GroshLink

The Academy has long been suspicious of non-intellectual engagement with its objects and areas of inquiry. Consequently, there is often little regard and much scorn for even the most scrupulous scholars if they widen their focus to include the spiritual, emotional, experiential, visceral -- some of the terms by which engagement may be characterized. It is my opinion that an Academy that will not fully engage with its material will not fully engage with one another or with the world beyond academe. Christian scholars, however they define and practice Christian scholarship, are suited to demonstrate the advantages of engaged scholarship: they should not be afraid of spiritual and emotional engagement; they accept that there are different ways of knowing, and that knowledge comes through the soul and the heart as well as through the mind.

Interested? Come hear Susanna Bede Caroselli, Professor of Art History, Messiah College and member of the Sisters of Saint Gregory, a religious community of the Episcopal Church, present as part of the Pitt Faculty Forum on Friday, September 21, Frick Fine Arts Building, Room 202, Pitt Campus. 

In addition, Susanna will lead an informal presentation sponsored by the Arts Grotto on Are there absolutes of beauty, truth, and goodness in art? at 7pm, Church of the Ascension.

What does she know about these topics? Susanna graduated from Brown University and received her M.A. and Ph.D. from the Johns Hopkins University. She has been a member of the curatorial and editorial staffs at the Frick Collection (NY), Detroit Institute of Arts, and Los Angeles County Museum of Art and has taught art history at the University of Southern California and Yale Divinity School. In the 2008 spring semester, she will be Henry Luce Visiting Professor of Scripture and Visual Arts at Boston University. She is the author of three books on Renaissance architecture and painting and numerous articles on religious art. A member of the Sisters of Saint Gregory, a religious community of the Episcopal Church. She is active as a speaker on art and religion in the United States and Europe. In the interesting category, Susanna has a collection of more than 300 bizarre versions of Leonardo da Vinci’s Last Supper and has an alter ego called The English Lady who has made it her life’s work to bring culture to deprived areas of North America (her lecture “Mission to the Philistines” won several theatre awards in Los Angeles).

Looking forward to being in 'da Burgh for these conversations. If you're not able to join us and have some thoughts/questions on the topics, post here and I'll bring them along.