52nd Annual Conference British Society for Eighteenth-Century Studies

Theme: Homecoming, Return, and Recovery

Submission portal opening date: 1st July 2022

Event dates: 4th-6th January 2023

Venue:  St Hugh’s College, Oxford

(Please note we are following current situation and will update venue information as necessary).

The annual meeting of the British Society for Eighteenth-Century Studies is Europe’s largest and most prestigious annual conference dealing with all aspects of the history, culture and literature of the long eighteenth century. We invite proposals for papers and sessions dealing with any aspect of the long eighteenth century, not only in Britain, but also throughout Europe, North America, and the wider world. Proposals are invited for fully comprised panels of three papers, for roundtable sessions of up to five speakers, for individual papers of twenty minutes duration, and for ‘alternative format’ sessions of your devising. The submission portal for proposals will open 1st July 2022 and close in late October 2022.

As we write at the end of 2021, our sincere hope is that the 2023 BSECS conference will be a homecoming of sorts: a return to in-person conferencing as the society, the world, and many individuals recover from the global Covid pandemic. While recognising that there is an element of risk in this, and while assuring our members that we have robust plans for an online conference should the situation require it, our expectation is that we will again meet in person in 2023.

Homecomings and returns have always been a feature of family and community life, from prodigal sons to returning regiments, but in an era of expanding empire and global warfare people were travelling further, for longer, and returning with increasingly extraordinary tales of a world that was vaster and more complex than had hitherto been imagined—although while Europeans travelled mostly by choice, and, unless permanently emigrating, may have hoped for a return, those they enslaved had no such hope. Europeans returning from tropical regions often did so for their health, hoping to recover from diseases previously unknown to European doctors, but even for those who stayed at home illness and accident were never far away. While historical records and literature often focus on the acute phase of disease and injury, recovery is less well represented even though millions of people lived with the temporary or permanent aftereffects of illness. Communities and even nations were themselves often thrown into ‘recovery mode’, not only after epidemics but also following the ravages of war, famine, and political turmoil. Both homecomings and recoveries are commonplace scenarios in literature, often combined when a distant child returns to care for an ailing parent, and tell us much about people’s personal hopes, fears, and expectations in the face of circumstances often beyond their control. While proposals on all and any eighteenth-century topics are very welcome, this year our plenary speakers at the conference will accordingly be addressing the topic of ‘Homecoming, Return, and Recovery’, and proposals are also invited which address any aspect of this theme.

Enquiries: Any enquiries regarding the academic programme of the conference that are not answered on our website should be addressed to Dr Brianna Robertson-Kirkland via the BSECS email address conference.academic@bsecs.org.uk. 

AGM: At the conference we hold our Annual General Meeting, where we will discuss some proposed changes to the society’s constitution. If you would like to read a draft of the new constitution, you can download it here: BSECS Draft Constitution 2023. Any queries regarding the constitution or the AGM can be addressed to Dr Helen Williams at secretary@bsecs.org.uk.

51st Annual Conference British Society for Eighteenth-Century Studies

Theme: Indifference and Engagement

Event dates: 5th-7th January 2022

Conference updated (4th January 2022)

As you will no doubt be aware, the COVID-19 pandemic continues to force a re-evaluation of in-person events around the world. As a conference team we have also had to weigh up our options and decide upon an appropriate course of action for the organisation, balancing the value of an in-person conference with its risks. Ultimately, we have decided that it would not be right to commit to organising an in-person conference in January 2022, and we have therefore decided that BSECS 2022 will be a virtual event. This was no easy decision to make, but we felt that conditions were still too uncertain at the present time to make any other option feasible with our present resources.

Programme

Our full programme for  51st Annual Conference British Society for Eighteenth-Century Studies, 2022 is available to view here.

Guidance

Attendee Guidance

BSECS Guide for committee hosts, chairs and co-chairs

Top tips for presenting at the BSECS online conference

50th Annual Conference British Society for Eighteenth-Century Studies

6-8 January 2021, hosted online via Zoom: ‘Anniversaries, Jubilees, Commemorations’

Free to all registered BSECS or ISECS affiliated members

In recognition of the ongoing uncertainty surrounding the Covid-19 pandemic, we will be holding our conference online, with the first and final days synchronous, and the middle day asynchronous. Our panels will run 12-7pm GMT in the hope that those times will best suit all our BSECS speakers from around the world. Concurrent live panels will still feature in the conference, albeit hosted on Zoom, but we also hope to record these sessions and post them on our YouTube channel for a limited period to allow everyone the chance to maximise their conference experience. For the asynchronous day, we are planning a virtual exhibition which can focus on an object, an archival resource or a particular area of research best presented in a short-video format. This will also be hosted on our YouTube channel for a limited time.

