UPDATE MARCH 12 – The March 19 event is POSTPONED.
By Nikolai Wise ’21
The Odyssey Project: The Journey Home hosted its first lecture in its series on Wednesday, February 5 in the Ingles Mountain View Room of UNC Asheville’s Sherrill Center. The lecture session involved five speakers and multiple collaborative elements where participants were encouraged to engage with the topics such as the themes of home that surround the story of the Odyssey, and how we can engage with these themes in the issues that exist in the contemporary world.
Sophie Mills, UNC Asheville professor of classics, served as the curator of the series and provided opening statements and set the scene for the story of the Odyssey. Mills spoke about the cultural and historical significance of the Odyssey upon the Greeks and other peoples, and why she thinks that poem continues to be so important in contemporary culture.
“This composer really understood human nature and human desire for distraction and seduction and fascination,” Mills said. “That says something about why it continues to charm us. It’s a marvelous, fascinating thoroughly worthwhile text in the context of these particular dialogues. I also think that it’s important to reflect on how it is composed so brilliantly, that it makes us want to root for the hero … He’s clever, he’s resourceful. We wanted him to get her and we wanted him to win. Just as we all ourselves, as it were, want to win in our own heroic journey. We all want to get home in our own lives.”
Making Connections
Coranna Adams, executive director of Odyssey School, a private K-12 school in North Asheville, also spoke about what the story of the Odyssey means to her.
“As an eight-year-old, I was enthralled with the Greek gods and goddesses,” Adams said. “Reading the Odyssey alongside my dad, as a child, I was really drawn to their power and magic and the way that the gods and goddesses differentiated the world into qualities and modes of experience. I didn’t really recognize it then, but I was on a search for meaning and I had actually begun my own voyage. It’s strange sometimes how one thing leads to another thing. So I grew up and went to college and eventually had my own children and now I’m the executive director at a school called Odyssey.”
Adams also spoke about the teaching philosophy that Odyssey School follows, the “integral model,” developed by American philosopher Ken Wilbur. She invited the audience to apply the model to explain the essence of the story of the Odyssey and identify common themes, points of view and pivotal moments in the story. Some themes that were mentioned by attendees were themes of xenophilia or love of the other, and points of view such as Mediterranean and colonial perspectives.
Protecting Home
While Odysseus was on a journey to return to his home, the lecture also turned to themes about our common home, the Earth, and climate activists spoke about their work and its importance. First, UNC Asheville student and climate activist Kelsey Hall spoke about her work with the fossil fuel divestment campaign to encourage the divestment of university endowments from fossil fuels. Hall spoke about the history of the movement and her experience as a member.
“It’s been a lot of generations of really dedicated students who have kept the movement going,” said Hall. “I personally have learned a lot through this work. Like I said, I’m an environmental studies student, I’m by no means a financial or business person. So, I’ve personally learned a lot and I’m really passionate about the implications of the work that’s going on right now.”
Climate activist Steffi Rausch also spoke about her work with the Citizens Climate Lobby, a nonpartisan organization that describes its mission to “empower everyday people to work together on climate change solutions.” The organization prides itself on action as a bridge between political aisles and creating relationships to create comprehensive climate legislation.
“If you can incentivize someone to change their ways, by showing them that what’s good for us is also good for them,” said Rausch, “you can get them to change faster.”
It’s a challenge that brought the audience back to the ongoing journey of finding and protecting home—a journey they shared with the hero of the Odyssey.
“In every kind of adventure story, there are monsters, and there are allies. And the monsters are real,” said Pana Columbus, a faculty member at the Odyssey School. “They’re part of the journey. One of the things that makes the Odyssey such a fun read, is there’s these fabulous challenges that Odysseus has to figure out how he’s going to overcome them.”
Continuing the Conversation
This lecture is the first of three public talks surrounding themes of the Odyssey at UNC Asheville. The second lecture will take place Thursday, Feb. 27, at 7 p.m. in the Ingles Mountain View Room of the Sherrill Center, and is titled “Challenging the Glorification of Colonialism.” The talk will feature Trey Adcock, assistant professor and director of American Indian and Indigenous Studies at UNC Asheville, Jeremias Zunguze, assistant professor of Africana and Lusophone Studies at UNC Asheville, and Wekesa Madzimoyo, co-founder and co-director, AYA Educational Institute.
A third and final lecture will take place Thursday, March 19, at 7 p.m. in the Ingles Mountain View Room of the Sherrill Center, and is titled “Beyond the Seduction of Violence as Virtue.” The talk will feature Thomas Griggs, Gareth Higgins and Avery Sosebee.
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