Dear all,
we are pleased to announce our keynote speakers for this year’s Anglophonia!
Mark Sawin is a professor of U.S. history at Eastern Mennonite University. He currently also serves as the co-director of EMU’s Honors program and has served as the chair of the History and Political Science program, and as president of the Faculty Senate. In the larger academic world, he has served as a member and chair of the Regional Chapters Committee of the American Studies Association; as president and a board member of the Eastern American Studies Association; and as area chair of American Studies for the Mid-Atlantic Popular and American Culture Association. In 2008-09 professor Sawin was a Fulbright Scholar at the University of Zagreb, Croatia and he has returned to teach courses at our Faculty in 2017, 2019 and 2024. His scholarship focuses largely on the religious, literary, and popular culture of antebellum America (1840–1850s). His most recent books are annotated editions of popular 19th-century author Ned Buntline’s early novels: the Mexican-American War story, The Volunteer; or, the Maid of Monterey (1847); and the pirate tale, The Black Avenger of the Spanish Main (1847). He also works on local African American history projects, recently editing The Way it Was… Coming of Age in Harrisonburg and VA in the Jim Crow Era: The Memoirs of Doris Harper Allen.
More on Professor Sawin: https://emu.edu/faculty-staff/?show=mms326
Fred Gardaphé is Distinguished Professor of English and Italian American Studies at Queens College/CUNY and the John D. Calandra Italian American Institute. He directs the Italian/American Studies Program at Queens and formerly directed the programs in Italian American and American studies at the State University of New York at Stony Brook. He is Associate Editor of Fra Noi, an Italian American monthly newspaper, editor of the Series in Italian American Studies at State University of New York Press, and co-founding-co-editor of Voices in Italian Americana, a literary journal and cultural review. He is past president of MELUS (2003-2006), the American Italian Historical Association (1996-2000), and The Working Class Studies Association (2008-2011). His edited books include: New Chicago Stories, Italian American Ways, From the Margin: Writings in Italian Americana and Anti-Italianism: Essays on a Prejudice. He has written two one-act plays: Vinegar and Oil, produced by the Italian/American Theatre Company in 1987, and Imported from Italy, produced by Zebra Crossing Theater in 1991.
More on Professor Gardaphé: https://calandrainstitute.org/the-institute/fred-gardaphe/