60th annual Spring Conference and
15th International Willa Cather Seminar
“Fragments of Desire”: Cather and the Arts
June 5–11, 2015
Red Cloud and Lincoln, Nebraska
Friday, June 5th — Red Cloud
9:00 – 9:30
Welcome and remarks, Red Cloud Opera House Auditorium
9:30 – 10:30 Norma Ross Walter and Antonette Willa Skupa Turner Scholarship awards
and reading of winning essays, Red Cloud Opera House Auditorium
10:45 – 12:15 Panel Discussion, Red Cloud Opera House Auditorium
“Awakening Young Artists: Arts Education Then and Now”
Introduction by Tom Gallagher, President, WCF Board of Governors
Panelists: A.P. Andrews, playwright and instructor, New York University
Jane Dressler, vocalist and instructor, Kent State University
Patsy Koch Johns, performer and educator, Grand Island, Nebraska
Fritz Mountford, performer and educator, Hastings College
Audrey Kauders, executive director, Museum of Nebraska Art
12:15 – 1:30 Lunch on your own
Scholarship Luncheon in the Red Cloud Opera House Gallery
1:45 – 3:20
Rotating Activities at Cather Historic sites
Session A – 1:45 – 2:25
Session B – 2:40 – 3:20
• Kenneth Bé, art conservator, at Grace Episcopal Church
• Christine Lesiak, filmmaker, and Andrew Jewell and Janis Stout,
Cather scholars, at Harling House
3:45 – 4:45
Premiere of NET Television documentary, Yours, Willa Cather,
Red Cloud Opera House Auditorium
5:00 – 6:15
Keynote address, Red Cloud Opera House Auditorium
Richard Norton Smith, historian
6:30 – 7:45
Dinner, Red Cloud Community Center
Toast to National Willa Cather Center groundbreaking
8:00 – dark
3rd annual Wildflower Walk, Willa Cather Memorial Prairie
Meet at the prairie at 8:00 p.m. sharp!
Saturday, June 6th — Red Cloud
8:00 – 10:00 Coffee, kolaches, other breakfast items, Red Cloud Opera House Gallery
9:00 – 10:20 Worship service, Grace Episcopal Church
10:30 – Noon The Passing Show, Red Cloud Opera House Auditorium
“Enriching Human Experience: the Arts in Cather’s Life & Work”
Panelists: Timothy Bintrim, Saint Francis University
Angela Conrad, Bloomfield College
John Flannigan, Prairie State College
Elaine Smith, University of South Florida
Noon – 1:20
Luncheon, Red Cloud Community Center
“Spanish Johnny’s Cocina” featuring traditional Mexican-American fare
1:30 – 3:00
Concurrent Paper Sessions
Session A, Red Cloud Opera House Auditorium
“High, Low and Popular Entertainment”
Chair: Ann Tschetter, University of Nebraska–Lincoln
1. “Brave, Bawdy, and Bodacious: Vaudeville Babes Who Ruled
the Opera House Stage,” Ann Tschetter, UN-L
2. “‘Stage Celebrities Who Call Pittsburgh Home’: The Harry Davis
Stock Company, Lizzie Hudson Collier, and Cather’s Affiliation
with Isabelle McClung,” Tim Bintrim, Saint Francis University
3. “Dressing Up and Down: Crafts of the Flappers in Cather’s My
Ántonia,” Emile Cheng-Hsien Lin, National Taiwan Normal University
4. “Spotkanie z Modjeska: Cather’s Polish Encounters,” Sean Abrams,
University of Vermont
Session B, Grace Episcopal Church
“Gender and Sexuality”
Chair: Rebecca Parks, University of Portland
1. “Cather’s Queer Art of Failure: A Radical Reinterpretation of
Lucy Gayheart,” Rebecca Parks, UP
2. “Cather and the Male Narrator: Cross-dressing Into Privilege,”
Heidi Tribble, Bloomfield College
