New Directions in Gender: Literary and Cultural Studies, 1770–1840

—a conference organized by Felicity Nussbaum, University of California, Los Angeles

This conference, a tribute to Professor Anne Mellor and her impact on the field of the long eighteenth century and Romanticism, features topics that do not fit comfortably within established boundaries—whether between disciplines or literary periods. Exciting new interdisciplinary work is being pursued in these periods. It involves, to list just a few examples, performance studies, gender and sexuality, empire and global studies, the history of the book, media studies, cognitive science, actor-network theory, and critical race studies. By attending also to intersections of literature with the visual arts, science, and law, the program encourages further rethinking about the origins of modernity.

Program

Session 1: The Cultures of Print
Moderator: Robert C. Ritchie, Huntington Library

Clifford Siskin, New York University
“Fellowship of the Fair: Anne Mellor and the Intellectual-Club of Edinburgh, 1717”

Michelle Levy, