Dempsey Lecture Series

Please join the Department of English in welcoming scholar and poet Kimberly Johnson to the University of San Diego for the biannual Joanne T. Dempsey Memorial Lecture on Wednesday, March 5, 2025, at 4 p.m. in the Manchester Hall Auditorium. The lecture will be followed by a reception. Johnson will return on Thursday, March 6, 2025, for a reading at the Lindsay J. Cropper Memorial Writers Series at 6 p.m., also in Manchester Hall Auditorium.  A dessert reception and book signing will follow the evening reading. Both events are free and open to the public. Kimberly Johnson is a poet, translator, and literary critic. Her work has appeared widely in publications, including The New Yorker , Slate , The Iowa Review , PMLA and Modern Philology . Recipient of grants and fellowships from the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation, the National Endowment for the Arts, the Utah Arts Council and the Mellon Foundation. Johnson holds an MA from the Johns Hopkins Writing Seminars, an MFA from the Iowa Writers’ Workshop, and a PhD in Renaissance Literature from the University of California at Berkeley. Kimberly Johnson lives in Salt Lake City, Utah. All are welcome to attend. For more information, please contact the Dempsey Lecture Faculty Coordinator Maura Giles-Watson, PhD, at mgileswatson@sandiego.edu . Sponsored by University of San Diego’s Joanne T. Dempsey Memorial Lecture Series and the Department of English. Created in memory of the late USD Professor of English Joanne T. Dempsey, the biannual Joanne T. Dempsey Memorial Lecture Series brings renowned scholars of Renaissance drama, literature and culture to the University of San Diego. Joanne Thérèse Dempsey was born in Rockville Centre, New York, on December 26, 1946, and died in San Diego, California, on November 29, 1990. She graduated from Newton College of the Sacred Heart in 1968 and received her PhD in English and American Literature from Harvard University, with a dissertation on Milton's Paradise Regained. She taught at the University of San Diego from 1980 until her death in 1990. Plan Your Visit When visiting USD, please plan ahead and allow yourself ample time to park your vehicle, pay at a pay station and take the tram to your desired destination or event. View the Campus Map Parking Visitors may park in the West Parking Structure/West Lot.  Vehicles must have a valid USD parking permit OR pay at a pay station or on the ParkMobile app between 7:00 a.m. and 7:00 p.m., Monday through Friday, including vehicles displaying an ADA placard. The pay stations on campus accept coins as well as Visa & Mastercard credit/debit cards. They do not accept cash or American Express cards. The rate for parking in metered areas is $2.50 per hour. All paid parking areas at USD operate as pay-by-plate. This means that a license plate number is required when making a payment at the pay station. It may be helpful to take a picture of your license plate after you park your vehicle. Once you have made your payment, there is no need to display your receipt on your dashboard. Payment at all metered space locations on campus may also be made from your smartphone.  Download the Parkmobile App Tram Service Tram service is offered free of charge from West Parking Structure up to the main campus. Take the “West Campus Loop” tram to the top of the hill. The Kroc Institute for Peace and Justice will be on your right. The tram runs every 5 to 7 minutes. A complete tram schedule is available on the Tram Services Website .  View a live map of each route displaying the vehicle's location.

Please join the Department of English in welcoming the distinguished Shakespeare scholar and theatre practitioner Ayanna Thompson to the University of San Diego on Thursday, April 4, at 4 p.m. in the Manchester Hall Auditorium. Ayanna Thompson’s Dempsey Lecture is titled The Future of Shakespeare, Race, and Performance .

