This week-long professional development seminar invites history and literature teachers to immerse themselves in the life, times, and legacy of Mark Twain, guided by Ron Chernow’s acclaimed biography as the foundation for exploration. Through a combination of scholarly lectures, discussion groups, and site-based learning, participants will gain a richer understanding of Twain’s work within the dynamic cultural and political currents of 19th-century America.
The program will offer an in-depth examination of the Gilded Age, contextualizing Twain’s satirical lens on rapid industrialization, economic inequality, and political corruption. History-focused sessions will trace the forces of Westward Expansion—migration, railroads, frontier mythmaking—and connect them to Twain’s own formative experiences along the Mississippi and in the American West. Literature-centered lectures will analyze the historical backdrops of The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, and A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court, highlighting how Twain’s fiction both reflected and critiqued the transformations of his era.
A central theme, “The Self-Made American,” will frame discussions on Twain’s personal journey from printer’s apprentice to celebrated author and national humorist, while also engaging the broader 19th-century ideal of reinvention and mobility. Cross-disciplinary workshops will encourage teachers to integrate historical and literary perspectives into their classrooms, creating richer, more nuanced lessons for students.
The seminar culminates with a trip to Hartford, Connecticut, to tour Twain’s beautifully preserved home, where participants will engage with curators and explore the setting where some of his most iconic works took shape. This immersive experience offers educators powerful tools, narratives, and insights for bringing Twain’s world vividly to life in their classrooms.
Please note: For the field study day, participants should be prepared to walk significant distances, including up to one mile at a time, as part of the program. Some historic sites and other locations included in the itinerary may not be fully ADA compliant due to the age of the buildings and may lack elevators or other accessibility features.
Speaker:
Shelley Fisher Fishkin
Dr. Fishkin is the author, editor, co-author, or co-editor of fifty books and has published over one hundred fifty articles, essays, columns, and reviews. Her most recent book is Jim: The Life and Afterlives of Huckleberry Finn’s Comrade, which appeared in Yale’s “Black Lives” book series edited by David Blight, Henry Louis Gates, Jr., and Jacquelyn Goldsby. She is the editor of the 29-volume Oxford Mark Twain – an edition that Modern Language Review called “an act of genius.” She is also editor of the Oxford Historical Guide to Mark Twain, “Is He Dead? ” A New Comedy by Mark Twain, Mark Twain’s Book of Animals, and The Mark Twain Anthology: Great Writers on his Life and Work. She has served as President of the American Studies Association and of the Mark Twain Circle of America. Twain biographer Ron Powers (Mark Twain: A Life) wrote that “Fishkin stands at the pinnacle of Mark Twain studies and criticism. Her astonishing gifts have taken her, and us, far beyond the often-cramped field of enquiries into Mark Twain.” She helped guide Is He Dead?, a neglected play by Mark Twain that she uncovered in the archives, to Broadway. She was a producer of Is He Dead?, adapted by David Ives, which had its world debut on Broadway at the Lyceum Theatre in 2007, and was nominated for a Tony Award.
Mark Dawidziak
No less an authority than Ken Burns has said, “Nobody gets Mark Twain the way Mark Dawidziak does.” In addition to Horton Foote’s The Shape of the River: The Lost Teleplay About Mark Twain, he assembled Mark Twain’s thoughts on writing and the writing process for Mark My Words: Mark Twain on Writing. His three other Twain-centric books are Mark Twain in Ohio, Mark Twain’s Guide to Diet, Exercise, Beauty, Fashion, Investment, Romance, Health and Happiness, and Mark Twain for Cat Lovers. He has four times been the visiting scholar at Elmira College’s Center for Mark Twain Studies, each time giving a lecture for the Trouble Begins at Eight lecture series. He presented at six consecutive State of Mark Studies international conferences. In addition to being a recognized Twain scholar, he has been portraying Mark Twain on stage for 44 years (with less makeup each year).
Andrew Beahrs
Andrew Beahrs is the author of Twain’s Feast: Searching for America’s Lost Foods in the Footsteps of Samuel Clemens, and of two historical novels, Strange Saint and The Sin Eaters. With a background in archaeology and anthropology, his work has appeared in The New York Times, Gastronomica, Food History News, Living Bird, Ocean, and other journals. He is currently working on a book about the edible history of the Monterey Bay’s submarine canyon and its adjacent lands. He lives in California with his family.
Rebecca Edwards
Dr. Rebecca Edwards is an American historian and the recently retired Eloise Ellery Professor of History at Vassar College, specializing in the political, social, and cultural history of the nineteenth-century United States. She earned her Ph.D. from the University of Virginia in 1995 and has built a distinguished academic career focused on the post–Civil War era, particularly electoral politics and the history of women and gender.
Edwards is widely recognized for her influential scholarship, including Angels in the Machinery, which examines gender in American party politics, and New Spirits: Americans in the Gilded Age, 1865–1905, a nuanced interpretation of the Gilded Age. She has also contributed to major historiographical essays and is a co-author of the widely used textbook America’s History.
Dr. Edwards retired in order to pursue her civic duties in local politics where she serves as the elected town supervisor for Poughkeepsie, New York.
Bernard J. Dobski
Bernard (BJ) Dobski is a political theorist and historian of political thought who serves as Professor of Political Science at Assumption University. Educated at Boston College (B.A.) and Michigan State University (M.A., Ph.D., 2003), Dobski specializes in classical and early modern political philosophy, with particular emphasis on Thucydides, William Shakespeare, and Mark Twain.
His scholarly contributions include co-edited volumes such as Shakespeare and the Body Politic and Souls with Longing, as well as numerous peer-reviewed articles and essays exploring political philosophy, literature, and the moral foundations of liberal democracy. His recent monograph, Mark Twain’s Joan of Arc: Political Wisdom, Divine Justice, and the Origins of Modernity, reflects his interdisciplinary approach to literature and political thought.
Recognized for his academic achievement, Dobski received Assumption University’s Presidential Award for Excellence in Scholarship. Through his teaching and publications, he has contributed significantly to the study of political philosophy and the Western intellectual tradition.
Typically scheduled from Sunday through Friday in the summer, Founding Forward’s week-long teacher seminars are hosted at Union League Liberty Hill a 300+ acre private conference center and golf course in suburban Philadelphia. Each seminar has a single theme and consists of content-focused talks by highly regarded scholars (morning and afternoon) interspersed each day with activation sessions featuring either lesson demonstrations from master teachers and presentation from resource providers like Retro Report or Periodic Presidents. Finally, each seminar includes an out-of-classroom field study to historic sites, archives, and museums.
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