KNOXVILLE — Michael Lofaro, professor of English, will lead this week’s College of Arts and Sciences Pregame Faculty Showcase. His presentation, “James Agee at 100: A Centennial Celebration,” is part of the month long celebration, which has included lectures, concerts and a museum exhibit about the prolific author and his work.
Agee is a Knoxville native and wrote for magazines such as Time, Life, Fortune and The Nation. He wrote the screenplays for the films “The African Queen” and “The Night of the Hunter,” and won a posthumous Pulitzer Prize for his book “A Death in the Family.”
“James Agee was one of the most perceptive and prolific observers of the turbulent world of the 1930s, ’40s and ’50s,” said Lofaro. “It is only in the last few years that the true extent and impact of all his work has begun fully to be realized.”
Lofaro has restored Agee’s intended text of his Pulitzer Prize-winning novel “A Death in the Family,” is the general editor of the 10-volume “The Works of James Agee,” and also co-edited “James Agee Rediscovered: The Journals of ‘Let Us Now Praise Famous Men’ and Other New Manuscripts.” In total, he has published 11 books and more than 70 articles.
Lofaro joined the UT faculty in 1975 and was noted in the 1990 Birnbach’s “New and Improved College Book” as one of the four “Best Professors” at UT. He has been honored with the Chancellor’s Citation for Excellence in Academic Outreach, and presently serves as the assistant secretary general of the Fédération Internationale des Langues et Litératures Modernes (FILLM) and on the governing board of the International Association of University Professors of English (IAUPE).
He is a specialist in regionalism, Southern literature and culture, and the frontier and the frontier hero in American life.
He also has served as Senior Fulbright Lecturer in American Studies at the University of Vienna, as a consultant for National Geographic, as a lecturer for the Smithsonian, and has been featured and interviewed on National Public Radio’s “All Things Considered,” The History Channel, A&E and on “The Today Show” in regard to his work.
For 20 years, the Pregame Faculty Showcase has introduced football fans to some of UT Knoxville’s most exceptional faculty members. A new series of showcases will be announced before the 2010 football season.
Each showcase is a 30-minute presentation followed by a 15-minute question-and-answer session. Free and open to the public, the presentations are held two hours before kickoff in the University Center Ballroom.
The showcases were recorded and the webcast archive will be posted online at http://www.artsci.utk.edu/outreach/Pre_Game.asp.
The showcases are sponsored by the College of Arts and Sciences, WUOT 91.9 FM, the UT Alumni Association, the UT Office of Alumni Affairs and the UT Athletics Program.
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C O N T A C T :
Beth Gladden (865-974-9008, bgladden@utk.edu)