GCSU announces name change for Andalusia Institute, now “Flannery O’Connor Institute for the Humanities”

Georgia College & State University’s Andalusia Institute is now the “Flannery O’Connor Institute for the Humanities.”

The O’Connor Institute – the public arts and humanities center of Georgia College – supports Flannery O’Connor scholarship, nourishes writing and the creative arts, and engages community members with public events centered on literary and creative works by O’Connor and other authors, scholars and artists.

The renaming of the institute coincides with what would have been the famous author’s 99th birthday on March 25, 2024.

“Renaming the institute for Flannery herself reflects the central literary and humanist focus of the research and events hosted by the institute, and differentiates our extensive scholarship on O’Connor from her historic home at Andalusia,” said GCSU President Cathy Cox.

In August 2017, the Andalusia farm, its property and outbuildings were gifted to Georgia College, which is O’Connor’s alma mater. Andalusia collects, preserves, interprets and exhibits items that illustrate the history of the site in the time when Flannery O’Connor lived on the property, 1951-1964.

Andalusia was designated a National Historic Landmark by the National Park Service in 2022 and is also included on the National Register of Historic Places. The farm property is located north of the Georgia College campus and the city of Milledgeville on U.S. Highway 441 in Baldwin County, Georgia.

“The Flannery O’Connor Trust is immensely grateful for all that Georgia College & State University has done to preserve and promote O’Connor’s legacy,” said Dr. Farrell O’Gorman, co-trustee of the Mary Flannery O’Connor Charitable Trust.

Recent events hosted by the O’Connor Institute include public Zoom discussions about Flannery O’Connor’s correspondence in the 1960s lead by O’Connor scholar Dr. Bruce Gentry. The institute is hosting the upcoming academic conference “Flannery O’Connor’s Second Century: Looking Forward, Looking Back” Sept. 12 - 15, 2024.

O’Gorman continued, “We recognize the valuable work that the Institute has undertaken in recent years to help keep her spirit alive, and we very much look forward to its continued success as it bears her name going forward.”

Additional festivities surrounding Flannery O’Connor’s birthday included free tours of Andalusia Saturday, March 23, with a birthday cake at noon. A new exhibit of O'Connor's collection of miniatures at the Andalusia Interpretive Center also debuted that day.

To learn more about the Flannery O’Connor Institute for the Humanities, visit https://www.gcsu.edu/oconnor/oconnor-institute. To learn more about Andalusia, visit https://www.gcsu.edu/andalusia.