2018 Park Church Series Begins June 13

Elmira, NY (05/31/2018) — The Center for Mark Twain Studies at Elmira College is pleased to announce the 2018 Park Church Summer Lecture Series. The lecture series features three lectures throughout June and July at the historic and cultural landmark, The Park Church, 208 W. Gray Street, Elmira.

The first lecture, "Fingerprints and Microbe Time: Mark Twain and Scientific Skepticism" James W. Leonard, adjunct English professor with The Citadel, is Wednesday, June 13. It is well known that Twain took contemporary social, political, and particularly racial beliefs to task through an incisive skepticism which outpaced many of his generation. A closer look at his literary portrayal of science reveals a visionary's understanding of how empirical facts - and the systems organizing those facts - would be increasingly scrutinized as social and political tools in literature of the 20th century.

The series continues on Wednesday, June 20, with "'…there is only one thing of real importance…': The Letters of Olivia Langdon Clemens" presented by Barbara Snedecor, retired director of the Center for Mark Twain Studies, is Wednesday, June 13. The letters of Olivia Langdon Clemens reveal her deep emotion as well as the more ordinary impulses of her thought. In communications with friends and family, and with her world- famous spouse, Olivia exposes her intelligence, fortitude, gentleness, kindness, humor, love for husband and children-along with her anxieties, self-deprecation, and flaws. The presentation will summarize critical views of Olivia as well as highlight selections from her letters.

The Park Church Series concludes on Wednesday, July 11 with "Mark Twain and The Native Other," presented by Kerry Driscoll, professor of English at the University of Saint Joseph in West Hartford, Connecticut. In addition to numerous essays she has published on Twain's work, Driscoll is the author of Mark Twain among the Indians and Other Indigenous Peoples, the first book-length study of the Twain's conflicted attitudes toward, and representations of, Native Americans. This presentation explores the origin and evolution of Twain's attitudes toward indigenous peoples and probes the reasons underlying his animus.

The Park Church Lecture Series is free and open to the public. Lectures begin at 7:00 p.m.

About The Park Church
Founded in 1846 by a group of abolitionists, The Park Church has been a strong presence in Elmira's history and some members of its congregation were close friends and family members to Mark Twain. Known for its striking architectural features, The Park Church contained Elmira's first public library and has a long history of charitable service to the Elmira community. Currently, it is an "Open and Affirming Congregation," welcoming all people to worship and participate in its communal life, regardless of ethnic origin, race, class, age, ability, gender, or sexual orientation.

About the Center for Mark Twain Studies
The Elmira College Center for Mark Twain Studies was founded in January 1983 with the gift of Quarry Farm to Elmira College by Jervis Langdon, the great-grand-nephew of Samuel Langhorne Clemens. The Center offers distinctive programs to foster and support Mark Twain scholarship and to strengthen the teaching of Mark Twain at all academic levels. The Center serves the Elmira College community and regional, national, and international students and scholars of Mark Twain.

About Elmira College
Elmira College is a private, coeducational, Phi Beta Kappa college founded in 1855, located in Elmira, New York. The College has an undergraduate enrollment of approximately 1,200 full-time mostly-residential students, and is the guardian of Quarry Farm where Mark Twain wrote many of his most iconic novels and is today a research center for visiting Twain scholars. The College has been ranked as a Best College in the Northeast by The Princeton Review and a national Top Tier liberal arts college by U.S. News & World Report, which has also ranked Elmira College as a leading college, nationally, for student internships. The Philadelphia Inquirer cited the Elmira College campus as 'picture postcard perfect.'

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