Join the Alcott Society at ALA

Please join the Alcott Society at the annual ALA Conference on Friday, May 24th, 2024, at the Palmer House Hotel in Chicago. We are hosting three scholarly panels and a business meeting that day. 

Democracy and Gender in Alcott and Whitman (8:30 a.m., Salon 7)

Chair: Stephanie M. Blalock, University of Iowa

1.     “Androgynous Patriotism: Reconstituting Democracy through Trans Caregiver Narratives,” Eagan S. Dean, Rutgers University - New Brunswick

2.     “Alcott and Whitman: Gender, Democracy, and … Circus,” David Carlyon, Independent Scholar

3.     “From Orchard House to Central Park: Louisa May Alcott and Walt Whitman on Nature, Democracy, and Gender,” Marco Sioli, University of Milan

Respondent: Gregory Eiselein, Kansas State University

“I Had a Stage-Struck Fit”: Alcott, the Stage, and Performance (10:00 a.m., Salon 7)

Chair: Debra Ryals, Pensacola State College

1.     “Her Truth is Marching on: Resistance and Rebellion in Kate Hamill’s Adaptation of Little Women,” Sarah Wadsworth, Marquette University

2.     “Performing History: Reality and Staginess in Alcott’s Hospital Sketches,” Amanda Adams, Muskingum University

3.     “The Actor’s Voice in Alcott’s ‘Behind a Mask,’” Charlotte Lindemann, Stanford University

Teaching Alcott’s Writings / Teaching in Alcott’s Writings (2:30 p.m., Salon 1)

Chair: Joe Conway, University of Alabama in Hunstville

1.     “‘You talk much about justice. Let us have a little’: Gender, Labor, and Nature in ‘Transcendental Wild Oats,’” Lauren Rizzuto, The Willow School

2.     “Tomboys in the Classroom: Inclusive Pedagogy and the Tomboy Narrative,” Kristen Proehl, SUNY-Brockport

3.     “An Unstable Home: Education and Public Domesticity in Little Men and Jo’s Boys,” Anna De Biasio, University of Bergamo,

4.     “Bronson Alcott’s Pedagogy and Its Representation in Louisa May Alcott’s Little Men,” Roberta Pardi-Oláh, University of Szeged 

At the end of the day, we will be hosting the Society's Annual Business Meeting (5:30-6:15 am CT in Salon 1). Society members who are unable to attend in person may join the Business Meeting via Zoom at this link. We will provide Zoom attendees with an agenda, a chance to vote, and a way to offer comments and suggestions. 

Palmer House