Can Computers Create Meaning?: A Cyber/Bio/Semiotic Perspective A world-renowned scholar and pioneering figure in the Digital Humanities, Dr. N. Katherine Hayles is James B. Duke Professor Emerita of Literature at Duke University and Distinguished Research Professor at UCLA. She has published a wide array of influential texts that draw together contemporary literary theory and scientific models as a way to delve into the relations of literature, science, and technology in the 20th and 21st centuries. Her theorization of the posthuman subject, "embodiment," digital and electronic literature, and cybernetics in particular has garnered wide critical acclaim. Her major publications include Writing Machines (2002), My Mother Was a Computer: Digital Subjects and Literary Texts (2005), Electronic Literature: New Horizons for the Literary (2008), How We Think: Digital Media and Contemporary Technogenesis  (2012), and, most recently, Unthought: The Power of the Cognitive Nonconscious (2017). She is also the recipient of the prestigious René Wellek Prize for Best Book in Literary Theory ( How We Became Posthuman [1999]) as well as the Susanne K. Langer Award for Outstanding Scholarship ( Writing Machines [2002]).

The Department of English welcomes Prof. Frits van Oostrom from the University of Utrecht, Netherlands, for the bi-annual Joanne T. Dempsey Memorial Lecture Series to be held on Tuesday, October 6, 2015, 5 p.m. in the Hahn University Center, Forum C, for his lecture "The Devotio Moderna: Then and Now." Reception to follow. The lecture is free and open to the public. Sponsored by the Joanne T. Dempsey Memorial Lecture Series, the Medieval and Renaissance Studies Program, the Frances G. Harpst Center for Catholic Thought and Culture, the Department of Philosophy, and the Department of Theology and Religious Studies. The Devotio Moderna, which is today best known for its influence on Thomas à Kempis’ Imitation of Christ , originated in the Low Countries in the 14th century as a movement for Catholic religious reform. Fundamentally, the Devotio Moderna was a highly innovative movement that advocated for a Christian life based upon the virtues of humility and simplicity. In this presentation, Frits van Oostrom will focus on three particular aspects of the Devotio Moderna — its textual culture, its focus on organization, and its attitude towards the priesthood — and the ways that these features emerge today in contemporary culture. Each of these features displays a poignant modernity for those who, like Frits van Oostrom, believe that history provokes us to reflect upon the present as well as the past. One of Europe's most celebrated scholars today, Frits van Oostrom is Distinguished University Professor of the Humanities at the University of Utrecht, The Netherlands. He has spoken and published widely on medieval literature, history, and culture for both academic and popular audiences. Prof. van Oostrom has been the recipient of the Spinoza Prize, has held the prestigious Erasmus Chair at Harvard University, and has been a fellow of the Netherlands Institute for Advanced Study ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Netherlands_Institute_for_Advanced_Study ); he also served as President of the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Royal_Netherlands_Academy_of_Arts_and_Sciences ). His most recent book, Wereld in Woorden — World into Words  — is a bestseller in his home country and is currently being translated into English. Prof. van Oostrom has also recently created Vogala , a Digital Humanities project that makes accessible new resources for the study and enjoyment of medieval Dutch literature via a website and apps for iPhone and Android http://www.vogala.org/ . He will offer a demonstration of Vogala at USD, as well:         Digital Humanties Breakfast Presentation         " Vogala : An Innovative Digital Literary History Project"         Dr. Frits van Oostrom         Wednesday, October 7, 2015, 10:00 a.m.         Location: Degheri Boardroom (DAC 120)         Light breakfast will be served         RSVP to mgileswatson@sandiego.edu for DH breakfast.          Co-sponsored by Information Technology/Academic Technology Services, the Medieval and Renaissance Studies Program, and the Department of English.      

David Staines, writer, critic, professor, and editor who helped establish the Giller Prize and the Charles Taylor Prize for Literary Non-Fiction, has been named to the Order of Ontario. Professor Staines currently teaches English literature at the University of Ottawa. He has also taught at Harvard, the University of Prince Edward Island, Mount Holyoke, and the University of Massachusetts (Amherst). Staines has served as general editor of McClelland and Stewart’s New Canadian Library series since 1988, and has also edited books on Stephen Leacock, Margaret Laurence, Marshall McLuhan, and Northrop Frye. The Joanne Dempsey Lecture Series is in memory of the late USD professor of English Joanne Dempsey. This biannual lecture series brings Renaissance scholars to the University of San Diego community. A reception will follow the lecture.