C19 Americanists

Life Writing’s Uses and Abuses Saturday, 10 January 2026 3:30 PM - 4:45 PM MTCC - 707 Presider Koritha Mitchell Boston U Presentations ‘No Schemes Too Wild’: A Quiet Reading of Black Women’s Life Writing in the Era of Slavery Ariel Lawrence, Emory U Elizabeth Keckley and the Crip Reenvisioning of Reconstruction’s Citizenship Practices Stephen P. Knadler, Spelman C ‘Who Is He That Would Become My Follower?’: Walt Whitman and F. O. Matthiessen Jay Grossman, Northwestern U Against the Clinical Gaze on Life Writing: Louisa May Alcott and Self-Narrated Gender Eagan Dean, C of Wooster

MLA Sessions: American Literature Before 1900 THURSDAY 8 Dickinson’s Kinships Judith Scholes, Saint Mark’s C and Corpus Christi C Thursday, 8 January 2026 12:00 PM - 1:15 PM MTCC - 706 38 Slight Forms Michelle Sizemore, U of Kentucky, Thomas W. Howard, Bilkent U, Nathan Motulsky, Columbia U, Rebecca Rosen, Murray State U, Lauren Santoru, U of Alabama, Tuscaloosa, Leah Thomas, Virginia State U and Holly Wiegand, Boston U Thursday, 8 January 2026 1:45 PM - 3:00 PM MTCC - 705 101 Poe and Games Philip Edward Phillips, Middle Tennessee State U Thursday, 8 January 2026 5:15 PM - 6:30 PM MTCC - 707

FRIDAY 199 Declaring Dependence Ben Bascom, West Virginia U, Morgantown and Ben Bascom, West Virginia U, Morgantown Friday, 9 January 2026 10:15 AM - 11:30 AM MTCC - 605 235 Thermal Melville Jeffrey Insko, Oakland U Friday, 9 January 2026 12:00 PM - 1:15 PM MTCC - 801A Melville and the Geopolitics of Reading Melville Society Friday, 9 January 2026 3:30 PM - 4:45 PM MTCC - 712 304 Technology and Late-Nineteenth- and Early-Twentieth-Century American Literature Heather E. Ostman, Westchester Community C, State U of New York Friday, 9 January 2026 3:30 PM - 4:45 PM [VIRTUAL] 338 Thoreau’s Revolutions Kathleen Coyne Kelly, Northeastern U Friday, 9 January 2026 5:15 PM - 6:30 PM MTCC - 707

Life Writing’s Uses and Abuses
Saturday, 10 January 2026
3:30 PM - 4:45 PM
MTCC - 707

Presider Koritha Mitchell Boston U

See pic for full list of titles and presenters

Also attached Thursday and Friday sessions on American literature before 1900

A Palestinian keffiyeh from Hirbawi made in Palestine is the background for an array of black white red yellow stickers with slogans about Canada not being for sale to the US

LLC 19th Century American Forum's Sponsored Sessions RESOLUTION!!!!!! Thursday, 8 January 2026 12:00 PM - 1:15 PM MTCC - 606 Description: To protest the MLA’s suppression of Resolution 2025-1, participants discuss how to organize, teach, and research nineteenth-century American literary studies with a commitment to staying and fighting; a failed resolution is a lack of resolve. Presider Xine Yao University C London Speaker Oliver Baker Penn State U, University Park Max Chapnick Saint Mary’s C, IN Jess Goldberg New Mexico Highlands U Alex Moskowitz Mount Holyoke C Martha E. Schoolman Florida International U

#MLA2026 #Toronto

LLC 19th Century American Forum's Sponsored Sessions

RESOLUTION!!!!!!
Thurs 8 Jan 2026
12:00 PM - 1:15 PM
MTCC - 606
To protest the MLA’s suppression of Resolution 2025-1, discuss how to organize, teach, research c19 American lit committed to staying, fighting

Presider Xine Yao

SATURDAY 376 Writing Poe Biography Emron Esplin, Brigham Young U, UT Saturday, 10 January 2026 8:30 AM - 9:45 AM MTCC - 705 410 Frances E. W. Harper at Two Hundred Kristin Moriah, Queen’s U Saturday, 10 January 2026 10:15 AM - 11:30 AM MTCC - 707 444 Margaret Fuller and Nineteenth-Century American Women Writers Observing Nature, Engaging Science Christina Katopodis, Graduate Center, City U of New York Saturday, 10 January 2026 12:00 PM - 1:15 PM MTCC - 705 480 1776 and 2026 Michelle Sizemore, U of Kentucky Saturday, 10 January 2026 1:45 PM - 3:00 PM MTCC - 206D

