International Emily Dickinson Conference at MHC August 12-15

As a member of Mount Holyoke's (then called Mount Holyoke Female Seminary) class of 1849, Emily Dickinson, who was a student here from 1847 to 1848, would be celebrating the 150th anniversary of her graduating class this year. What better way to mark the occasion than a gathering at her alma mater of more than 200 scholars and enthusiasts dedicated to studying the renowned poet's life and work.

From August 12 to 15, Mount Holyoke will serve as home base for "Emily Dickinson at Home," an international conference sponsored by the Emily Dickinson International Society that will encompass sites ranging from the poet's Amherst, Massachusetts home to libraries in Amherst and Cambridge with extensive collections of Dickinson materials. According to conference co-director Martha Ackmann, who teaches in MHC's women's studies department and directs the College's community-based learning program, "The conference will assemble more international scholars of Dickinson than at any time before."

Conference attendees are expected to present more than fifty scholarly papers on Dickinson-related topics ranging from biography and editing to feminist criticism to pedagogy. Alice Fulton, award-winning poet and MacArthur Award winner; Heinz Ickstadt of Free University of Berlin, president of the European American Studies Association; and Marjorie Perloff, renowned professor of English at Stanford University, will deliver keynote addresses. Participants will arrive from Argentina, China, Denmark, Ireland, Israel, Japan, and Turkey, among other places.

Dickinson lived her entire life in her family's Amherst home, which is now owned and maintained by Amherst College. The town of Amherst offers a wide array of Dickinson-related attractions, as the Dickinson family was an important part of its history. Conference attendees will tour the Dickinson Homestead; view the ongoing restoration of the Evergreens next door, where Emily's brother Austin Dickinson and his wife, Susan Gilbert Dickinson, lived from the time of their 1856 marriage; visit West Cemetery, where the poet and her family are buried; see exhibits at the Amherst History Museum; and tour both the Jones Library and Amherst College's Frost Library, which house extensive collections of Dickinson memorabilia and manuscripts. A conference highlight will be a reception held between the two Dickinson houses.

Day passes for the general public will be available through the registration desk at Buckland Hall. The cost is $10 per day for Thursday and Sunday and $30 per day for Friday and Saturday. For more information, contact Martha Ackmann at x2564.