71st Annual Spring Conference Schedule

Memory, Myth, and Meaning: Cather in Dialogue with America 250

Each day of the spring conference schedule is accessible via the dropdown spaces below. Events marked with an asterisk (*) are open to the public. A downloadable spring conference program is forthcoming.

Thursday, June 4

Time	Event and Location
1:00 PM	Welcome and Opening Plenary: "Cancer and Caregiving: Willa Cather's My Mortal Enemy" with Heather Althoff*- RCOH Auditorium
2:15 PM	Session 1 Panel A: Memory, Myth, and Meaning in My Mortal Enemy- RCOH Auditorium
	Stories that Travel: Memory, Myth, and the Landscapes of Identity in Willa Cather's My Mortal Enemy Heather Gill, Independent Scholar
	Challenging Claims that "Only the stupid and phlegmatic should teach" in Cather's My Mortal Enemy LaVonna Reeves, Eastern Washington University
	My Mortal Enemy: Advertising and Critical Reception Laurie Weber, Independent Scholar
2:15 PM	Session 1 Panel B: Tactile, Visual, and Virtual Cather- Hotel Garber Conference Room
	Journey to Webster County: An Interactive Education Activity Nick Powers, University of Nebraska at Kearney
	Cather Behind the Glass: Willa Cather's Public Histories Nathan Tye, University of Nebraska at Kearney
	Artificial Intelligence Meets Willa Cather: Mythstakes Propagate! Scott Reynolds, Independent Scholar
3:45 PM	Plenary 2 "From Typescripts, to Magazine Novelette, to Book: The Writing and Publication of My Mortal Enemy" with Melissa Homestead*- RCOH Auditorium
6:30 PM	All Aboard: West-Bound Trains and American Culture Opening Celebration- Burlington Depot
	*These events are open to the public thanks to support from Humanities Nebraska and the Nebraska Cultural Endowment.

Friday, June 5

Time	Event and Location
9:00 AM	Scholarship Announcements and Reading of Award Winning Essays-RCOH Auditorium
10:30 AM	"To Think of All that Was Remembered and Retold": Educators in Cather's Red Cloud with Marcy Mahoney, Melissa Schuster, and Marisa Zornes- RCOH Auditorium*
11:30 AM	Lunch on your own
1:00 PM	Archive Research by pre-arranged appointment
1:00 PM	Session 2 Panel A: Philosophy and Religion in Cather's Work- RCOH Auditorium
	Sacred Blood on the Floor of the World in Death Comes for the Archbishop Sarah Junek, University of St. Thomas-Houston
	"A Subconscious Existence": Sublime-Sentimental Aesthetics and Character Psychology in Willa Cather's O'Pioneers and One of Ours Catherine Loop, Texas A&M University
	"Smoking censers and candles and stars": Catholic Sacramentals in My Mortal Enemy Amy Oatis, University of the Ozarks
1:00 PM	Panel B: Cather Herself- Hotel Garber Conference Room
	Every Stroke Has a Story: Seeing Willa Cather Through Her Handwriting Rolando P. Garcia, Independent Scholar
	Snob Appeal: Why Willa Cather, Like Myra Henshawe, Could Be Hard to take Robert Miller, Professor Emeritus, University of St. Thomas
	Out of Virginia Patti Burris, Northeast Community College
3:00 PM	Session 3 Panel A: Travel in Print and Practice- RCOH Auditorium
	"The Night Express," Red Cloud, and Syndication James Jaap, Penn State University
	Wish You Were Here: Willa Cather's Picture Postcards Katherine Hamilton-Smith, Newberry Library
	Go West, Young Man! Cather and Western Mythology Garrett Peck, Independent Scholar
3:00 PM	Session 3 Panel B: Literary Motifs- Hotel Garber Conference Room
	"snow was general all over": Western Snows and Repressed Loves in Cather and Joyce Matt Low, Brownell Talbot School
	Willa Cather, Fairy Teller: "And now, an Amethyst remembrance is all I own" Sally Ketcham, Independent Scholar
	Death by Drowning in Willa Cather: Confronting America at 150 Susan Wood, Midland University
5:00 PM	Gallery Artist Talk with Susan Hart- Red Cloud Opera House Art Gallery
7:00 PM	Invited Speaker Rebecca Romney "Willa Cather, the Archival Chain, and the Making of a Literary Legacy"* Romney's lecture considers the effects of archival collections are not formed accidentally. They exist through the efforts of individual people, archival agents who save material, become its long-term caretakers, and make it accessible for study. The decisions of archival agents, big and small, can cause ripple effects across the stories we tell. With Cather as our primary case study, we will consider some of the most impactful, unexpected, and exciting of these ripple effects. Book signing to follow
	*These events are open to the public thanks to the support from Humanities Nebraska and the Nebraska Cultural Endowment.

Saturday, June 6

Time	Event and Location
8:00 AM	Coffee and Kolache- Red Cloud Opera House Art Gallery
8:45 AM	Service at Grace Episcopal Church
9:45 AM	Concurrent Activities
	Prairie foraging with Adam Hintz
	Micro-Readers Theater: My Mortal Enemy- RCOH Auditorium
10:45 AM	Creative Panel: "From Page to Stage: Adapting Cather," with Brenda Withers and Jonathan Fielding of the Harbor Stage Company- RCOH Auditorium*
11:45 AM	Lunch on your own
1:30 PM	The Passing Show with Bridget Barry, Barry Bigelow, Will Fellows, and Garrett Peck- RCOH Auditorium*
3:00 PM	Book Signing with Brad Bigelow, Melissa Homestead, and Garrett Peck
3:30 PM	Concurrent Workshops
	Writing Workshops with Ana McCracken- Burlington Depot
	Collage Workshop with Susan Hart- Hotel Garber Creative Hub Workshop sign-up form can be found on our webpage:https://www.willacather.org/events/spring-conference
6:00 PM	Spring Conference Banquet
8:00 PM	The Harbor Stage Company presents The Bohemian
	*These events are open to the public thanks to support from Humanities Nebraska and the Nebraska Cultural Endowment.