Everyday Stowe: The Harriet Beecher Stowe Society’s 20th Anniversary Conference Spokane, WA June 24-26, 2016
Everyday Stowe: The Harriet Beecher Stowe Society’s 20th Anniversary Conference
Spokane, WA
June 24-26, 2016
The Harriet Beecher Stowe Society announces a conference celebrating Harriet Beecher Stowe—her life and works—at Whitworth University in Spokane, Washington, our first conference in the Pacific Northwest!
In Stowe’s short work, “The Cathedral,” she suggested that, “To be really great in the little things, to be truly noble and heroic in the insipid details of everyday life, is a virtue so rare as to be worthy of canonization.” Most often, she linked these “little things” to the cares and domestic duties of women in the nineteenth century, believing that each day was a struggle for women to exert control over their lives. Today, of course, we appreciate Stowe for being one of the first and most successful writers to combine personal sentiment with a drive to transform public policy. After all, Stowe’s Uncle Tom’s Cabin elicited vast social change by focusing much of its attention on the daily occurrences of the domestic household and familial ties, speaking to Stowe’s attunement to the “little things” in life while still connecting them to broader cultural problems.
This conference will examine ways that Stowe represented the “little things” that made up citizens’ daily lives as well as larger social and cultural issues in the nineteenth century. Conference organizers solicit papers that explore the work of Stowe through lenses such as politics, education, reform, race, and religion. Studies on the works of Stowe’s family members—Henry Ward Beecher, Calvin Stowe, Isabella Beecher Hooker, and Catharine Beecher—are also welcome.
In addition to scholarly presentations, dramatic performances, readings, and informal conversations are welcomed.
For further information about the conference, contact the on-site conference director: LuElla D’Amico (ladmico@whitworth.edu). Email 250-word proposals for individual papers (750 words for complete panels) by March 15, 2016 to the chair of the program committee and co-conference director: Marlowe Daly-Galeano at stoweconference2016@gmail.com
Note: Housing will be provided by the Whitworth University dorms at approximately $40.00 per night. Details forthcoming at stowesociety.org!
LuElla D'Amico, Whitworth University, ldamico@whitworth.edu