How to Reform a Conscience: A Huckleberry Finn Examination (Virtual)

THIS PROGRAM IS A VIRTUAL-ONLY EVENT. REGISTER BELOW BY LEAVING YOUR EMAIL ADDRESS TO RECEIVE LOGIN AND CALL-IN INSTRUCTIONS (SENT TO YOU ONE DAY BEFORE THE PROGRAM). 

Mark Twain described Adventures of Huckleberry Finn as “a book of mine where a sound heart and a deformed conscience come into collision and conscience suffers defeat.” This hour-long program considers how Twain came to recognize the way his own conscience was “deformed” with regards to racism and white supremacy, and explores the ways he successfully – and not-so-successfully – worked to reform it. Note: While this program is an excellent companion to reading Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, participants do not need to have read the book to fully engage with and learn from this program.

This program will be presented by Dr. Erin Bartram: 

Erin Bartram has been the School Programs Coordinator at The Mark Twain House & Museum since 2019. She earned her Ph.D. at the University of Connecticut in 2015 and taught for three years at the University of Hartford before joining the museum. She is co-founder and editor of Contingent Magazine, and co-editor of the Rethinking Career, Rethinking Academia series for the University Press of Kansas. She serves on the Diversity, Equity, & Inclusion Committee for the Society for Historians of the Early American Republic. Her work has appeared in the Washington Post, the Chronicle of Higher Education, U.S. Catholic Historian, and Religion & American Culture.