Conference Archive for ALA

Papers presented by the Arthur Miller Society at the American Literature Association Conferences 1996–

May 30-June 2, 1996, in San Diego, CA.

  Panel: Society panel chaired by Brenda Murphy.
1. “Death of a Salesman and the Poetics of Arthur Miller,” Matthew Roudané.
2. “Who’s the Enemy Now?: The Relevance of An Enemy of the People a Century and a Half, Later,” Jane Dominik.
3. “The Holocaust, the Depression, and McCathyism Haunt Miller in the Sixties,” Jan Balakian

May 23-25, 1997, in Baltimore, MD.

    Panel: “Arthur Miller’s Artistry in Drama: A Half Century and Beyond,” chaired by Stan Kozikowski.
1. “‘The Hook, the Bridge, and The Waterfront’:  Miller, Kazan, and Informers,” Brenda Murphy.
2. “Miller’s Women and the Roles They Play,” Steve Centola.
3. “The Price: The Continuing Fraternal Tragedy,” Jane Dominik

May 1998, in San Diego, CA.

    Panel: “Arthur Miller and the Art of Disconcertion,” chaired by Susan C. W. Abbotson.
1. “The Holocaust, the Depression, and McCathyism Haunt Miller in the Sixties,” Jan Balakian.
2. “‘Raising Up a Whore’: The Dramatic and Cultural Construction of Abigail Williams,” Kim Cook.
3. “‘Of course it isn’t, but that’s where it comes from’: Creation of Hysteria and Other Business in Arthur Miller’s Broken Glass,” Kate Egerton

May 1999, in Baltimore, MD.

    Panel: “Moral Drama or Political Allegory: Ways of Seeing the Plays of Arthur Miller,” chaired by Jan Balakian.
1. “The Cold War on the Waterfront: Miller’s A View from the Bridge and Elia Kazan’s On the Waterfront, ” Robert Shulman.
2. “Death of a Salesman: The Poetic of the Colloquial,” Stephen Marino.
3. “Living the Wrong Life: Arthur Miller’s Danger: Memory!” Jon Tuttle.
 
May 26- 27 2001, in Cambridge MA.

   Panel One: “This is the land of the great big dogs, you don’t love a man here, you eat him!”: Friends and Enemies in the Drama and Fiction of Arthur Miller,” chaired by Stephen Marino.
1.”The Sense of Complicity in Focus and After the Fall,” Ana Lucia Novais.
2.”The Common Enemy in Arthur Miller’s and Lillian Hellman’s Cold War Plays,” Richard Brucher.
3.”Miller and the Importance of Friendship,” Carlos Campo.
  
    Panel Two: “The Ambiguity of Thought: Arthur Miller’s Psychological Duplicity,” chaired by Susan C. W. Abbotson.
1.”Not Only the Inside of Willy’s Head,” Stephen Marino.
2.”Sympathetic Objectification: Mistresses in Miller’s Plays,” Jane Dominik.
3. “Bakhtinian Heteroglossia in The Archbishop’s Ceiling,”  George Castellitto

May 30-June  2, 2002, Long Beach, CA.

    Panel: “Arthur Miller’s Ethical Engagement: A Humanist’s Response,”  chaired by : J. Chris Westgate.
1. “Arthur Miller’s Diasporist Engagements in Incident at Vichy,” Neamat Imam*
2. “The Dehumanization of the Salesmen: Willy Loman and Gregor Samsa,” Carlos Campo.
3. “Negotiating an Ethics between Remembering and Forgetting: A Reading of After the Fall,” Ryan Poll.
*Neamat Imam from  Aristotle University, coming in from Greece, was not allowed a visa to attend the conference, but his paper was read by the panel chair

May 22-25, 2003, Cambridge, MA.

    Panel One: Seminar on “Teaching Arthur Miller: Text, Subtext, and Context.”
Panelists: Steven Centola, Millersville University; Stephen Marino, St. Francis College; Carlos Campo, Community College of Southern Nevada.
   
    Panel Two: “Radio Drama, Short Stories and Plays: Connective Relationships in the Works of Arthur Miller,” chaired by George Castellitto, Felician College.
1. “‘Family Romances’ and the Struggle to Form Desire as Depicted in Arthur Miller’s Short  Story ‘I Don’t Need You Anymore,'” Lew Livesay.
2. “The Nature of the Beast: An Examination of The Pussycat and the Expert Plumber Who Was a Man,by Arthur Miller,” Rick Tharp.
3. “Materialism, Socialism and Paternal Conflict in Arthur Miller’s All My Sons,” Susan C. W. Abbotson

May 27-30, 2004, San Francisco, CA.

