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Conference Schedule

Thursday, June 26, 2008

1:00-2:30

Wharton and Economics Conf. 1

Moderator: Irene C. Goldman-Price, Editorial Board, Edith Wharton Review

  1. William Blazek, Liverpool Hope University-“Men’s Business in The Custom of the Country”
  2. Judith Saunders, Marist College-“The Hazards of Reciprocal Altruism: The Glimpses of the Moon and The House of Mirth”
  3. Hildegard Hoeller, City University of New York-“Lost in Translation: Financial Plots and the Modernist Reader in Edith Wharton’s Custom of the Country”

1:00-2:00

New England: Conf. II

Moderator: Alan Price, Penn State, Hazelton, emeritus

  1. Annette Benert, Moravian College-“The Poisons of Rural Poverty: Misery in Western Massachussetts”
  2. Kristen Elias Rowley, University of Nebraska-“Edith Wharton’s New England Regionalist Writing: The Role of the Image of Authorship”

2:30-3:00 Coffee Break

3:00-4:30

Wharton and Politics: Conf. I

Moderator: Hildegard Hoeller, City University of New York

  1. Linda Costanzo-Cahir, Kean University-“’Freedom Like a Beast’: Politics and Enlightenment in The Valley of Decision”
  2. Ferda Asya, Bloomsburg University-“The Darwin Connection: A Kropotkinian Reading of Edith Wharton’s The Age of Innocence”
  3. Elaine Pigeon, Université de Montréal-“’All Souls’ and the Rise of Fascism”
  4. Keiko Beppo, Kobe College- “Edith Wharton and the World War I: Re-reading Wharton’s War Stories”

5:45 In Memoriam Edie Thornton: Conf. I

Elsa Nettels

6:00 - 7:00- Cocktail Party (cash bar) Patio

Friday, June 27, 2008

6:00-9:00 : Breakfast Rockwell’s

9:00-10:30

Abortions and Adoptions in Summer: Conf. I

Moderator: Katherine Joslin, Western Michigan University

  1. Donna Campbell, Washington State University, “What Charity Saw: Wharton’s Summer , Lois Weber’s Where Are my Children? and the Progressive Era Social Problem Film”
  2. Karen Weingarten, City University of New York-“Citizenship and the Regulation of Women’s Reproduction in Edith Wharton’s Summer”
  3. Carol Singley, Rutgers University, “Kinship, Adoption, and Family Law in Summer”

9:00-10:30

Wharton’s Writings on Wharton Writing: Reflections, Revisions, Preparations: Conf. II

Moderator: Meredith Goldsmith, Ursinus College

  1. Amber Harris Leichner, University of Nebraska-“The Touchstone: A Study of Female Authorship in the Early Twentieth Century”
  2. Bonnie Shannon McMullen, Independent Scholar-“’In the Mood for Ghosts’: Spectral Anticipations of The Custom of the Country”
  3. Judith Funston, State University of New York, Potsdam-“A New Woman in Old Clothes: Edith Wharton’s Duchess Violante”

10:30-12:00

Fashion and Architecture: Conf. I

Moderator: Julie Olin-Ammentorp, LeMoyne College

  1. Constance Haytock, American Society of Landscape Architects-“What Mrs. Wharton Learned in Rome: An Examination of Six Roman Villas and Their Influence on the Writer/Critic”
  2. Katherine Joslin, Western Michigan University--“Dressing Up”
  3. Nadine Stewart, Fashion Institute of Technology-“A Milliner’s Life”

10:30-12:00

Wharton’s Books of the Homeless: Conf. II

Moderator: Shafquat Towheed, The Open University

  1. Kristina Huff, University of Delaware-“A Bridge over Troubled Genres: Edith Wharton’s The Book of the Homeless and Genre”
  2. Susan Goodman, University of Delaware- “’A Gallant Piece of Architecture’: Edith Wharton’s The Book of the Homeless”
  3. Caroline Hellman, City University of New York- “The Book(s) of the Homeless: Edith Wharton at Home with her Characters’ ‘Great Waste of Disoccupation’”

12-1:00-Lunch

1:00 - 2:00-Erika Koss: National Endowment for the Arts, Literature Specialist: "The Big Read and Edith Wharton's The Age of Innocence" Conf. I

