Institute Honors Cadets Present Creative Works about Southern Literature
VMI Institute Honors cadets Braden Bell 鈥�28, Josiah Farrell 鈥�28, and Sophia Heinlein 鈥�28 traveled to New Orleans, Louisiana, Oct. 15-17, to participate in the annual conference of the American Culture Association in the South (ACAS). Their presentations were based on projects from a spring 2026 Institute Honors seminar on the literature and culture of the American South, taught by Col. Rob McDonald, associate dean for academic affairs; director of the Honors Program; and professor in the Department of English, Rhetoric, and Humanistic Studies.
Titled, 鈥淐reative Responses to Southern Literature,鈥� the cadets鈥� ACAS session featured an original audiobook of William Faulkner鈥檚, 鈥淭he Bear,鈥� by Bell, a psychology major; a poetry chapbook by Farrell, a double major in international studies and modern languages and cultures; and a collection of annotated sketches by Heinlein, a civil engineering major. They were joined by an alumnus of the course, Joel Thomas 鈥�19, who traveled from Montana where he currently works as a smokejumper with the U.S. Forest Service, to present a new work of creative nonfiction.
McDonald, who organized the session, received the ACAS鈥檚 Ambassador Award in recognition of his long-standing membership and service, which includes a term as president and a decade editing the ACAS journal, Studies in American Culture.
