Annual Gathering 2022: The Global Thoreau

The Annual Gathering of the Thoreau Society

The Global Thoreau
July 6-10, 2022
with an early Special Virtual Event on Sunday, June 12, 2022

SCHEDULE AND REGISTRATION PACKET (PDF)

Most sessions will be available by Zoom and recorded. The event schedule indicates which sessions are Zoom events.
* J. Drew Lanham (7/9 at 10:15 am) and Robbins House (7/9 12:30 pm) livestream events will be provided for by Minuteman Media Network.

Unless you’re a student, non-member rates increase by $55 or the cost of an annual membership.

Early Live-event Registration is $275 by June 17 (includes Virtual-event Registration) and then $300 by July 1 and $325 at event for Regular Live-event Registration. Your live-event registration entitles you to watch the Zoom webinars and the recordings of the Zoom webinars once they become available. You can also, of course, attend the in-person programs. $100 Student Live-event Registration.

Virtual-event Registration is $150. If you decide to attend in-person events, you can upgrade to the Live-event Registration. A $150 fee will apply (you’ll save $25 if you decide to upgrade after July 1). Your virtual-event registration entitles you to watch the Zoom webinars and the recordings of the Zoom webinars once they become available. It’s $55 for a Student Virtual-event Registration.

We do not want to turn anyone away because of financial need. To request a confidential fee reduction, please contact info@thoreausociety.org.

Sunday, June 12, 2022 | Pre-conference Session via Zoom

2:00pm – 3:10pm (Sun, June 12)

The Global Thoreau: The Invisible Cord that Binds the East and the West
Robert Pavlik, PhD, Milwaukee, WI, Moderator

• James Mathew, Milwaukee, WI
• Kent Bicknell, New Hampton, NH
• Anna Anil George, Kerala, India
• Alan Jacob, Edmonton, Canada
• Robert Pavlik, PhD, Milwaukee, WI
• Michael Lorence, Williamsburg, VA

Zoom Webinar
Speakers: Robert Pavlik, Michael Lorence, James Mathew, Kent Bicknell, Anna Anil George, Alan Jacob

Wednesday, July 6, 2022

3:00pm (Wed., Jul 6)
Registration Opens – Walk-ins Welcome
Masonic Lodge
58 Monument Sq
Lobby

4:00pm – 5:30pm (Wed., Jul 6)
Plenary Welcome Session

All Roads Lead to “Concord, Which is My Rome:” Greeting Global Visitors Every Day
Robert Thorson, Chair

• Like Being at the AG, Every Day, Corinne H. Smith
• The Solid Earth! The Actual World! Bringing Concord Stories to Life with Tangible Evidence, Victor Curran
• All Roads Lead to “Concord, Which is My Rome”: Greeting Global Visitors Every Day,” Richard Smith
• Educating and Entertaining, Beth van Duzer

Masonic Lodge
58 Monument Sq
Main Floor/Zoom
Speakers: Corinne H. Smith, Beth Van Duzer, Richard Smith, Victor Curran

7:00pm (Wed., Jul 6)
Conference Welcome and Announcements
Masonic Lodge
58 Monument Sq
Main Floor/Zoom
Speakers: Michael Frederick, Rochelle L. Johnson

7:30pm – 9:00pm (Wed., Jul 6)
Plenary Session

The Transcendentalists and Their World
John Kucich, Chair

• Robert Gross and Megan Marshall in conversation about Robert Gross’s new book, The Transcendentalists and Their World

Masonic Lodge
58 Monument Sq
Main Floor/Zoom
Speakers: Megan Marshall, John Kucich, Robert Gross

Thursday, July 7, 2022

6:30am – 8:30am (Thurs., Jul 7)
Excursion to Fairhaven Bay and Walden Woods
Peter Alden, Guide
Meet at the Municipal Parking lot on Keyes Road behind the Masonic Lodge for car-pooling. Return 15 minutes before the next sessions.