    Panel One: Seminar on “Teaching Arthur Miller: the Usual and the New.” Chaired by: Susan C. W. Abbotson, Independent Scholar, RI.
Panelists: Carlos Campo, Community College of Southern Nevada, and Peter Hays, University of California at Davis.
   
    Panel Two: “Naming, Rituals and Music–Beyond the Written Texts of Arthur Miller.” Chaired by Jeffrey D. Mason, University of Oregon.
1. “Arthur Miller’s Naming of Names,” Steve Marino
2. “Arthur Miller ‘Clara’: The ‘Fine’ Line Between Guilt and Blame,” Susan C. W. Abbotson.
3. “Music in Miller’s Drama,” Jane Dominik

May 26-29, 2005, Boston, MA

     Panel One: Teaching Panel: Teaching Miller in Multiple Contexts. Chaired by: Lew Livesay,  President, Arthur Miller Society, Saint Peter’s College.
1. “Music, Miller and making the classroom sing,” Carlos Campo, Community College of Southern Nevada. Accompanist: Brett Campo, Sierra Vista High School, Las Vegas.
2. ” Towards a Humanistic Democracy: The Balancing Acts of Arthur Miller and August Wilson,” Susan C. W. Abbotson, Rhode Island College.
3. ” Arthur Miller’s New York,” Steven Marino, St Francis College.
   
    Panel Two: “Identity in Miller: Communities, Character and Connections. Chaired by: Dr. Carlos Campo, Community College of Southern Nevada
1. “Arthur Miller and Jewish Identity,” Ruth Tenenholtz, Haifa University, Israel.
2. “The Secret Life of Willy Loman: A Thurber-Miller Connection,” Susan Koprince, University of North Dakota-Grand Forks.
3. ” Pray for him:  “Communities, Characters, and Chaos in A View from the Bridge,” Elizabeth Osborne, University of Maryland.

May 25-28, 2006, San Francisco, CA. 
 

      Panel one: Reading and Response from selected Miller plays:  Readers Dr. Carlos Campo, Community College of Southern Nevada, Dr. Jane Dominik, San Joaquin Delta College. Respondent: Lewis Livesay, Saint Peter’s College

      Panel two: The Sociological Impact of Selected Arthur Miller Works. 
Chair: Dr. Carlos Campo, Community College of Southern Nevada 

1. “Ibsen’s The Wild Duck and Miller’s All My Sons: Social Realism without a Centering Raissonneur,” Lewis Livesay, Saint Peter’s College. 

2. “Using Family Systems Theory to Understand the Film Versions of The Crucible,” Nancy Feyl Chavkin and Allan R. Chavkin, Texas State University—San Marcos.

3. “Mining the ‘Beauty’ of “Homely Girl”: Why Miller’s Small Masterpiece Deserves More Recognition,” Ellyn Lem, University of Wisconsin—Waukesha.

May 25-28, 2007, Boston, MA.

    Panel one: The Reel Arthur Miller: The Playwright’s Work on Film. Chair:  Jan Balakian, Kean University.                                    
1. “Making Abigail Good: A Different Heroine for Different Times,”  Susan C. W. Abbotson, Rhode Island College.
2. “Arthur Miller’s ‘Dream Tissue’:  Uncanny Parallels between Fritz Lang’s Testament of Dr. Mabuse and Miller’s Everybody Wins,” Lew Livesay, Saint Peter’s College.
3. “‘When you look at me, you don’t see me’: Sight and Self in Miller’s Focus,” Carlos Campo, Community College of Southern Nevada
4. “Re-envisioning Death of a Salesman:  The Politics of the 1951 Film Version,” Allan Chavkin & Nancy Feyl Chavkin, Texas State University-San Marcos
   
    Panel two: Arthur Miller. Chair:  George Castellitto, Felician College                          
1. “Resurrection Blues: Miller’s Political Allegory about Imagination and Death,” Janet Balakian, Kean University
2. “Arthur Miller’s West, A Place That Yields Its Resources Only To Those Who Honor Its Integrity,” Stephen Macauley, Utah State University
3. “The Greatest Cars Ever Built:  Arthur Miller’s Production Line of Chevrolets, Buicks, Studebakers, Marmons, Porsches and Other Vehicles of Death and Destruction,” Stephen Marino, St. Francis College

May 22-26, 2008, San Francisco, CA.