In 2021 BSECS will be 50 years old. We are therefore taking the opportunity to address the question of anniversaries beyond our own, expanding the theme to look at jubilees and commemorations more generally. What are they? What are their functions, both during the Eighteenth Century and now? What does it mean that in 1721 novelist Tobias Smollett, poet and physician Mark Akenside, and influential royal mistress Mme de Pompadour were born? That in this year Montesquieu’s Lettres persanes were published? That pirate Mary Read died, as did the painter Watteau, the carver Grinling Gibbons, the botanist and physician Camerarius? Is an anniversary simply a way of giving attention or visibility to a topic, thing, or person we find important, or is there something else at stake? Does celebration always outweigh depreciation? If so, why?

While proposals on all and any eighteenth-century topics are very welcome, this year our plenary speakers at the conference will accordingly be addressing the topic of ‘Anniversaries, Jubilees, Commemorations’, and proposals are also invited which address any aspect of this theme. The theme of our 18th-in-the-21st Century Round Table will be Home.
We invite proposals for papers and sessions dealing with any aspect of the long eighteenth century, not only in Britain, but also throughout Europe, North America, and the wider world. Proposals are invited for fully comprised panels of three or four papers, for roundtable sessions of up to five speakers, for individual papers of twenty minutes duration, and for ‘alternative format’ sessions of your devising.

We also invite proposals for the asynchronous virtual exhibition. Please indicate the object, archival resource or area of research the video will focus on and also make sure appropriate permissions have been sought for the objects, images, music appearing on the video. Videos should be no longer than 10-minutes in length.

Our call for papers is now closed.

Programme

BSECS 50th Annual Conference Programme [long]

Zoom links

We want to ensure the conference is a smooth-running event, with no unexpected disturbances. We will be sending a programme with all the Zoom links and passwords each morning by 10am (at the latest).

Guidance materials

Top tips for presenting at the BSECS online conference

BSECS Guide for committee hosts, chairs and co-chairs

Enquiries

All enquiries regarding the academic programme of the conference should be addressed to conference.academic@bsecs.org.uk

49th Annual Conference British Society for Eighteenth-Century Studies

8-10 January 2020 at St Hugh’s College, Oxford, United Kingdom : “Natural, Unnatural and Supernatural”

Plenary speakers:

Donna Landry (University of Kent at Canterbury): ‘In one red burial blent’: The Natural, the Unnatural, and the Animal at Waterloo

Hannah Williams (QMUL): ‘The Religion Problem’

The annual meeting of the British Society for Eighteenth-Century Studies is Europe’s largest and most prestigious annual conference dealing with all aspects of the history, culture and literature of the long eighteenth century.

18 July 2020 marks the tercentenary of the birth of Gilbert White, author of The Natural History of Selborne (1789), the bestselling account of the flora and fauna of his Hampshire parish. White encouraged a new way of looking at the environment, inspiring his readers to record the timings and interactions of plants and animals on their local patch. For that reason, he is sometimes called ‘the first ecologist’. But White was also a clergyman who administered the rites and ceremonies of the Church of England, and who also took an interest in the folklore and beliefs current in his parish. For White, like many ‘natural-‘ or ‘physico-theologians’ of the period, the natural and the supernatural were inextricably entwined. While proposals on all and any eighteenth-century topics are very welcome, this year our plenary speakers at the conference will accordingly be addressing the topic of ‘Natural, Unnatural, and Supernatural’, and proposals are also invited which address any aspect of this theme.

We invite proposals for papers and sessions dealing with any aspect of the long eighteenth century, not only in Britain, but also throughout Europe, North America, and the wider world. Proposals are invited for fully comprised panels of three papers, for roundtable sessions of up to five speakers, for individual papers of twenty minutes duration, and for ‘alternative format’ sessions of your devising.

Registration is now open, but we are no longer taking reservations for evening meals or accommodation.

View the programme here: BSECS 49th Annual Conference short programme

Enquiries

All enquiries regarding the academic programme of the conference should be addressed to conference.academic@bsecs.org.uk

4th, 5th, and 6th January 2019
St Hugh’s College, Oxford, United Kingdom
The annual meeting of the British Society for Eighteenth-Century Studies is Europe’s largest and most prestigious annual conference dealing with all aspects of the history, culture and literature of the long eighteenth century.
We invite proposals for papers and sessions dealing with any aspect of the long eighteenth century, not only in Britain, but also throughout Europe, North America, and the wider world. Proposals are invited for fully comprised panels of three papers, for roundtable sessions of up to five speakers, for individual papers of twenty minutes duration, and for ‘alternative format’ sessions of your devising.
Proposals on all and any eighteenth-century topics are very welcome. Our plenary speakers at the conference will be addressing the topic of ‘Islands and Isolation’ and proposals are also invited which address any aspect of this theme.
Enquiries
All enquiries regarding the academic programme of the conference should be addressed to conference.academic@bsecs.org.uk

47th Annual Conference British Society of Eighteenth Century Studies

3-5 January 2018 at St Hugh’s College, Oxford, United Kingdom

The annual meeting of the British Society for Eighteenth-Century Studies is Europe’s largest and most prestigious annual conference dealing with all aspects of the history, culture and literature of the long eighteenth century.

We invite proposals for papers and sessions dealing with any aspect of the long eighteenth century, not only in Britain, but also throughout Europe, North America, and the wider world. Proposals are invited for

• fully comprised panels of three papers (3 x 20 minutes)
• roundtable sessions of up to five speakers
• individual papers of twenty minutes duration, or
• ‘alternative format’ sessions of your devising.

Proposals on all and any eighteenth-century topics are very welcome. Our plenary speakers at the conference will be addressing the topic of ‘Truths and Lies’ and proposals are also invited which address any aspect of this theme.

The deadline for submission of papers and panel proposals is Friday 20th October 2017 and you will be notified by email within 48 hours as to whether your proposal has been accepted. If you are travelling from outside the UK and need an earlier decision, please mention this in your proposal. Drafts of the conference programme will be published on the BSECS website on 1st November and 1st December 2017.

Enquiries All enquiries regarding the academic programme of the conference should be addressed to conference.academic@bsecs.org.uk.

46th Annual Conference British Society of Eighteenth Century Studies

4-6 January 2017 St Hugh’s College, Oxford, United Kingdom

The annual meeting of the British Society for Eighteenth-Century Studies is Europe’s largest and most prestigious annual conference dealing with all aspects of the history, culture and literature of the long eighteenth century.

We invite proposals for papers and sessions dealing with any aspect of the long eighteenth century, not only in Britain, but also throughout Europe, North America, and the wider world. Proposals are invited for

• fully comprised panels of three papers (3 x 20 minutes)
• roundtable sessions of up to five speakers
• individual papers of twenty minutes duration, or
• ‘alternative format’ sessions of your devising.

Proposals on all and any eighteenth-century topics are very welcome. Our plenary speakers at the conference will be addressing the topic of ‘Friends, Allies and Enemies’ and proposals are also invited which address any aspect of this theme.

The deadline for submission of papers and panel proposals is Friday 7th October 2016. You will be notified by Friday 21st October as to whether your proposal has been accepted. If you are travelling from outside the UK and need an earlier decision, please mention this in your proposal.

Enquiries All enquiries regarding the academic programme of the conference should be addressed to conference.academic@bsecs.org.uk.

The annual meeting of the British Society for Eighteenth-Century Studies is Europe’s largest and most prestigious annual conference dealing with all aspects of the history, culture and literature of the long eighteenth century.

We invite proposals for papers and sessions dealing with any aspect of the long eighteenth century, not only in Britain, but also throughout Europe, North America, and the wider world. Proposals are invited for fully comprised panels of three papers, for roundtable sessions of up to five speakers, for individual papers of twenty minutues duration, and for ‘alternative format’ sessions of your devising.

Proposals on all and any eighteenth-century topics are very welcome.

Our plenary speakers at the conference will be addressing the topic of ‘Growth, Expansion and Contraction’ and proposals are also invited which address any aspect of this theme.