Society for the Study of American Women Writers

Discussion Meeting, Sunday, September 27, 2009
California State University, Long Beach
Noon to 3:30 p.m.

With apologies for short notice, the DC-Area American Women Writers Study Group would like to invite any interested list members who aren't on our local list (or anyone else who might be interested; feel free to forward this message) to join us for a walking tour of the U street neighborhood and a discussion of Angelina Weld Grimke's play _Rachel_ this coming Friday, 5/8. If at all possible, we'd appreciate RSVPs to csaunde1@gmu.edu from anyone who plans to attend by Thursday evening, so we know how many people to watch out for. If you can't come on Friday, but would be interested in receiving announcements of future SSAWW-DC meetings, please contact us at csaunde1@gmu.edu .

Note: none of the organizers of this meeting are experts on Angelina Weld Grimke; we planned the event because we wanted to learn more about her. If anyone has suggestions for readings, etc. to add to the brief list below, please feel free to reply, privately or to the list.

10 a.m. -- Meet at the 13th street exit to the U Street/Cardozo Metro Station (near 13th & U, just across U street from the Lincoln Theater and Ben's Chili Bowl; if you accidentally come up at the other exit, at 10th & U -- the one with the African-American Civil War Memorial -- face U street with the escalator and memorial at your back, turn left on U, and walk 2 3/4 blocks, and/or follow the signs to the U Street/Cardozo station).

11:30/11:45: Meet at Busboys & Poets, 14th & V Streets (http://www.busboysandpoets.com/about_14th.php) for lunch and discussion of Angelina Weld Grimke's _Rachel_ (see below)

"Birth of a Nation and Black Protest" from George Mason's Center for History and New Media: http://chnm.gmu.edu/features/episodes/birthofanation.html (while Grimke began writing _Rachel_ before the release of Griffith's film, it was first produced as part of the NAACP's protest against _Birth of a Nation_)

"Lynching Crusade" from the Library of Congress' "American Memory" collection: http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/aaohtml/exhibit/aopart6b.html (Note that Grimke's uncle, Francis, is listed among the signatories to the 1909 call that led to the founding of the NAACP. It's also interesting to note that the 1909 meeting was timed to coincide with the 100th anniversary of Lincoln's birth; we're currently in the middle of 200th-anniversary commemorations).

On Saturday, September 12 we will be holding the second meeting of the Northwest Region SSAWW Research Group. It will take place at the University of Puget Sound in Tacoma, WA. The group is open to anyone in the Northwest region with an interest in American women writers. You need not be a member of SSAWW to attend.

The meeting will begin at noon with a luncheon, provided by UPS and SSAWW, and discussion sessions will take place from 1-5:30. An optional dinner will follow at a local restaurant. The topic for our discussion will be "Women and Environment: Readings in Nineteenth and Twentieth-Century Natural History." The reading list includes excerpts from works by Margaret Fuller, Susan Fenimore Cooper, Mary Austin, Susan Zwinger, and Stacy Alaimo.

At the September 12 meeting, we will consider the scholarly significance of the texts on our reading list; their place in the history of women writers; and ideas about teaching them. There will be no formal presentations-just free-flowing discussion. Participants should come prepared to join in with their thoughts about the texts on the reading list.

This group is modeled on the successful New England American Women Writers Research Group, and we have organized it in response to SSAWW's encouragement to start more of such regional groups. If you are interested in attending the meeting, email Lydia Fisher (lfisher@pugetsound.edu) for more detailed information and the reading list. Please forward this email to others you know in the region who may be interested.

Thanks, Lydia Fisher and Alison Tracy Hale, Department of English, University of Puget Sound

Invitation to attend the first session of the American Women Writers Research Group

You are cordially invited to be a discussant and participant in the first session of the American Women Writers Research Group for the Northwest Region. The meeting will take place on Saturday, April 11 from 11:30am-6pm at the Trimble Forum, ground floor of Trimble Residence Hall, on the University of Puget Sound Campus in Tacoma, Washington.

