American Antiquarian Society
185 Salisbury Street
Worcester, MA 01609
United States
AAS is hosting a virtual conference that will bring together a range of scholars in conversation about new directions in textual editing and scholarly editions. Since the late 1960s the American Antiquarian Society has been a sponsor of the Cooper Edition, a scholarly edition of James Fenimore Cooper’s works with the seal of the Committee on Scholarly Editions of the Modern Language Association. The conference coincides with the two hundredth anniversary of the publication of Cooper’s first major novel, The Spy. Panels will address topics such as textual editing in the digital environment; the role of critical race theory, indigeneity, and the canonical author in textual editing and scholarly editions; and who should be involved in the creation and production of scholarly editions.
Textual critic and bibliographer G. Thomas Tanselle has written a special statement on the anniversary of The Spy and the value of the Cooper Edition just for this conference. You may read the statement here.
This event will be free thanks to the generous support of the Cooper Edition. We are also grateful to the Bibliographical Society of America for supporting this conference.
Tuesday, May 25
12:00-1:30 PM (EDT)
Panel 1 - "The Past, Present, and Future of the Scholarly Edition"
Cochairs and Keynotes:
Derrick Spires (Associate Professor of Literatures in English and affiliate faculty in American Studies, Cornell University) and Amy Earhart (Associate Professor of English and affiliated faculty of Africana Studies, Texas A&M University)
Panelists:
- Douglas Jones (Associate Professor of English and Assistant Dean of Humanities, Rutgers University)
- Joycelyn Moody (Sue E. Denman Distinguished Chair in American Literature, University of Texas at San Antonio)
- Kirsten Silva-Gruesz (Professor of Literature, University of California Santa Cruz)
Tuesday, May 25
2:00-3:30 PM (EDT)
Panel 2 - "Textual Editing in the Classroom and Beyond"
Chair and Keynote:
Elizabeth Maddock Dillon (Professor of English and Co-Director of the NULab for Texts, Maps, and Networks, Northeastern University)
Panelists:
- James Ascher (PhD Candidate in English, University of Virginia)
- Sonia Di Loreto (Assistant Professor of American Literature, University of Torino--Italy)
- Meredith Neuman (Associate Professor of English, Clark University)
- Sarah Robbins (PhD Candidate in English, Yale University)
Wednesday, May 26
12:00-1:30 PM (EDT)
Panel 3 - "Textual Editing Beyond the Print Edition of the Canonical Writer"
Chair and Keynote:
John Bryant (Professor Emeritus of English, Hofstra University)
Panelists:
- John Garcia (Assistant Professor of English, Florida State University)
- John McKivigan (Mary O'Brien Gibson Professor of History, Africana Studies, Indiana University)
- Joseph Rezek (Associate Professor of English, Boston University)
Wednesday, May 26
2:00-3:30 PM (EDT)
Panel 4 - "Textual Editing and the Future of Digital Editions"
Chair and Keynote:
Matt Cohen (Professor of English, Co-Director of the Walt Whitman Archive, and Affiliate Faculty in Native American Studies, University of Nebraska Lincoln)
Panelists:
- Christine DeLucia (Assistant Professor of History, Williams College)
- Jimmy Sweet (Assistant Professor of American Studies, Rutgers University)
- Robert Warrior (Hall Distinguished Professor of American Literature and Culture, University of Kansas)