The Beat Studies Association

Panels & Conferences

BSA-Sponsored Conference Panels

2026

Modern Language Association, Toronto, January 8-11, 2026

Thursday, January 8, 1:45–3:00 p.m.

“Allen Ginsberg at One Hundred”

Presider: John Whalen-Bridge (National U of Singapore)

1. Jericho Williams (U of Alaska, Fairbanks), “A Prescription for Patriotism: Ginsberg and Censorship in an Era of Book Banning and Challenges”

2. Deborah R. Geis (DePauw U), “Yelp!: The Parodic Afterlives of Ginsberg’s ‘Howl’”

3. Eric Keenaghan (U at Albany, SUNY), “‘When You Change Someone’s Language’: How Beat Poetry Helped Shape ‘Gay Sensibility’ and Liberationist Discourse after Stonewall”

4. John Whalen-Bridge (National U of Singapore), “Late Ginsberg and Queer Temporality”

 

Saturday, January 10, 1:45–3:30 p.m.

“Remembering Allen Ginsberg for His One Hundredth Birthday”
Online plenary session
Presider: Hassan Melehy
1. Gordon Ball (Virginia Military Institute and Washington and Lee U), “Allen as I Knew Him”
2. Regina Weinreich (School of Visual Arts), “Remembering Allen Ginsberg: Guilt by Association”
3. Stevan Weine (U of Illinois, C of Medicine, Chicago), “Blessed Blessed Blessed in Sickness”

 

Sunday, January 11, 10:15–11:30 a.m.

“The Current State of Beat Studies”
Presider: Erik Mortenson (Lake Michigan C)
1. David Stephen Calonne (Eastern Michigan U), “Diane di Prima and Ancient Greek Literature”
2. Marianna Hagler (U of Michigan, Ann Arbor), “Anne Waldman’s Mind Grammar”

2025

The Louisville Conference on Literature and Culture, February 20-22

“Allen Ginsberg’s ‘Howl’ at 70″

Chair: Deborah R. Geis, DePauw University

1. “Homage and Subversion: ‘Howl’ in Parodies and Performance Poetry,” Deborah R. Geis, DePauw University

2. “What You Might Not Know About ‘Howl,’” Kurt Hemmer, Harper College

3. “‘Who Scribbled All Night’: The Aesthetics of Cool in Ginsberg’s ‘Howl,’ Daniel Wartham, University of South Carolina

American Literature Association, Boston, May 21-24

“How a Scholarly Community Makes an Edited Book, e.g. Rethinking Kerouac: Afterlives, Continuities”

Chair: John Whalen-Bridge, National University of Singapore

1. Erik Mortenson, Lake Michigan College

2. Aldon Lynn Nielsen, Pennsylvania State University

3. Kurt Hemmer, Harper College

“Beats and Morocco: Insiders and Outsiders”

Chair: Ronna Johnson, Tufts University

1. “Ira Cohen and the Making of Gnaoua,” Jane Falk, Retired, University of Akron

2. “Real Red Fezzes: Jack Kerouac in Tangier,” Jimmy Fazzino, University of Maine

3. “Brion Gysin/The Beats/Tangier,” Allen Hibbard, Professor Emeritus, Middle Tennessee State University

2024

Louisville Conference on Literature and Culture, February 20-25

“Allen Ginsberg’s ‘Howl’ at 70”

Chair: Deborah R. Geis, DePauw University

1.“Homage and Subversion: ‘Howl’ in Parodies and Performance Poetry,” Deborah R. Geis, DePauw University

2.“What You Might Not Know About ‘Howl,’” Kurt Hemmer, Harper College

3.“‘Who Scribbled All Night’: The Aesthetics of Cool in Ginsberg’s ‘Howl,’” Daniel Wartham, University of South Carolina

 

American Literature Association, Chicago, May 23-26

“Discovering Some New Unspeakable Visions: Kerouac, Burroughs, Ginsberg”

Chair: Kurt Hemmer, Harper College

1. “Kerouac’s Spontaneous Poetics in Letters,” Nicholas Skaldetvind, University of North Dakota

2. “Self-Invented Yankee Tantra: The Dharma of William S. Burroughs,” Robert W. Jones II, Louisiana State University Eunice

 

“Beating Through the Archives: Kerouac, Ginsberg, Corso”

Chair: Don Heneghan, Independent Scholar

1. “‘Is the Sea Really So Bad?’: The Untold Story of Jack Kerouac and Big Sur,” Brett Sigurdson, University of Minnesota

2. “Trauma, Struggle, and the Beat Literary Imagination,” Stevan M. Weine, University of Illinois College of Medicine

3. “The Beginning of a Beautiful Friendship: Gregory Corso Meets Allen Ginsberg,” Kurt Hemmer, Harper College

 

