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.

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

#####

Text Only Options

• Change the current font size: larger | default | smaller
• Current color mode is Black on White, other available modes: Yellow on Black | Black on Cream
• Show textual links as buttons
• Do not move navbars
• Do not alert me when leaving text-mode
• Open not handled documents directly
• Hide Text Only Options

Open the original version of this page.