8:45am – 10:00am (Thurs., Jul 7)
Session A: Geology and Ecology
Dennis Noson, Chair

• Veer Ecology in The Maine Woods: The Excursion Form, Jake A. McGinnis
• Thoreau and the Physical Globe, Robert M. Thorson
• Distance and Lapse: Relational Ecology and Affective Humanism in Thoreau’s Journals, Ryan Dong Yang

Masonic Lodge
58 Monument Sq
Main Floor/Zoom
Speakers: Dennis Noson, Jake A. McGinnis, Robert M. Thorson, Ryan Dong Yang

8:45am – 10:00am (Thurs., Jul 7)
Session B: World Literature and Religions
Geoff Wisner, Chair

• Sauntering Through Global Literature with Henry David Thoreau, Donna Marie Przybojewski
• World Literature and Wild Apples: Teaching Literary Interdependence, Charmion Gustke

Masonic Lodge
58 Monument Sq
Lower Floor/Zoom
Speakers: Donna Marie Przybojewski, Geoff Wisner, Charmion Gustke

10:15am – 11:45am (Thurs., Jul 7)
Session A: The Global Emerson
Sponsored by the Ralph Waldo Emerson Society Austin Bailey, Chair

• “Show Me Thy Relations to Me, to All”: Ralph Waldo Emerson’s World Literature, Daphne Orlandi
• Emerson and the Sexually Creative Language of Seventeenth-Century England, Keegan O’Connor
• Aphoristic Emerson and the German Aphorismus: Reevaluating a Popular Form, Thomas W. Howard
• Confucianism in Transcendentalism: Ralph Waldo Emerson’s “Reform” as “Yielding” in Speech, “Not-Saying,” Julie Edewaard

Masonic Lodge
58 Monument Sq
Main Floor/Zoom
Speakers: Daphne Orlandi, Keegan O’Connor, Julie Edewaard, Austin Bailey, Thomas W. Howard

10:15am – 11:45am (Thurs., Jul 7)
Session B: Comparative Landscapes
James Finley, Chair

• Tracking Thoreau and Leopold, Keith Badger
• A Literary Taxonomy of Global Influence, or, A Tale of Two Ponds: The Lake District and Concord, and the Brave New Worlds They Created, Barbara Mossberg
• Thoreau’s National Park Idea Goes Global, Michael Kellett and Jym St. Pierre

Masonic Lodge
58 Monument Sq
Lower Floor/Zoom
Speakers: Barbara Mossberg, Jym St. Pierre, James Finley, Keith Badger, Michael Kellett

11:45am – 1:00pm (Thurs., Jul 7)
Lunch (on your own)

1:00pm – 2:00pm (Thurs., Jul 7)
Concord Museum Tour (pre-registration required)
David Wood, Guide
Meet at the main entrance of the museum.

Concord Museum
53 Cambridge Turnpike

1:00pm – 2:15pm (Thurs., Jul 7)
Plenary Session
The International Thoreau
Rebecca Kneale Gould, Chair

• A roundtable discussion featuring Robert Gross, Henrik Otterberg, and François Specq

Masonic Lodge
58 Monument Sq
Main Floor/Zoom
Speakers: Henrik Otterberg, François Specq, Rebecca Kneale Gould, Robert Gross

2:30pm – 3:45pm (Thurs., Jul 7)
Session A: Disability and Worlding
James Finley, Chair

• “Worlding a Broken Body in a Broken World,” Rochelle L. Johnson
• Embodied Wildness: Health and Illness in Thoreau’s Early Journal, Mark Sturges
• The Last Winter: Thoreau’s Kalendar and Disability, Kristen Case

Masonic Lodge
58 Monument SqMain Floor/Zoom
Speakers: Mark Sturges, James Finley, Kristen Case, Rochelle L. Johnson