    Panel one: Miller’s Literary Connections. Chair: Jan Balakian, Kean University
1. “Home and Homelessness: Family and Myth in Shepard and Miller,” Timothy O’Grady, University of Washington.
2. “Camus’ The Fall and Miller’s After the Fall,” Carlos Campos, The College of Southern Nevada
3. “The Metaphor of Time in Arthur Miller and August Wilson,” Stephen Macauley, Utah State University
   
    Panel two: New Directions in Teaching and Scholarship in Arthur Miller Studies (A Roundtable)
Moderator:  Jane K. Dominik, San Joaquin Delta College
A Roundtable Discussion examining new lines of scholarly inquiry of Miller’s dramatic and other writings, their live productions and film adaptations, and their application to teaching.
Participants: Jan Balakian, Kean University
Carlos Campo, College of Southern Nevada
Kate Egerton, Berea College
Stephen Marino, St. Francis College/Editor of the Arthur Miller Journal

May 21-24, 2009, Boston, MA.

    Panel one: Adaptation and Arthur Miller. Chair: Jan Balakian, Kean University
1.    “Amos Poe’s Neo-Noir Stage, or, Looking at Mamet through Miller’s Eyes,” Johan Callens, Vrije Universiteit Brussel.
2.    “Insisting on the truth: Arthur Miller’s adaptation of Ibsen’s An Enemy of the People,” Benedikte Berntzen, University of Oslo.
3.    “Capitalist Community: From Ibsen’s Enemy of the People to Miller’s Enmity for the People,” Lewis Livesay, Saint Peter’s College.
   
    Panel two: Teaching History in American Drama. Chair: George Castellitto, Felician College, New Jersey.
1.  “Historicizing Tennessee Williams,” Susan Abbotson, Rhode Island College.
2.  “Adapting to the Times: Salesman and the 1930s Theatres of Social Protest,”  Joshua Polster, Department of Performing Arts, Emerson College.
3.  “The Time of Your Life in Context,”  Jan Balakian,  Kean University.

May 27-30, 2010, San Francisco, CA.

    Panel: The Particular and the Universal in the Plays of Arthur Miller. Chair: Dr. Jane K. Dominik, San Joaquin Delta College
1.    “Brooklyn’s Shakespeare,” Stephen Marino, St. Francis College
2.    “Enforcing Universality on Arthur Miller’s Death of a Salesman: Foreign and Domestic Perspectives,” Ramón Espejo Romero, Universidad de Sevilla
3.    “Miller’s The Crucible as a Model for Understanding the Transcendent Nature of Historical Event,” Stephen Macauley, University of Utah

May 26-29, 2011, Boston, MA.

    Panel one: Dramatizing Ideas in the Plays of Arthur Miller. Chair: Dr. George Castellitto, Felician College
1. “Internalizing the Jew: Otherness and Embodiment in Miller’s Incident at Vichy.” Lew Livesay, Saint Peter’s College
2. “I Still Feel – Kind of Temporary About Myself: The Self, the Experience of Truth, and Two Visions of Tragedy in the Works of Arthur Miller.” David Palmer, Massachusetts Maritime Academy
3. “Stage For Action: Arthur Miller‘s Social Activist Foundation.” Chrystyna Dail, Pennsylvania State University
   
    Panel two: Focus on Focus: A Panel on Arthur Miller’s 1945 Novel about Anti-Semitism. Chair: Dr. George Castellitto, Felician College.
1. “In Closer Focus: Book, Film and TV.” Sue Abbotson, Rhode Island College (with clips from the 1962 TV version)
2. “Focus: Teaching Miller’s Neglected Work.” Joint discussion by Stephen Marino, St. Francis College, and Joshua Polster, Emerson College

May 24-28, 2012, San Francisco, CA.

    Panel one: “Uncharted Territories.” Chair: Dr. Peter Hays, University of California, Davis
1.  “A Bridge between Peace, Justice, Religion, and Community.” Tamera Izlar, Goshen College
2.  “All My Sons and the Madoffs in the Light of Jauss’s Reception Theory and Bakhtin’s ‘Great Time.’” Vivian Casper, Texas Woman’s University
3.  “Witches as excuse: The Crucible and the preemptive surveillance methods in the contemporary American society.” Vanessa Cianconi, Universidade Federal Fluminense
   
    Panel two: “Uncharted Territories” II. Chair: Dr. George Castellitto, Felician College
1. “Cold War Politics and the Pathologization of Women in Arthur Miller’s The Crucible.” Paula K. Burns, University of South Dakota.
2. “Anagnorisis and Resistance: from Shame and Mutual Mourning to Responsibility and Political Action in Arthur Miller’s Incident at Vichy.” Fred Ribkoff, Kwantlen Polytechnic University
3. “Art, the State, and Ectoplasm: Arthur Miller’s The Archbishop’s Ceiling.” Jeffrey Clapp, University of California, Irvine

May 23-26, 2013, Boston, MA.