3. “A Lost Sexuality: Exploring the Sexual Economy in A Lost Lady,”
Ann Holen, University of Nebraska–Lincoln
4. “Regendering Thea Kronborg,” Amanda Ridder, California State
University, San Bernardino
OR
1:45 – 2:45
Dramatic Reading, Burlington Depot
A Westbound Train, by Willa Cather
3:30 – 5:00
Plenary Panel and Discussion, Red Cloud Opera House Auditorium
“The Song of the Lark”
Chair: Ann Moseley, Texas A&M–Commerce
Panelists: Mark Madigan, Nazareth College; Richard Millington, Smith College;
John Swift, Occidental College
5:00 – 6:00
Artists’ Reception, Red Cloud Opera House Gallery
The Growth of an Artist: Commemorating 100 Years of The Song of the Lark
6:00 – 7:45
Banquet, Red Cloud Community Center
Miriam Mountford Volunteer Award and Fifty-Year Service Award presentation
8:00
Live theater performance, Red Cloud Opera House Auditorium
Lark/Song, a theatrical retelling of The Song of the Lark
Written by A.P. Andrews and performed by Andrews, Kerri Lowe, Adin Lenahan,
Kaela Mei-Shing Garvin, and Alton Alburo
Sunday, June 7th — Red Cloud
9:00 – 10:30 Brunch, Red Cloud Opera House Gallery
9:30 – 4:00
Town tours
Seven-building tours at 9:30, 11:00, 1:30 and 3:00; meet at Front Desk
Country tours, meet at Front Desk
Session A, 10:45 – 1:15
Session B, 1:30 – 4:00
12:30 – 2:00 Lunch, Red Cloud Opera House Gallery
4:30 – 6:00
Plenary Panel and Discussion, Red Cloud Opera House Auditorium
“Lucy Gayheart”
Chair: Guy Reynolds, University of Nebraska–Lincoln
Panelists: David Porter, Skidmore College; Ann Romines, George
Washington University
6:30 – 8:30
Barbecue and performance, Burlington Depot
Folk music by Daniel Martinez
Monday, June 8th — Red Cloud and Lincoln Travel Day
8:00 – 9:00
Breakfast, Red Cloud Opera House Gallery
9:00 – 10:30 Concurrent paper sessions
Session A, Red Cloud Opera House Auditorium
“Cather and Performance”
Chair: Elaine Smith, University of South Florida
1. “Ántonia, Lena and Other Folks Who Dance in Cather’s Fiction,” Elaine
Smith, USF
2. “Interpretation or ‘the Thing Itself’? The Art of Performance in Lucy
Gayheart,” Florent DuBois, Université Paris-Diderot
3. “‘When I’m Eccentric, Catch Step with Me’: Playing with Musical Time in
Lucy Gayheart,” John Flannigan, Prairie State College
Session B, Grace Episcopal Church
“Cather and Temperament”
Chair: Peter Sullivan, Indiana University of Pennsylvania
1. “Cather’s Artists and the ‘Stupid’ People,” Peter Sullivan, IUP
2. “‘The Time is Very Dark’: The Psychological Context of Cather’s Ban
on Letter Publication,” Andrew Jewell, University of Nebraska–Lincoln
3. “Fracture and the Artistic Temperament in Cather,” Amanda Rodrigues,
Harvard University
11:00
2:00 – 4:30
Seminar participants depart Red Cloud for Lincoln
Lunch on your own
Check-in campus housing, Kauffman Hall (1400 R Street, Lincoln)
5:00 – 6:30
Plenary panel and discussion, Kauffman Great Hall
“Cather and Digital Humanities”
Chair: Melissa Homestead, University of Nebraska–Lincoln
Panelists: Gabi Kirilloff, University of Nebraska–Lincoln; Matt Lavin,
St. Lawrence University; Courtney Lawton, University of Nebraska–Lincoln
Seminar participants are invited to an interactive showcase of Cather-related
digital projects, followed by a roundtable discussion.
