The Sound and the Fury: Academic Retreat Led by Dr. Glenn Arbery
This retreat takes up The Sound and the Fury by William Faulkner, one of the most formally ambitious and searching works of modern literature. Through its bold narrative structure and shifting modes of perception, the novel draws readers into fundamental questions about time, memory, and the search for coherence in human experience.
Led by Glenn Arbery of Wyoming Catholic College, the retreat will center on sustained engagement with the text in seminar and lecture. Together, participants will read, discuss, and reflect on the novel, allowing its language, images, and patterns to come gradually into view.
Retreat Details
Our multi-day academic retreats are small gatherings focused on great texts, thoughtful conversations, and intellectual friendship. Each retreat is led by a professor and centers on a specific thinker, theme, topic, or text.
The heart of the retreat is a robust academic program of twelve one-hour sessions—typically nine seminars and three lectures. Seminars are limited to 15 or fewer participants and emphasize close reading, intellectual humility, and the shared pursuit of truth. The professor's lectures synthesize themes and situate the readings within a broader whole.
The atmosphere is intentionally contemplative and relational—free from digital distraction and grounded in attentiveness, presence, and receptivity.
Location
Our academic retreats are held at our Kingfisher Center, which is located on the southwest side of Austin, Texas.
Cost
For accepted participants, the Valor Institute will cover the cost of the program fee, texts, lodging, and meals. We ask for participants to pay for their own travel to and from the retreat — though we do offer travel scholarships for those in need. We do not want cost to be a barrier for anyone desiring to participate in our programs.
Schedule
A typical retreat day runs from 10:30 a.m. to 6:30 p.m. including time for lunch, dinner, and breaks.
Preparation
Participants are expected to carefully read and annotate all texts before arriving at the retreat. Because of academic retreats involve a significant amount of time in seminar, preparation is essential.
Registration & Questions
Space in our retreats is limited, so we encourage you to apply as soon as possible. For any questions, please contact us.
About the Leader
Dr. Glenn Arbery is Professor of Humanities at Wyoming Catholic College.
Born in South Carolina and raised in Georgia, Dr. Arbery earned his B.A. at the University of Georgia and his Ph.D. in Literature and Politics at the University of Dallas, where he met his wife-to-be, Virginia Lombardo.
He has taught literature at the University of St. Thomas in Houston; Thomas More College of Liberal Arts in Merrimack, New Hampshire; the University of Dallas (through the Dallas Institute); and Assumption College in Worcester, Massachusetts, where he held the d’Alzon Chair of Liberal Education.
In 2013, he and Virginia, also a Ph.D. from the University of Dallas, went to Wyoming Catholic College to teach Humanities, Trivium, and Philosophy. Dr. Arbery became president of Wyoming Catholic in 2016. In the Fall of 2023, he stepped down from the presidency and returned to the teaching faculty of the College.
In addition to numerous essays and reviews, he has published two volumes with ISI Books, Why Literature Matters and The Southern Critics. He is editor of The Tragic Abyss for the Dallas Institute Press and Augustine’s Confessions and Its Influence, St. Augustine Press. His novel Bearings and Distances was published by Wiseblood Books in 2015, and his second, Boundaries of Eden, was published in 2020.
He has served as Director of the Teachers Academy at the Dallas Institute of Humanities and Culture and as an editor at People Newspapers in Dallas, where he won regional and national awards for his writing. Most recently, he received the 2025 Excellence in Theology Award from the Center for Beauty and Culture at Benedictine College. He and Virginia have eight children and twenty-four grandchildren.