Program
THURSDAY, MARCH 31
- Registration: Claremont Doubletree Hotel, 3:30-5:00
- Opening Reception & Reading: Claremont Doubletree Hotel, 5:00-7:00
Anca Vlasopolos, Professor of English and Comparative Literature, Wayne State University
From “Isles of the Blessed” )
Reading by Anca Vlasopolos from "Isles of the Blessed"
A brief, first-person, multi-voiced narration of Bleak House from the perspectives of the captive birds in the novel. The audience will hear from Boythorn's "most astonishing bird" and from one of Miss Flite's prisoners.
FRIDAY, APRIL 1
Shuttle from hotel to Pitzer campus 7-8 am (afternoon/evening schedule TBA)
REGISTRATION: Scott Hall Courtyard, 7:00-3:00
CONTINENTAL BREAKFAST: Scott Hall Courtyard, starting at 7:00
SESSION 1: 8:00-9:30
1A NATURE & RACE I (Broad Hall 210)
- Moderator: Laura Harris—Pitzer College
- Maria Jose Afanador-Llach–University of Texas, Austin
Science, Nature, and Politics in the Early Republic: Colombia, 1808-1830 - Miun Gleeson–University of Missouri, Kansas City
Nature as Pretext: Lynch Law in Nineteenth-Century Literature and the Southern Press - Ana Hontanilla–University of North Carolina, Greensboro
"Natural Rights: Benevolence and Politics in The Sensitive Black Slave by Luciano María Comella"
1B BRITONS & NATURE (Broad Hall 207)
- Moderator: Anca Vlasopolos—Wayne State University
- Victoria Abboud–Grande Prairie Regional College, Canada
Lucy's Eden: Uses of the Gardens in Charlotte Brontë's Villette - Zak Sitter–Trinity College
The "Alphabet of Nature": Dialect Poetry and Spelling Reform in Mid-Century Britain - Richard Hill–Chaminade University
Scott and Edinburgh: Memorializing Edinburgh's Old Town in The Heart of Midlothian
Paper read by: Mary Ann Davis—University of Southern California - Margaret Kolb–University of California, Berkeley
Moral Necessities: The Natural Figures of Scott's Narrative Transgressions
1C AMERICAN LANDSCAPES (Broad Hall 110)
- Moderator: Iain Crawford----University of Delaware
Holly Jean Richard–University of South Dakota
Margaret Fuller's Summer on the Lakes, in 1843 (1844), a "poetic impression of the country at large"- Rickie-Ann Legleitner–University of South Dakota
"Free as the golden orioles:" Inspiring Natural Spaces and Constraining Urban and Domestic Spaces in Fanny Fern's Ruth Hall - Christopher Oliver–University of Virginia
The Mississippi Landscapes and Anti-Slavery Panoramas
1D ECOLOGY & ETHICS I (Fletcher 104)
- Moderator: Charles Greer—Indiana University
- Emily Howard--University of Michigan
Mansfield Park’s Soil and the Grounds of Knowledge - Barri J. Gold--Muhlenberg College
Energy, Ecology and Victorian Fiction - Margaret Wright--SUNY at Stony Brook
Prophets of Nature: The Nature/Culture Duel in the Victorian Novel
Refreshment Break: Scott Hall Courtyard
SESSION 2: 9:40-11:10
2A WORDSWORTH & NATURE (Broad Hall 207)
- Moderator: Keith Hanley—Lancaster University, UK
- Michael Moore–Wilfrid Laurier University, Canada
Troubling Pleasure: Wordsworth's Romancing of "Nature" in the Spots of Time - Michael Gamer–University of Pennsylvania
Changing Natures: The Pastoral Science of Lyrical Ballads (1800) - Anne Frey–Texas Christian University
Our Social Natures: Natural Description and Civil Society in Wordsworth
2B PAINTING NATURE (Broad Hall 210)
- Moderator: Susan Hiner—Vassar College
- Kate Attkisson–University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill
A Natural Artifice: Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice and John Constable's Early Paintings - Laura Hoeger–University of California, San Diego
Christ en couleur: Painting Pont-Aven - Corina Weidinger–University of Delaware
