CONFERENCE SCHEDULE

Click here for information on registering for the conference.

REGISTRATION

Friday, September 7, 3:00 - 5:00 p.m., Nittany Lion Inn 
Saturday, September 8, 7:30 - 9:00 a.m., Nittany Lion Inn

OPENING PLENARY SESSION

8:40a - 9:15a: Keynote  Address

"A" SESSIONS - 9:25a - 10:40a

SESSION A1
“Walking that freedom highway” (This Land Is Your Land)

Hope, Change and Woody Guthrie: “This Land is Your Land” and the Obama Inauguration 
Dan Gilbert, University of Illinois, Urbana – Champaign

Legacies of the Musical Cultural Front: Guthrie, Robeson, and Seeger 
Harry R. Targ, Purdue University

Hard Times: Bruce Springsteen and Tom Morello Carry on Woody Guthrie’s Legacy 
Susan Hamburger, The Pennsylvania State University

SESSION A2
“Jesus Christ was...a hard-working man and brave” (Jesus Christ)

Bring Your Own God: The Spirituality of Woody Guthrie 
Steve Edington, University of Massachusetts at Lowell

Woody Guthrie’s Social Gospel Roots 
Larry Guthrie, Larry Guthrie’s grandfather and Woody’s father both lived in Okfuskee County, Oklahoma, in 1912, the year Woody was born

Walt Whitman and Woody Guthrie: Defining, Praising and Transcending the American Worker 
Carmel L. Morse, University of Northwestern Ohio

SESSION A3
“Music is...the sound life uses to keep the living alive” (There’s a Feeling in Music)

Si Kahn and others on the Magazines PEOPLE’s SONGS and SING OUT! started by Woody Guthrie, Pete Seeger and others in the 1940s and still published today.

SESSION A4
“I’m going into this battle, and take my union gun” (All You Fascists)

Can the Guthrie Center Kill Fascists? Political Silence around Oklahoma’s Woody Guthrie Center
Dr. Lisa Foster, University of Oklahoma

Singing About Academic Labor: Extending the Legacy of Woody Guthrie into the 21st Century Classroom. 
David D. Witt, presenter, coauthors Steve Aby and Joe Larose, The University of Akron

On the Back Side: The Past, Present, and Future of Guthrie’s “Patriotism” in American Schools 
Mark Kissling, The Pennsylvania State University

"B" SESSIONS - 10:50a - 12:00a

SESSION B1
“You've played, little darlin' all day” (Goodnight Little Arlo)

“Why Couldn't the Wind Blow Backwards?”: The Childlikeness of Woody Guthrie's Songs for Children 
Liam Maloy, Institute of Popular Music, University of Liverpool, UK.

Strike Up the Band: Mother Jones and the Music of Reform 
Scout and Addie Best, Middle School Students, Somerset, PA

Woody Guthrie, Bob Dylan and Javy Brown ...Or, What Could Woody Guthrie Possibly Mean to a Teenage Girl From Ohio in the Year 2012? 
Javy Brown, Middle School Student, Cincinnati, OH

SESSION B2
“I've sung this song, but I'll sing it again” (So Long Its Been Good To Know Yuh)

Woody’s Children: Bob Dylan, Phil Ochs, and Guthrie’s Legacy for the New Left 
Joel Woller, Carlow University

Don’t Call Me Woody”: Joe Strummer and the Punk Legacy of Woody Guthrie’s Radical Folk 
Edward A. Shannon, Ramapo College of New Jersey

Freak Weirdo: Bob Dylan, Wilco, and the Redefining of Woody Guthrie 
Court Carney, Stephen F. Austin State University

SESSION B3
“They'll tell you they make less than a dollar a day” (1913 Massacre)

FILMMAKERS ON THEIR FILMS

Michael Maglaras and Terri Templeton 
O’ BROTHER MAN: THE ART AND LIFE OF LYND WARD

Tom Weber 
TROUBADOUR BLUES

Ken Ross & Louis V. Galdieri 
1913 MASSACRE

SESSION B4
“Gather 'round me, children, a story I will tell” (Pretty Boy Floyd)

Woody Guthrie as America’s Original “Merry Prankster” 
Kristin Lems, National Louis University, Skokie, IL

Pop Music and the Dark Experiment: Decline in American Labor Value from "Forty-Hour Week" to "Jack of All Trades" 
John Duffy, Millersville University of Pennsylvania

Woody Guthrie as Labor Historian 
Tom Juravich, University of Massachusetts Amherst

