21 & 22 March 2019
Annual Conference of the Dutch-Belgian Society for Eighteenth-Century Studies

This conference seeks to address the various modes and strategies through which female
intellectuals (authors, scientists, educators, and others) sought to negotiate and legitimize their
authority in Early Modern and Enlightenment Europe (1600-1800).

The primary objective of this conference is to examine these modes and strategies of female
self-representation from an interdisciplinary and cross-cultural perspective. Papers should
therefore move beyond individual case studies and address the conceptual and historiographic
issues involved in studying processes of female intellectual legitimation.

We welcome submissions in the form of complete sessions (3 papers + response) or individual
papers (20 minutes) preferably in English on the following topics:
– Text and Image: Textual and visual representations of women as intellectual authorities
– Networks of Authority: uses of gendered associations (through paratexts, dedications,
ego-documents) as strategies to gain authority;
– Disciplines: inclusion/exclusion strategies of and by women in emerging disciplines
– Markets and publication strategies: commercial strategies; branding female authority
in the “public market”; discourse on fame/reputation and gender;
– Labels: conceptualizing/classifying female intellectuals and authors in early historiography and accounts of the cultural field.

Potential speakers are invited to submit a title and abstract of 300 words by May 15 2018.

These, accompanied by a short CV, can be sent to PortraitsandPoses@18e-eeuw.nl.
Notification of acceptance will be given by July 1st 2018. Selected papers will be published in a
peer-reviewed edited volume after the conference; authors will be asked to submit revised versions of their conference paper by July 1st, 2019.

For more information see: www.18e-eeuw.nl.
Organising committee:
Dr. Beatrijs Vanacker
Dr. Lieke van Deinsen
Prof. Dr. Alicia C. Montoya
Prof. Dr. Anke Gilleir