The UMA English Program recently hosted a Lunch and Learn at Katz Library in Augusta featuring three faculty members presenting research they previously shared at national conferences.
Professor Robert Kellerman talked about “Modern Medieval Music Makers,” a topic he shared with the Medieval and Renaissance Forum at Keene State College in New Hampshire in 2025. He has developed an interest in medievalism studies – the reception of the Middle Ages – and here explores modern musicians who are appropriating medieval music in various ways.
Professor Lisa Botshon’s work, “‘Let us have our bathrooms’: Harriet Beecher Stowe’s Prescient Plumbing” is an outgrowth of her recent interdisciplinary course, Stalled: An Interdisciplinary Exploration of the Bathroom. She argues that Stowe was an early influencer regarding the bathroom, which was not a standard fixture in American homes until well into the 20th century.
Professor Ellen Taylor’s scholarship on poet and essayist Celia Thaxter, is a continuation of earlier work on Thaxter’s ornithological advocacy and her cultivation of the first American summer salon on Appledore Island. Taylor’s paper, “Nasturtium and Neuralgia: Celia Thaxter’s Gardening Rest Cure” discusses how Thaxter turned to the garden to deal with chronic illness and inadequate medical care.