2:30pm – 3:45pm (Thurs., Jul 7)
Session B: Live Long and Prosper
Rebecca Kneale Gould, Chair

• “Live Long and Prosper”: Was Henry a Trekkie? Beverly D Pittman
• “If I Am Not I”: A Thoreauvian Recovery from Brain Injury, Karen J. McLean
• Thoreau Writ Large: Living with Principle in the Anthropocene, William Homestead

Masonic Lodge
58 Monument SqLower Floor/Zoom
Speakers: Beverly D. Pittman, Karen J. McLean, Rebecca Kneale Gould, William Homestead

4:00pm – 5:30pm (Thurs., Jul 7)
Session A: “Where in the World is Margaret Fuller?”
Sponsored by the Margaret Fuller Society
Phyllis Cole, Chair

• “Woman Artist”: Margaret Fuller on Bettine Brentano-von Arnim and Friendship, Alice de Galzain
• I Found Your Note Here Several Days Since”: Margaret Fuller and Postal Delivery from Europe, Cheryl Weaver
• The Opposing Political Passions and Common Womanly Positions of Margaret Fuller and Costanza Arconati Visconti on the Eve of the Italian Risorgimento, Mario Bannoni
• Margaret Fuller in China, Julia X. Du

Speakers: Cheryl Weaver, Julia X. Du, Alice De Galzain, Phyllis Cole, Mario Bannoni

4:00pm – 5:30pm (Thurs., Jul 7)
Session B: Thoreauvian Global Perspectives
Robert Gross, Chair

• Counting the Cats in Zanzibar: Thoreau’s Literary Travels in Africa, Geoff Wisner
• A Far Azore: The Portuguese Azores in the Eyes of the Transcendentalists, Tammy Rose
• A Passive or an Active Reaction to the World: On Thoreau’s and Zhuangzi’s Seclusion, Xiujuan Yao
• Authoritarian Tints: Civil Disobedience, the Meanings of Freedom, and Its Twists, Carolina Maciel

Masonic Lodge
58 Monument SqLower Floor/Zoom
Speakers: Tammy Rose, Geoff Wisner, Xiujuan Yao, Carolina Maciel, Robert Gross

5:30pm – 7:00pm (Thurs., Jul 7)
Dinner (on your own)

7:30pm – 8:30pm (Thurs., Jul 7)
Plenary Session
Honoring Rebecca Solnit with the Thoreau Society Medal
Rochelle L. Johnson, Chair

• Rebecca Solnit will receive the Thoreau Society Medal and address the conference audience on “Thoreau: The Politics of Nature and the Nature of Politics”

Masonic Lodge
58 Monument SqMain Floor/Zoom
Speakers: Rebecca Solnit, Rochelle L. Johnson

8:30pm – 9:30pm (Thurs., Jul 7)
Emerson Society Social in Memory of Joel Myerson
Masonic Lodge
58 Monument SqLower Floor/Zoom

Friday, July 8, 2022

6:30am – 8:30am (Fri., Jul 8)
Guided Tour around Walden Pond
Robert Thorson, Guide
Meet at the Municipal Parking lot on Keyes Road behind the Masonic Lodge for car-pooling. Return 15 minutes before the next sessions.

Meet at Keyes Road
Speakers: Robert M. Thorson

8:45am – 10:00am (Fri., Jul 8)
Session A: Biography and Material History
Geoff Wisner, Chair

• The Unrequited Loves of Henry David Thoreau, David Gordon
• Kossuth’s Hat : War in Eastern Europe Comes to Concord, Brent Ranalli

Masonic Lodge
58 Monument SqMain Floor/Zoom
Speakers: Brent Ranalli, Geoff Wisner, David Gordon

8:45am – 10:00am (Fri., Jul 8)
Session B: Thoreau and the Poetry of Life</br/>John Kucich, Chair

• The Under Story: Poems in Places, David McCann
• Sense of Place in Darwin, Thoreau, and Fuller: A Poetry Reading Catherine Staples
• The Language of Forgiveness, Katrina Byrd

