Colloquium in the Long Eighteenth Century and Romanticism

I founded Harvard's Graduate Colloquium in the Long Eighteenth Century and Romanticism in 2008 and coordinated the group for three years.

In addition to providing a workshop forum for the presentation and consideration of members' work-in-progress, the group was designed to meet the following four objectives:

  1. To discuss both recent and classic scholarship that has made a significant impact on the fields of Eighteenth-Century and Romanticism studies, particularly books and articles that employ innovative or instructive methodologies.
  2. To improve members' understanding of the profession through faculty-led professional development workshops.
  3. To stay abreast of recent developments in Eighteenth-Century and Romanticism studies through panels on the state of the field and discussion of recent scholarly publications.
  4. To give members an opportunity to engage with leading scholars in the field by hosting talks by several eminent speakers each year from throughout the US, UK, and Canada.

During my tenure as colloquium coordinator, we hosted the following guest speakers:

2008-2009:

  • Ann Rowland (Kansas) and Maureen McLane (NYU)
  • Tim Bahti (independent), co-sponsored with the Humanities Center's Hegel Reading Group
  • Thomas Pfau (Duke), co-sponsored with the Humanities Center's Hegel Reading Group
  • Denise Gigante (Stanford)
  • Nicholas Roe (St. Andrews, Scotland)
  • Matthew Wickman (BYU)
  • James Chandler (Chicago; Director, Franke Institute for the Humanities)

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2009-2010:

  • Michael Gamer (University of Pennsylvania)
  • Ian Balfour (York, Canada)
  • David Duff (Aberdeen, Scotland)
  • Adam Potkay (William and Mary)
  • David Brewer (Ohio State)
  • Ian Duncan (Berkeley)
  • Alistair Duckworth (Florida, emeritus)
  • Robert DeMaria, Jr. (Vassar)

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2010-11:

  • Mary Favret (Indiana)
  • Tim Fulford (Nottingham Trent)
  • Deidre Lynch (Toronto; now Harvard)
  • Srinivas Aravamudan (Duke; Director, Franklin Humanities Center)
  • Kevis Goodman (Berkeley)
  • Colin Jager (Rutgers)

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We held three state-of-the-field panels, featuring:

  • William Keach (Brown), Noel Jackson (MIT), and James Engell (Harvard) (2008)
  • Elizabeth Fay (University of Massachusetts-Boston), Jacques Khalip (Brown), and James Engell (Harvard) (2009)
  • Charles Mahoney (University of Connecticut-Storrs), Jonathan Mulrooney (Holy Cross), and Andrew Warren (Harvard) (2010)

I helped convene recent publications seminars on:

  • Nature and Landscape (for reading list, click here), 2008
  • Cultural Mobility Studies (for reading list, click here), 2009, co-organized with Chris Barrett (LSU) and the Renaissance Colloquium
  • Romanticism at the End of Historicism (for reading list, click here), 2010
  • Media Studies (for reading list, click here), 2011, co-organized with Jacob Risinger (Ohio State)

Finally, I curated the colloquium's website as an archive for happenings in eighteenth-century and Romanticism studies, including professional organizations and conferences; journals and book series; prizes, awards and fellowships; external centers, institutes, and research libraries; and calls-for-papers resources.

A full archive of colloquium activities can be found here.