The late Southern author Flannery O’Connor journeyed in spirit to Fordham London this June for the fifth International Flannery O’Connor Conference. Titled Flannery Abroad, the conference honored the Catholic writer’s centenary and drew nearly 100 O’Connor scholars and aficionados from around the world to discuss her legacy and draw new insights from her writing, from Southern gothic short stories like “A Good Man Is Hard to Find” to her novel The Violent Bear It Away.
“Flannery’s art has spoken to us for 73 years…continually begetting and inspiring more art, and calling to us across languages and cultures, time and eternity,” said Angela O’Donnell, Ph.D., associate director of the Curran Center for American Catholic Studies, in her welcome address to attendees.
This year marked the Curran Center’s first time as primary sponsor of the event; Georgetown University, Loyola Chicago’s Hank Center, and the Mary Flannery O’Connor Trust were co-sponsors.
Fordham London: A Global Hub
It also marked Fordham London’s first time as host. The global campus has become a sought-after site for international conferences among Fordham faculty and staff and external partners.
“There has been an increase in appetite and collaboration within Fordham to use London as a hub,” said Matthew Holland, Fordham London’s senior director, who said the campus also increasingly hosts unaffiliated organizations such as the International Women’s Forum UK. “As a global Fordham campus, we’re eager to open our doors to the world,” he said.
“The Curran Center has hosted many conferences over the years—this was undoubtedly one of our best, and is certainly the most memorable,” said O’Donnell.
‘Fondness for Freaks’
The three-day event featured multiple panelists who explored the enduring relevance of O’Connor’s fiction.
Pulitzer Prize nominee and New Yorker critic Vinson Cunningham was one of four keynote speakers, along with acclaimed novelist Mary Gordon, scholar Bruce Gentry, and National Book Award winner Phil Klay.
In his address, Cunningham explored the author’s fondness for freaks, “one of O’Connor’s favorite terms,” which he defined as a person who possesses “a strict vision in a lax world.”
“Times are hard,” he said, referring to modern-day struggles with technology outpacing regulation and political extremism. “I wonder today if it’s time to be a freak.”