Masonic Lodge
58 Monument SqLower Floor/Zoom
Speakers: David McCann, Catherine Staples, Katrina Byrd, John Kucich

10:15am – 11:45am (Fri., Jul 8)
Session A: Louisa May Alcott Society Panel</br/>Sponsored by Orchard House</br/>Welcome by Jan Turnquist, Executive Director, Orchard House Rochelle L. Johnson, Chair

• Where in the World is Louisa May Alcott? Monika Elbert, Moderator
• Defining the Tartar: Reconsidering Alcott and Russia, Daniela Daniele (virtually)
• Old Story, New Ending: Crossing Transcendentalism with Ecofeminism to Conjure Cuba in “Pauline’s Passion and Punishment,” Jamie Lynne Burgess
• A Lifelong Dream: Little Women Traveling the World, Raffaella Cavalieri
• Queering the Feminist Icon: Louisa May Alcott and Iconography, Azelina Flint

Masonic Lodge
58 Monument SqMain Floor/Zoom
Speakers: Jan Turnquist, Raffaella Cavalieri, Monika Elbert, Daniela Daniele, Jamie Lynne Burgess, Rochelle L. Johnson, Azelina Flint

10:15am – 11:45am (Fri., Jul 8)
Session B: Thoreau, Contemplation, and Activism
Richard Higgins, Chair

• From Calcutta to Concord: The Impact of Henry Thoreau’s International Spirituality on His Friendships, Kathy Fedorko
• The Mystical Thoreau: A Global Call to Saunter, Daniel Medina
• Global Thoreau: Shaking the Foundations, Tyson Anderson
• Henry in Harlem: A reflection on Walden as a Resource for Teaching Mindfulness in Public Schools, Marc Martorana

Masonic Lodge
58 Monument SqLower Floor/Zoom
Speakers: Daniel Medina, Kathy Fedorko, Tyson Anderson, Marc Martorana, Richard Higgins

11:45am – 1:00pm (Fri., Jul 8)
Lunch (on your own) or nic on the Lawn with Educators (bring your own lunch)
Jayne Gordon, Faciliatator
Masonic Lodge
58 Monument Sq
Speakers: Jayne Gordon

1:00pm – 2:00pm (Fri., Jul 8)
Special Collections Tour (pre-registration required)
Anke Voss, Guide
Meet at the main entrance to the library.

Concord Free Public Library
129 Main St
Speakers: Anke Voss

1:00pm – 2:15pm (Fri., Jul 8)
Session A: Emerson and the American Renaissance
Michael Schleifer, Chair

• The Nonprosaic Mood: Configurations of “Quixotic” In/Sanity in the American Renaissance, Albena Bakratcheva
• Emerson’s Changing Perspective on the Problem of Slavery, Izumi Ogura
• The Ageless Emerson, Dan Lu

Masonic Lodge
58 Monument SqMain Floor/Zoom
Speakers: Michael Schleifer, Izumi Ogura, Albena Bakratcheva, Dan Lu

1:00pm – 2:15pm (Fri., Jul 8)
Session B: Thoreau’s American Contemporaries
Dennis Noson, Chair

• Thoreau and Douglass: Freedom and the Cultivation of the Soul, Marc Jolley
• The Overdue Defense of Ellery Channing, Theodore M. David
• Thoreau and Pumpkins: Best Friends, Brandon Hernsberger

Masonic Lodge
58 Monument SqLowerFloor/Zoom
Speakers: Dennis Noson, Theodore M. David, Marc Jolley, Brandon Hernsberger

2:30pm – 3:20pm (Fri., Jul 8)
Plenary Author Talk
Sponsored by The Write Connection
Rebecca Migdal & Richard Higgins, Chairs

• Ben Shattuck, Author Talk on Six Walks: In the Footsteps of Henry David Thoreau