Fatigue, Degeneracy, and Pollution in Constantin Meunier's The Mine
2C INDUSTRY & AGRICULTURE (Broad Hall 110)
- Moderator: Chris Vanden Bossche–University of Notre Dame
- Stephanie Marcellus–University of South Dakota Reforming the Industrial: The Role of Agrarian Nostalgia in Elizabeth Gaskell's North and South and in Feargus O'Connor's The Northern Star
- Clare Mulcahy–University of Alberta, Canada
Wide Fields in which the Boys and Girls of Hampton Must Labor: Nature, Home and Work in the Southern Workman - Emily Lund–University of Minnesota
(Agri)Culture shock: Epistemic and Agricultural Expansion in the New World
2D THE SUPERNATURAL (Fletcher 104)
- Moderator: Keri Walsh—Claremont McKenna College
- Elizabeth Duquette–Gettysburg College, Panel Organizer
"Dead Letters, Dead Men" - Erin Forbes–University of Wyoming
"Voices from Below: Spiritualism and Social Life in Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl" - Stacy Margolis–University of Utah
"Dead Letters: Bartleby, Linda Brent, and Viral Opinions"
2E NATURE & RACE II (Fletcher 112)
- Moderator: Jennifer Camden--University of Indianapolis
- Charlotte Quinney–Bowling Green State University
Frontier Taxonomies: Scientific and Cultural Narratives of the Body in the Old West. - Kathryn Burns-Howard–Northwestern University
Religious Freedom, Alleged Insanity and the Nature of Family - Michelle Neely–University of California, Irvine
From Abundance to Scarcity in Nature's Nation: Preserving the "Native" in the Nineteenth-Century United States
Refreshment Break: Scott Hall Courtyard
SESSION 3: 11:20-12:50
3A BEASTS & PETS I (Broad Hall 210)
- Moderator: Sarah Raff—Pomona College
- Susan Morgan–Miami University of Ohio
Educating the Animals: Honourable British East India Company Schools - Edward Eigen–Princeton University
I see it! Do I believe my eyes? - Catherine Burton–Lehigh University "The most charming pets that can possibly be possessed": Canaries as Companions to Violence in Nineteenth-Century Literature
3B URBAN NATURES (Broad Hall 110)
- Moderator: Carolyn Betensky—University of Rhode Island
- Jane Correia–University of California, Riverside
Human Nature's Destruction of the Natural World in Zola's L'Assommoir - Brian Cooper–Hobart and William Smith College
Appetites Natural and Unnatural: Malthus, Travel Accounts and the Population Principle - Margueritte Murphy–Hobart and William Smith College
Urban Nature: Haussmann's Parks and the Experience of the Working Class
3C TRANSCENDENTALS (Fletcher 104)
- Moderator: Christopher Lay—Pitzer College
- Nicholas Marino–CUNY Graduate Center
Unsettling the Landscape of Imagination: A Mid-Nineteenth Century Ecology of Mind - Margy Thomas–Baylor University
Walden: Thoreau's Lesson in Tactile Reading - Jordan Watkins – University of Nevada, Las Vegas
"The Central Figure of the Visible Sphere": The Invisible Spirit and the Godlike Individual in Emerson's Nature - Kile Jones--Claremont School of Theology
Naturalistic Ethics and the Environment
3D THE NATURAL MAN & THE NEW WOMAN (Fletcher 112)
- Moderator: Jolene Zigarovich--Claremont Graduate University
- Lara Karpenko–Carroll University
Defining The Natural Man: Anti-Consumerism In George Du Maurier's The Martian - Katy Branch–University of Texas, Austin
Women's "Nature" in Indiana: George Sand vs. Rousseauvian Education - Janet Broihier–University of Texas, Dallas
Exotic Nature: The Femme Fatale in Pierre Loti's Le Roman d'un Spahi
3E WORK, WASTE, ENERGY (Broad Hall 207)
- Moderator: Barri J. Gold—Muhlenberg College
- Sarah Alexander–University of Vermont
Realism Revisited: Dickens and the Physics of the Novel - Suzanne Raitt—College of William and Mary
