2025 Summer Conversational Series Daily Schedule

Hybrid Adult & Teacher Education

Sunday - Thursday

July 13 - 17, 2025

  2:30 - 4:00 pm

Joint Session with The Thoreau Society Annual Gathering

Special Guest Presenter

KRISTINA WEST

Scholar / Author / Academic

“‘Our Fatal Shadows’ - The Transcendental Child in the Works of Bronson Alcott, Ralph Waldo Emerson, and Henry David Thoreau”

10:00 - 11:00 am     MICHAEL FREDERICK

Historian - Non-profit Consultant

“The Quiet Revolution - Emerson, Thoreau, and the Ethics of Nonconformity”

11:00 - 11:15 am     Break

11:15 am - 12:15 pm     CLARE L. COMM

UMASS - Lowell

“The Application of DEI to Achieve Change in Turbulent Times”

12:15 - 1:00 pm     Break / Lunch & Informal Discussion

1:00 - 2:00 pm     MARK HAMILTON OSTRANDER

Storyteller / Content Creator / Educator

“‘An Obscure Instinct’ - The Alcotts and the Battle at Boston Court House”

10:00 - 11:00 am     MATHIEU BEAU

International School of Boston / UMASS - Boston

“The Quantum Revolutions and their Impacts on Modern Philosophy” 

11:00 - 11:15 am     Break

11:15 am - 12:15 pm     KRISTI  LYNN  MARTIN

Scholar / Historic Interpreter

“‘My Life is One of Daily Protest’ - Revolutionary Ideas and Everyday Choices” 

12:15 - 1:00 pm     Break / Lunch & Informal Discussion

1:00 - 2:00 pm     CATHLIN DAVIS

California State University - Stanislaus

“Unlikely Heroes - Alcott’s Revolutionary Women”

10:00 - 11:00 am     GABRIELLE DONNELLY

Journalist / Author

“From Drunken Paddy to Upright Citizen - Prejudice and Inclusivity in the Alcotts’ Day and In Our Own”

11:00 - 11:15 am     Break

11:15 am - 12:15 pm     ROBERTA PARDI-OLÁH

Writer / Poet / Screenwriter

“From Little Women to Good Wives?  Educating Girls in the Transcendentalist Alcott Family”
 

12:15 - 1:00 pm     Break / Lunch & Informal Discussion

1:00 - 2:00 pm     JULIE MORFEE

University of California, Berkeley & De Anza College, Cupertino

“Declarations of Independence - Celebrating Louisa May Alcott’s Contributions to Feminist Revolutions in Thought” (Virtual presentation)

10:00 am - 11:00 am     PANEL DISCUSSION, Part First

“Revolutions in Consciousness”

JASON GIANETTTI  (Philosopher /Academic)

WILLIAM J. HEALEY III (Psychotherapist / Academic)

DAVID E. STOREY (Academic)

11:00 - 11:15 am     Break

11:15 am - 12:00 pm     PANEL DISCUSSION, Part Second

12:00 - 1:15 pm     Lunch & Informal Discussion

1:15 pm     ORCHARD HOUSE TOUR

with Prof. CATHLIN DAVIS

 5:00 - 8:00 pm     “Evening Edifications”

Guided Tours from 5:00 to 8:00 pm

plus

Colonial Music Concert by

THE CONCORD MINUTE MEN

FIFE & DRUM CORPS

at 6:00 pm