Prof. Eric Gardner (chair, Dept. of English, Saginaw Valley State University) will deliver the 2025 Kane Lecture, entitled ‘Frances Ellen Watkins Harper: Right Here, Right Now.’
Professor Eric Gardner, a tireless and influential scholar of Black print, its history, and its archives, will deliver the 2025 Kane Lecture in the Department of English on Thurs., March 27, titled “Frances Ellen Watkins Harper: Right Here, Right Now.” Drawn in part from his forthcoming book, Frances Ellen Watkins Harper’s Civil War and Reconstruction, his lecture will address Harper’s years living in Columbus, Ohio.
Professor Gardner is the author of two prize-winning monographs, Unexpected Places: Relocating Nineteenth-Century African American Literature (2009) and Black Print Unbound: The Christian Recorder, African American Literature, and Periodical Culture (2015). He has also edited five books, most recently the volume on Reconstruction for Cambridge’s African American Literature in Transition series, and published a wide range of articles in scholarly journals, edited collections, and key reference works. He was awarded a pair of Fellowships from the National Endowment for the Humanities and a “Regional Hero” award from the Saginaw County NAACP. Prof. Gardner chairs the English Department at Saginaw Valley State University. The lecture begins at 4pm followed by Q&A and a brief reception.