541 Towheads, Loaded Dogs, and Worms: Family Resemblances in the Writings of Mark Twain Edward A. Shannon, Ramapo C Saturday, 10 January 2026 5:15 PM - 6:30 PM MTCC - 206C SUNDAY 603 Family Resemblances: Hawthorne’s Extended Bloodlines Ariel Silver, Southern Virginia U Sunday, 11 January 2026 10:15 AM - 11:30 AM MTCC - 601B

See attached for the Saturday and Sunday sessions at @modernlanguage.bsky.social for American literature before 1900

@c19americanists.bsky.social @earlyamerican.bsky.social

The instructions for applying for a grant have gone out via email both on the C19 listserv and through the roster of conference participants in ExOrdo. Check your inboxes for more detailed information on how to apply!

There are also opportunities to donate when you renew your membership or register for the conference. But given funding cuts at many institutions, we do expect need to be high this year; and your generosity, while always very much appreciated, will be especially important this year.

Support the C19 Travel Fund Begun with the 2018 C19 conference, the Travel Fund is made possible by the generous tax-deductible contributions of our members. Travel Fund awards help defray costs for travel, lodging, and conferen...

We are now accepting both applications for Travel Grants for the 2026 Conference and donations to the Travel Grant Fund pool for distribution.
If you would like to make a tax-deductible contribution, please visit our C19 Zeffy page:

www.zeffy.com/en-US/donati...

I knew Fall 2025 would be labor-intensive in terms of teaching, so it’s all easier said than done, but this is also a semester exciting conversations with folk I admire. A couple more on deck!

ASA: American Studies Association
AAR: American Academy of Religion

My co-editors Andrew Taylor, Sarah Ruffing Robbins, and I are so proud of this latest book in the Interventions series published by @edinburghuniversitypress. The Asian American Renaissance: Literary Encounters Across Time by Mai Wang will change the stories we tell about US literary history.

19th-Century Americanists of North America! Will any of you be in Europe in Dec? I've been asked to draw your attention to the BrANCA conference in Paris on Dec 12-13. They would love to see some of you there! https://branca-2025.weebly.com/

19th-Century Americanists of North America! Will any of you be in Europe in Dec?

I've been asked to draw your attention to the BrANCA conference in Paris on Dec 12-13

They would love to see some of you there! @c19americanists.bsky.social

branca-2025.weebly.com

Cfp for special issue of J19, "Adaptations."

We've extended the deadline for submissions to our special issue, "Adaptations," to January 15th, 2026. Attaching the cfp here: please submit!

Frances Ellen Watkins Harper is 200 today! @c19americanists.bsky.social @digblk.bsky.social @ccp-org.bsky.social @blkgrlpoet.bsky.social @profgabrielle.bsky.social @npr.org She’s just as fabulous, relevant, and fiery now as she was in C19! For a sample, see commonplace.online/article/vol-...

2026 Conference CFP | C19 Society

Hello C19-ers! The deadline for submitting panel/roundtable or individual paper proposals for 2026 conference in Cincinnati is TODAY!

And the deadline for submitting a proposal to one of our seminars is SEPT 15TH!

www.c19society.org/2026-confere...

Issue 2.1 is out! Essays by @alicedegalzain.bsky.social & Peter Balaam; don’t miss our forum on higher ed now featuring Stephanie Foote, @jennifergreiman.bsky.social, @cnewf.bsky.social, & @samcohen.bsky.social

Read/circulate/submit:
thedialjournal.org

2026 Conference CFP | C19 Society

We are hard at work on the 2026 Conference Website. In the meantime, a reminder that you can find the CFP for panels, individual papers, AND seminars here:

www.c19society.org/2026-confere...

‘Whiteness and American Literature’, edited by Jolene Hubbs, is out today with Cambridge UP, featuring a chapter by me where I discuss whiteness in a bunch of extremely weird C19 novels and short stories! @c19americanists.bsky.social @ssag.bsky.social

www.cambridge.org/au/universit...

I guess I'm on the only @c19americanists.bsky.social watching the Sex and the City sequel series.

This is the most 19th-Century shit I’ve seen in all my years.

The 19th century abolitionist movement utilized a diversity of tactics and engaged in constant critical internal debate in the mission to end slavery. The movement needed speeches, lawyers, lawbreakers, newspapers, and armed resisters. History teaches us that freedom requires all of the above.

Frame from Alison Bechdel's new book, Spent. Ginger says to Sparrow, "Two weekends from now, I'm off to the 19th-century conference. Theme: 'The End: From Climate Apocalypse to the Dire State of Our Profession."

OMG, everyone, @c19americanists.bsky.social is in @alisonbechdel.bsky.social 's new book, #Spent! This is page 144!!! Published today!

