Eighteenth Century & Romanticism Colloquium

Welcome to the Long Eighteenth Century and Romanticism Colloquium! We aim to bring together students and faculty, regardless of affiliation, with interests in the literature and culture of the global long eighteenth century. We are especially interested in providing a platform for graduate students to share and workshop their writing, and to engage with faculty members and visiting speakers in the field.

Our program for the 2025-26 academic year will include a variety of graduate student workshops, faculty speakers, and more. We typically meet once or twice a month. If you would be interested in workshopping a paper, have any suggestions for us, or would like to be added to our mailing list, please email Jack Rodgers (jrodgers@g.harvard.edu) or Aditya Banerjee (adityabanerjee@g.harvard.edu). 

Our faculty sponsor is Deidre Lynch.

Fall 2025 Events

September 24: Opening Reception 6:00 PM, Barker 114.

October 16: Courtney Weiss Smith (Wesleyan University), “Phyllis Wheatley’s Tongues.” 6:00 PM, Barker 211.

November 7: Visit to Boston Museum of Fine Arts (details TBD).

November (date TBD): Ronny Litvack-Katzman, “Expecting Emma: Jane Austen and the Genre System.”

Previous events:

Spring 2025 

February 26: Joseph Rezek (Boston University). “Race, Gender, and Genius in the Early Eighteenth Century.” 6:00 PM, Barker 114.

March 11: Carlisle Yingst, "Trans Approaches to Bibliography." 12:00 PM, interactive session at Houghton Library. Limited capacity--please register at https://tinyurl.com/TransBibGradSession.

March 27: Liam Plimmer, "The Romantic Künstlerroman: Overcoming Goethe's Lehrjahre." 6:00 PM, Barker 103.

April 17: Dustin Stewart (Columbia University). "Crabbe's Transplants (and One of Austen's Too).”  6:00 PM, Barker 114.

April 30: Joani Etskovitz, Writing and Professionalization Workshop. 6 PM, Barker 316.

Fall 2024 

September 19: Opening Reception, 5:30 PM, Barker 114.

October 4: Reading Group (Anna Laetitia Barbauld). 3:30 PM, Barker 218.

October 10: Adam Walker, "Lyric Enactments of Spiritual Experience in Wordsworth and Shelley." 6:15 PM, Barker 114.

October 25: Reading Group (Elizabeth Rowe), with presentation by Jack Rodgers. 3:30 PM, Barker 218.

October 28: Screening of Lord Byron's Sardanapalus (courtesy the Keats-Shelley Association). 6:30 PM, Barker 211.

November 12: Vidyan Ravinthiran, "Poetry and Opinion." 6 PM, Barker 024.

November 20: Zichen Liu, "The Machinery of Human Passion: Baroque Music Theory in Isaac Vossius and John Dryden." 5:45 PM, Barker 211.

Mailing Lists and Newsletters 

To receive emails about the Mahindra Humanities Center's Seminar on Eighteenth-Century Studies, please write one of the seminar chairs: Susan Lanser (lanser@brandeis.edu), Nicole Aljoe (n.aljoe@northeastern.edu), or Jennifer Reed (jenreed@bu.edu).