LUNCH - 12:10p - 1:30p

Performance by the D.C. LABOR CHORUS

"C" SESSIONS - 1:40p - 2:50p

SESSION C1
“Bound for glory...” (This Train Is Bound For Glory)

Voices of the Oppressed: Woody Guthrie, Black Gospel Music, and the Power of Song 
Reverend Billy Wirtz (Blues musician, comedian, and writer) and Jerry Zolten, the Pennsylvania State University

SESSION C2
“I gotta boogie for peace” (Peace Pin Boogie)

The Playing’s the Thing: A Musical Analysis of “Plane Wreck at Los Gatos” 
Richard Hunt, Potomac State College

This Pen is Your Pen, This Pen is My Pen: Woody Guthrie and the Progressive Cartooning Legacy 
James P. Quigel, Jr., Head, Historical Collections and Labor Archives, The Pennsylvania State University

“the peoples art” and Modernism: Woody Guthrie, Joseph Campbell and Miguelito Valdés in New York in the 1940s 
David Taylor, University of North Texas

SESSION C3
“Take you riding in my car, car” (Riding In My Car)

Every Buck I do Buck and Every Twitchy I do Twitch’: Movement, Travel, and Transportation in the Life and Art of Woody Guthrie 
Mark F. Fernandez, Loyola University New Orleans

Converging Visions of America: Reconciling the Politics, Art, and Personal Narratives of Woody Guthrie and Jack Kerouac 
Frank J. Bove, The University of Akron

Who are the Balladeers of the People in 21st Century America? 
Patrick R. Saunders, American Culturalist

SESSION C4
“We'll work in our working class struggle if we live a thousand lives more” (Vanzetti's Letter)

Remembering Rosie: Gender and Family Dynamics in Woody Guthrie’s Ballads of Sacco and Vanzetti 
Michele Fazio, The University of North Carolina at Pembroke

Woody was Right! New Perspectives on the '1913 Massacre' and Italian Hall 
Gary Kaunonen, Michigan Technological University

Wobblies, Woody, and the Wrecking Ball: Joe Hill, Woody Guthrie, and Bruce Springsteen as Visionary Realists of Anarchism, Communism, and Democracy 
Doug Morris, Eastern New Mexico University

"D" SESSIONS - 3:00p - 4:10p

SESSION D1
“If prayer will bring us union love, I’ll pray and pray and pray some more” (Union Prayer)

TO THE WORKING CLASS: THE NEW “NEW DEAL”

“My worky contract’s out, Yes, I have to move on”-- Woody Guthrie’s Migrant Labor Consciousness in the Latin/o Context. 
Jorge Arévalo Mateus, Curator, Woody Guthrie Foundation and Archives

Transnational(izing) Guthrie: Appropriating an American Icon in Germany 
Martin Butler, University at Oldenburg, Germany

The British Connection: Guthrie, Skiffle, and the Workers’ Music Association 
Will Kaufman, University of Central Lancashire, England

SESSION D2
“I'd give my life blood, just to turn my people free” (Harriet Tubman's Ballad)

Woody Guthrie and the African American Connection 
Victoria Yancey, Walden University and the University of Phoenix

“My People Are Not Quaint”: Transracial Resistance in Woody Guthrie’s Oklahoma Hills 
Rachel C. Jackson, University of Oklahoma

Chords of the Road: The Travel and Migration of White Folk Musicians and African American Blues Artists during the Great Depression 
Daniel Simmons: University of Connecticut

SESSION D3
“They chase us like outlaws, like rustlers, like thieves” (Deportees)

Class Matters: Woody Guthrie and the Politics of Class 
Ron Briley, Sandia Preparatory School

Woody Guthrie’s Spoiled Album 
Gustavus Stadler, Haverford College

Understanding Woody Guthrie in the Context of the Popular Front in America 
Clement Daly, Independent Researcher

SESSION D4
“She always stood her ground” (Union Maid)

Two Plainswomen’s Dust Bowl Ballads 
Josh Garrett-Davis, author of Ghost Dances: Proving Up on the Great Plains, to be published by Little, Brown in August 2012

We Shall be Free: The ILGWU, Social Unionism, and Workers’ Empowerment 
Jill Jensen, The Pennsylvania State University

Union Maids: Women, Workers and Woody Guthrie 
Emily Baxter, London School of Economics and Political Science

CLOSING PLENARY SESSION - 4:20p - 5:20p

The Musician’s Roundtable, hosted by Robert Santelli 
Santelli, Director of the Grammy Museum, will interview selected artists who will discuss Guthrie’s influence on their music and end the conference in song.