About

History:

Co-founders David B. Kesterson and C.E. Frazer Clark, Jr. proposed a meeting of interested Hawthorne scholars for New York City on December 27, 1974, at the Modern Language Association Annual Convention. Some seventy persons gathered for the founding meeting, where planning began for the Society’s first symposium at Bowdoin College in the fall of 1976.

Meetings:

The Society meets annually at the MLA convention and again in late May with the American Literature Association. At both meetings, veteran and fresh voices share their findings, views, and insights about Hawthorne and his writing. Inquiries about presenting papers should be addressed to President Chuck Baraw.

The Society’s summer conferences have been held in places important in Hawthorne’s life and works: in Salem, Boston, Cambridge, Concord, Pittsfield-Lenox, and North Adams, Massachusetts; in Brunswick and Raymond, Maine; in Rome and Florence, Italy, at Oxford (UK) and Kyoto, Japan. These meetings offer tours, special productions and exhibits, invited lectures, and keynote speakers. The Society has also held joint meetings with such groups as the Melville Society, the Henry James Society, the Ralph Waldo Emerson Society, the Margaret Fuller Society, and the Poe Studies Association.

Current Officers: 

President: Charles Baraw (2023), Southern Connecticut State University 

President-Elect: Ariel Silver (2023), Southern Virginia University

Secretary: Nancy Sweet (2024), California State University, Sacramento 

Treasurer: Michael Martin (2024), Nicholls State University 

Advisory Board:

We are currently seeking nominations for an open position on the Advisory Board (2023). Contact Ariel Silver at ariel.silver@svu.edu with nominations or to express interest in joining the Board.

Dana Medoro (2023), University of Manitoba

Lee Person (2024), University of Cincinnati

Leonardo Buonomo (2024), University of Trieste, Italy

Jana Argersinger (2024), Washington State University

Laura Laffrado (2024), Professor of English at Western Washington University

Nozomi Fujimura (2023), Daito Bunka University, Tokyo (President’s Honorary Appointment)

Frederick Newberry and Julie Hall (ex-officio), past editors of the Nathaniel Hawthorne Review

(Last year of 3-year term in parentheses)

Executive Council:

The Executive Council consists of the Advisory Board, current Officers, and all former NHS Presidents; the Archivist, and Director of the Challenge Campaign are invited to attend Executive Council meetings as non-voting members.

Past Presidents:

NHS Archives:

All minutes and archives of the society go to Caroline Moseley, Archivist, Bowdoin College Library, 300 College Station, Brunswick, Maine 04011-8421 (cmoseley@bowdoin.edu)

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