Futurecasting, Futurekeeping: New Englanders Imagine Worlds to Come
In June 2026 the Dublin Seminar for New England Folklife will mark its 50th anniversary by looking both backwards and ahead.
The 2026 conference will be a hybrid event with both in-person and online access to the presentations. Unless otherwise stated, all events will take place at the Deerfield Community Center, 16 Memorial Street in Deerfield. This schedule will be updated as necessary.
Download a PDF of the program schedule here.
Registration for this conference will open soon, and links will be announced here. All registrants will be able to view session videos for a designated time afterwards. We look forward to seeing you!
Friday, June 26
Optional Morning Activity
10 am–12 noon — Tours at the Edward Bellamy House and remarks from its Director in Chicopee Falls, Massachusetts (Pre-registration is required: $12.00 per person)
12–1 pm — Lunch on your own
The Seminar at the Deerfield Community Center
12 noon — Registration opens at Historic Deerfield
1:20 pm — Virtual sign-in opens for online attendees
1:30 pm — Conference Welcome: Marla Miller, Distinguished Professor of History, UMass Amherst, and President, Dublin Seminar for New England Folklife
1:45–3:15 pm — Panel 1: Planned Communities
Moderator: Christian Goodwillie, Director and Curator of Special Collections, Burke Library, Hamilton College
Carl Guarneri, Professor Emeritus of History, Saint Mary’s College of California, and Research Scholar, Colgate University: “Brook Farm: Boston ‘Combined Households,’ and the Utopian Origins of Urban Communal Housing, 1846–1851”
CJ Martin, Visiting Assistant Professor, College of the Holy Cross: “Black Millerites”
Diana Lempel, Scholar/Practitioner of Folk History: “The Blessing of the Attic: Cambridge Co-operative Housekeeping Society and Family Memory Keeping”
3:15–3:30 pm — Break with refreshments
3:30 pm — Tribute to Founders
3:45–5 pm — Futurecasting: A Roundtable on the Past, Present, and Future of New England Studies
(Sponsored by the University of Massachusetts Public History Program and Historic Northampton)
Moderator: J. Ritchie Garrison, Professor Emeritus, Department of History, University of Delaware
Emelie Gevalt, Deputy Director and Chief Curatorial and Program Officer, American Folk Art Museum
Thomas A. Guiler, Director of Museum Affairs, Oneida Community Mansion House
Philippe Halbert, Curator of Decorative Arts and Design, Montreal Museum of Fine Arts
5–6:45 pm — Reception: Celebrating the Dublin Seminar at Fifty
(Sponsored by the American Antiquarian Society and the Boston University Program in American Studies)
Following the Futurecasting Roundtable, please join us for a celebratory reception marking the 50th anniversary of the Dublin Seminar at Champney House. Enjoy heavy hors d’oeuvres and assorted beverages in the company of the Dublin Seminar membership and your colleagues for this festive occasion. (Pre-registration for this special reception is $25.00.)
7–8 pm — Keynote Address: “The Ends of the World in Antebellum New England,” Holly Jackson, Chair of American Studies and Professor of English, University of Massachusetts, Boston
Saturday, June 27
8:30 am — Deerfield Community Center opens. In-person attendees may pick up name badges and information packets. Refreshments available.
8:50 am — Virtual sign-in for online attendees
9–10:30 am — Panel 2: Imagined Futures in Literature
Moderator: Barbara Matthews, Independent Historical Consultant
Megan Pickett, The Winchendon School: “‘…where to go next’: Utopian Immediacy in Total Loss Farm”
Ella Kotsen, Doctoral Candidate, Boston University: “Afrofuturist Vision: Pauline Hopkins”
10:30–10:45 am — Break
10:45 am–12:15 pm — Panel 3: Imagined Futures in Material Culture
Moderator: Erika Gasser, Director of Academic Programs, Historic Deerfield
Elizabeth Eager, Assistant Professor, Southern Methodist University: “Futurity imagined through Women’s Needlework”
Victoria Kenyon, Curatorial Track Doctoral Candidate, University of Delaware: “Magical Flowers: Fortune-Telling Objects from New England”
Brece Honeycutt, Independent Scholar/Multimedia Artist: “building Harmony / constructing Color”
12:15–1:45 pm — Lunch (buffet provided at the Deerfield Inn)
1:45–3:15 pm — Panel 4: Limits of Progressivism: Sexual Politics
Moderator: Erica Lome, Curator of Collections, Historic New England
Hunter Moskowitz, Researcher, American Ancestors: “Factory as Utopia: Imaginations of Sexuality in Early Lowell”
Catherine Terelak, Interpreter, Historic New England’s Beauport, the Sleeper-McCann House: “An Intentional Community: Gloucester’s Dabsville”
Stephen Paterwic, Trustee, Shaker Library and Museum, Sabbathday Lake, Maine: “Shakers and the Second Gathering”
3:15–3:30 pm — Break
3:30–5 pm — Panel 5: Forecasting Future Ecologies
Moderator: Nan Wolverton, Vice President for Academic and Public Programs, American Antiquarian Society
Meghan Freeman, Fellowship and Internship Program Director, Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library, Yale University: “Bird Day, Now and Forever: Mabel Osgood Wright and the Future of New England Bird-Life”
Li-hsin Hsu, Professor of English, National Chengchi University, Taiwan: “Silk Culture, Utopian Experiment, and Anthropocene Imagination in Mid-Nineteenth-Century New England”
Dan McKanan, Emerson Senior Lecturer, Harvard Divinity School: “Imagining the Future Forest”
5 pm — Closing Remarks: John Davis, President, Historic Deerfield, Inc.
Dublin Seminar for New England Folklife 