2023

Modern Language Association, San Francisco, January 5-8, 2023

“San Francisco and the Beat Generation”
Friday, January 6, 3:30–4:45

Presider: Mary Paniccia Carden, Pennsylvania Western U

Presentations:
“Diane di Prima and ruth weiss”
Mary Paniccia Carden, Pennsylvania Western U
“Joanne Kyger and Michael McClure”
Jane Falk, U of Akron
“Jack Kerouac and Lawrence Ferlinghetti”
Hassan Melehy, U of North Carolina, Chapel Hil
“Gary Snyder”
John Whalen-Bridge, National U of Singapore
Bob Kaufman and Gregory Corso
Maria Damon, Pratt Inst.
“Allen Ginsberg”
Timothy Hampton, U of California, Berkeley

Louisville Conference on Literature and Culture, Chicago, February 20-25

Revisiting the Canonical Beats
Chair: Deborah R. Geis, DePauw University

1. “Kerouac and Memory,” Erik Mortenson, Lake Michigan College
2. “’I don’t know what I’m doing with poetry’: Kerouac’s and Ginsberg’s Letters on Howl,” Deborah R. Geis, DePauw University
3. “Inventing Gregory: Nunzio Corso’s Times in Prisons,” Kurt Hemmer, Harper College

2022

Beat Studies Association Conference: The Jack Kerouac Centenary

Palatine, IL, November 3-4

2022

American Literature Association Conference, Chicago, May 26-29

Kerouac and Friends: Jack Kerouac’s Relationships with Writers Reassessed at His Centenary.

A discussion session with an emphasis on audience participation.

Chair: John Whalen-Bridge, National University of Singapore

1. Erik Mortenson, Lake Michigan College

2. Maggie McKinley, Harper College

3. Robert W. Jones II, Louisiana State University, Eunice

4. Kurt Hemmer, Harper College

2020

Louisville Conference on Literature and Culture Since 1900, February 20-22

Beat Generation Writers and the Visual Arts
Chair: Deborah R. Geis, DePauw University

1. “The Visual Art of Ted Joans: The Hipsters and the Beats, “Leslie Curtis, John Carroll University
2. “Robert Crumb and the Beats, “David Calonne, Eastern Michigan University
3. “Harvey Pekar’s Cranky Graphic History of the Beats,” Deborah R. Geis, DePauw University

2019

American Literature Association Conference, Boston, May 23-26

Gender and Genre in Ginsberg, Kyger, and Whalen
Chair: John Whalen-Bridge, Univ. of Singapore
1. . “Body Politics in Allen Ginsberg’s Howl,” Ashley Thorup, McGill Univ
2. “Allen Ginsberg’s Weird Ecology,” Todd F. Tietchen, Univ. of Massachusetts-Lowell
3. “`trying to open/the path of rhythm with rhythm’: Joanne Kyger’s Prosodic Revelations,”
Timothy Gray, College of Staten Island-CUNY
4. “Philip Whalen’s Novels: `A Vision of the Total Book,’” Jane Falk, Univ. of Akron

(Re)visions of Kerouac
Chair: Ronna Johnson, Tufts Univ.
1. “Jack Kerouac’s On the Road Revisions and `the Magic Mothswarm of Heaven,’” Ryan Slesinger, Oklahoma State Univ.
2. “Manufacturing Meaning: Altering Perspectives and Shifting Contexts in Desolation Angels,”
Steven Defehr, Univ. of British Columbia
3. “Beat Buddhist Poetics: Paradoxical Forms in Ginsberg and Kerouac,” Michael Sanders, Washington Univ.-St. Louis

Louisville Conference on Literature and Culture Since 1900, February 23-25

Beat Poetry and the Cultural Imagination

1. “Becoming Ted Joans: A Radical Transformation into a Beat Poet, “Kurt Hemmer, Harper College
2. “Prometheus Revisited: On the Modernism of Gregory Corso’s Bomb, “Gregor Baszak, Univ. of Illinois-Chicago
3. “Feed Your Head: Allen Ginsberg’s Poetry and the Beat Recipe Book, “Deborah R. Geis, DePauw University \

2018

Modern Language Association Annual Meeting, New York City, Jan. 4-6

1. “Jack Kerouac and the Language of Populism,” Nancy M. Grace, College of Wooster
2.“Gregory Corso’s The Happy Birthday of Death (1960),” Ronna C.Johnson, Tufts University
3. “Black Chant:” Languages of African-American Postmodernism in his paper “KULCHUR Wars: LeRoi Jones,” Aldon L. Nielsen, Penn State

American Literature Association Annual Conference, San Francisco.

Beat Roots: Burroughs, Kerouac, di Prima, and Self-Identification

Organized by the Beat Studies Association Chair: Todd Hoffman, Augusta University

  1. “Burroughs’ Image/Word Virus and the AIDS Crisis,” Michael Lindsay-Chiappini, Case Western Reserve University
  2. “‘Bum’ as Societal Model: Kerouac’s Ecology of Internal Restructuring in The Dharma Bums,” Allison Douglass, Graduate Center, CUNY
  3. “What Place Nostalgia? Diane di Prima’s Italian-American Legacy,” Roseanne Giannini Quinn, De Anza College
  4. “Existentialism/Posthumanism: William Burroughs’ Challenge to Jean-Paul Sartre,” Todd Hoffman, Augusta University