6:30 – 7:30
Dinner, Selleck Dining Hall
7:30
Cather Trivia!, Ploughshares Brewing Company, 1630 P Street
Hosted by Andy Jewell and students working for the Willa Cather Archive
Tuesday, June 9th — Lincoln
6:45 – 8:15
Breakfast, Selleck Dining Hall
8:30 – 10:00 Plenary panel and discussion, Kauffman Great Hall
“Cather’s Letters”
Chair: Andrew Jewell, University of Nebraska–Lincoln
Panelists: Becky Faber, University of Nebraska–Lincoln; Chuck
Johanningsmeier, University of Nebraska–Omaha; Janis Stout, Texas A&M
10:15-11:45
Concurrent paper sessions
Session A, Kauffman Hall, Room 110
“Cather, Brahms and Wagner”
Chair: Kim Vanderlaan, California University of Pennsylvania
1. “Brahms’ Requiem in Cather,” Kim Vanderlaan, Cal U
2. “‘Speechless Feeling’: The Wagnerian Sublime in Cather’s The Song of
the Lark,” Andrew Wu, Fu Jen Catholic University
3. “‘Empire of the Sand’: Venice, Wagner, and The Song of the Lark,”
Joe Murphy, Fu Jen Catholic University
Session B, Kauffman Hall, Room 112
“Death, Mourning and Performance”
Chair: Margaret Doane, California State University at San Bernardino
1. “Death Comes for the Cather Character,” Margaret Doane, CSUSB
2. “Cather and the ‘Art’ of Dying, Death and Mourning in My Mortal Enemy,”
Elisabeth Bayley, Loyola University of Chicago
3. “Death Comes for the Archbishop as Epic Performance,” John T. Jacobs,
Shenandoah University
12:00 – 1:00 Lunch, Selleck Dining Hall
1:00 – 2:30
Concurrent paper sessions
Session A, Kauffman Hall, Room 110
“Place: Region and Nation”
Chair: Melissa Homestead, University of Nebraska–Lincoln
1. “Live Property: Cather’s 1926 Revisions to the Introduction of My Ántonia
and the Specter of Nineteenth-Century Women’s regionalism,” Melissa
Homestead, UN–L
2. “Images Out of Fragments: Reflections on Cather, the Arts, and ‘These
United States’ in The Nation Magazine,” Kelsey Squire, Marquette University
3. “‘A sense of life over-strong’: Cather, Thomas Hart Benton, and New York
City,” Steve Shively, Utah State University
4. “‘Down by de Canebrake’: Willa Cather, Sterling A. Brown, and the
Racialized Vernacular,” Janis Stout, Texas A&M
Session B, Kauffman Hall, Room 112
“Thea”
Chair: Jane Dressler, Kent State University
1. “The Education of Thea Kronborg: Mastering “Nothing Very Real,’” Jane
Dressler, KSU
2. “Vital Thea Kronborg,” Sherrill Harbison, University of Massachusetts
at Amherst
3. “Cather’s Artist in Youth and Maturity: Kronborg and Sebastian,” Isabella
Caruso, CUNY Kingsborough
2:30 – 3:00
Break
3:00 – 4:30
Plenary panel and discussion, Kauffman Great Hall
“Cather and Teaching”
Chair: Steve Shively, Utah State University
Panelists: Charmion Gustke, Belmont University; James Jaap, Penn State
Greater Allegheny; Mike Schueth, Collin College
Evening
On your own, or choose from one of these options:
4:30 – 6:00
1. Nebraska Literature, Bennett Martin Public Library, 14th & N Streets, 3rd floor
The Jane Pope Geske Heritage Room of Nebraska Authors will be open for an
exclusive viewing of the collection, including Willa Cather materials such as
original letters and rare book editions. Heritage Room docents will be available
to provide 10-minute tours of the collection. The Geske Heritage Room
preserves and promotes works by and about Nebraska authors, past and present.
The collection contains representative samples of works by all Nebraska
authors, as well as unpublished correspondence, manuscripts, and information
files, photos, audio, artwork, and other memorabilia that documents the lives
and work of Nebraska authors. There will be an exclusive showing for seminar
participants until 6:00 p.m.
5:30 – 7:00
2. Art Installation, Constellation Studios, 2055 O Street
“Instructions for Seeing: My Ántonia”
An installation based on Willa Cather’s novel
Prints, text, and mapping by Barbara Tetenbaum
Cather Seminar Reception & Artist Conversation, 5:30 – 7:00 p.m.
Meet in Kauffman Great Hall with Tracy Tucker to coordinate at 5:00 p.m.
