I had the honor of appearing on a panel on nineteenth-century literature with Dr. Christina Jen from Southern University and A&M College last September. The panel took place at the SCMLA Conference in New Orleans, a city I had never visited. My paper was on the influence of housing segregation on the construction of the heroine’s innocence in Henry James’s The Portrait of a Lady. The presentation drew upon elements of my recent article published in Novel on the Underground Railroad and James’s masterpiece.
Not long after posting about the conference on Instagram, I deleted my (relatively new) account, wanting nothing to do with the platform’s anti-LGBTQ bent. The picture from the post, which I took while wandering in amazement in New Orleans, appears above.
1.30.2025
Update on 5.30.2026: I am now on BlueSky.