Austin Briggs, Hamilton B. Tompkins Professor of English, Emeritus, took an active role in the North American James Joyce Conference held in June at Caltech and the Huntington Library in Pasadena, Calif. He co-moderated two reading sessions on Ulysses for which he was co-organizer; introduced a reading of Joyce’s Dubliners story “Counterparts” by the actress Fionnula Flanagan and moderated the Q&A after her reading; co-moderated a special “city read” session on “Counterparts” that was coordinated with the Pasadena Public Library; and served as master of ceremonies at the conference banquet, where he delivered a talk, “Entremanureal Joyce.”
In addition, while in California Briggs met several times as a founding member of the board with trustees of the Libros-Schmibros English/Spanish Lending Library and Book Store, a non-profit organization fiscally sponsored by the Pasadena Arts Council. The meetings focused on plans for responding to an invitation to mount an installation at the UCLA Hammer Museum as part of an interactive program to encourage contact among artists, museum staff and visitors, and to activate spaces in imaginative ways. The opening of the installation on August 27 broke attendance records for the Museum.
