BEGIN:VCALENDAR VERSION:2.0 PRODID:-//wp-events-plugin.com//7.4.3//EN TZID:America/Los_Angeles X-WR-TIMEZONE:America/Los_Angeles BEGIN:VEVENT UID:554@1718.ucla.edu DTSTART;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20261005T160000 DTEND;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20261005T180000 DTSTAMP:20260903T175757Z URL:https://1718.ucla.edu/events/center-40th-anniversary/ SUMMARY:40th Anniversary Celebration of the Center for 17th- & 18th-Century Studies DESCRIPTION:Join us in celebrating the 40th anniversary of the UCLA Center for 17th- &\; 18th-Century Studies\, the nation’s first research cent er for early modern studies. Founded in 1985\, the Center provides a forum for the discussion of central issues in the field of seventeenth- and eig hteenth-century studies\, and organizes a wide range of academic and cultu ral programs. Additionally\, the Center administers the William Andrews Cl ark Memorial Library\, located on a historic property in the West Adams ne ighborhood of Los Angeles\, which serves as the research laboratory for a distinguished array of fellows working either in early modern studies or t he fin-de-siècle world of Oscar Wilde.\n\nThe program features a talk pre sented by UCLA Professor of English Helen Deutsch\, who served as the Cent er &\; Clark’s Director for a four year-term from 2017 to 2020. Follo wing the talk\, guests are invited to mingle with friends and colleagues i n Royce 306\, where they can add a message to the 40th anniversary Padlet \, view a display of Center &\; Clark ephemera and a slideshow\, and en joy a reception on the terrace.\n\nAt a moment when higher education is un der siege\, the study of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries might se em a luxury at best\, irrelevant at worst. Professor Deutsch’s talk\, a review and celebration of the Center and its history\, refutes such assump tions. She will argue that the work of the Center and its partner the Clar k—research\, musical and theatrical performance\, conferences\, collabor ations in many forms—is not a retreat to the past but rather an ongoing engagement with our present. Critical University Studies scholar Christoph er Newfield has recently described universities as “places of unique cha llenge\, novelty\, and happiness\, of intellectual revolutions and persona l transformations.”  The Center is just such a place\, and our imaginat ive and intellectual investments in the past illuminate the ways in which such revolutions are both rooted in history and ongoing collective project s of the utmost relevance.\n\nProfessor Deutsch joined UCLA’s English de partment in 1995 and was first affiliated with the Center &\; Clark as an Ahmanson-Getty postdoctoral fellow in 1992–93. In addition to serving as Director\, she has assisted the Center &\; Clark in many capacities over the years\, including as Clark Professor in 2005–06\, and as a mem ber and chair of the Faculty Advisory Committee.\n\nHer research is fueled by the love of literature and the love of authors. She practices a unique kind of feminist historical formalism that reads texts in relationship to the embodied lives of the writers who produced them. Her first two books consider the singular bodies of Alexander Pope and Samuel Johnson in symbi otic relationship to each author’s uniquely imitative literary style and contested critical reception.\n\nHer most recent book\, The Last Amateur\ , goes beyond the single-author framework to consider what it means to lea rn to love one author through another\, and to be transformed in the proce ss. Deutsch scrutinizes Edward Said’s career-long conversation with Jona than Swift\, which began with an unfinished book (a part of which was pres ented at the Clark)\, in order to raise questions of her own about the pat h of literary studies. At a time when many in the field have lost faith in critique\, she shows how passion and refusal of professional propriety— the hallmarks of the amateur—can enliven critique again.\n\nIn addition to serving as departmental Vice Chair for Graduate Studies\, she successfu lly spearheaded the founding of UCLA’s interdisciplinary Disability Stud ies Minor\, which she chaired from 2006 to 2011. She has been a member at large of the American Society for Eighteenth-Century Studies\, chair of th e Division for Restoration and Early Eighteenth-Century Literature of the Modern Language Association\, an advisory editor for PMLA\, the associatio n’s journal\, and a member of its Committee on Disability Issues in the Profession.\n\n\n\nThis event is free to attend with advance registration and will be held in-person on the UCLA campus in Royce Hall 314 and 306. Seating is limited\; walk-in registrants are welcome as space permits. Reg istration will close on Thursday\, October 1\, 2026 at 5:00 p.m.\n\n\n\nLo ading…\n\n\n\nPhoto credit: Reed Hutchinson ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://1718.ucla.edu/wp-content/uploads/2025/08 /Helen-Deutsch-20_8x.jpg CATEGORIES:Lectures,Special Event LOCATION:UCLA Royce Hall\, Room 314\, 10745 Dickson Plaza\, Los Angeles\, C alifornia\, 90095\, United States GEO:34.072898;-118.442166 X-APPLE-STRUCTURED-LOCATION;VALUE=URI;X-ADDRESS=10745 Dickson Plaza\, Los A ngeles\, California\, 90095\, United States;X-APPLE-RADIUS=100;X-TITLE=UCL A Royce Hall\, Room 314:geo:34.072898,-118.442166 END:VEVENT BEGIN:VTIMEZONE TZID:America/Los_Angeles X-LIC-LOCATION:America/Los_Angeles BEGIN:DAYLIGHT DTSTART:20260308T030000 TZOFFSETFROM:-0800 TZOFFSETTO:-0700 TZNAME:PDT END:DAYLIGHT END:VTIMEZONE END:VCALENDAR