This two-day conference honors Alan M. Wald, H. Chandler Davis Collegiate Professor of English and American Culture, on the occasion of his retirement from teaching at the University of Michigan after 38 years on the faculty. The event celebrates Professor Wald's contributions to expanding the scope of U.S. literary studies and building American Culture at Michigan. Distinguished guest speakers will present new scholarship regarding literature and leftwing political movements worldwide.

Alan Wald is the world's leading authority on the relation between 20th-century U.S. literature and radical left-wing political movements. His books and articles have illuminated the creative lives of figures such as James T. Farrell, Langston Hughes, Muriel Rukeyser, Philip Rahv, Richard Wright, Ralph Ellison, and Arthur Miller--and have brought attention to unduly neglected writers such as Ann Petry, Jo Sinclair, Carlos Bulosan, and Joy Davidman. These are just a handful of the writers who figure in Wald's magisterial studies in modern American culture.

Thursday, March 21
1 pm: Founders Room, Alumni Center
* Welcome to conference:
Prof. Terrence McDonald,
Dean, College of Literature, Science, and the Arts;
Prof. Paula Rabinowitz, University of Minnesota

1:15-3:15 (Panel A)
READING THE OLD LEFT NOW
”¢ Julia Mickenberg, University of Texas, “U.S. Women, the Pilgrimage to Russia, and the Question of Stalinism”
”¢ Sarah Ehlers, University of South Dakota, “Left of Lyric: Depression-era Poetry and Collective Life”
”¢ Keith Gilyard, Pennsylvania State University, “John Henry in the Work of John Oliver Killens”
”¢ Heather Bowen-Struyk, University of Michigan, “The Resurgence of Proletarian Literature in Japan in 2008”

4:00 KEYNOTE ADDRESS
* Michael Löwy, Research Director emeritus, CNRS, Paris:
“Jewish Radicals in Central Europe and the US: A Comparative Approach”