University of New England

Maine Women Writers Collection to host conference on "Charlotte Perkins Gilman: Then and Now" June 15-18th

The University of New England's Maine Women Writers Collection will host the Fourth International Conference on Charlotte Perkins Gilman, titled "Charlotte Perkins Gilman: Then & Now," June 15-18, 2006.

The conference will feature a keynote address on Gilman and feminist humor by American studies scholar Shelley Fisher Fishkin; a plenary session assessing the state of Gilman studies today; and a play of Gilman's most famous story, “The Yellow Wall-Paper.”

It will also offer two days of academic presentations on topics such as Journalism, Print Culture, & Popular Fiction; Motherhood; Race & Imperialism; Sex & Gender; Utopian fiction; and Gilman’s Relevance Today.

Participants from across the U.S. as well as Japan, Germany, Italy, Canada, and the U.K. plan to attend the conference.

Special library displays on topics such as Gilman’s forgotten first publication on the visual arts and Gilman in Maine will be on view at the Abplanalp Library, Westbrook College Campus, and there will be a display of Gilman’s original works of literature and art in the Maine Women Writers Collection.

Conference events will be held on UNE's Westbrook College Campus, 716 Stevens Avenue, and at the Holiday Inn By the Bay, 88 Spring Street, in Portland. All events are open to the public (with registration).

The conference is co-sponsored by UNE's English and History departments and Women's Studies Program, the UNE Bookstore, and the Charlotte Perkins Gilman Society.

Registration ($95 before May 1; $110 May 1 or after; $70 for students) is required for all events except the play, which is free with a suggested donation of $5. For all UNE faculty, staff and students, conference registration will be only $10.

To register for the conference and for more information, the public may view the conference link at the Maine Women Writers Collection website at www.une.edu/mwwc or contact Professor Jennifer Tuttle, Ph.D., at jtuttle@une.edu or (207) 221-4433.

Charlotte Perkins Gilman
Charlotte Perkins Gilman (1860-1935) was born in Hartford, Conn., a descendent of the prominent and influential Beecher family. A prolific writer and lecturer, her best known work of fiction is The Yellow Wall-Paper (1892), a haunting critique of Victorian medicine and gender roles.

In 1898 she published a nonfiction study entitled Women and Economics (1898), in which she called for an end to women's economic dependence on men. With its publication, and its subsequent translation into seven languages, Gilman earned international acclaim.

Gilman was named the sixth most influential woman of the twentieth century in a poll commissioned by the Siena Research Institute. In 1994, she was inducted into the National Women's Hall of Fame in Seneca Falls, New York.

(Press release issued March 16, 2006)