Member-At-Large Election

Emily Dickinson International Society

Instructions for Voting

If you want to vote by email, please write to paraic.finnerty@port.ac.uk, subject line “Member- at-Large,” and put your name and the name of your candidate of choice (Adeline Chevrier- Bosseau, Stephanie Farrar, Trisha Kannan) in the email.

If you want to vote by mail, please return the ballot or send the name of your preferred candidate (Adeline Chevrier-Bosseau, Stephanie Farrar, Trisha Kannan) and your contact details to: Páraic Finnerty, Milldam, Burnaby Rd, University of Portsmouth, Portsmouth, PO49ET, UK

You can also access the election ballot, statements from the three candidates, and instructions on how to vote electronically here:
https://edis.press.jhu.edu/cgi-bin/2017_edis_vote.cgi

VOTING CLOSES ON MARCH 20, 2017.

Statements

Adeline Chevrier-Bosseau
I’ve been a member of the Emily Dickinson Society since I began to write my PhD on the influence of Shakespearean theatricality on Emily Dickinson’s lyricism, and I would now like to get involved more directly in the Emily Dickinson International Society by becoming a member- at-large.
I am currently teaching American literature at the University of Paris-Est Créteil; over the years, I’ve been involved locally in projects on Emily Dickinson with other French scholars, among whom colleague and board member Antoine Cazé – for example during the Emily Dickinson translation workshop that was held in the Université Paris Diderot two years ago – and I have published several articles in French peer-reviewed journals like Transatlantica or chapters on Dickinson in books edited by fellow researchers on nineteenth-century American literature, and I’ve given papers on Emily Dickinson in several seminars and conferences, like the annual conference of the French Association of American Studies (AFEA), or the European Shakespeare Research Association, where I gave a paper on Dickinson and Shakespeare. I very regularly keep in touch with fellow Dickinson scholars – both PhD candidates and colleagues – and as a member-at-large I would definitely work tirelessly to increase interest in Dickinson in France, by helping promote and sponsor a French chapter group for example.
Lately I’ve been getting involved on a more international level, publishing a chapter on Dickinson in Stéphanie Durrans’s Thy Truth then Be Thy Dowry: Questions of Inheritance in American Women’s Literature (Cambridge Scholars), giving a paper and chairing a panel at the last EDIS conference, co-chairing with Martha Nell Smith a panel at the Emily Dickinson Critical Institute, publishing an article in the Bulletin, and also co-organizing with Páraic Finnerty the two EDIS-sponsored panels for the next SSAWW conference in July 2017. I have also recently given a paper on Emily Dickinson and Harriet Prescott Spofford for the international conference organized by the study group focusing on 19th-century American Women Writers within the EAAS (European Association for American Studies), and I plan to stimulate and increase interest for Dickinson studies within this group as well. In the future, I definitely plan to go on contributing to the organization of international panels and seminars on Dickinson – both in France and on an international level.
My current research focuses on Emily Dickinson and Dance, and I am working on a book project about American literature and classical ballet in the 19th century, which will of course include a chapter on Emily Dickinson. I am affiliated to various associations promoting research in dance studies, like the Association des Chercheurs en Danse and the Society of Dance History Scholars, and I would love to bring this area of expertise and these connections to the EDIS for future projects. Becoming a member-at-large for the EDIS would be an honor and a great opportunity to work with fellow EDIS members towards promoting Dickinson studies and scholarship and contributing to the development of dynamic and stimulating projects for the future.

