Conversations: Truth, Myth & Democracy
Banned Book Week Case Study: The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (Virtual)

While Mark Twain’s The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn is an American literary classic, it also contains language and themes that can be offensive to some modern readers. To mark this year’s Banned Book Week, Conversations: Truth, Myth & Democracy presents a panel of experts, including a former Harvard professor and renowned Twain scholar, to discuss the merits and challenges of teaching a literary classic like The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn.

This virtual webinar will be hosted via Zoom.  Registered participants will receive an invitation with link prior to the program. Please include a cell phone number to receive text reminder.

Panelists:

Dr. Jocelyn Chadwick — Former professor at the Harvard Graduate School of Education and past president of the National Council for Teachers of English, Dr. Chadwick is an expert on issues of censorship and race in education. Dr. Chadwick has spoken extensively on the role of race in The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn and Pudd’nhead Wilson. She has published several books and articles on the way Twain’s interpretations of race should be taught to today’s schoolchildren, including The Jim Dilemma: Reading Race in Adventures of Huckleberry Finn and “Uncle Tom: the Stereotype, the Man-Jim in Adventures of Huckleberry Finn.”

Samantha Lee — Co-chair of the Connecticut Library Association’s Intellectual Freedom Committee, Lee is head of reference services at Enfield Public Library. She has been recognized for her work with the 2020 American Library Association Gerald Hodges Chapter Relations Award, a 2019 Connecticut Library Association Intellectual Freedom Award, and most recently a 2022 Connecticut Library Consortium Jan Gluz Cooperative Spirit Award.

Moderator:

Erin Shea Dummeyer — Director of Redding’s Mark Twain Library. Awarded Library Journal’s 2014 “Mover and Shaker” Award, Dummeyer has held leadership positions at the Ferguson Library in Stamford and at Darien Public Library.

Many thanks to our media sponsor WSHU, area Libraries and Leagues for their support of this series:
Easton Public Library Weston Public Library Friends of the Weston Public Library Newtown’s C.H. Booth Library Ridgefield Library The League of Women Voters of Weston The League of Women Voters of Ridgefield The League of Women Voters of Northern Fairfield County