Cheryl Weaver

Candidate statement

My interest in Emily Dickinson began years ago and continues through my dissertation exploring Dickinson’s childhood connections from Amherst including her “circle of five,” Emily Fowler Ford, and Helen Hunt Jackson. I have traveled to Grand Rapids, Michigan, and Beverly, Massachusetts, to search archives that include Dickinson’s childhood friends. I have also spent time at the New York Public Library in Emily Fowler Ford’s archive, and I will continue and expand on this archival work. I am thrilled to have been awarded the EDIS Graduate Fellowship Award which will allow me the opportunity to conduct research at Houghton and Frost Libraries, and I look forward to being able to share my work at future conferences. I would love to be able to assist in future conferences, and I hope to share my ideas with EDIS regarding possible themes centering on Dickinson’s childhood. I am committed to working with EDIS and the goal of extending the influence and appreciation of Dickinson’s work in educational institutions in the United States and abroad. As an instructor at an International Baccalaureate high school and at Buffalo State College, I have the unique vantage point of a wide audience for Dickinson’s work in terms of age range and a global context through the international program. I plan to work on projects with my students that extend to events hosted by EDIS and the Emily Dickinson Museum. As EDIS is always looking to expand its membership, I feel that I can contribute in a meaningful way with young scholars with an eye toward an exciting future for EDIS. My research interests in education, nineteenth-century epistolary practices, and nineteenth-century American literature lead me to Dickinson’s work again and again, and I would like to meaningfully contribute to EDIS as a Member-at-Large. I believe that I will successfully be able to assist EDIS in its goals, notably increased interest and membership, through my work with a high volume of students at various levels in order to foster interest, literary contributions, and historical preservationist practices.