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ONEONTA, N.Y. --
History Professor William M. Simons of the SUNY
College at Oneonta is serving as Director of the 21st annual Cooperstown
Symposium on Baseball and American Culture at the National Baseball Hall of
Fame and Museum, which runs from Wednesday, June 3, through Friday, June 5.
In a panel on "Baseball in Literature," Dr. Simons will present a seminar
entitled "Baseball in the American Hinterlands: Barnstorming the Graphic
Novel" on Friday, June 5, at 9 a.m. in the Education Gallery.
Dr. Simons' presentation will examine James Sturm's 2001 graphic novella,
"The Golem's Mighty Swing," and analyze its insights into American heartland
society and culture of the 1920s. Simons believes that Sturm's text
"constitutes a telling meditation on ethnicity, race, tradition,
assimilation, community, ballyhoo, deviance, and violence."
Since 2000, Dr. Simons has served as the editor of biennial collections
of essays from the symposia entitled The Cooperstown Symposium on
Baseball and American Culture, which have been published by McFarland
and Company Publishers. He has presented at the Cooperstown symposia several
times, and he is the only person to participate in all 21 of the symposia.
This year's symposium will begin at 1 p.m. on Wednesday with the keynote
address by Paul Dickson, author of The Dickson Baseball Dictionary,
The Unwritten Rules of Baseball, The Joy of Keeping Score, and
many other baseball titles. Dickson will speak about his work on the
historical lexicography of baseball terms and expressions.
The symposium will feature panels on a wide range of baseball-related
topics as well as four plenary sessions:
- Wednesday, 6:30-8 p.m., "Baseball and Freedom III: Remembering Mr.
Powles," featuring George Nicholson, Judge of the California State Court
of Appeals; Rockwell Jones, President of Ohio Wesleyan University;
Branch Rickey III, President of the Pacific Coast League; Hugh Hewitt of
the Chapman University School of Law; Brad Snyder of the University of
Wisconsin Law School; and others.
- Thursday, 9-10 a.m., "Abraham Lincoln: Politics, The Law, and
Baseball as a Basis for American Leadership," presented by Frank
Williams, Chief Justice of the Supreme Court for the State of Rhode
Island
- Thursday, 5-6:45 p.m., Town Ball Game (weather permitting) with Tom
Heitz of Fly Creek as umpire and instructor
- Friday, 6-7:30 p.m., "Diamond in the Dunes," a work-in-progress
screening of the baseball documentary.
During the symposium, more than 50 papers will be presented by
university scholars and baseball researchers from across the country.
Co-sponsored by the SUNY College at Oneonta and the National Baseball
Hall of Fame and Museum, the symposium examines the impact of baseball
on American culture from multi-disciplinary perspectives.The Cooperstown Symposium on Baseball and American Culture is open to
members of the community, who can register to participate. More
information is available online at
http://web.baseballhalloffame.org/museum/symposium.jsp
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