Guest speakers

Archived content. The NEH Summer Seminar “Why Literature Matters”
occurred from June 24-July 21, 2018.

Sara Stillman

Sara artist and arts instructor who currently teaches visual arts to 9th & 10th grade students at Oakland International High School and has taught art to students of all ages in New York City and in the San Francisco Bay Area. She presents nationally on arts education topics and is the Bay Area representative for the Yale National Initiative for teachers. Sara studied Photography and Fiber Arts at the University of Michigan, where she completed her BFA. She holds a Masters in Art Education from Teachers College, Columbia University. While in Ann Arbor, Sara volunteered with the Michigan Department of Corrections teaching art to prisoners, an experience that inspired her to pursue teaching. In New York City she worked in the photo department at ESPN The Magazine. Sara and her students’ work have been featured on Martha Stewart Living and KQED, as well as in books, and several museums and galleries.

Jon Michael Varese

Jon Michael Varese has been involved with the Dickens Project since 1997 — first as a graduate student, then as the Director of Digital Initiatives, and now as the acting Director of Public Outreach. He is the author of numerous scholarly and public humanities articles on Dickens and the Victorians, and in 2012 produced the Signature Edition of Dickens’s Great Expectations for general audiences. His debut novel, The Spirit Photographer, which has more than a few Dickensian undertones, was published by The Overlook Press (New York) and Duckworth Press (London) in 2018.