Masonic Lodge
58 Monument SqLowerFloor/Zoom
Speakers: Ben Shattuck, Rebecca Migdal, Richard Higgins

3:30pm (Fri., Jul 8)
Doors Open
Emerson Umbrella
40 Stow Street

4:00pm – 6:00pm (Fri., Jul 8)
Screening and Film Discussion of Margaret Fuller: Transatlantic Revolutionary (64 min)
Megan Marshall, Facilitator
Emerson Umbrella
40 Stow Street
Speakers: Peter Reilly, Leslie Eckel, Megan Marshall, Katie Kornacki

6:00pm – 7:30pm (Fri., Jul 8)
Dinner (on your own)

8:00pm – 9:00pm (Fri., Jul 8)
Jesse Paris Smith Concert
Register for Zoom Webinar: Live-stream Ticket for Jesse Paris Smith Concert ($15)

Jesse Paris Smith is a writer, activist, musician, producer, and co-founder of Pathway to Paris. She has been composing, performing, recording, touring, and collaborating with other musicians and artists globally since 2004.

Emerson Umbrella/Zoom*
40 Stow Street
Speakers: Jesse Paris Smith, James Finley

Saturday, July 9, 2022

7:00am – 8:30am (Sat., Jul 9)
Memorial Walk at Walden Pond
Corrine H. Smith, Guide
Meet in the Walden Pond State Reservation parking lot by the Cabin replica.

Walden Pond State Reservation
915 Walden Street
Speakers: Corinne H. Smith

9:00am – 10:00am (Sat., Jul 9)
Annual Membership Meeting of the Thoreau Society
Please join us for the President’s Welcome, the Presentation of Awards, Election Results, and News from Orchard House, Robbins House, Thoreau Farm, and Walden Woods Project.

First Parish/Zoom*
20 Lexington Rd
Speakers: Rochelle L. Johnson

10:15am – 11:30am (Sat., Jul 9)
Plenary Session: Dana S. Brigham Memorial Keynote Address “Conservation and Social Activism. A Lesson from Henry David in Un-Silo-ing Nature,”
Dr. J. Drew Lanham
First Parish/Zoom*
20 Lexington Rd

LIVESTREAMS ON MMN
Speakers: Dr. J. Drew Lanham

11:30am – 12:00pm (Sat., Jul 9)
Group Walk to Robbins House
Join this marking of the 200th anniversary of Brister Freeman’s Death

• Maria Madison Welcoming Remarks
• Keynote Address by Kenneth Reeves
• Poetry by Danielle Georges, poet and author of The Dear Remote Nearness of You
• Kora Music by John Hughes
• Homecoming Ceremony by the Reverend Bertram Johnson

Picnic Lunch provided by Saltbox Kitchen (pre-registration required) Leave from First Parish

Noon – 1:30pm (Sat., Jul 9)
A Celebration of Brister Freeman
Co-sponsored by the Thoreau Society and the Robbins House
The Robbins House

• Kora Music by John Hughes,
• Poetry Reading by Danielle Legross Georges</li >
• Conversation between Elise Lemire and Steven Flythe about Brister Freeman’s Life and Legacy</li >
• Home Coming Ceremony led by the Reverend Bertram Johnson

Robbins House/Zoom*
320 Monument St
LIVESTREAMS ON MMN
Speakers: John Hughes, Danielle Legros Georges, Reverend Bertram Johnson, Robert M. Thorson

2:15pm – 3:15pm (Sat., Jul 9)
Plenary Session
Thoreau in an Age of Crisis
Kristin Case, Chair
Masonic Lodge
58 Monument Sq
Main Floor/Zoom
Speakers: Henrik Otterberg, Brent Ranalli, Dennis Noson, Ron Hoag, James Finley, Kristen Case, John Kucich, Rebecca Kneale Gould