6:35 start
3. Baseball, Haymarket Park, 6th & X Streets
Lincoln Saltdogs versus Winnipeg Goldeyes, Independent Professional
Baseball League. Tickets at the gate range from $6.50 - $16.50
5:00 – 7:00
4. “Jazz in June” on UN–L campus
5:00 – food & crafts market on 12th & R Streets
6:00 – walking tours of campus gardens, east steps of the Sheldon
7:00 – music begins, west steps of the Sheldon
5:00
5. Tour, historic Wyuka Cemetery
Meet in Kauffman Great Hall with Kari Ronning to coordinate at 4:30
6. Hike, Nine-Mile Prairie
230-acre relict tallgrass prairie, home to prairie research conducted by
John E. Weaver, the pioneer of grassland ecology. Directions: take
O Street west four miles, turning right on NW 48th Street; drive north
five miles to West Fletcher Avenue; turn left (west) and drive one mile
to parking lot on the right. Entrance to prairie is across the road.
6:00 – 8:00
Dinner, Selleck Dining Hall
Wednesday, June 10th — Lincoln
6:45 – 8:15
Breakfast, Selleck Dining Hall
8:30 – 10:00 Plenary panel and discussion, Kauffman Great Hall
“Cather and Religion”
Chair: Charles Peek, University of Nebraska–Kearney
Panelists: Sarah Clere, The Citadel; Daryl Palmer, Regis University;
Kari Ronning, University of Nebraska–Lincoln
10:15 – 11:45 Concurrent paper sessions
Session A, Kauffman Hall, Room 110
“Popular Art, the Market, and Advertising”
Chair: Erika Hamilton, Humanities Nebraska
1. “Advertising Cather as Product,” Erika Hamilton, Humanities Nebraska
2. “When Cather’s Concept of ‘Culture’ Met Popular Culture: Lucy Gayheart
in the Woman’s Home Companion,” Chuck Johanningsmeier, Univeristy of
Nebraska–Omaha.
3. “‘Inimitable in Cheap Materials’: Cather, Popular Art, and Reproduction,”
John Swift, Occidental College
Session B, Kauffman Hall, Room 112
“Cather and Visual Representation”
Chair: Angela Conrad, Bloomfield College
1. “Images of Girlhood in American Painting and the Fiction of Cather,”
Angela Conrad, Bloomfield College
2. “Missed (?) Connections: Willa Cather and Mary Cassatt,” Ann Romines,
George Washington University
3. “The Artist in the House: Girlhood as a Lens for Paterian Aestheticism in
James’ What Maisie Knew and Cather’s The Song of the Lark,” Lauren
Tompkins, Gillette College
Noon – 1:00
Lunch, Selleck Dining Hall
1:00 – 2:30
Plenary panel and discussion, Kauffman Great Hall
“Cather and the Visual Arts”
Chair: Joseph Murphy, Fu Jen Catholic University
Panelists: Richard Harris, Webb Institute; Julie Olin-Ammentorp, Le Moyne
College; Kelsey Squire, Marquette University
2:45 – 4:15
Concurrent paper sessions
Session A, Kauffman Hall, Room 110
“The 1930s and Representations of Places”
Chair: Patricia Oman, Hastings College
1. “Plows on the Plains: Cather and 1930s Regionalism,” Patricia Oman, HC
2. “Failures of Visual Representation in The Professor’s House,” Sarah Clere,
The Citadel
3. “Imagined and Experienced Places: a Geographical Mapping of the Locations
in Cather’s Letters,” Gabi Kirilloff, University of Nebraska–Lincoln
4. “Senselessly Waster: Obscure Destinies and the Art of the Great Depression,”
Charmion Gustke, Belmont University
Session B, Kauffman Hall, Room 112
“ Voice and The Song of the Lark”
Chair: Max Despain, United States Air Force Academy
1. “Tracing the ‘Duration’ of Bergson’s Time, Memory, and Affect in Cather’s
The Song of the Lark,” Max Despain, USAFA
2. “The Singer as Artist: Cather, Fremstad, and the Artist’s Voice,” Sarah Young,
Benedictine College
