Gary Totten, associate professor of English, recently was elected president of the Edith Wharton Society, an international scholarly society devoted to research on the life and works of the early 20th century American writer Edith Wharton. 

The society supports Wharton scholarship in various ways: panel sessions at annual conferences for groups such as the Modern Language Association and American Literature Association; special conferences such as the upcoming Wharton sesquicentennial conference in Florence, Italy, in 2012; an annual research fellowship at Yale’s Beinecke Library; an annual essay prize; and a peer-reviewed journal, The Edith Wharton Review. 

Totten previously served as secretary and vice president of the society, and his term as president will run from 2011-13.