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Kimberly Burnett
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President and founder of the Catharine Maria Sedgwick (CMS) Society, and Salem State Professor Lucinda Damon-Bach, PhD, of the English department, will be presenting at the 8th CMS Society symposium from June 7 to June 10.
Along with Damon-Bach, who will be chairing two sessions and presenting one session, Salem State Associate Dean Elizabeth Kenney and Salem State geographic information studies graduate student Meghan E. Smith will also be presenting.
The symposium will commemorate the 150th anniversary of the American author’s death as well as the 20th anniversary of the creation of the CMS Society, founded by Damon-Bach and Victoria Clements.
Sedgwick (1789-1867) published 20 books and over 150 short stories, which earned her national recognition and international fame in the nineteenth century as one of the founders of American fiction. Her work is now included in all major anthologies of American literature for college-level study. The author society was formed to support scholarship and teaching of Sedgwick’s work.
The keynote address will take place on Wednesday, June 7 at 6 pm at the Stockbridge Public Library and is free and open to the public. The speaker is Mary Kelley, Ruth Bordin Collegiate professor of history, American culture, and women’s studies at the University of Michigan. Kelley is the former president of the American Studies Association and the Society of Historians of the Early American Republic. Kelley’s scholarship focuses upon issues of women and gender in 19th century America; among her publications are an edition of Sedgwick’s third novel, Hope Leslie, and The Power of Her Sympathy: The Autobiography and Journal of Catharine Maria Sedgwick.
The four-day symposium will continue Thursday through Saturday, June 8-10, at the Red Lion Inn in Stockbridge, Massachusetts, with sessions from 8 am to 5 pm Registration is $25 per day and open to the public. Scholars from 19 states will be presenting as well as some international participants; elementary and secondary school teachers are especially welcome to attend.