The Caroline Marshall Draughon Center for the Arts and Humanities will be hosting the event “Images of Sicilian Women” on March 11 at 3 p.m. in the Special Collections and Archives section of the Auburn University library. It will feature speaker Giovanna Summerfield, a professor at Auburn and native of Sicily. The presentation will last an hour and will be followed by a reception. The event is free and open to the public.
Summerfield serves as the director of the Languages Across the Curriculum Program. She is also the coordinator for the Italian Proficiency Exam and the faculty advisor for the AU Club Italiano. Her research and teaching interests include: the long eighteenth-century French and Italian literature (emphasis on Sicilian writers), religious and philosophical movements, European and Mediterranean history/civilization and material culture.
She was the recipient of the “College of Liberal Arts Engaged Scholar Award,” 2009-2012. Summerfield was also awarded the “Outstanding Scholarly Achievement in Women’s Studies,” 2009-2010, and the “Promoting Excellence in Teaching and Learning (PETL) Award” at Auburn University in March 2007. In addition, Summerfield is a published poet and short-story writer.

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“Summerfield is wonderful with a public audience and students,” said Jay Lamar, director of the Caroline Marshall Draughon Center for the Arts and Humanities. “She is a great speaker who is energetic and insightful about the things that she presents."
The “Images of Sicilian Women” event is part of the Caroline Marshall Draughon Center for the Arts and Humanities’ Discover Auburn program. This year-long series features programs on Auburn research, history and other topics of interest. It is co-sponsored by the Auburn University Libraries and the Auburn University Bookstore. Lectures are held in the Special Collections Department of the Ralph Brown Draughon Library. The next Discover Auburn program event will feature Joe Yeager and Gene Stevenson and the topic "Comer Hall's 100th Anniversary."
Past Discover Auburn sessions are available for download at the University Libraries’ Web site.
The Caroline Marshall Draughon Center for the Arts and Humanities was established by Auburn University in 1985 to develop and offer programming in Alabama schools, towns and communities that strengthens the bond between the academic community, the arts and the general public. The Center was named in honor of Caroline Marshall Draughon, wife of Ralph Brown Draughon, in 2007. The Center's home in Auburn is the historic 1847 Scott-Yarbrough House known as Pebble Hill. Given to the university by Auburn Bank and the Auburn Heritage Association, the building houses an outreach effort shaped by the leadership of founding director Leah Rawls Atkins and subsequent directors Bert Hitchcock, Allen Cronenberg and current director Jay Lamar. Its goal is to help create both appetite and capacity for cultural and educational programming in communities of all sizes and resources.
For more information about Giovanna Summerfield, please visit her Web site.
For more information about the Discover Auburn series or the Caroline Marshall Draughon Center for the Arts and Humanities, please visit their Web site.