3. “What F. Scott Fitzgerald Learned from The Song of the Lark,” Cristina
Giorcelli, University of Rome Three
5:00 – 6:00
Dinner
6:00 – 7:30
Keynote Address, Center for Great Plains Studies, 1155 Q Street
Terese Svoboda, author
“The Lark, and Those Who Escape”
Followed by a reception and book signing
Thursday, June 11th — Lincoln
6:45 – 8:15
Breakfast, Selleck Dining Hall
8:30 – 10:00 Plenary panel and discussion, Kauffman Great Hall
“Cather and Performance”
Chair: Sherrill Harbison, University of Massachusetts at Amherst
Panelists: Lindsay Andrews, University of Nebraska–Lincoln; Isabella Caruso,
CUNY Kingsborough; Robert Thacker, St. Lawrence University
10:15 – 11:45 Concurrent paper sessions
Session A, Kauffman Hall, Room 110
“Sculpture, Theory, and Biblical Art”
Chair: James Jaap, Pennsylvania State Greater Allegheny
1. “Cather and Augustus Saint-Gaudens,” James Jaap, PSU–GA
2. “Color Theory and Cather,” Samantha Greenfield, University of
Nebraska–Lincoln
3. “The Biblical Art of Cather’s My Ántonia,” Barry Hudek, University
of Mississippi
Session B, Kauffman Hall, Room 112
“Success, Character, and Morality”
Chair: Julie Olin-Ammentorp, Le Moyne College
1. “Artists’ Wives: Money, Art, and ‘Success’ in Cather’s ‘Coming, Aphrodite!’
and Wharton’s A Son at the Front,” Julie Olin-Ammentorp, Le Moyne College
2. “O Pioneers! as a Novel of Character: Revealing Alexandra Bergson,”
Laurie Weber, University of Nebraska–Lincoln
3. “Cather’s Moral Sense as an Artist: ‘A Wagner Matinee,’ ‘The Profile,’ and
Dorothy Canfield Fisher,” Kazuko Sakuma, University of Hawaii at Manoa
Noon
Lunch, Selleck Dining Hall
1:00 – 2:30
Concurrent paper sessions
Session A, Kauffman Hall, Room 110
“Literary Ecocritical Space”
Chair: Courtney Lawton, University of Nebraska–Lincoln
1. “Cather’s Invitation to Loaf: An Intertextual Treatment of Leaves of Grass
as Literary Artifact,” Courtney Lawton, UN–L
2. “‘The Princely Carelessness of the Pioneer’: An Ecocritical Reading of
A Lost Lady,” Emily Rau, University of Nebraska–Lincoln
3. “The Varieties of Aesthetic Experience: from the Beautiful to the Sublime in
The Professor’s House and Death Comes for the Archbishop,” Nalini Bhushan,
Smith College
Session B, Kauffman Hall, Room 112
“Vernacular”
Chair: Diane Prenatt, Marian University
1. “The Beaver at the Crèche: Cather and Vernacular Art,” Diane Prenatt, MU
2. “Cather and the Art of Naturalism,” Jennifer Thomas, Brandeis University
3. “‘An Artist in Her Way’: An Homage to Joséphine Bourda,” Mark Madigan,
Nazareth College
3:00 – 5:00
Tour and Gallery Talks, Sheldon Art Gallery, northeast corner of 12th & R Streets
Exhibition curator Lindsay Andrews, University of Nebraska–Lincoln, will lead
two exhibition tours through Cather and the Visual: The Writer’s Words, the
Writer’s Images. Please also browse the Sheldon’s permanent collections and
gift shop. Admission is free.
5:00 – 6:30
Reception, Sheldon Art Gallery, Great Hall
Heavy hors d’eouvres and cash bar
7:30
Performance, Studio Theatre, Temple Building, 12th & R Streets
The Fine Things of Youth: Words and Music from Cather’s Lucy Gayheart
Performed by Jill Anderson, Evan Bravos, Mark Kurtz, and David Porter
Conceived and directed by Tom Gallagher, President, Willa Cather Foundation
Performance price is included in your registration; guests $25 at the door
Dessert buffet and cash bar
This concludes the scheduled activities for the 15th International Willa Cather Seminar!
Thank you so much for attending—we’ll see you in Pittsburgh in 2017!