We will be discussing as our primary text Julia Collins’s recently-rediscovered, serialized novel, The Curse of Caste, or The Slave Bride (1865), along with the few brief essays appended with the novel in the 2006 Oxford publication of Curse . The editors of the Oxford edition present the novel as the first by an African American woman (if Harriet Wilson’s Our Nig is considered an autobiography rather than a novel). With the idea of “firsts” for African American women writers in mind, we will send out soon a list (with some web links) of very short additional readings by Phillis Wheatley, June Jordan, and Frances Watkins Harper, as well as recommendations for secondary texts you might look at before the discussion session. Our hope is to span more than one century in our primary readings for each meeting, so that scholars with many specializations can be involved in the group, and we can make connections that cross historical periods. At the April 11 meeting, we will discuss the scholarly significance of the texts on our reading list; their place in the history of women writers; and ideas about teaching them.

The University of Puget Sound and the Society for the Study of American Women Writers have generously offered to sponsor this first meeting. UPS is providing our meeting room, and UPS and SSAWW will be funding lunch and afternoon refreshments for our day of discussion. Through the assistance of UPS, we can also get preferred rates at some Tacoma hotels if you are coming from a distance and need to arrange an overnight stay (see hotel information below).

Please send an RSVP email by April 1 (lfisher@ups.edu) to let us know if you plan to attend, and if you can make the dinner after the meeting, as we need to inform the caterers and restaurant. We look forward to seeing you at the Puget Sound Campus for what we hope will be a useful and engaging discussion!

11:30-1: Lunch--Participants will gather in Trimble Forum for lunch and conversation
1-3:30: Introductions and Discussion
3:30-4: Coffee and dessert break
4-6: Business and Discussion
6:30-8:30: Dinner at Silk Thai Café http://www.silkthaicafe.com/

The meeting starts a bit late in the day to accommodate participants who are coming from some distance.

We hope you can join us for dinner after the meeting. The restaurant is very close to the UPS campus. We will order an assortment of dishes for sharing. The $25 cost for dinner (please bring cash or a check) includes the meal, non-alcoholic beverage, and tip. If you have special dietary needs, please let us know by April 6 at the latest.

There is one apartment with a double bed in Trimble Hall that is available on the 10 th and 11 th of April for $35 a night. Get in touch with Lydia (lfisher@ups.edu) if you are interested in booking it.

Through the University of Puget Sound we can get reduced rates at the hotels listed below (specify that you are affiliated with the university when you book a room). There are of course other options in the area that you might find through travel sites like hotels.com.

The Silver Cloud Inn (253) 272-1300 http://www.silvercloud.com/
$139 for room with one king bed or two queen beds
Breakfast and parking included, and shuttle service to University of Puget Sound Campus available.This one is closest to campus.

Tacoma is served by Sea-Tac airport, which has car rentals, shuttle/taxi service, and bus service (Sound Transit) to Tacoma.

Driving directions can be found here (we’re meeting on the UPS campus in the Trimble Forum, Trimble Hall): http://www.ups.edu/directions.xml

If you need any additional information about the meeting or your travel, you can contact:

Save the date! Second meeting of the Texas Regional SSAWW Study Group, Saturday March 7, 2009.

Location: University of Texas Arlington (in the Dallas/Ft. Worth metroplex).
Schedule: Lunch (provided) at noon, afternoon discussion and tour of Special Collections, optional dinner at a restaurant in the evening.

The common text for the meeting is Jesse Aleman and Shelley Streeby, eds., Empire and the Literature of Sensation: An Anthology of Nineteenth-Century Popular Fiction (Rutgers, 2007). We will be reading two texts from this anthology: The Female Warrior (1843), an anonymous, first person account of a cross-dressing female solider in Texas and Mary Denison’s The Prisoner of La Vintresse (1860), a dime novel about spies, slaves, and captivity in Cuba.