4:00pm – 5:30pm (Sat., Jul 9)
Plenary Session
Richard Powers’s The Overstory and Henry David Thoreau
Rochelle L. Johnson, Chair

• Arboreal Narrative Time: The Overstory and the Art of the Journal, Cristen E. Ellis
• Understory: Thoreau’s Human Ecology of the Margins, John Kucich
• A Novel Way of Writing Trees, Richard Higgins
• Patricia Westerford’s Faith in a Seed and Thoreauvian Wildness in The Overstory: A Novel, Kathleen Kelly
• “And All the Trees of the Field Shall Clap Their Hands”: Contextual Reflections on Powers, Thoreau and the Sacredness of Trees, Rebecca Kneale Gould

Masonic Lodge
58 Monument Sq
Main Floor/Zoom
Speakers: Cristen E. Ellis, Rochelle L. Johnson, John Kucich, Rebecca Kneale Gould, Kathleen Kelly, Richard Higgins

5:30pm – 7:30pm (Sat., Jul 9)
Reception in honor of Dr. J. Drew Lanham
Dinner at the Colonial Inn
Concord’s Colonial Inn
48 Monument Square

7:30pm – 9:00pm (Sat., Jul 9)
Book Signing and Celebration
Masonic Lodge
58 Monument Sq
Lower Floor/Zoom

9:00pm – 10:00m
Informal Music Circle

• Bring your singing voice and (optional) musical instrument

Masonic Lodge
58 Monument Sq
Lower Level

Sunday, July 10, 2022

7:30am – 10:00am (Sun., Jul 10)
Canoeing and Kayaking the Concord/Sudbury Rivers
Jake McGinnis, Guide
Meet at Keyes Road
Speakers: Jake A. McGinnis

10:00am – 11:00am (Sun., Jul 10)
Sermon: Globally Transcendental
Sponsored by the Transcendentalist Council
Rev. Jim Sherblom
First Parish/Zoom*
20 Lexington Rd
Speakers: Jim Sherblom

9:30am – 10:45am (Sun., Jul 10)
Session A: Global Perspectives
Michael Schleifer, Chair

• From Henry Thoreau to Andrei Tarkovsky and Back: The Great American Thinker through the Eyes of a Great Russian Filmmaker, Nikita Pokrovsky
• Thoreau a Most Cosmopolitan Hermit, Alireza Taghdarreh

Masonic Lodge
58 Monument Sq
Main Floor/Zoom
Speakers: Michael Schleifer, Nikita Pokrovsky, Alireza Taghdarreh

9:30am – 10:45am (Sun., Jul 10)
Session B: The Plants that Henry Did Not Know
Deborah Medenbach, Chair

• Peter Alden discusses invasive plant species in Concord

Masonic Lodge
58 Monument Sq
Lower Floor/Zoom
Speakers: Deborah Medenbach, Peter Alden

11:00am – 12:00pm (Sun., Jul 10)
A Conversation on Life Without Principle
Jayne Gordon, Chair

• Facilitator, Barry Andrews

Masonic Lodge
58 Monument Sq
Main Floor/Zoom
Speakers: Barry Andrews, Jayne Gordon

12:00pm – 2:00pm (Sun., Jul 10)
Thoreau Farm Picnic and Events
Honoring Lawrence Buell with the Thoreau Society Medal
Thoreau Farm
341 Virginia Road

2:30pm – 4:00pm (Sun., Jul 10)
The Thoreau Prize for Literary Excellence in Nature Writing Honoring Dr. Jane Goodall
Welcome by Jesse Paris Smith
Live-stream Ticket for Jane Goodall Event ($15)
Rochelle L. Johnson, President of the Thoreau Society, Introduction and Presentation of the Thoreau Prize

Concord-Carlisle High School/Zoom*
500 Walden St
Speakers: Jesse Paris Smith, Rochelle L. Johnson, Dr. Jane Goodall

4:00pm (Sun., Jul 10)
This marks the conclusion of the conference.