    Panel one: “Arthur Miller’s Perspectives on Theater and History.” Chair: Stephen Marino, St. Francis College, Editor of the Arthur Miller Journal
1. Jane K. Dominik, San Joaquin Delta College. “From Stage to Page: Re-conceptualizing the Play”
2. Garin Cycholl, University of Chicago. “‘The Peculiar Immediacy of Image’: On the Disintegration of Forms in The Misfits.”
3. Marla Britton-Johnson, Texas Tech University. “The Chasm Between History and Character: On the Aufseherinnen of Playing for Time.”
4. C. Ryan Knight, Randolph Community College. “Administrative Evil in Arthur Miller’s Plays.”
   
    Panel two: “Perspectives on Willy Loman.” Chair: Susan C. W. Abbotson, Rhode Island College, President of the Arthur Miller Society
1. Lewis Livesay, Saint Peter’s University “Miller’s Tragic Vision and the Phenomenology of Shame.”
2. Susan Harris Smith, University of Pittsburgh. “Who Was/Is/Are Willy Loman?
3. Janet Balakian, Kean University. “Teaching Death of a Salesman in 2013.”
    Round Table: “The Theater of Engagement: Arthur Miller and the Contemporary Mind”
Arthur Miller Society joined with five other drama societies in focusing on the theme of “Theater of Engagement: The American Theatre and Drama Society; The Susan Glaspell Society; The Eugene O’Neill Society; The Thornton Wilder Society; The August Wilson Society. Arthur Miller Society was represented by Joshua Polster, Emerson College.

May 22-25, 2014, Washington, DC.

    Panel one: “Arthur Miller and Literary Influences.”  Chair: Stephen Marino, St. Francis College
1. David Palmer, Massachusetts Maritime Academy. “Miller’s Morality and O’Neill’s Despair.”
2. Lew Livesay, Saint Peter’s University. “Arthur Miller’s Self-Other Conflict and the Influence of Ibsenesque Temporality in The Ride Down Mt. Morgan.”

    Panel two: “The Owl and the Pussycat: The Influence of Marilyn Monroe on Arthur Miller” 
    Video followed by respondents and a moderated discussion
    Moderator: George Castellitto, Felician College
    Respondents: Stephen Marino, St. Francis College
    David Palmer, Massachusetts Maritime Academy

May 22-25,  2015, Boston, MA

    Panel one: “Arthur Miller at 100: Centennial Reflections on His Life and Work.” Chair: Joshua Polster, Emerson College
1. Lewis Livesay, Saint Peter’s University. “Memory and the American Cultural Unconscious in Arthur Miller’s The Price.”
2. Rosemary Malague, University of Pennsylvania. “Attention Must Be Paid: Staging Linda Loman in the 21st Century.”
3. Stephen Marino, St. Francis College and the Arthur Miller Journal. “Willy Loman and the Walking Dead.”
   
    Panel two: Making Willy Loman Real: A Round-Table Discussion of Death of a Salesman in Performance
Moderator: David Palmer, Massachusetts Maritime Academy
A presentation by Dr. Abbotson on major past productions and interpretations, and then a focus on the vision of the play in the critically acclaimed production at Boston’s Lyric Stage Company in the winter of 2014 with the Director and lead actors. Panel consists of:
    * Susan C. W. Abbotson, Rhode Island College
    * Ken Baltin, Actor (Willy Loman)
    * Paula Plum, Actor (Linda Loman)
    * Spiro Veloudos, Lyric Stage Company of Boston (Director of Death of a Salesman)

May 27-29, 2016, San Francisco, CA

Panel: Miller’s Vision of Tragedy: Insights from Theory and Performance. Chair: Peter L. Hays, University of California, Davis
1. “’There’s a Story in That’: Commodification of Language and Reification of Narratives in Death of a Salesman,” David Cosca, Cornell University.
2. “A Real Shame/Man: Hubris, Humiliation, and Pathological Legacy in Miller’s Death of a Salesman,” L. Bailey McDaniel, Oakland University.
3. “Lessons from the Bloody Rain: The Young Vic Production of A View from the Bridge and Miller’s Tragic Form,” Daniel Larner, Fairhaven College of Interdisciplinary Studies, Western Washington University.

