To develop creative programs through film and literature that will engage individuals on the intuitive and experiential levels to understand themselves and others across time and space.

Begun in 1997, through the generosity and creativity of Jeanne Hoffman Smith, MSSW, the Center for Interpersonal Studies through Film and Literature brings a distinguished creative person to the campus each year. Poets Robert Pinsky, Jane Hirshfield, Michael Ondaatje, Mark Doty, Naomi Shihab Nye, Li-Young Lee, Billy Collins, Lucille Clifton, Ted Kooser, and Joy Harjo have been featured so far. Jimmy Santiago Baca, born in New Mexico of Indio-Mexican descent, will be featured April 2, 2008. Having learned to read and write while incarcerated in the Arizona prison system, Baca will bring us his Whitmanesque voice that aims toward universals in the American tradition. He is the winner of the Pushcart Prize, the American Book Award, the International Hispanic Heritage Award and for his memoir "A Place to Stand" the prestigious International Award. In addition, the Center develops an annual documentary film series each spring, develops for the university and community an archive collection of quality videos and DVDs for borrowing, conducts field trips to OCU for teachers and students from upper elementary through high school to view and discuss distinguished films, submits grants each semester to hold a Humanities book discussion series for the university and Oklahoma City community, collaborates with other campus and metropolitan organizations to support and encourage different groups to work together on creative projects, sponsors international cultural study trips for students from upper elementary grades through high school, and contributes to the support of the OCU Film Institute. The director is a professor in the English Department and teaches courses in literature, film, and writing as well as other university courses related to the mission of the Center. The Thatcher Hoffman Smith Endowment Fund and an advisory committee support the development of the Center.