Center For Mark Twain Studies Releases 2026 Park Church Lecture Series Schedule

The Center for Mark Twain Studies (CMTS) at Elmira College announced the schedule for the 2026 Park Church Summer Lecture Series, which takes place at the historic Park Church, known for its architecture and connection to Mark Twain and his close family and friends. Located at 208 W. Gray Street, the lectures are free and open to the public. They begin at 7:00 p.m. and will be held on July 8, July 15, and July 22.

“Make the Finger-Prints That Will Hang You.” Illustration by E.W. Kemble from Puddn’head Wilson and Those Extraordinary Twins. Édition de Luxe. American Publishing Company (1899) 220.

The July 8 lecture, entitled “Sexuality, Insanity, and the Problem of the Will: or, Pudd’nhead Wilson on Trial,” features Benjamin Bascom, Assistant Professor of English at West Virginia University. Bascom, who researches early and nineteenth-century American literature and contemporary LGBTQIA+ cultures, will make comparisons between Twain’s Pudd’nhead Wilson and a historical account about Samuel M. Andrews, who was found guilty of manslaughter in the death of his friend, Cornelius Holmes, who was found bludgeoned to death. During the trial, Andrews claimed Holmes had sexually assaulted him, but also that he didn’t remember killing Holmes. The trial addressed the concept of temporary insanity and mental illness, but also questions about the term “will,” both as a legally binding document and as a personal drive or inclination. Twain includes some of the same questions in Puddn’head Wilson, and Bascom argues the two stories suggest an intricate relation between sex and insanity that affects society’s understanding of a person’s will.

.

Photograph of Zebulon Brockway inspecting a parade. Courtesy of the Chemung County Historical Society

The July 15 lecture, entitled “‘Brockway’s Paddle’: Institutional Violence and Press Protection at the Elmira Reformatory,” features Mary Lemak, a Juris Doctor Candidate entering her final year at the University at Buffalo School of Law. Her talk will center on Zebulon Brockway, who was superintendent for Elmira Reformatory, a prison that was originally envisioned as a place to give inmates life and work skills rather than merely punish them. Brockway abused the inmates, yet escaped consequences. Lemak will share information about his early life and career, his initial plans for the Reformatory, and the shift that was due, in part, to Brockway’s connections to the press and by extension, the political elite.

Photograph of Mark Twain reading on a porch. Photograph courtesy of the Mark Twain Papers and Project, UC Berkeley

The July 22 lecture, entitled “Mark Twain’s History of the Novel,” features Emily Gowen, incoming Assistant Professor of English at the University of Notre Dame. Gowen will discuss how Mark Twain's writing was shaped by the widespread reprinting and adaptation of classic European novels in 19th-century America. Because Twain grew up reading stories that were constantly revised and "Americanized," he viewed literature as something that could be reimagined. This outlook became central to his satire. Yet, Gowen posits that Twain's own works later became enduring, widely interpreted classics themselves, reflecting the same publishing and literary dynamics that his writing examined.

The Park Church Lecture Series is sponsored by CMTS and Park Church. The Series, along with The Trouble Begins Series, is made possible by the support of the Mark Twain Foundation and generous gifts from individual donors.