Download a PDF of an Overview of the Events Here!
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January 2023
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“Launching ‘The Genius Of Phillis Wheatley Peters: A Poet and Her Legacies’”--Scholarly roundtable kickoff (ZOOM webinar and recording)
January 31 2:30 ET, 1:30 CT (90 mins) Featuring speakers from TCU and UGA faculty in British Studies, American Studies, Transatlantic Studies, and related fields. From TCU, Brandon Manning, who will locate Wheatley’s place in African American literary history and Linda K. Hughes, who will reflect on Wheatley Peters’ crucial place in women’s transatlantic poetry. From UGA, David Diamond, English and African American Studies, will consider Wheatley’s original reception in and connections with Britain. Additionally, Zanice Bond from Tuskegee’s English Department(pending acceptance/confirmation), will address Wheatley’s impact on and relevance to civil rights and social justice issues.
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February 2023
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UGA Symposium on the Book, talk by Professor Kim Coles, University of Maryland--“The Blood of Christians: Phillis Wheatley Peters and White Christianity.”
February 16, 10:00 a.m. ET, 9:00 a.m. CT (90 mins) Co-conveners Dr. Sujata Iyengar, Dr. Miriam Jacobson, Ms. Anne Meyers DeVine/UGA; in-person lectureLocation of talk: Special Collections Libraries, Room 277, February 16th, 2023
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"Printing Early Modern Race: A Rare Books Workshop"
February 16, 2:00 p.m. ET, 1:00 p.m. CT (90 mins) Exploring books about race and enslavement, including a first edition of PWP’s Poems, UGA Special Collections Libraries, Room 277; livestreamed.
Presenters/Facilitators: Prof. Kim Coles (University of Maryland) Prof. David Diamond (UGA) Prof. Miriam Jacobson (UGA) Prof. Sujata Iyengar (UGA) Librarian Anne Meyers DeVine |
March 2023
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“Phillis Wheatley Peters in Material Memory”--American Antiquarian Society (AAS) archivists (recorded on ZOOM)
March 22; 4:00 ET, 3:00 CT By special arrangement of the AAS, join spotlighted presenter Honorée Fanonne Jeffers, author of The Age of Phillis.
This session also features print productions and ephemera contextualizing Phillis Wheatley Peters, her world, and her legacies as seen in print artifacts (Sarah Robbins/TCU and Barbara McCaskill/UGA with Nan Wolverton and members of the AAS Staff) For additional information, visit the AAS website here. |
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April 2023
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Book Talk by Professor Vincent Carretta: “Recovering the life of Phillis Wheatley Peters, 'A WONDER of the Age indeed!’”
April 3, 4:30-6:00 p.m. ET, 3:30-5:00 CT (90 mins) New and revised 2023 edition of his biography (organizers: Dr. Casie Legette/UGA, Nate Holley/UGA, and Lisa Bayer/UGA Press). Co-sponsored with UGA’s Colloquium in British Literature, the Mellon-funded Willson Center Global Georgia Program, and UGA’s Modernisms workshop (Susan Rosenbaum, Nell Andrew, and Rielle Nivitski). Livestreamed and recorded
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“Re-reading a Life: Responding to Vincent Carretta’s New Biography of Wheatley Peters”--A Scholarly Roundtable
April 4, 10:00 a.m. ET, 9:00 a.m. CT (90 mins) Scholars from around the globe, in English and other fields: livestreamed and recorded
Moderator: John Lowe, UGA Panelists: Tara Bynum, University of Iowa Keith Hughes, University of Edinburgh George Elliott Clarke, University of Toronto Lenora Warren, Cornell University |
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“Phillis Wheatley Peters: The Power of Words and Literature’s Global Legacies for the Future”
April 12, 6:00-8:00 p.m., CT (1 block in multi-hour event) Collaborative lecture for the Add Ran College of the Arts biennial BACK-TO-CLASS NIGHT, Liberal Arts at TCU 150: The Past, Present and Future. Registration for this in-person event required; contact TCU AddRan Dean’s office for information from Heather Confessore at h.confessore@tcu.edu.
