List of scholars
Scholars in Northern California
Annie Brown
Cesar E. Chavez Foundation
abrown@cecfmail.org
213/362-0267, ext. 223
The Cesar E. Chavez Foundation was established to educate people about the life and work of this American hero and to engage all, particularly youth, to carry on his values and timeless vision for a better world. Annie Brown can link you to speakers around the state and has connections to speakers from the United Farm Workers as well. You can contact her directly or go to www.cesarechavezfoundation.org and fill out a speaker request. She can put you in touch with someone appropriate for your library event.
Rafaela Castro
Bibliographer
Davis, CA
rgcastro@ucdavis.edu
530/752-2040
Castro is a bibliographer in the Humanities/Social Sciences Department at Shields Library at UC Davis and has a special interest in the "The Grapes of Wrath." The site of the labor camp at Weedpatch is actually located not far from where she was born and raised. She has a great deal of knowledge about the local agricultural history of the region and can share her insights about the area's history and its relationship to the themes of the book. She is bilingual in Spanish.
Robert W. Cherny
San Francisco
Scholar
cherny@sfsu.edu
415/338-7561
Robert Cherny is a professor of history at San Francisco State University. For the past 15 years he's been researching the life of Harry Bridges as well as the history of Pacific Coast longshoremen and the Communist Party in California. He can speak on the political context of "The Grapes of Wrath", on the Associated Farmers and other anti-labor and anti-Communist Party groups and more generally on the situation of agricultural workers in the 1930's.
Arnoldo Garcia
Oakland
Poet and program director
National Network for Immigrant and Refugee Rights
agarcia@nnirr.org
(510) 465-1984, ext. 305
Arnoldo Garcia is a performing poet and writer who presents poems and stories in Spanish and English to various audiences. He is also currently the program director at the National Network for Immigrant and Refugee Rights and editor of NNIRR's newsmagazine, Network News. He is knowledgeable about the policy issues surrounding immigration, as well as the social aspects of immigrant and refugee communities in the United States. He speaks and writes extensively on these topics for radio and television programs. He grew up in a migrant farm worker family and has written extensively about working in the fields, about land, the natural world, and the migrant community.
Miguel Espino
Oral historian and storyteller
San Francisco Bay Area
drobespi@attbi.com
510/558-0330
Miguel Espino, born in Dinuba, Calif., in 1941, spent his youth as a migrant worker, picking grapes, peaches and cotton throughout the rich agricultural belt of the Central Valley. He can offer those who come together to share "The Grapes of Wrath," an insightful and lively discussion that touches on history, culture, social values and politics imbued in the writing of John Steinbeck. He has extensive knowledge about California labor history, and intimate experience about the subject matter of which Steinbeck writes. He will offer participants a chance to explore the historical and political implications of the time and conditions facing the characters in Steinbeck's "Grapes of Wrath." Cost per one-hour session: $200-$300 (Available to speak in English, Spanish or both.)
Chris Evans
San Jose
High school librarian and historian
evansc@esuhsd.org
408/347-4480
Chris Evans can lead wonderful "Grapes of Wrath" discussions for teens and adults.
Jan Goggans
Sacramento
Scholar
jegoggans@ucdavis.edu
916/736-1943
Jan Goggans is a scholar of Dorothea Lang's work and has wide experience writing and lecturing on oral history, agricultural literature and photography. She has a wonderful 45-minute commentary -- illustrated by slides of Lange portraits titled "The Faces of Steinbeck's 'The Grapes of Wrath.'" She can speak about the way that Dorothea Lange and Paul Taylor, her husband, addressed the anti-Okie sentiment that Steinbeck articulates so eloquently in "The Grapes of Wrath." The slide presentation shows Lange's particular interest in the tension between women's migrant lives and their attempts to set up housekeeping in the West. Jane Hammons
Berkeley
Writer and scholar, Berkeley's College Writing Program
jhammons@cwp60.berkeley.edu
Jane Hammons can lecture and lead discussions on Steinbeck and "The Grapes of Wrath."
Gerald Haslam
Penngrove
Scholar and writer, Sonoma State
ghaslam@sonic.net
Writer and scholar of California studies. He was born and raised in California's Central Valley. His writing celebrates California's rural and small town areas and its poor and working class. He lectures on Steinbeck and "The Grapes of Wrath "extensively.