Rutgers UP: http://rutgerspress.rutgers.edu/acatalog/__Empire_and_the_Literature_of_Sensation_2909.html

Amazon:
http://www.amazon.com/Empire-Literature-Sensation-Nineteenth-century-Multi-Ethnic/dp/0813540763/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1228162627&sr=8-1

In addition to the traditional book discussion, the study group will be given a tour of the UTA Special Collections, which has one of the most extensive archives in the country on the US/Mexico War. The librarians will be showing us many rare and tantalizing materials including 19th C story papers and dime novels, maps and illustrations, sheet music and diaries.

Southern California Society for the Study of American Women Writers (SCSSAWW)

Discussion Meeting, Sunday, March 15, 2009 University of Redlands Hornby Hall 202 Noon to 3:30 p.m.

SCSSAWW invites all interested scholars to our first discussion meeting.
We will discuss The Fatal Marriage by E.D.E.N. Southworth. Although out of print, a no-cost .pdf version of the novel is available for download through Google Books (http://books.google.com). In addition, used copies of the novel are sometimes available through various sources (Amazon.com, alibris, etc.). The novel may also be available via interlibrary loan.

* Fall 2009 meeting-at California State University, Long Beach,
hosted by Nancy Sheley

* SSAWW Conference in November 2009 in Philadelphia
* PAMLA Conference in November 2009 in San Francisco

The Southern California Society for the Study of American Women Writers
(SCSSAWW) is a collegial, non-hierarchical study group, affiliated with SSAWW (Society for the study of American Women Writers). Our primary meeting format is focused, moderated discussions of research topics related to the study of texts written by American women in the nineteenth century.

Contact Information:
For more information or to join our mailing list, please email us at scssaww@ucsd.edu.

Best,
Denise MacNeil, University of Redlands
Nancy Sheley, California State University, Long Beach Lisa Thomas, University of California, San Diego Nicole Tonkovich, University of California, San Diego

19th-Century American Women Writers Study Group
Professor Joyce W. Warren
Department of English
Queens College
Flushing, NY 11367
joyce_warren@qc.edu

Southern California Nineteenth-Century American Women Writers Group Meeting on November 7, 2008

A southern California nineteenth-century American women writers group is now forming.This group will be a collegial, non-hierarchical study group, affiliated with SSAWW. Our primary meeting format will be focused, moderated discussions of research topics related to the study of texts written by American women in the nineteenth century. We will have our first meeting in conjunction with the PAMLA conference at the Claremont Colleges in Claremont, California.

We will meet:

Friday, November 7th from 11 a.m. to noon,
Claremont Graduate University Humanities Resource Center
131 E. Tenth Street (between Dartmouth and College Avenues)

This first meeting will be an informal get-together to begin getting acquainted, provide information, etc. All are welcome to this meeting in conjunction with PAMLA (whether attending the conference or not), but you do not need to be at this meeting in order to be a part of the group.

If you would like more information or are interested in becoming part of the group, please send an email to scssaww@ucsd.edu so that we can put your on our electronic mailing list. If you are interested in helping us with the group, have suggestions for topics or texts to study, etc., please also let us know that in your email. Our first discussion meeting will take place in early spring 2009 at the University of Redlands (exact date to be determined). Announcement of the spring ’09 meeting will be sent to everyone on the mailing list. Finally, please also pass this announcement on to your graduate students and other colleagues who share our interests.

Denise MacNeil, University of Redlands
Nancy Sheley, California State University, Long Beach
Lisa Thomas, University of California, San Diego
Nicole Tonkovich, University of California, San Diego

Society members are beginning to organize the first meeting of the Northwest SSAWW Research Group. To be put on the e-mail list for information, please contact Lydia Fisher, Department of English, University of Puget Sound, 1500 N. Warner St. #1045, Tacoma, WA 98416-1045 or lfisher@ups.edu.

