia Woolf, Remund’s poems explore Catholic saints and how everyday tasks can be spiritual and Lampert’s book talks about 19th century women entertainers and how they helped shape entertainment today.
Remund said students should understand that their instructors are always involved in learning new things, even if it’s not mentioned in the classroom.
“Students are learning to be scholars and their instructors are still working on their own scholarship,” Remund said. “I think in some ways, it makes it more clear to students that we’re a community of learners, that there’s not this big gulf between students and faculty.”
The three books all required a lot of research, but Filotas said that each book offers something different for readers to enjoy and take away.
“I would really recommend anyone at USD should watch it to get a sense of the exciting stuff going on here,” Filotas said. “I feel like it’d be cool for students who know their professors as teachers to get a sense of their professors as researchers and writers.”
The Humanities Authors Panel was held Feb. 11 at 4 p.m CST, but can still be watched at www.facebook.com/USDARTSANDSCIENCES/.