Kevin Hearle
San Mateo
Scholar, literary critic, poet and writer
kevinhearle@rcn.com
650/571-6390
Kevin Hearle is a scholar of literature and California studies and has written on and lectured on "The Grapes of Wrath." He is revision editor of the Viking Critical Library 2nd edition of "Grapes of Wrath: Text and Criticism" and a former founding member of the editorial boards of both "The Steinbeck Newsletter" and "Steinbeck Studies."
Jack Hicks
Sacramento
Writer and scholar, UC Davis
wjhicks@ucdavis.edu
Author of many books and co-editor of "The Literature of California, Vol.1." He can speak on Steinbeck's "Grapes of Wrath" and its place in California literature.
Shirley Ann Wilson Moore, Ph.D.
Scholar
smoore@csus.edu
916/278-6669
Shirley Ann Wilson Moore is a professor of history at California State University, Sacramento. Her areas of specialty include African-American history, African-Americans in the West, African-American migration and African-American women. She can speak to the themes in African- American western migration that relate to the themes of "The Grapes of Wrath."
Elizabeth Partridge
Writer
San Francisco Bay Area
ep@elizabethpartridge.com
www.elizabethpartridge.com
Writer Elizabeth Partridge grew up in the San Francisco Bay Area with her grandmother, photographer Imogen Cunningham, and her Godmother, Dorothea Lange. Author of the new biography "This Land Was Made for You and Me: The Life and Songs of Woody Guthrie," Partridge gives an energetic, impassioned talk on Guthrie, illustrated with slides of Dorothea Lange's photographs, and accompanied by music. Partridge brings CD's of Woody's music, or can arrange to have a folksinger play his music live. Pete Seeger called "This Land Was Made for You and Me," the best book about Woody Guthrie ever written! In her presentation, Partridge explores Woody's experiences in Depression-torn California, culminating in his song "This Land is Your Land." Woody Guthrie was brilliant, restless, his life a string of tragedies, his spirit an amazing mixture of anger, optimism, and sorrow. Partridge covers his remarkable ability to turn any experience into a song, and traces the haunting legacy of Huntington's disease as it destroyed Woody's childhood and ultimately claimed his life. "Woody is just Woody. Thousands of people do not know he has any other name. He is just a voice and a guitar. He sings the songs of a people and I suspect that he is, in a way, that people. Harsh voiced and nasal, his guitar hanging like a tire iron on a rusty rim. There is nothing sweet about Woody, and there is nothing sweet about the songs he sings. But there is something more important for those who will listen. There is the will of the people to endure and fight against oppression. I think we call this the American spirit."
John Steinbeck
Elisabeth Ptak
Pt. Reyes Station
Associate director, Marin Agricultural Land Trust
eptak@malt.org
415/663-1158
Elizabeth can speak about a recent oral history project of the Marin Agricultural Land Trust, "An Abundant Land: The Story of West Marin Ranching". This project collected oral accounts documenting the history of the area and a tape was created of the same title, narrated by Peter Coyote. Elizabeth can speak about the project and about the history of ranching in the West Marin area.
Art Ring
San Jose
Scholar and educator
aring740@mac.com
408/378-3510
Art Ring is a Steinbeck scholar and educator. He does wonderful presentations on Steinbeck and his work.
Charles Wollenberg
Berkeley
Scholar and writer
cwolle@yahoo.com
510/981-2924
Charles Wollenberg specializes in California social history of the 20th Century. He is chair of social sciences at Vista College in Berkeley, historical consultant for the Oakland Museum and oral historian for the Regional Oral History Office at UC Berkeley. He put together a volume of Steinbeck's S.F. news articles titled, "Harvest Gypsies, On the Road to the Grapes of Wrath." These pieces led directly to Steinbeck writing the novel. Wollenberg can lead a discussion about this aspect of Steinbeck's career and the articles' influence on the book.
William Wong
Oakland
Writer and scholar
wongink@earthlink.net
William Wong can speak on the Asian-American and Chinese-American immigrant experience. He can discuss the roles these groups have played in California agriculture and the building of the state's economy, and link those experiences to the Oklahoma immigrant experience of "The Grapes of Wrath."