Orchard House 2005 Summer Conversational Series

Intensive Workshop and Teacher Institute

Our Esteemed Presenters …

GERALDINE BROOKS
An acclaimed Australian-born journalist and author of four books -- including the recently published March: A Novel -- Geraldine has also written a biographical overview of A. Bronson Alcott which appeared in the 10 January 2005 issue of The New Yorker.

"Learning’s Altar" -
Bronson Alcott as Educator at Home and at School

SARAH ELBERT
A Professor of History and Women’s Studies at the State University of New York at Binghamton, Sarah has authored/edited three books on Alcott, is a frequent presenter at the Summer Conversational Series, and resides in Ithaca, New York.

Absence of Color - The Alcotts and Progressive Education and Panel Discussion Participant

TRUDY J. HANMER
The Associate Head of School at Emma Willard School in Troy, New York, Trudy also serves as the school’s Director of College Counseling and is on the History faculty.

"A Girl’s True Voice" :  Emma Hart Willard and Female Education in America

MEGAN MARSHALL
Author of The Peabody Sisters: Three Women Who Ignited American Romanticism, a work supported by the Guggenheim Foundation and the National Endowment for the Humanities, Megan has published numerous articles on women's history and New England history and resides in Newton, Massachusetts.

The Temple School and Its Founding Philosophers: Bronson Alcott and Elizabeth Peabody

JOHN T. MATTESON
Assistant Professor of English at City University of New York’s John Jay College of Criminal Justice, John has also practiced as a litigation attorney and is currently at work on a new book entitled American Dreamers: Bronson and Louisa May Alcott.

Family as School, School as Family:
The Alcotts and the Subculture of Education

ANGELA G. RAY
Assistant Professor in Communication Studies at Northwestern University and author of The Lyceum and Public Culture in the 19th Century United States, Angela won the Gerald R. Miller Outstanding Dissertation Award from the National Communication Association for her thesis, upon which her new book is based.

Serious Play: Education and Entertainment in the Lyceum

DANIEL SHEALY
A Professor of English at University of North Carolina-Charlotte and author/editor of ten books on Alcott --including the newly published Alcott In Her Own Time -- Daniel resides in the beautiful Blue Ridge Mountains of North Carolina.

"This Remarkable Family" - Remembering the Alcotts and Panel Discussion Participant

MARY LAMB SHELDEN, Ph.D.
Currently Assistant Editor of The Writings of Henry D. Thoreau, Mary has contributed to The Louisa May Alcott Encyclopedia, while her dissertation, Novel Habits for a New World: Cross-Dressing in the Nineteenth-Century American Novel, includes a consideration of Little Women.

"A small offering to send" - The Holley School-Alcott Family Correspondence

LARRY ZUCKERMAN, Ph.D.
An elementary teacher for 10 years and a school-based literacy specialist for 22 years, Larry is now retired but continues to create Internet-based “literacy communities,” a project he pioneered nearly a decade ago.

Blogs, Book Reviews, and Bronson Alcott