Institute Honors Cadets Present Creative Works about Southern Literature

VMI Institute Honors cadets Braden Bell ’28, Josiah Farrell ’28, and Sophia Heinlein ’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, “Creative Responses to Southern Literature,” the cadets’ ACAS session featured an original audiobook of William Faulkner’s, “The Bear,” 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 ’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’s 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.