Presenters: Dr. Mona Narain and Dr. Sarah Ruffing Robbins |
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“Race, Representation, and Self-Presentation in American Art.”
April 25, 1:00-2:00 p.m. ET This gallery tour, co-sponsored by UGA’s Interdisciplinary Modernism/s Workshop and the Georgia Museum of Art, will focus on the politics of race and representation in historical American art, inspired by Phillis Wheatley’s famous portrait and strategies of self-presentation in 1773. Led by Jeffrey Richmond-Moll, curator of American art at the museum, the tour surveys works from the eighteenth- and nineteenth-century on view in the exhibition “Object Lessons in American: Selections from the Princeton University art Museum.” Upon arrival, guests should check in at the welcome desk in the museum lobby, where the tour will begin. Parking is available in the museum garage (90 Carlton Street) or the nearby Performing Arts Center parking deck.
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“Interdisciplinary Connections for Studying and Teaching Phillis Wheatley Peters”--Commentaries and Conversations
April 26, 4:00-5:30 p.m. CT (90 mins) TCU teacher-scholars will share ideas for engaging with Wheatley Peters via approaches drawn from Girls’ Studies (Ariane Balizet), Science/Biology Studies of the Middle Passage (Molly Weinburgh), and Religion and Spirituality Histories (Alonzo Smith). TCU Campus (Palko 130)
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May/June 2023
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At the TCU College of Education: “DFW Writes Phillis Wheatley Peters”
May 31 or June 1, Time TBA Carmen Kynard and Sarah Ruffing Robbins facilitate a Wheatley-Peters-themed writing workshop for teachers attending the TCU College of Education’s Summer Literacy Institute: Embracing Literacies in Our Community. To promote student writing in response to the poet’s life and work, the session will guide teachers through multiple writing activities across different grade levels that engage and deepen students’ understandings of the social impact of poetics. The session will also prepare DFW-area educators in attendance to enable youth participation in a writing contest for elementary, middle, and high school students linked to celebrating Wheatley Peters in the anniversary year of her 1773 Poems’ publication. TCU CAMPUS (College of Education)
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August 2023
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Reading Poetry by and Inspired by Phillis Wheatley Peters
August 30, 5:30 pm - 7:00 pm In-person event at TCU Primary audiences: area teachers/secondary students and general readers This panel presentation will offer interpretive readings of poems by Wheatley Peters and of poetic texts inspired by her life and writings. Each presenter will offer commentary on a single poem, pairing, or related cluster, along with suggestions for teaching about and learning from that presenter’s chosen text(s). Reading and teaching PWP’s works can be challenging for a number of reasons, ranging from the original typography’s relative inaccessibility to today’s students and general readers, to audiences’ limited knowledge of the complex historical and cultural context of her authorship, to shifts in scholarly foci across time for study of Wheatley Peters. Thus, one aim of this session will be to spotlight both pathways to reading her work and ways that a growing number of other Black women poets have found special inspiration for their own writings and possibilities for teaching PWP indirectly through twentieth- and twenty-first-century poetic heirs. With recent publications often offering especially appealing/accessible opportunities for reading lyric poetry, linked to PWP the session will highlight examples of individual writings suitable for classroom study and/or book-club-type settings for communal reading. After the presentations, the panel team will address questions from the audience. Discussion materials will subsequently be posted later to “The Genius of Phillis Wheatley Peters” website in the resources section to extend audience reach and learning accessibility. Presenters: Mona Narain, Professor, English Department, TCU Kelly Franklin, Doctoral Student, English Department, TCU Linda K. Hughes, Addie Levy Professor of English, TCU Wendy Williams, Associate Professor, Honors College, TCU Sarah Ruffing Robbins, Lorraine Sherley Professor of English, TCU (moderator) Examples of potential poems for discussion, beyond those by Wheatley herself: June Jordan, “Something Like a Sonnet for Phillis Miracle Wheatley” Eve Ewing, “1773” from The 1619 Project’s creative writers Poem(s) by Alison Clarke from Phillis Poem(s) by Drea Brown from Dear Girl: A Reckoning Poem(s) by Honorée Fanonne Jeffers from The Age of Phillis |
