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Seton Hall University

Chesterton Institute Online Conference-"Chesterton Upside Down--the Australian Experience"  

ChestertonThe G. K. Chesterton Institute for Faith & Culture at Seton Hall University, is pleased to announce an online conference on the theme of The Global Chesterton Series: "Chesterton Upside Down—The Australian Experience." A conversation with Karl Schmude, President of the Australian Chesterton Society and the editor of The Chesterton Review, Dr. Dermot Quinn. Moderated by Mrs. Gloria Garafulich-Grabois, Director, G. K. Chesterton Institute for Faith & Culture. The event will be streamed online via TEAMS on Wednesday, March 2nd from 4:00 – 5:30 pm (New York Time) – and on Thursday, March 3rd from 8 - 9:30 am (Australia, Armidale).

Link to the transmission: Chesterton Upside Down - The Australian Experience.

About the event
G.K. Chesterton liked to say that the way to see the world the right way round is to see it upside down. He had a topsy-turvy imagination, a love for turning things inside out. It is fitting, then, that he should be so popular in Australia – a "down under" place if ever there were one. Chesterton’s novels and short stories have enjoyed widespread acclaim with the Australian reading public. His political and economic ideas have resonated with several generations of Australian thinkers. His personality seems almost Australian in its buoyancy and exuberance. Chesterton had "the quality of sprawl" so memorably described by the Australian poet, Les Murray. He was from Beaconsfield by way of Brisbane and Ballarat.

In this online conversation, Dermot Quinn and Karl Schmude will discuss Chesterton "Down Under." Why has Chesterton made such an impact on Australia? What lessons should we learn from this for other parts of the world? Who are the leading Chestertonian writers and thinkers in Australia today?

About the speakers
Dermot Quinn, D.Phil. is Professor of History at Seton Hall University and Editor of The Chesterton Review. He was educated at Trinity College, Dublin and New College, Oxford, where he was awarded a doctorate in 1986. He has written extensively on Chestertonian themes, has authored three books The Irish in New Jersey: Four Centuries of American Life (Rutgers University Press, 2004)(winner, New Jersey Studies Academic Alliance, Non-fiction Book of the Year, 2005); Patronage and Piety: The Politics of English Roman Catholicism, 1850-1900 (Stanford University Press/Macmillan, 1993) and Understanding Northern Ireland (Baseline Books, Manchester, UK, 1993 and many articles and reviews in the field of British and Irish history.

Karl Schmude is President of the Australian Chesterton Society, a member of the Editorial Board of The Chesterton Review, and author of the biographical booklet, G. K. Chesterton (Catholic Truth Society: London, 2008). A co-founder of Australia’s first liberal arts institution of higher education, Campion College, Sydney, which was established in 2006, he is a former University Librarian at the University of New England, Armidale NSW.

About the sponsors
The G. K. Chesterton Institute for Faith & Culture is located at Seton Hall University, South Orange, N.J. Founded in 1974 by Father Ian Boyd, C. S. B., its purpose is to promote the thought of G. K. Chesterton and his circle and more broadly, to explore the application of Chestertonian ideas in the contemporary world. The Institute’s work consists of conferences, lecture series, research, and writing. The Chesterton Review, founded in 1974, has been widely praised both for its scholarship and for the quality of its writing. The journal was founded by Father Ian Boyd, C. S. B., and is edited by Dr. Dermot Quinn, includes a wide range of articles not only on Chesterton himself, but on the issues close to his heart in the work of other writers and in the modern world. It has devoted special issues to C. S. Lewis, George Bernanos, Hilaire Belloc, Maurice Baring, Christopher Dawson, Cardinal Manning, the Modernist Crisis, J. R. R. Tolkien, Fantasy Literature, and a Special Polish Issue. The Chesterton Review also publishes one annual issue in Spanish and an annual supplement in Portuguese and French. For information about the Institute or The Chesterton Review please contact [email protected] – website: www.shu.edu/chesterton.

Categories: Faith and Service, Nation and World

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