Thursday, September 16, 2010
Communal studies scholars and communitarians to gather in New Harmony
Charles Durrett
Contact for more information:
Wendy Knipe Bredhold Media Relations Specialist, News & Information Services 812/461-5259 New Harmony was the site of two great American utopian communities: George Rapp's German Pietist Harmony Society, and a communal experiment founded by social reformer Robert Owen. Tours of New Harmony sites will be included in the program, as will nearly 100 presentations by scholars and communitarians from across the United States and Europe on topics related to communal groups, intentional communities, and Utopias - religious and secular, historic and contemporary. The conference theme is "The Architecture of Community," including not only physical structures but also the social, religious, and political organization of communities. Acclaimed architect Charles Durrett will present the keynote address, "Housing, Culture, and Community" at 7:30 p.m. Friday, October 1, at the Atheneum/Visitors Center. Registration is not required for Durrett's lecture, which is free and open to the public, but registration is required to attend other conference sessions. Registration information and the complete agenda for the conference are on the Center for Communal Studies website. "Charles Durrett is one of America's leading architectural voices on issues of housing and sustainability," said Dr. Matthew Grow, USI assistant professor of history and director of the Center for Communal Studies. "The cohousing movement creates an alternative model to suburban sprawl, emphasizing the creation of community among neighbors and environmental sustainability." Cohousing communities, which are rapidly expanding across the world, emphasize collaborative planning, a shared community center and garden, some group meals, and a design which emphasizes neighborly interactions over automobile traffic. Durrett and his wife Kathryn McCamant co-authored the book Cohousing: A Contemporary Approach to Housing Ourselves and are credited with bringing the cohousing concept to the U.S. from Denmark in 1988. The couple has designed more than 50 cohousing communities in the U. S. and Canada and consulted on communities around the world. Durrett's work has been featured in Time Magazine, The New York Times, The Los Angeles Times, and Architecture. He has been honored with the United Nations World Habitat Award and awards from the American Institute of Architects (AIA) and the Department of Housing and Urban Development. The opening plenary session will focus on historic communal societies at New Harmony, with remarks by Connie Weinzapfel, director of Historic New Harmony, and Michael J. Lewis, Faison-Pierson-Stoddard professor of art at Williams College. In the abstract for his presentation, "New Harmony as 'City of Refuge': the Alternative Utopian Tradition," Lewis describes New Harmony as "one of the most fully developed examples of communal town planning in American history." In addition to international scholars of communal studies, sessions will feature founders and leaders of contemporary communities, including The Farm, Sandhill Farm, Padanaram Settlement, New Vrindaban, Jesus People USA, Twelve Tribes Communities, and others. For more information, call the Center for Communal Studies at 812/464-1971. About the Center for Communal Studies Since 1976, the USI Center for Communal Studies has served as a worldwide hub for information and a unique resource for USI students and faculty as well as scholars, communitarians, and site directors around the globe. Its world-class archival collection contains information on over 600 historic and contemporary communal societies, utopias, and intentional communities, including the collections of Arthur Bestor Jr., who wrote the first major scholarly work on communal societies in America, and Karl Arndt, the first major Harmonist scholar. Its most recent acquisitions include the Donald Janzen Communal Studies Image Collection, which includes 10,000 photographs of communal groups, and a large collection of material on Stelle, a 20th century Illinois community. The center is also working on an online database of approximately 400 oral interviews with individuals who lived in 1960s "hippie" communes. Founded by Dr. Donald E. Pitzer, USI professor emeritus of history, the center served as administrative base for the Communal Studies Association until 1996, when Pitzer resigned as CSA's executive director, a position he held since 1977. He also served as first president of the International Communal Studies Association from 1988 to 1991. The center headquartered the Fellowship for Intentional Community from 1990 to 1993 and helped publish its first Communities Directory. The Center for Communal Studies Lecture Series brings noted scholars and communitarians to the University. The Center for Communal Studies Prize, including a certificate and $500, is awarded each year to a USI undergraduate or graduate student with the best scholarly paper or thesis on a communal theme. The center awards travel grants to fund research in the Communal Studies Collection at USI's David L. Rice Library. About Historic New Harmony Historic New Harmony, a unified program of USI and the Indiana State Museum and Historic Sites, is charged with programmatic and educational aspects of New Harmony, along with the management of 40 historic sites in the town. About the Communal Studies Association The mission of the Communal Studies Association (CSA) is to encourage and facilitate the preservation, restoration, and public interpretation of America's historic communal sites, to provide a forum for the study of intentional communities, past and present, and to communicate to the general public the successful ideas from, and lessons learned by, communal societies. Founded in 1975 as the National Historic Communal Societies Association, the CSA has expanded its focus in recent years to include the study of contemporary and international communal societies. |
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