Rosemary M. Magee

June 13th, 2012

Rosemary M. Magee serves as Vice President and Secretary of Emory University. She holds a Ph.D. from Emory and both a B.A. and M.A. from Florida State University. In addition to her leadership in university governance and strategic planning, she chairs the university strategic initiative in Creativity and the Arts. In that role, she has sought to strengthen the role and visibility of the arts, and she has led a wide range of "creativity conversations" with artists such as Philip Glass, Salmon Rusdhie, and Margaret Atwood, as well as with noted scientists and scholars from across the disciplines.

An artist-in-residence at the Hambidge Center for the Creative Arts and Sciences and the Tyrone Guthrie Center, Rosemary Magee has published essays, reviews, and short stories in a variety of journals and literary magazines, including Eclipse, Southern Review, Sanskrit, Iron Horse, Euphony, Distillery, Porcupine, Fine Print, Southern Humanities Review, and Westview. Focusing her teaching and research on Southern culture and literature, she has edited two volumes, both published by University Press of Mississippi: Conversations with Flannery O’Connor and Friendship and Sympathy: Communities of Southern Women Writers.

In recognition of her service and leadership, Magee received in 2008 the Thomas Jefferson Award, one of the highest honors offered by Emory University.

Creativity: Art and Innovation
Emory University
http://creativity.emory.edu/creativity-arts-innovation.shtml

Emory University recognizes that creativity and the arts have become both a public good and a benchmark of a truly great university. To support these values, "Creativity: Art and Innovation" (CAI) was named one of Emory's four framing principles in its strategic plan. The mission of the CAI is to support activities, projects, and programs throughout the campus; strengthen bonds across units; foster interdisciplinary scholarship and collaborations; inculcate a love of lifelong learning in students; and further connect Emory to the wider community and world.

Several programs at Emory recently have demonstrated this unifying source, especially the enthusiastic response of the campus and community to such CAI-sponsored events as the Creativity Conversations, the “Creativity through the Life Cycle Conference,” the Emory Project by renowned photographer Dawoud Bey, and the “Creativity in Unexpected Places” faculty workshop. Further, by awarding grants that support faculty and graduate students in incorporating creativity and the arts into their teaching and research, as well as by encouraging undergraduates to participate in arts programs on campus and in Atlanta, the arts have found robust expression.

Through exploration of the creative process—in art, science, religion, medicine, scholarship across the disciplines, and the commissioning of new works—the CAI has expanded the research and teaching mission of the University. Central to all of the programs, events, and projects is an enduring belief in the transformative quality of art, within individuals and across the world.