Stephanie Farrar
As a junior faculty member at the University of Wisconsin – Eau Claire, I am eager to take on service to the profession beyond my campus by contributing to the EDIS Board as a member-at- large. I envision engaging both my local community in Wisconsin and larger online communities with interest in Emily Dickinson’s poetry and the work of EDIS. For example, I intend to apply for a grant from my university department for hosting a series of public lectures at the local library, which I would lead on Dickinson’s poetry. I would also look forward to using social media to increase membership and visibility for EDIS.
Both my teaching and scholarship incorporate work on Dickinson. For instance, I recently co- edited Dickinson in Her Own Time: A Biographical Chronicle of Her Life Drawn From Recollections, Interviews, and Memoirs By Family, Friends, and Associates with Jane Donahue Eberwein and Cristanne Miller (U of Iowa P 2015), and this spring I will teach a graduate seminar for M.A. candidates on Emily Dickinson and Walt Whitman. I have also presented papers at EDIS-sponsored conference panels: I discussed Lavinia Dickinson’s poetry at the Vancouver MLA meeting and attended the 2014 EDIS conference in Shanghai, China (that was co-hosted by Fudan University), where I presented a paper and participated in the conference translation project with my translation partner, Hsu Li-hsin. If elected, I would be delighted to contribute more to the EDIS organization.

Trisha Kannan
The fascicles of Emily Dickinson changed my life. It was my third year at UC Santa Barbara when I took the class with Robyn Bell. We read all of the fascicle poems during that quarter from a reader Dr. Bell had made by arranging photocopies of the poems from Johnson according
to Franklin’s Manuscript Books. Up until that point, I’d fantasized about being a female version of Hemingway. I loved short stories, short sentences, and passive voice. But I had never read anything like Dickinson—before or since. And I couldn’t understand why so few people knew about or discussed the fascicles. I’d never conceived of going to graduate school to get a PhD in English, but I needed to know more about Emily Dickinson.
I graduated from the University of Florida in 2011, and a book manuscript adapted from my dissertation, The Publics of Emily Dickinson, is currently under review with Edinburgh University Press. With the exception of the 2015 Amherst meeting, I’ve attended every EDIS conference and meeting since 2008. In addition, I’ve organized and chaired the EDIS panel at the South Atlantic Modern Language Association since 2012.
I’m currently employed as the Director of Content for Progress Testing, a small publishing company in Gainesville, Florida, that develops K-12 formative assessment materials for Florida, Georgia, and Texas. Although I support the educational reforms brought about by Common Core, I’m increasingly anxious about the effect of testing on students’ enjoyment of literature and language. The classroom setting fostered my love of Dickinson, of course, but that love could grow because I had the freedom and space to enjoy the poems; I was never reading them in preparation for a test. I believe we are doing a disservice to students by aligning literature with high-stakes, high-pressure tests, but I also think organizations like the Society can show students what is truly important about great literature—that it has the power to make you see, feel, and understand things like you never have before. I know I’m not the only one who tears up while reading Dickinson’s poetry, and it’s important for students to know that literature is supposed to be that meaningful. I would like to serve the Society as a Member-At-Large to share Dickinson’s work with the people who need it the most.

At the 2016 international conference in Paris, the Board of Directors of the Emily Dickinson International Society (EDIS) agreed to run an election to fill a vacant Member-at-Large seat on the Board. The position of Member-at-Large is for a three-year term, which would begin at the EDIS Annual Meeting in Amherst in August 2017 and conclude in 2020. The Board normally meets once a year, usually in the summer, in conjunction with the Society's annual meeting or international conference. The Member-at-Large is expected to attend these meetings and to fund his or her own attendance.

Members-at-Large have the same responsibilities and opportunities for service to the organization that all EDIS Board members have, which include the following: becoming familiar with the Society’s bylaws; conducting Society business by serving on committees; reading the EDIS Bulletin and the Emily Dickinson Journal; following Board discussions on e-mail; attending Annual Meetings; checking the Society’s website for information and updates; staying current with Emily Dickinson Museum activities; writing for the Bulletin when needed; and, depending on location, sponsoring or participating in local activities focused on Emily Dickinson, and perhaps even starting a local chapter (if one does not already exist). An ongoing issue for EDIS is increasing membership, and Members-at-Large are asked to contribute to this goal by having their ears tuned to members’ preferences, interests, and concerns.