The English Department at the University of South Alabama presents a public symposium, "Music and Memory," featuring Florence Dore on Thursday, January 16, 2025. With contributions from panelist Mark Spencer of Son Volt, Dore will deliver a keynote lecture titled "Anonymity in Cultural Memory: 'The House Carpenter,' William Faulkner's As I Lay Dying, and the American Marketplace of Ideas."

Professor of English at UNC-Chapel Hill, Dore is the author of Novel Sounds: Southern Fiction in the Age of Rock and Roll (Columbia University Press, 2018) and The Ink in the Grooves: Conversations on Literature and Rock 'n' Roll (Cornell University Press, 2022). An award-winning songwriter and touring musician, she recently launched Ink in the Grooves Live, a traveling public humanities program that found her traversing the South performing in rock venues and giving talks on vernacular music and civic belonging.

Please note: this free event is open to the public and will be held in the Marx Library Auditorium. The symposium is made possible by a generous grant from the Alabama Humanities Alliance, and through the support of the USA College of Arts & Sciences, the Stokes Center for Creative Writing, and the Independent Music Collective.