May 25-28, 2017, Boston, MA
Panel one: Arthur Miller and Women. Chair: Jan Balakian, Kean University

  1. “The Real Housewives of Arthur Miller,” Stephen Marino, St. Francis College
  2. “Stifled, Staid, and Suspect:  The Working Women in Arthur Miller’s Drama,” Jane K. Dominik, San Joaquin Delta College
  3. “Inarticulate Victims: Playing for Time and Broken Glass,” Stefani Koorey, Independent Scholar

Panel two: From Puritans to Vietnam: Comparative Studies of Power and Morality in Arthur Miller’s Plays. Chair: George Castellitto, Felician College

  1.  “The American Paradox in Miller’s The Price: ‘Heterogeneous ideas are yoked by violence together,'” Lew Livesay Saint Peter’s University
  2. “Hester Prynne and John Proctor: Language as a Battlefield,” Ramón Espejo, Universidad de Seville
  3. “The Influence of Dostoyevsky’s The Brothers Karamazov on the Plays of Arthur Miller,” Susan C. W. Abbotson, Rhode Island College
  4. “A View from Salem: Ivo Van Hove’s Production of The Crucible,”  Joshua Polster, Emerson College

May 24-27, 2018, San Francisco, CA

Panel: Arthur Miller and Eugene O’Neill: Dramatic Theory and the Business of Performance. Chair: Beth Wynstra, Babson College

  1. “Fate, Dignity, Love, and Tragedy: O’Neill, Miller, and Their Successors,” David Palmer, Massachusetts Maritime Academy
  2. “Staging Miller’s After the Fall, Lincoln Center, 1964: An Interview with Salome Jens,” Daniel McGovern, The Eugene O’Neill Foundation and Tao House
  3. “O’Neill and Miller in Repertory,” Eric Fraisher Hayes, The Eugene O’Neill Foundation and Tao House

May 23-26, 2019, Boston, MA

Panel one: Intersections of Arthur Miller’s Life and Art. Chair: David Palmer, Massachusetts Maritime Academy

  1. “Consuming Marilyn,” Stefani Koorey, Independent Scholar
  2. “‘There is a shock among the others … I like not the smell of this authority’ –The Abuse of Political Power in The Crucible,” Olfa Gandouz, University of Gabes, Tunisia
  3. “Arthur Miller in China,” Claire Conceison, Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Panel two: Perspectives on Arthur Miller’s Plays. Chair: Stephen Marino, St. Francis College

  1. “The Trouble with Death of a Salesman and Why It Remains So Popular,” Susan C. W. Abbotson, Rhode Island College
  2. “Convicts on the Loose in All My Sons and John Gabriel Borkman,” Richard Brucher, University of Maine
  3. “Teaching All My Sons,” Jan Balakian, Kean University 

May 21-24 2020, San Diego, CA. Cancelled due to Coronavirus.

July 7-11 2021, Boston, MA. Several societies, including AMS, prerecorded the panel to be submitted as a video, though there was a physical conference in Boston.

Panel: New Perspectives on Arthur Miller Studies. Chair: David Palmer, Massachusetts Maritime Academy

  1. “Imperialism, Italian Identity, and Otherness inA View from the Bridge,” Olfa Gandouz, University of Monastir, Tunisia
  2. “A View from the Pod: Launching the Arthur Miller Society Podcast,” Ciarán Leinster, Dublin, Ireland, and Ambika Singh, Jaipur, India: Arthur Miller Society Podcast
  3. “Arthur Miller’s Bedtime Stories,” Stephen Marino, St. Francis College, Brooklyn, NY

The 2022 ALA conference was held in Chicago, but due to travel issues, the Miller society was unable to run their planned panel.

25-28 May 25-28, 2023, Boston, MA.

Panel one: New Perspectives on Arthur Miller’s Life and Works, Chair: Jan Balakian, Kean University:

  1. “Nottage on Miller: “This Is America, Right?’” Richard Brucher, University of Maine (Emeritus)
  2. “Arthur Miller as a Christian Writer,” Stephen Marino, St. Francis College (Emeritus)
  3. “‘Because It Is My Name’: Miller, Monroe, and HUAC,” Stefani Koorey, Independent Scholar

Panel two: Roundtable Book Discussion: John Lahr’s Arthur Miller: American Witness (Yale UP, 2022), Moderator: Jane K. Dominik, with:

  1. Susan C. W. Abbotson, Rhode Island College
  2. Stefani Koorey, Independent Scholar
  3. Stephen Marino, St. Francis College (Emeritus)
  4. Joshua Polster, Emerson College