We provide a network and forum for the study of American author Kate Chopin.
We encourage and support scholarship and activities that illuminate Chopin’s contribution to the American literary tradition, and we seek to preserve her literary significance for future generations.
If you’re a scholar or advanced graduate student interested in conference presentations or scholarly journals, you may want to check our page for scholars.
About this website.
About the authors and editors of this website.
Our history
The Kate Chopin International Society was formed in 2004 by Heather Ostman and Avis Hewitt, both English professors at American universities, after the conference of the American Literature Association, an organization made up of scholarly societies devoted to the study of American authors. Most better-known American authors have a society of their own, and Heather and Avis thought Kate Chopin deserved a scholarly society focused on her work, even though the Kate Chopin Society of North America, with a different emphasis, already existed in St. Louis.
The society created an advisory board made up mostly of Chopin specialists and sponsored panels at the 2005 ALA conference, as well as at ALA conferences each year since then, and sponsored special panels at the 2014 conference (held in Washington, DC, in late May). We also sponsor panels at other conferences.
Our officers and our website staff
Heather Ostman continues as president of the society. Kelli P. O’Brien is the conference coordinator.
On the advisory board as of 2023 are Heather (State University of New York: Westchester Community College), Thomas Bonner (Xavier University of Louisiana), Christina G. Bucher (Berry College), Barbara Ewell (Loyola University of New Orleans), Bernard Koloski (Commonwealth University of Pennsylvania), Kathleen Butterly Nigro (University of Missouri–St. Louis), Mary Papke (University of Tennessee), John Staunton (Eastern Michigan University), and Emily Toth (Louisiana State University).
The KateChopin.org website staff:
The co-editors of KateChopin.org are Bernard Koloski (Commonwealth University of Pennsylvania) and Heather Ostman (State University of New York: Westchester Community College)
The site’s general bibliographer is Barbara Ewell (Loyola University of New Orleans).
The site’s associate editors are Anna Elfenbein (West Virginia University), Bonnie James Shaker (Kent State University at Geauga), and David Z. Wehner (Mount St. Mary’s University).
The site’s pages dealing with Chopin’s Children’s Stories and Kate Chopin Archives are edited by Bonnie James Shaker (Kent State University at Geauga).
The site’s bibliography page in German is edited by Heidi Podlasli-Labrenz (University of Bremen, Germany).
The site’s bibliography page in Portuguese is edited by Cido Rossi (São Paulo State University, Brazil).
The site’s bibliography page in Spanish is edited by Eulalia Piñero Gil (Universidad Autónoma de Madrid, Spain).
Members of the website advisory committee include Tom Bonner (Xavier University of Louisiana), Barbara Ewell (Loyola University of New Orleans), Beth Jensen (Georgia State University Perimeter College), Kathleen Butterly Nigro (University of Missouri–St. Louis), Kelli P. O’Brien (University of Arkansas at Pine Bluff), Kate O’Donoghue (Suffolk County Community College), Eulalia Piñero Gil (Universidad Autónoma de Madrid, Spain), and Emily Toth (Louisiana State University).
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Join us. Become a member. We would be happy to have you as a member of The Kate Chopin International Society. We welcome scholars, teachers, graduate and undergraduate students, and anyone else who is interested in Chopin. |
Related scholarly organizations:
ALA: American Literature Association
MLA: Modern Language Association
SSAWW: Society for the Study of American Women Writers
SSSL: Society for the Study of Southern Literature
PCA: Popular Culture Association
