Eighteenth-Century Seminar

Drawing of the Bounty, Correspondence of Miss Nessy Heywood
Drawing of the Bounty, Correspondence of Miss Nessy Heywood, c. 1790, Case MS folio E 5 .H5078

The Eighteenth-Century Seminar is designed to foster research and inquiry across the scholarly disciplines in eighteenth-century studies. It aims to provide a forum for debate and discussion that engages a range of critical approaches and interests. Each year the seminar sponsors one public lecture followed by questions and discussion, and two works-in-progress sessions, featuring precirculated papers.

The seminar is sponsored by the University of Chicago, DePaul University, Northwestern University, and the University of Illinois at Chicago, and directed by Timothy Campbell, University of Chicago; Lisa A. Freeman, University of Illinois at Chicago; John Shanahan, DePaul University; and Helen Thompson, Northwestern University.

All sessions are free and open to the public; registration in advance is required.

Past Eighteenth-Century Seminars

Upcoming Events

Saturday, November 16, 2013
Eighteenth-Century Seminar
Jonathan Lamb : Scorbutic Nostalgia

Nostalgia at sea, sometimes called calenture, is a desire to return home so powerful that the victim is overwhelmed by hallucinations of pastoral landscapes into which s/he leaps, with fatal results.

Saturday, February 22, 2014
Eighteenth-Century Seminar
Tobias Menely : History's Atmosphere

A paper description will be added later.

A reception will follow the seminar.

Learn more about our speaker: Tobias Menely, Miami University

Saturday, April 19, 2014
Eighteenth-Century Seminar
Nina Dubin : Love, Trust, Risk: Painting "The Papered Century"

A paper description will be added later.

A reception will follow the seminar.

Learn more about our speaker: Nina Dubin, University of Illinois at Chicago

Saturday, June 14, 2014
Eighteenth-Century Seminar
Eighteenth-Century Symposium
Speakers to be announced

The Newberry Eighteenth Century Seminar will hold a symposium to mark its fifth year of meeting multiple times a year to discuss participants’ research and works-in-progress. Details will be posted later.