L.M. Montgomery and Change: Conference Information
“L.M. Montgomery and Change” is to be a hybrid conference. It will be held in Charlottetown, Prince Edward Island, on 24-28 June 2026; all sessions will be live-streamed, allowing for virtual presentation, attendance, and participation.
More information about the conference schedule, registration, lodging, and other conference events is forthcoming.
Conference Keynote Speakers
Megan Follows
Keynote Title: "Anne of Everywhere: How A Redheaded Girl from PEI Became Canada's Greatest Cultural Ambassador and Changed my Life Forever."
Megan Follows is an award winning actress, director and producer of film, television, and theatre. Winner of the 2020 DGC award for Outstanding Directorial Achievement in a Family Series, the 2020 CSA for Best Direction of a Children’s or Youth Program, and the 2025 CSA for Best Performer in a Digital Series for Crave’s My Dead Mom, she has directed television for Netflix, CW, CBC, Hulu, Lifetime, and Hallmark among others, and her new feature film, Stealing the Sky - which she produced, directed, and starred in - has garnered multiple awards on the festival circuit.
Follows began acting at the age of nine, landing her first leading role in the series Matt and Jenny when she was eleven, and starring in the Oscar-winning short film Boys and Girls. She went on to star in such iconic films as Hockey Night, opposite Rick Moranis; Inherit the Wind opposite Kirk Douglas and Jason Robards; and Stephen King’s Silver Bullet. She is recognized and beloved by audiences worldwide for her starring role in the Emmy Award winning Anne of Green Gables TV movies. In recent years, Follows has found herself drawn back to the remarkable world of L.M. Montgomery. She lent her voice to the audiobook Emily of New Moon; directed Sandra Oh, Catherine O'Hara, and Victor Garber in Audible's nine part adaptation of Anne of Green Gables; and her original scripted drama series Lucy. Maud (currently in development) was selected to present at the 2025 Berlinale Co-Production Series Market.
Katharine Slater
Keynote Title: "Change the Subject: Queer Opacity and L.M. Montgomery"
Dr. Katharine Slater is an associate professor of English at Rowan University, where she teaches courses on children’s and young adult literature, queer literature, and romance. Her most recent publication on L.M. Montgomery’s work is titled “‘A ghost you can feel and hear but never see’: Queer Hauntings in Emily of New Moon,” and her current book project, The Queer Mobilities of Girlhood in Young Adult Literature, argues that sapphic girls in YA texts grow and move in ways that disturb linear narratives around female adolescent development. In addition to her academic work, Kate writes adult sapphic romance under a pen name; her debut novel was a recent finalist for the Lambda Literary Awards.
Allison McBain Hudson
Keynote Title: "Maud, Pat, and Me: The Materiality of Change"
Dr. Allison McBain Hudson is the current Visiting Scholar at the L.M. Montgomery Institute. She recently completed her Ph.D. at Dublin City University on the significance of material culture in the novels of L.M. Montgomery, particularly the Emily trilogy. Originally from Alberta, she obtained a BA in English from the University of Calgary in 1995 and moved to Ireland in 1997. She earned an MA in Children’s and Young Adult Literature from Dublin City University in 2019 with a focus on Montgomery’s unique Romanticism and “everyday magic.” When she’s not studying or teaching, she is quilting and sewing, walking the dogs in the woods, and looking for old houses and kindred spirits. She is married to an Irish artist, and they live on the outskirts of Dublin with their two daughters.
