OSU Arts and Humanities Lecture Series to Focus on Controversy Surrounding National Cathedrals

Monday, March 1, 2010

(Feb. 26, 2010, STILLWATER, Okla.) – They are majestic structures with histories steeped in debate: Cathedral Church of Saint John the Divine, Washington National Cathedral, The Riverside Church.

And the historic cathedrals are the topic of the latest Arts and Humanities Lecture Series at 3:30 p.m. on Thursday, March 4 in Room 035 Murray Hall at Oklahoma State University.

Elizabeth Emery, a professor of French at Montclair (N.J.) State University, will lecture on “Medieval Catholic Cathedrals for Modern Protestant America.” The presentation will focus on the public debates surrounding the construction of some of the most high-visibility national cathedrals of the era.

“The troubled stories of these neo-medieval churches represent the inner tensions of religious reform efforts in a self-proclaimed modern country,” said Joseph Byrnes, a history professor at OSU.

Emery is the author of Romancing the Cathedral: Gothic Architecture in Fin-de-Siècle French Culture, Consuming the Past: The Medieval Revival in Fin-de-Siècle France and Medieval Saints in Late Nineteenth-Century French Culture.  

The lecture is free and open to the public and is hosted by the OSU Department of History and funded by the OSU Arts and Humanities Lecture Series in the College of Arts & Sciences. For more information, e-mail joseph.byrnes@okstate.edu.