About ODSECS — Open Digital Seminar in Eighteenth-Century Studies

ODSECS

The Open Digital Seminar in Eighteenth-Century Studies (ODSECS) is committed to centring new voices, new approaches, and new topics in eighteenth-century studies, across disciplines. Our virtual spaces—from our online meeting platforms to our website and social media presence—create and support community, connecting scholars from across the globe in an environmentally sustainable way. ODSECS prioritizes anti-racism, gender equality, a decentring of ableism, and an attention to addressing hierarchies within eighteenth-century studies to create a more equitable, safe, and diverse space for current scholarship.

The seminar series seeks to inspire respectful discussion, debate, and actions that will move the field of eighteenth-century studies toward a more inclusive identity. Papers may speak to emerging or recently completed research or pedagogic projects. Papers will be no more than 40 minutes long to ensure space for sustained discussion.

ODSECS is hosted by the Faculty of Arts at the University of Bristol, but it is convened by a Collective of eighteenth-century scholars. Please direct all enquiries to Elaine McGirr.

Our channels

Find us on Twitter at @ODSECS1

Find us on Mastodon at @ODSECS@c18.masto.host

Find us at BlueSky at @ODSECS.bsky.social

About Us

Elaine McGirr is Professor of Eighteenth-Century Studies at the University of Bristol, UK. She is a theatre historian whose recent work focuses on eighteenth-century tragedy and the cultural and authorial power of celebrity actors, but she started out as a Richardsonian and still loves Sir Charles Grandison more than most.

Freya Gowrley is Lecturer in History of Art and Liberal Arts at the University of Bristol. Her research specializes in art and objects from the early modern period to the late nineteenth century in Britain and North America.

Manushag ("Nush") Powell is Professor of English at Purdue University. She is a cultural historian of literary form specializing in the long eighteenth century. She began her career in periodical studies and remains active on that front, although her most recent work revolves around pirate yarns.

Ian Calvert is Lecturer in English in the Department of English at the University of Bristol. He researches the literary afterlives of classical texts and antiquity in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, particularly translations of epic poetry.

Bethany Qualls is a lecturer in the Department of English at the University of California, Davis. A professional editor and scholar of the long eighteenth century, she researches gossip, the novel, periodicals, feminist theory, history of sexuality, modernism, comics, and print culture.