Join Matt Seybold, the host of American Vandal and Associate Professor of English at Elmira College, for a talk entitled "On Agency, James, & The Twain Doctrine," which will address the propagandization of Twain during the Cold War and how that legacy still resonates in, but is also complicated by, Percival Everett's James. Come for the Missouri-specific content, stay for the discussion of the book that will probably win all the literary awards this year and make it into the 21st-century literary canon! Matt will also conduct a seminar on the public humanities from 1 to 2 PM that day in Tate 111. This seminar is open to anyone who is interested in how to make academic work travel to wider audiences; Matt suggests that attendees listen to American Vandal Episode 12: Podcasting Criticism, if they can.

Matt Seybold is Associate Professor of American Literature & Mark Twain Studies at Elmira College, as well as Resident Scholar at the Center For Mark Twain Studies. He is also the founding director of the Media Studies, Communications, & Design program at Elmira College, executive producer and host of The American Vandal Podcast, and founding editor of MarkTwainStudies.org. He is co-editor (with Michelle Chihara) of The Routledge Companion to Literature & Economics (2018) and (with Gordon Hutner) of a 2019 special issue of American Literary History on “Economics & Literary Studies in The New Gilded Age.” His work has appeared in dozens of publications.