We are pleased to announce the first meeting of the Texas Regional SSAWW Study Group, which is modeled on the successful New England 19th Century American Women Writers Study Group and builds on SSAWW's goal to encourage and facilitate such regional study groups.

The first meeting will take place at Texas Christian University in Fort Worth on Nov. 1. Activities will commence at noon with a luncheon, provided by TCU, and discussion will take place from 1:30-4:30. An optional dinner will follow at a local restaurant.

The common text for this first meeting is Elizabeth Stoddard's Two Men, newly published by University of Nebraska Press. [http://www.nebraskapress.unl.edu/product/Two-Men,673326.aspx <http://www.nebraskapress.unl.edu/product/Two-Men,673326.aspx> ]. Jennifer Putzi, the novel's editor, will be present at the meeting. The discussion period will not be comprised of a talk or presentation but will consist of free-flowing and lively conversation about the book that involves all participants of the study group. All attendees should therefore read the novel in advance of the meeting.

In addition to colleagues across Texas, we also welcome participants from Louisiana, Oklahoma, New Mexico and elsewhere. Grad students are welcome. Please spread the word!

Desiree Henderson, Assistant Professor, Department of English, University of Texas-Arlington

The first meeting of the DC Region American Women Writers Study Group will be held on Friday, October 31st, in Room G07 of the Library of Congress Jefferson Building. We will explore the research challenges scholars face when recovering the work of obscure women writers, and then discuss the implications of obscurity in women's 19th-century social reform literature.

There will be a morning and afternoon session. In the morning, Library of Congress (LOC) reference specialists from several reading rooms across the Library will present a panel discussion about researching the life and work of lesser-known women writers. There will also be an opportunity to visit the Manuscript Division, where we will view several manuscripts from the American literature collection. There are restrictions on how many people can view the documents, so please RSVP if you would like to attend the morning session. Send your RSVP to Jessie Matthews at jmatthe2@gmu.edu by Monday, October 27th.

The afternoon session will be a seminar-style discussion of celebrity and obscurity centered on brief texts written by canonical and non-canonical authors of nineteenth-century social reform movements. First, we will compare the work of Harriet Beecher Stowe to her lesser-known abolitionist contemporary, Emily Clemens Pearson. Second, we will explore how the frequently anthologized Elaine Goodale Eastman, the late 19th-century American Indian acculturation activist, compares to her colleague, Frances Campbell Sparhawk, whose Indian reform novels and essays are largely unknown today.

The Stowe, Pearson, Eastman, and Sparhawk texts are available for download at http://web.me.com/thesophie/Site/DC_SSAWW.html. Members of the SSAWW Discussion Forum on Yahoo can also access the texts via the "Files" link on the DC Region American Women Writers Study Group page at http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ssawwdc/. (Forum members must sign in to access this link).

You are welcome to attend either or both sessions, and the lunch in between, which will include a brief business meeting to plan a winter/spring 2009 meeting. Please be thinking about ideas and whether you could volunteer to host and/or organize the next program. A more detailed schedule of the day's activities is available below.

Reminder--Please send your RSVP to Jessie Matthews at jmatthe2@gmu.edu by Monday, October 27th.

The D.C.-Area American Women Writers Study Group will hold its first meeting on Friday Oct. 31st, 2008 at the Library of Congress. We will have a morning session, led by LOC staffers, focusing on the practicalities of researching the life and work of lesser-known women writers, and an afternoon seminar-style discussion of celebrity and obscurity centered around brief texts written by two pairs of better- and lesser-known, but thematically similar, women writers. Anyone is welcome to attend either or both sessions, and the lunch in between. For more information, or to be added to an e-list carrying announcements of future meetings, please contact Cathy Saunders at csaunde1@gmu.edu.

Department of American and Canadian Studies
University of Birmingham
Birmingham B15 2TT
United Kingdom
r.j.ellis@bham.ac.uk

Address e-mail to Donna Campbell, campbelld at wsu dot edu .

Address e-mail to Donna Campbell, campbelld at wsu dot edu .