Literally the only thing I want from my students is that they want to learn. That's it. That's the entire thing. Everything else is details

#TeachingC19 | C19 Society

Our #TeachingC19 series is a rich resource for careful, insightful thinking about pedagogy in C19 studies. We just published a new piece today by Jill Swiencicki

www.c19society.org/teachingc19a...

#TeachingC19 | C19 Society

Our latest #TeachingC19 essay is published! Read Erica Stevens, Ashley Rattner, and Julia Tigner collectively reflect on how pedagogy rigorously and responsibly engages online modalities and digital technologies during the age of "enshittification."

www.c19society.org/teachingc19a...

My NEH grant was terminated in service of a new focus on “patriotic programming,” but as an American and an Americanist, I know that resisting this dangerous decision and the broader movement of which it is a part is my patriotic duty.

Wrote abt it @newrepublic.com

newrepublic.com/article/1936...

All, this is an incredibly important story paper for American women writers, and NIU holds almost 1,000 issues. Every $1K they raise will allow them to digitize 75 issues! The fundraiser ends at 11:59 CST on April 3rd. Please help if you can, even just the cost of a coffee! #C19AmLit

#TeachingC19 | C19 Society

The first essay in the 2025 iteration of our #TeachingC19 series is published on our website! Read Margaretta M. Lovell's "The Narrative of Nancy Prince: Historical Facts—Artistic Fiction" here:

www.c19society.org/teachingc19a...

My grad students are asking for examples of historians who use literature to help make their argument. Who would you recommend?

Dear Colleagues, Please see the following announcement for the next C19 Virtual Event, which will be held on Wednesday, 4/9 from 3:00-4:30pm Eastern Time. C19 Virtual Panel: Asian American Studies in the Long Nineteenth Century Date: Wednesday, 4/9/25, 3:00-4:30pm Eastern Time Hosted by Xine Yao (Associate Professor, University College London) and Spencer Tricker (Assistant Professor, Clark University). Featuring Julia H. Lee (Professor, UC Irvine), Andrew Leong (Assistant Professor, UC Berkeley), Mich Ling (Graduate Student, Rutgers), Edlie Wong (Professor, Maryland), and Caroline Yang (Associate Professor, UMass).

Description: While the nineteenth century has long represented an important historical starting point for the study of Asian America, the field of Asian American studies largely remains focused on twentieth- and twenty-first century developments. In nineteenth-century American studies, analyses of the literature and experiences of people of Asian descent has similarly registered as a marginal concern, despite the fact that path-breaking works on these topics have productively complicated our understanding of the era’s racial politics and cultural production. Addressing these patterns of neglect, this C19 virtual panel seeks to reinforce scholarly networks first established at past C19 conference seminars and spotlight research, teaching, and community-building practices among scholars of Asian America in the long nineteenth century. It also provides a forum in which scholars can underscore–among other issues–the responsibilities of Asian American studies to reckon with longstanding histories of Asian settler colonialism, anti-blackness, and the complicated inter-imperial dynamics of our present moment, in which the abuses of both US and Chinese power loom large.

While the panel will center Asian Americanist scholars at various career stages, it strives to be a welcoming space to colleagues across the spectrum of nineteenth-century studies who are interested in deepening their knowledge of Asian American studies and/or looking to diversify their teaching materials in this area. The panel, held on Zoom, will begin with questions for the panelists before opening up to Q&A with attendees. Zoom link: https://clarku.zoom.us/j/96534831636?pwd=csRnDIa2CePExBRMNrWNv86ERST1cw.1

🚨 C19ers & Asian Americanists! 🚨I’m co-hosting

@c19americanists.bsky.social Virtual Panel: Asian American Studies in the Long C19

Wed 4/9/25 3:00-4:30pm EST

Ft Julia H. Lee (UC Irvine), Andrew Leong (UC Berkeley), Mich Ling (Rutgers), Edlie Wong (Maryland), and Caroline Yang (UMass)

Support the C19 Travel Fund Begun with the 2018 C19 conference, the Travel Fund is made possible by the generous tax-deductible contributions of our members. Travel Fund awards help defray costs for travel, lodging, and conferen...

With the CFP out, we are well on our way towards the C19 Conference in Cincinnati, OH on March 12-14, 2026! Please consider donating to our Travel Fund for C19 members with limited access to travel funding, especially graduate students and contingent faculty.

www.zeffy.com/en-US/donati...

A few fun things to know about this thing that already made you angry:

1.) Parrhesia program is direct result of a series of ad hoc committees who found student protesters were too disruptive when they shouted down fascists, blocked roads, & got shot by campus police. Parrhesia teaches civility.

The final has to be Ahab vs. Moby-Dick.

It is inevitable.