September 2023
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“Poetic Legacies: Interpreting New Texts from Writers Inspired by Phillis Wheatley Peters”
September 7, 4:30 ET, 3:30 CT (90 mins) Dr. Drea Brown/Dear Girl: A Reckoning (Gold Line Press/USC, 2015); and Alison Clarke/Phillis (U of Calgary Press) (organizer: Dr. Sarah Robbins/TCU) moderated by Aruni Kashyap (UGA) hosted by Dean Sonja Watson. TCU Library; hybrid event including Zoom webinar access
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September 20 and September 27, 5:00 – 6:15 CT; 6:00-7:15 ET
Part I: Humanities Texas Webinar on Teaching Phillis Wheatley Peters (historical andliterary culture contexts; overview of major works) (Dr. Sarah Robbins/TCU, Dr. Barbara McCaskill/UGA, and Dr. Mona Narain/TCU)
Part II: Humanities Texas Webinar on Teaching PWP (representative close readings andpoetic analyses) (Dr. Sarah Robbins Dr. Barbara McCaskill, Dr. Mona Narain) Teachers: To register, contact Humanities Texas or the Georgia Humanities Council. |
October 2023
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“The Genius of Phillis Wheatley Peters: A Children's Literature and Family Literacy Panel”
October 17; 6:30-7:30 p.m. ET; 5:30-7:00 CT Georgia Humanities Council/Athens-Clarke County Public Library webinar on Phillis Wheatley in children’s literature, children’s historical texts, and picture books to address issues germane to parents, librarians, and elementary/middle school educators; presentations by panelists scholar-teachers of African American children’s literature, including longtime educator and literacy expert Joann Wood and Dr. Brigitte Fielder, University of Wisconsin-Madison, and Dr. Nicole Cooke of the U of South Carolina. [Hybrid Event--Online With Associated Watch Parties at TCU (and book giveaways!) and at the Athens/Clarke County Library]
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“Celebrating DWF Writes PWP”--In-Person only in TX
October 17, 6:30-7:00 CT Following the children’s literature panel outlined above, Carmen Kynard and Endio Lindo present awards for the winning entries in the “DFW Writes Wheatley Peters” contest for elementary, middle, and high school students. Event attendees have the opportunity to select a book from among those spotlighted by the panelists earlier in the event.
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November 2023
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Dramatizing Phillis Wheatley Peters
Monday Nov. 6, 7:00 p.m. ET Theatre and Fine Arts Building, UGA (in-person event)
Staged reading and adaptation of Mary Church Terrell's 1932 "Historical Pageant-Play Based on the Life of Phyllis Wheatley" Contacts: Dr. George Contini, UGA Theatre and Film, and Dr. Sujata Iyengar, GA English Dept. |
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“Honoring Wheatley Peters and Her Legacies: ReflectingBack and Imagining Future Work”--Scholarly Roundtable closing the 2023 initiative and envisioning future collaborations
November DATE/TIMC TBA Stacie McCormick (TCU); Anne Frey (TCU); Seretha Williams (UGA); Britt Rusert (UMASS Amherst); Online event
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Ongoing and "Afterlives" Programming
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Dr. Howard Rambsy. Distinguished Research Professor at Southern Illinois University-Edwardsville, moderates a “Remarkable Receptions” podcast about popular and critical responses to African American novels. He plans two podcast discussions of Wheatley in 2023: the influence of her work on contemporary Black novelists and a discussion of Jackson State’s 50th anniversary commemoration of the 1973 Black writers conference on Phillis Wheatley once held there.
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The journal for which Dr. Mona Narain serves as a Scholarship editor, ABO: Interactive Journal for Women in the Arts, 1640-1830, is very keen to possibly publish the national/international scholars roundtable discussion as well as the ISECS papers/talks as part of our “Conversations” section if participating scholars are interested in doing so. They would do a series in two different issues if there is high interest and participation. ABO is a digital, open-access journal published deliberately in a very accessible technological format but with all the possibilities the digital medium allows. It has a readership in over 170 countries and over 100,000 discrete downloads. The publication would reach many readers who do not usually have access to expensive print or subscription-based journals including the educated reading public beyond academia.
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