Upcoming talks & appearances
May 2025
Transactional vs. Transformation Education: Realizing the Promise of a Mission-Driven Core Curriculum, ACSSJ Faculty Development Event
I will discuss the challenges of crafting transformational core curricula in an increasingly transactional educational environment. I argue that we tend to focus mostly on WHAT we teach in core curricula, when really our focus should be on HOW we teach core courses. I believe a core curriculum animated by mission can connect students to their sense of purpose—and that sense of connection to a larger purpose can be a game changer for student engagement. This presentation reprises a presentation I gave at Elms College in Chicopee, MA in November 2024.
Highlights of Past appearances
December 2024
Interview with One True Podcast about Hemingway’s “A Blind Man’s Christmas Eve”
July 2024
The Hemingway Society Biennial Conference in San Sebastian and Bilbao
I chaired a session on The Hemingway Review’s Fall 2023 special issue on Hemingway in Black and White. Panelists included guest editors, Margaret E. Wright-Cleveland and Ian Marshall, as well as several contributors to the issue. I also presented as part of a roundtable on the collection of essays, Teaching Hemingway and Film edited by Cam Cobb and Marc Dudley.
March 2024
Taking the Bull by the Horns: Ernest Hemingway as a Great Writer and Bad Person
I spoke at Boise State University’s Hemingway Center on March 6, 2024. I explored the different ways we struggle with and attempt to reconcile Hemingway’s greatness as a writer with his sometimes difficult and distasteful behavior as a person.
December 2023
Interview with One True Podcast about Hemingway’s “A North of Italy Christmas”
January 2023
”Teaching and Learning Post-Pandemic: Teaching and Technology,” ACSSJ online Faculty Development Event.
December 2022
Interview with One True Podcast about Hemingway’s “The Christmas Gift”
I return as the special Christmas guest for One True Podcast to discuss Hemingway’s account of his 1954 African plane crashes.
July 2022
“Is The Garden of Eden Inaccrochable?: Intimacy, Sex, Elephants, and Icebergs.” The Hemingway Society Biennial Conference. Wyoming/Montana. July 2022.
December 2021
Interview with One True Podcast about Hemingway’s “Christmas on the Roof of the World.”
I return as the special Christmas guest for One True Podcast to discuss Hemingway’s 1923 piece for the Toronto Star Weekly. And as a bonus: I discuss my “one true sentence” in Hemingway’s work!
November 17, 2021.
“Pack Your Bags with the Hemingways.”
100 years ago, Ernest and Hadley prepared to move to Paris, France. In this webinar session, we will discuss their travel plans (how they got there, conditions of the voyage), the Paris they encountered when they arrived, and Hadley’s perspective on the move. Join scholars Gioia Diliberto, Hilary Justice, J. Gerald Kennedy, Sandra Spanier for a little bit of time travel! Moderated by Suzanne del Gizzo.
September 9-11, 2021
”' What is Africa to Me?’: Hemingway’s Lifelong Fascination with the ‘Dark Continent’” Hemingway Festival, Sun Valley, ID.
Discussion of Hemingway’s lifelong fascination with Africa that will address its influence on his literature and persona against the complex issues of race, exploitation of resources, imperialism, and romanticism.
August 6, 2021
Hemingway and Sex moderated by Suzanne del Gizzo / Panelists: Carl Eby, Debra Moddelmog, Lisa Tyler
How does the #MeToo movement affect the way we read, teach, and write about Hemingway? Gender and sexuality have been defining topics in Hemingway scholarship for nearly forty years now, but #MeToo adds new levels of complexity to that already rich discussion, inviting us to think about the dynamics of sex, seduction, and sexual violence in Hemingway's work. Watch recording.
April 2021
Theme Pages for Hemingway, a film by Ken Burns and Lynn Novick
I co-wrote the “Death” and “Masculinity” theme pages with my friend and colleague, Marc Dudley.
March 25, 2021
Moderator of a panel discussion on Hemingway, a film by Ken Burns and Lynn Novick. New Mexico PBS.
The panel features James McGrath Morris from Santa Fe is the author of The Ambulance Drivers: Hemingway, Dos Passos and a Friendship Made and Lost in War (DaCapo Press, 2017); UNM Associate Professor, Jesús Costantino, author of “The Boxer’s Pain, the Bull’s Prose: Race, American Boxing, and Hemingway’s Ring Aesthetics,” (The Space Between: Literature and Culture, 1915-1945); and Santa Fe resident and former literature professor, Hemingway scholar, and bestselling novelist, David Morrell.
January 4, 2020
Interview about job trends and the value of a Liberal Arts educations for the career website Zippia.
December 20, 2020
Interview about the Hemingway short story, “God Rest You Merry, Gentleman.” One True Podcast (recorded on November 2, 2020) with host Mark Cirino, produced by Michael VonCannon.
A conversation about Hemingway's decidedly un-festive short story, "God Rest You Merry, Gentlemen." Perfect for 2020!
September 6, 2018
A Farewell to Arms: Hemingway’s Greatest Love Story. Hemingway Festival, Sun Valley, ID.
Discussion of Hemingway’s A Farewell to Arms as fundamentally a critique of Romanticism in love and war. I argue that Farewell is a novel steeped in personal loss, guilt, and pain.
At WHYY Studios in Phiadelphia recording the interview for “The Strange Case of Henry James’ Testicle”
August 1, 2017
BBC Radio 4 Interview for "The Strange Case of Henry James' Testicles"
Discussion of Hemingway's opinion of Henry James and specifically Hemingway's reference of James's "obscure hurt" in The Sun Also Rises. My bit begins around 22 minutes and goes through to the end of the program.
Click here to listen.
March 3, 2017
Intimate Harm: Hemingway and His Father. Hemingway Festival, Moscow, ID.
Discussion of Hemingway's home life in Oak Park with an emphasis on his complicated relationship with his father.
October 22, 2016
Hemingway and the Image: The Hemingway Review and Hemingway's Academic and Public Personae at Misericordia University in Dallas, PA.
Discussion of the role The Hemingway Review plays in shaping and advancing scholarship on Hemingway.
June 8, 2014
"All About Hemingway" at the Chestnut Hill Book Festival, Philadelphia, PA.
Discussion of recent revelations that have complicated Hemingway's iconic masculine image.
WHYY Studios in Philadelphia recording “What Makes The Great Gatsby So Great?”
May 9, 2013
"What Makes The Great Gatsby So Great?" on Radio Times with Marty Moss-Cohane, National Public Radio.
Discussion of F. Scott Fitzgerald's enduring novel at the time Baz Luhrmann's film adaptation was released. Suzanne attributes the resilience of The Great Gatsby to Fitzgerald's ability to capture--both thematically and stylistically-- American ambivalence about wealth and beauty.