September 23rd, 2010:
Bojana Acamovic, Elma Porobic, and Karen Karbiener in attendance at International Whitman Week 2010
(Universite de Macerata, Italia)
A goal that I set forth for the graduate seminar “Whitman: The Global Perspective” (U. Novi Sad, Fall 2009) was that we as a class would contribute– not just read, write, and think about– Whitman’s worldwide impact on culture, politics, and society. They were therefore asked to submit their papers for consideration to the International Whitman Week Conference, held in a different world site each year. This prestigious conference invites applications from graduate students around the world, twenty of whom are selected for participation (as well as free housing, excursions, and other perks). The last two days of the conference are reserved for lectures from Whitman scholars. I am so very pleased and immensely proud to share the news that two of my students were chosen to participate in this year’s conference in Macerata, Italy: Elma Porobic was one of the twenty in the Whitman ‘think tank’, and Bojana Acamovic presented her paper (i.e., her final translation project for our class) among top scholars in the final sessions! This is the first time there were any representatives from the ex-Yugloslavia region at Whitman Week, and Elma and Bojana both contributed richly and benefit greatly from the discussions and camraderie of the conference. As I was also a participant (and delivered two talks, one of which on the subject of teaching Whitman in Serbia on the Fulbright), we three enjoyed a very happy reunion in Italy this June.
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