Introduction: Hildegard Hoeller, President, Edith Wharton Society

2:00-3:30

Object Lessons and Osmology: Conf. II

Moderator: Gary Totten, North Dakota State University

  1. Mary Marchand, Goucher College-“Object Lessons: Wharton and the New Connoisseurship”
  2. Cecilia Macheski, La Guardia Community College “Visualizing Material Culture in Ethan Frome and ‘Roman Fever’”
  3. Pamela Knights, Durham University-“A ‘mist of oponax’: Mapping non-visual sensation in The Custom of the Country”

2:00-3:30

Literary Connections 1: Conf. I

Moderator: Donna Campbell, Washington State University

  1. Virginia Garnett, University of Delaware-“Edith Wharton and Vernon Lee’s Writings on Writing”
  2. Meredith Goldsmith, Ursinus College-“Undine and Her Sisters: The Custom of the Country and Middlebrow Novels of Remarriage”
  3. Julie Olin-Ammentorp, LeMoyne College-“Out of the Provinces, Into the Limelight: Edith Wharton’s Undine Spragg and Willa Cather’s Thea Kronborg”

3:30 -4:00-Coffee Break

4:00-5:30

Edith Wharton and the Modern Woman: Conf. I

Moderator, Laura Rattray, University of Hull

  1. Julia Hans, U Massachusetts, Amherst-“Edith Wharton’s Response to the New Woman: A Look at Three Satiric Sketches 1899-1916”
  2. Emily Orlando, Fairfield University-“Crude Ascending the Staircase: Undine Spragg and the Armory Show”
  3. Jessica Labbe, University of South Carolina-“’Tripped up, gagged, and Pinioned’: The Problematics of Female Movement and ‘Management’ in Wharton’s The Glimpses of the Moon”

4:00-5:00

Households and Gardens: Conf. II

Moderator: Harriet Gold, Université de Montréal

  1. Alison Klaum, University of Delaware-“Writing Nature: Gardening and Authorship in Edith Wharton’s Correspondence and Italian Villas and Their Gardens”
  2. Diane Lichtenstein, Beloit College-“Twilight Sleep and Domestic Efficiency”  

7:00-Banquet Top of the Plaza

Greetings: Hildegard Hoeller, President, Edith Wharton Society

Convocation Address: Margaret Murray, Conference Director

Guest Speaker-Suzanne Ferriss: “Fashioning Lives, Fashionable Lives: Edith Wharton and Chick Lit”

Saturday, June 28, 2008

6:00-9:00 : Breakfast Rockwell’s

9:00-10:30

Literary Connections 2: Conf. I

Moderator: Judith Saunders, Marist College

  1. Elsa Nettels, College of William and Mary-“’The Touchstone’ and the Browning Love-Letters”
  2. Kathy Fedorko, Middlesex County College-“Lily Bart Reborn: Mrs. Dalloway as Virginia Woolf’s Revision of Edith Wharton’s The House of Mirth”
  3. Rita Bode, Trent University-“Edith Wharton and the Literary Past: Fathers and Lovers in Women’s Writing

9:00-10:30

World War I: Conf. I

Moderator: Carol Singley, Rutgers University

  1. Ann Patten, University of Dublin, Trinity College-“’Not Precisely Ghost Stories’: References to the First World War in Wharton’s Ghost Stories”
  2. Melanie Dawson, College of William and Mary-“A Portrait of War-Time Feeling”
  3. Shafquat Towheed, The Open University-“Reading the Great War: an Examination of Edith Wharton’s Reading and Responses, 1914-1918”

10:30-11:30

‘Staging Wharton’: Conf. I

Moderator: Carole Shaffer-Koros, Kean University

  1. Laura Rattray, University of Hull-“Staging History: Edith Wharton as Playwright”
  2. John Anderson, Emerson College-“Performance and Theatricality in the Fiction of Edith Wharton and Henry James”

10:30-12:00

Edith Wharton and History: Conf. II

Moderator, Margaret Murray, Western Connecticut State University

  1. Gary Totten, North Dakota State University-“The Dialectic of History and Technology in Wharton’s A Motor-Flight through France”
  2. Maureen Montgomery, University of Canterbury-“Edith Wharton: Narrating the Past”
  3. Tarah Demant , Washington University in St. Louis-“Writing American’s Race History in The Age of Innocence”
  4. Martha Billips and Melissa McEuen, Transylvania University-“Historicizing Edith Wharton: A Pedagogical Experiment”

12:00-Lunch