We've got some sessions running this weekend at NeMLA. Here are the details on today's panels.
Northeast Modern Language Association 57th Annual Convention
Wyndham Grand Pittsburgh Downtown (Pittsburgh, PA)/Zoom
15.18 Twainian Regeneration: Adaptations of the Works, Life, and Legacy of Mark Twain (Part 1) - Twain and Time Travel
Organized by Michael A. Torregrossa, Bristol Community College, and Carl B. Sell, University of Pittsburgh
Sponsored by the Mark Twain Circle of America
Saturday, Mar 7: Track 15 (01:00-02:30 EST)
Disney's "Connecticut Yankees" (remote) - WITHDRAWN
Cindy Mediavilla, University of California, Los Angeles
A Michigan Loudmouth in a Primitive Screwhead's Court: Sam Raimi's Army of Darkness and Twain's Connecticut Yankee (in person)
Carl Sell, University of Pittsburgh
Dr. Carl B. Sell (he/him/his) is the Associate Director for McNair and Undergraduate Research Programs and is a Part-Time Instructor of English Literature at the University of Pittsburgh. His research explores appropriations of Arthurian legend narratives, characters, and themes in popular culture as an extension of the medieval adaptive tradition. He serves as a member of the advisory boards for The Association for the Advancement of Scholarship and Teaching of the Medieval in Popular Culture and the Alliance for the Promotion of Research on the Matter of Britain, and he is the author of journal articles and book chapters on Arthurian topics and DC’s Aquaman.
Resisting Closure: Continuations of Mark Twain's A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court (remote)
Michael Torregrossa, Bristol Community College
Michael A. Torregrossa (he/him/his) is a graduate of the Medieval Studies program at the University of Connecticut (Storrs) and works as an adjunct instructor of writing and literature courses in both Rhode Island and Massachusetts. His research focuses on popular culture’s adaptation, appropriation, and transformation of literary classics, including the Arthurian legends, Beowulf, Dracula, Frankenstein, Robin Hood stories, and Winnie-the-Pooh, and the larger corpus of writers H. P. Lovecraft, Edgar Allan Poe, William Shakespeare, and H. G Wells. In addition to these pursuits, Michael is the founder of The Alliance for the Promotion of Research on the Matter of Britain (2000-) and The Association for the Advancement of Scholarship and Teaching of the Medieval in Popular Culture (2004-). He also serves as editor for these organizations' various blogs and as moderator of their discussion lists and leads the development of their conference activities. Besides this work, Michael is active in the Northeast Popular Culture/American Culture Association (a.k.a. NEPCA) and organizes sessions for their annual conference in the fall. Since 2019, Michael has been NEPCA’s Monsters and the Monstrous Area Chair, but he previously served as its Fantastic (Fantasy, Science Fiction, and Horror) Area Chair, a position he held from 2009-2018.
Twain Explains Another Century in Kupperman’s Mark Twain’s Autobiography 1910 – 2010 (in person)
Wesley McMasters, Carson-Newman College
Dr. Wesley Scott McMasters is Associate Professor of English and Creative Writing at Carson-Newman University in Jefferson City, Tennessee.
16.18 Twainian Regeneration: Adaptations of the Works, Life, and Legacy of Mark Twain (Part 2) - Tom & Huck
Organized by Michael A. Torregrossa, Bristol Community College, and Carl B. Sell, University of Pittsburgh
Sponsored by the Mark Twain Circle of America
Saturday, Mar 7: Track 16 (02:45-04:15 EST)
Racial Adaptations: The Changing Historical Contexts of the Huckleberry Finn on Film (in-person)
Reynolds Scott-Childress, SUNY New Paltz
Reynolds Scott-Childress teaches cultural history of the United States with a focus on categories and practices of race and culture.
“We can just black them”: Giving Jim a Voice (in-person)
Robert Myers, Lock Haven University
Robert Myers is a Professor of English at Lock Haven University. He has published books and articles on late-19th and early 20th-century American literature. Myers’s most recent book, Reconciling Nature: Literary Negotiations of the Natural, 1876-1945 (SUNY Press, 2019), has a chapter on Huckleberry Finn.
“Tom . . . or wait, Jack Sawyer: Stephen King and Peter Straub Regenerate Mark Twain" (remote)
Abigail Sloan, Blue Ridge Community College
Abby Sloan serves as Associate Professor of English at Blue Ridge Community College, where she has taught since 2007 and advises the college's Phi Theta Kappa chapter. Her research interests range from Shakespeare to Stephen King.
Big Jim and the White Boy as a Palimpsestic Reimagining of Twain’s Huckleberry Finn (remote)
Seema Sharma, Jai Hind College
Dr Seema Sharma is Professor of English Literature at Jai Hind College, University of Mumbai. She obtained her BA, MA and MPhil degrees from University of Delhi and PhD degree from SNDT University, Mumbai. She was a Fulbright Postdoctoral Scholar at Stanford University (2015-16), where she was engaged in a research project on Mark Twain and India. During her tenure in the U.S., she delivered talks at several universities and public platforms, and published papers in leading scholarly journals.
