About The International Susan Glaspell Society

Our History

The International Susan Glaspell Society was formed in 2003, following a year of exciting Glaspell conference panels at the American Theatre and Drama Society section of the American Literature Association Conference in Boston and at the Twentieth Century Literature Conference in Louisville. The growing membership of the ISG Society reflects the continued growth of Glaspell scholarship as more and more academics, scholars, theatre professionals, and general readers realize that Glaspell is a major American woman writer whose remarkable body of work — drama, journalism, short fiction, and novels — has been too long overlooked.

Our Mission

The purpose of the International Susan Glaspell Society is to promote the recognition of Susan Glaspell as a major American dramatist and fiction writer though the ongoing publication of high-quality scholarship and critical analyses of all her works, participation in national and international conferences, performances and public readings of her plays, and commitment to reprinting and teaching her plays, novels, and stories.

Society Affiliations

The International Susan Glaspell Society is an Affiliated Society of the Society for the Study of American Women Writers (SSAWW) and as such SGS members enjoy many of its benefits, including access to its 420-member listserv and opportunities to propose and participate in Society-sponsored panels at bi-annual SSAWW conferences as well as at SSAWW-sponsored panels at regional MLA meetings. The Society is also affiliated with five other theatre and dramatist societies: the American Theater and Drama Society (ATDS), the Eugene O’Neill Society, the Arthur Miller Society, the Thornton Wilder Society, and the Lillian Hellman Society. Along with these societies the International Susan Glaspell Society sponsors panels regularly at the American Literature Association Conference, in concert with ATDS at the Association for Theatre in Higher Education Conference, and at the Eugene O’Neill Society International conferences. The Society encourages all of its members to propose, organize, and participate in panels.

Society Governance

Founding members of The International Susan Glaspell Society in 2003 were Martha C. Carpentier, Barbara Ozieblo, Marcia Noe, Lucia V. Sander, Mary E. Papke, and Susan Koprince. On November 10, 2006, at the SSAWW conference in Philadelphia, PA, members of the Society held the first official business meeting. At that meeting theSociety By-laws were discussed, amended, and ratified. The second ISGS business meeting was held at the SSAWW conference in Philadelphia on October 23, 2009, at which the By-laws were amended. Click on the links to access the By-laws and the business meeting minutes.

Current Officers: President: Emeline Jouve, Université Toulouse Jean-Jaurès; Vice-President, Martha C. Carpentier, Seton Hall University; Membership and Finance Officer: Drew Eisenhauer, University of Le Havre, Normandy.

Executive Council Members: J. Ellen Gainor, Cornell University; Jeffery Kennedy, Arizona State University; Kirsten E. Shepherd-Barr, St Catherine’s College University of Oxford; Noelia-Hernando-Real, Universidad Autónoma de Madrid, ex officio. Plus all officers.