Work, Waste and Our Mutual Friend - Stella Pratt-Smith–University of Oxford (Balliol), UK
Fictions of Reality: The Literary Nature of C19th Electricity
LUNCH TALK: 12:50-2:10 - Founder's Room, McConnell Center
- Introduction: Laura Harris, Professor of English, Pitzer College
- Laura Skandera Trombley, President, Pitzer College
"Nature knows no indecencies; man invents them": Mark Twain's America
SESSION 4: 2:15-3:45
4A ECOLOGY & ETHICS II (Fletcher 104)
- Moderator: Andre Wakefield—Pitzer College
- Andrew Haslit--Indiana University
Winslow Homer and Adirondack Conservation - Joshua Mabie--University of Minnesota
The Ecological Roots of a Theological Crisis: Melville, General Gordon, and the Land of Milk and Honey
Charles Greer--Indiana University
Shannon Donnelly—University of Akron
James J. Hayes—California State University, Northridge Re-examining George Perkins Marsh for the
19th Century Roots of Landscape Sustainability
4B EMPIRE & RACE (Broad Hall 110)
- Moderator: Christine Krueger—Marquette University
- Rebecca Wigginton–University of Pittsburgh
The Colonial Gothic Landscape and the Body of the British Colonial Subject - Sharon Weltman–Louisiana State University
Unspeaking Nature: Race, Empire, and the Deaf-Mute in George Dibdin Pitt’s The String of Pearls, or the Fiend of Fleet Street. - Deborah Denenholz Morse—College of William and Mary
The Creole Beauty and Impure Nature: Racial Discourse and Fear of Miscegenation in Anthony Trollope’s Dr. Wortle’s School (1880)
4C EVOLUTION & the NOVEL (Broad Hall 207)
- Moderator: Johanna Smith—University of Texas, Arlington
- Liz Corsun–Transylvania University
Criminal Nature: Late Victorian Fiction and the Call of the Wild - R J Jenkins–Harvard University
Darwin: Novelist of Manners - Peter Wagner–Universität Koblenz-Landau, Germany
Between Devil and Reptile: The “Nature“ of the Jew in the Fiction of Charles Dickens - JoAnn Kelly–University of Washington
Inheriting Character: Problems of Progress in the Evolutionary Psychology of Herbert Spencer and Wilkie Collins
4D VISUAL CULTURES & TECHNOLOGIES I (Broad Hall 210)
- Moderator: Christine Penhale--University of British Columbia, Canada
- Michael Kramp–Lehigh University
Samuel Bourne’s India and the Natural Demise of British Imperialism - Brenda Mann Hammack–Fayetteville State University
Linda Bierds’ The Profile Makers: Neo-Victorian Studies in Photography - Jesse Hoffman–Rutgers University
In Memoriam and Tennyson’s Pencil of Nature
4E ROMANTICS & SCIENCE (Fletcher 112)
- Moderator: Beth Lau—California State University, Long Beach
Nicolas Robin–Leiden University, Netherlands
Heritage of the Romantic Philosophy in Post-Linnaean Botany- Kim Wheatley—College of William and Mary
Percy Bysshe Shelley and the Materiality of Nature - Irina Strout–University of Tulsa
Solving the Enigma of Ottilie in the Chemistry of Love in J.W. von Goethe’s Ellective Affinities - Ve-Yin Tee–Nanzan University, Japan
The Moral Language of Nature
FEATURED TALK: Benson Auditorium, 4:00-5:00
- Introduction: Deborah Denenholz Morse, Professor of English, College of William and Mary
- Robert Polhemus, Professor Emeritus in English, Stanford University
God Defying in Paint and Poetry: The “Speaking Nature” of Orozco’s Prometheus and Shelley’s Prometheus Unbound
RECEPTION: Living Room, McConnell Center, 5:15-6:00
ROUTLEDGE/ABES SPONSORED KEYNOTE LECTURE: Benson Auditorium, 6:00-7:30
- Introduction: Sumangala Bhattacharya, Assistant Professor of English, Pitzer College
- James Kincaid, Aerol Arnold Professor of English, University of Southern California
The Laborious Construction of the Natural Child