Panels & Conferences - The Beat Studies Association

BSA-Sponsored Conferences

2022

Beat Studies Association Conference: The Jack Kerouac Centenary

Palatine, IL, November 3-4

BSA-Sponsored Conference Panels

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

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”

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.