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"Coming to Our Senses":Rediscovering Early America
Inaugural James L. and Shirley A. Draper Graduate Student Conference on Early American Studies
10-12 November 2005
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Graduate students in history and American Studies from around the United States will gather at the University of Connecticut and the American Antiquarian Society to talk about food, sex, travel, war, religion, and the encounters of diverse peoples in early America. Please see the program below. If you would like to register for the conference, please submit an online registration form.
Exploring a new field of scholarship – the history of the senses – the meeting will inaugurate the James L. and Shirley A. Draper Graduate Student Conference in Early American Studies. It is co-sponsored by the Draper Chair of Early American History at UCONN and by the American Antiquarian Society, a national library of American history in Worcester, Massachusetts.
The Draper conference, designed to promote scholarship and conversation among graduate students in the early American field, will feature presentations by students at institutions far and near, from UCONN, Boston University and Syracuse University to the University of Minnesota, UCLA and the University of Southern California.
Opening the conference on November 10 is Pulitzer Prize winner Rhys Isaac, Professor Emeritus at Latrobe University in Melbourne, Australia and Distinguished Visiting Professor of Early American History at the College of William and Mary. An expert on the cultural worlds of Englishmen and Africans that came together and shaped the intimate lives of colonial Virginias, Isaac will give a keynote address on “Paradigms of Everyday Life: Contexting the Sensory." The following day will be devoted to panels on such themes as "Learning to See: Visual Representations in Children's Literature” and “The Face of God: Religion and the Senses in Early New England.” The sessions will be held at the Thomas J. Dodd Research Center and are open to the public.
On the final day of the conference, Nov. 12, participants will convene at the American Antiquarian Society in Worcester, where they will discuss research opportunities at the library and hear a closing talk by New York University historian Karen Kupperman. A former member of the UCONN History Department, Kupperman is the author of several books dealing with the relations between English colonizers and native peoples. Her most recent book is Indians and English: Facing Off in Early America.
“Bringing graduate students and historians to the University of Connecticut for discussion of the latest issues in early America makes sense,” said Draper Professor Robert A. Gross. “Our History Department has great strength in this field, and thanks to the Draper fund, we will be able to host regular gatherings on topics of broad interest both to specialists and the general public.”
The Draper conference is being organized by UCONN graduate students in the History Department, who serve as the program committee for the event. Co-chairs are Ph.D. student Patrick Blythe and M.A. candidate Amy Sopcak. For further information, contact Patrick G. Blythe at patrick.blythe@uconn.edu or Amy Sopcak at amy.sopcak@uconn.edu.
PROGRAM
Thursday, 10 November, Dodd Center, University of Connecticut, Storrs
4:00 pm, Keynote Speaker: "Paradigms of Everyday Life: Contexting the Sensory"
Professor Emeritus at Latrobe University in Melbourne, Australia/ Distinguished Visiting Professor of Early American History at the College of William and Mary:
6:00 pm, Reception
6:45 pm, Dinner
Friday, 11 November, Dodd Center, University of Connecticut, Storrs
8:00 am, Continental Breakfast at the Nathan Hale Inn
8:30 am, Panel One: "Learning to See: Visual Representations in Children's Literature"
Chair: Laura E. Wasowicz, Curator of Children's Literature, American Antiquarian Society
Stephanie Schnorbus, University of Southern California: "Children’s Sensory Knowledge and the Rise of Illustrated Reading Textbooks in America 1720–1790"
Catherine Thompson, University of Connecticut: " Benevolent or Greedy: Physician Images in Early Nineteenth-Century Children's Literature"
10:00 am, Break
10:30 am, Panel Two: "The Face of God: Religion and the Senses in Early New England"
Chair: Christopher Clark, Professor of History, University of Connecticut
Susan C. Kim, University of California, Los Angeles: " The Life of John Rogers: Sectarian Visionary in New London, 1674-1721"
Katherine Stebbins McCaffrey, Boston University: "Materials in a Spiritual World: The Spectacle of Richard Mather’s Eyeglasses and the Things Puritans Carried"
Elise M. Ciregna, University of Delaware: "Somber to Lustrous: American Grave Markers, 1700 to 1830"
12:00 pm, Lunch Break
1:30 pm, Panel Three: "Sensory Encounters in Early America"
Chair: Daniel Cavicchi, Assistant Professor of American Studies, Rhode Island School of Design
Sue Ann Marasco, Vanderbilt University: “Corseting the Crescent: Establishing Gender and Moral Authority in the founding of New Orleans”
Céline Carayon, College of William and Mary: "The Construction of a Syncretic Repertoire for Communication in New France"
Gregg Lightfoot, Cornell University: "Ethnic and Spiritual Dimensions of the Stono Rebellion"
3:00 pm, Break
3:30 pm, Panel Four: "Fighting the Elements: War and Travel in the Early American Atlantic World"
Chair: Walter Woodward, Assistant Professor of History and Connecticut State Historian, University of Connecticut
Daniel A. Piazza, Syracuse University: “History and Memory in Schenectady: Depictions of the 1690 Massacre.”
Colleen Rafferty, Villanova University: "The Continental Army's Winter at Morristown, 1779-80: Tracing the Provisions Problem"
Sarah Crabtree, University of Minnesota: "'Her Daily Bread': Food and Society in Early Atlantic Sea Travel"
Saturday, 12 November, American Antiquarian Society, Worcester, Massachusetts
7:30 am, Continental Breakfast (Nathan Hale Inn)
8:30 am, Leave for American Antiquarian Society (Nathan Hale Inn)
10:00 am, The American Antiquarian Society as Research Spa: A Primer for Scholars and Fellowship Applicants
Joanne D. Chaison, Research Librarian
Thomas G. Knoles, Curator of Manuscripts
James David Moran, Director of Outreach
Caroline F. Sloat, Director of Scholarly Programs
12:00 pm, Closing Speaker: "Rewriting the Early Colonial Period"
Silver Professor of History, New York University:
The images are
courtesy of the National Library of Medicine.
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