
Early-American highlights at the '006 MLA
American Literature to 1800 Division panels, Philadelphia, 27-30 December 2006

As a special note, the Division will be awarding its
"MLA Distinguished Scholar in Early American Literature"
to Frank Shuffelton at the New Approaches to Religion panel!
Also note:
Thursday, 28 December
297. Cash Bar and Awards Ceremony, American Literature Section
5:15-6:30 p.m., Grand Ballroom Salon J, Philadelphia Marriott
Thursday, 28 December
315. Early African America, 7:15-8:30 p.m., Independence Ballroom Salon III, Philadelphia Marriott
Program arranged by the Division on American Literature to 1800
Presiding: Joanna M. Brooks, San Diego State Univ.
1. "Pleasure Deep Down: Writing Love and God in the Poems of Phillis Wheatley," Tara Bynum, Johns Hopkins Univ.
2. "African Americans on, at, or near the Stage," Jeffrey Hamilton Richards, Old Dominion Univ.
3. "Maria Stewart and the Radical Dimensions of Early African-Atlantic Thought," Stefan Wheelock, Univ. of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh
Saturday, 30 December
642. New Approaches to Early American Interiority< 8:30-9:45 a.m., 404, Philadelphia Marriott
Program arranged by the Division on American Literature to 1800
Presiding: Christopher D. Castiglia, Loyola Univ., Chicago
1. "Rush to Punishment: Pits, Pendulums, and the Early Penitentiary," Jason Haslam, Dalhousie Univ.
2. "Apprehending Anxiety in Charles Brockden Brown's Ormond," Justine S. Murison, Univ. of Illinois, Urbana
3. "Friendship, Cannibalism, and Comparative Spaces of Early American Interiority," Ivy Schweitzer, Dartmouth Coll.
Optional field trip to BARTRAM'S GARDEN
Take a break from MLA! Join friends and colleagues for a field trip to Bartram's Garden on Friday, December 29. We will meet at 10:00 a.m. in the lobby of the Philadelphia Mariott and journey by public transportation to the famous home in Kingsessing (now West Philadelphia). Joel Fry, curator of the garden and a leading authority on early American botany and landscape design, will give us a guided tour. We should be back in Center City around 1:00.
Please contact Tom Hallock if interested, as plans may be contingent upon the weather.
Thanks to Tom Hallock for having taken the initiative to set up these arrangements for an Optional field trip to
Bartram's Garden on the Friday of the MLA -- and thanks, too, to Joel Fry for his willingness to show us around, weather permitting.