Dr. Joe Kickasola will speak on "Sacramental Viewing, Sacramental Living: Classic Film Theory and the Dynamics of Religious Experience" as the final event in Lee University’s 2011-2012 Arts and Culture Series. The lecture will take place at 7 p.m. on Thursday, Feb. 23, in the Rose Lecture Hall and is organized by the humanities faculty of Lee’s Department of History and Political Science.
Dr. Kickasola, associate professor of communications studies at Baylor University, will focus on the following: “As theorists have struggled with what it is film does and ought to do, a parallel series of questions and answers can be found in Theological Aesthetics. Perhaps the two dance in a mimetic fashion because they both seek to articulate the most important question: What it means to be a human being, seeking meaningful experience in the world.”
Thursday night’s lecture will be followed by a film viewing and discussion to be held on Friday, Feb. 24, at 7 p.m. in the Rose Lecture Hall.
Dr. Kickasola is the author of The Films of Krzysztof Kieslowski: the Liminal Image (Continuum) which won the 2006 Spiritus Award for best writing in the area of religion and film. His other publications include chapters in The Routledge Companion of Philosophy and Film and Experimental Film: The Missing Frames, as well as articles in Quarterly Review of Film and Video, Journal of Moving Image Studies, Christian Scholars Review, among others.
Dr. Kickasola frequently speaks on the relationship between faith and art, including a recurring lecture series on “Theology and Film” given at Princeton Seminary.
In addition to his teaching, speaking, and publishing, Dr. Kickasola has directed and/or produced film and video projects for distribution and/or broadcast around the world. He lives in New York City where he directs the Baylor Communication in New York Program.
The Lee University Arts & Culture Series is intended to facilitate a conversation between artists, thinkers, and students about the complex relationship between art and faith.
Lee University faculty, students, and interested members of the public are encouraged to attend. For more information, contact Dr. Mary McCampbell at 614-8353 or email mmccampbell@leeuniversity.edu.