Chautauqua Institution is pleased to announce six exceptional books as the 2017 finalists for The Chautauqua Prize, now in its sixth year: The General vs. The President: MacArthur and Truman at the Brink of Nuclear War, by H.W. Brands (Doubleday) The Fortunes, by Peter Ho Davies (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt) Blood River Rising: The Thompson-Crimson Feud of the 1920s, by Victoria Pope Hubbell (Iris Press) Underground Airlines, by Ben H. Winters (Mulholland Books) American Character: A History of the Epic Struggle Between Individual Liberty and the Common Good, by Colin Woodard (Viking) The Song Poet: A Memoir of My Father, by Kao Kalia Yang (Metropolitan...
Chautauqua Institution today announced that Sherra Babcock, longtime vice president and Emily and Richard Smucker Chair for Education, will retire from her post in October 2017. A familiar figure on the Chautauqua grounds, Babcock is probably best known for her frequent appearances onstage as moderator at lecture and literary arts programming throughout each summer season. Over more than a decade of visionary leadership, she has shepherded Chautauqua’s signature and historic lecture and literary arts platforms to new levels of excellence and renown. She joined the Institution in 2007 as director of education and was appointed to her current position, the...
Chautauqua Institution today announced that the Rev. Robert M. Franklin Jr., director of religion, will step down from his post following the 2017 season.Franklin has served Chautauqua in his current capacity since 2014. He has been an active participant in the Institution’s religious programming since 2001, serving as lecturer, chaplain, theologian-in-residence, adviser to the Institution’s Abrahamic program, and as a member of the Institution’s board of trustees. His decision coincides with continued expansion of his responsibilities at Emory University, where he serves as a senior advisor to the president and James T. and Berta R. Laney Chair in Moral Leadership...