Contact: Phil Hearn
STARKVILLE, Miss.--Mississippi State foreign languages professor Jack Jordan, winner of a 2005 Mississippi Humanities Teacher Award, will discuss the work of French novelist Marcel Proust during a special university program Friday [Oct. 28].
Jordan, author of a new book, "Understanding Proust" (University of South Carolina Press), begins his public lecture at 3 p.m. in the Colvard Union's Fowlkes Auditorium. A reception follows in the lobby area outside the third-floor room.
Jordan, a member of MSU's foreign languages department faculty since 1988, is among this year's statewide selections for Mississippi Humanities Council honors. The awards are presented annually to one faculty member at each of the state's institutions of higher learning as part of the national Arts and Humanities Month observance.
Gary Myers, associate dean of the College of Arts and Sciences, said the MHC award includes a $500 honorarium that is matched by the college. As part of the recognition, award recipients also must deliver a public presentation based on scholarly research or current humanities interests, and attend the MHC annual awards banquet in February, he added.
A University of Virginia graduate who teaches French language and literature, Jordan is a specialist on Proust (1871-1922).
Born near Paris, the writer and critic is best known for "Remembrance of Things Past," an autobiographical novel told mostly in a stream-of-consciousness style. His monumental work also is considered a precise reflection of French life at the end of the 19th century.
For more information on the Friday program, contact Jordan at (662) 325-2394 or Jordan@ra.msstate.edu, or Myers at 325-2646 or gmyers@deanas.msstate.edu.