2017

American Literature Association Annual Conference

“New Directions in Beat Studies”
Chair: Ronna Johnson, Tufts University

  1. “Michael McClure and Independent Film,” Jane Falk, University of Akron
  2. “‘Now My Garden is Gone’: Allen Ginsberg’s nostos,” Anna Aublet, Universite de Paris
  3. “Re-Orienting the Beats,” Matthew Packer, Buena Vista University

“Kerouac and Kerouac: Legacies”
Chair: Nancy Grace, College of Wooster

  1. “Le Club Jack Kerouac,” Sara Villa, John Abbott College
  2. “Kerouac’s Fathers and Sons: Masculine Lineage in Jack Kerouac’s The Sea is My Brother and The Haunted Life,” Daniel Dissinger, Univ. of Southern California
  3. “A Road of Her Own: Jan Kerouac’s Trilogy,” Laura Kuhlman, University of Iowa

The 45th Annual Louisville Conference on Literature and Culture Since 1900, February 23-25

Sponsored by the Beat Studies Association

Presiding: Deborah Geis, DePauw University

  1. Deborah Geis, DePauw University, ” ‘Highs! Epiphanies! Despairs!’: The Beats as Performance Poets”
  2. Alan Gravano, Shawnee State University: “Challenging Conventional Definitions of Multiethnic Writing in Ferlinghetti and di Prima”
  3. Aimee Allard, University of Nebraska-Lincoln: “From the Soiled to the Sacred: Dust in Jack Kerouac’s On the Road”
  4. Erik Mortenson, Wayne State University: “Making a Case for Reception in Beat Studies: The Beats in Turkey”

2016

Louisville Conference BSA Panel:

“Beat Generation Writers: From Private Obsessions to Public Performance”

Chair: Deborah R. Geis, DePauw University
1. Kurt Hemmer, Harper College:  “Outlaw Visions: Billy the Kid in the Work of Michael McClure”
2. Kyle Garton-Gundling (Univ. of Illinois): “Ambivalent Dharma Bums: Jack Kerouac’s and Gary Snyder’s Struggle with American Buddhism.”
3. William Nesbitt, Beacon College: “‘I’ve Failed Them All’: William Burroughs and the Enunciation of Silence”

2015 

Louisville Conference BSA Panel

“Theatre/Film Crossovers in the Beat Generation”

Chair:  Deborah R. Geis, DePauw University

1. Nancy Grace, Wooster College: “Diane di Prima as Playwright”

2. Jane Falk, University of Akron: “Beats and Independent Film: Collaboration and Interdisciplinarity”

3. Michael Hennessey, University of Cincinnati: “Ginsberg and Corso Go Hollywood”

2014

Beat Writing and the American Counterculture Organized by the Beat Studies Association

Chair: Tatum Petrich, Montclair State University

  1. “Countercultural Writers’ Love/Hate Relationships with the USA: The Case of Gary Snyder,” John Whalen-Bridge, National University of Singapore
  2. “Kool-Aid Reality: Shaping the Subject of Trout Fishing in America,” Sean Bolton, National Chiao Tung University
  3. “`One Plus One Equals Three’: William S. Burroughs, Brion Gysin, and The Third Mind,” William Nesbitt, Beacon College

The Beats and Public/Private Identities Organized by the Beat Studies Association

Chair: John Whalen-Bridge, National University of Singapore

  1. “`I Have Got Plenty of Nothing’: Brenda Frazer’s Troia: Mexican Memoirs, Beat Motherhood, and the Poetics of Loss,” Laura Kuhlman, University of Iowa
  2. “`The Usual Public Attraction’: Interracial Motherhood in Hettie Jones’ Short Fiction,” Tatum Petrich, Montclair State University
  3. “Written and Exhaled in One Breath: Bob Dylan’s ‘60s Trilogy as Beat Poetry,” Deanna Rodriguez, Texas State University

2013

New Beat Archaeologies : Friday, May 24

Organized by the Beat Studies Association

Chair: Ronna C. Johnson, Tufts University

1. “Trial by Fire: Animating Ginsberg’s Howl,” Deborah R. Geis, DePauw University

2. “On the Notion of ‘After-Beats’: Maxine Hong Kingston Considered,” John Whalen-Bridge, National University of Singapore.

3. “Antonin Artaud, Black Power, and the Worldling of Beat Literature,” Jimmy Fazzino, University of California, Santa Cruz.

New England Beat Writers and Poetics: Friday, May 24

Organized by the Beat Studies Association

Chair, Deborah R. Geis, DePauw University

  1. “John Wieners in Boston’s Institutional Matrix,” Maria Damon, University of Minnesota-Twin Cities.
  2. “Sketching as Mythic Structure in Kerouac’s ‘Home at Christmas,’” Fiona Paton, State University of New York at New Paltz.
  3. “The Failed Visual Materiality of The Subterraneans (1961): When Film Adaptation Becomes Cultural Betrayal,” Sara Villa, University of Montreal
  4. “Unraveling Kerouac’s Doctor Sax,” Jessica M. Jarvis McHale, Salem State University.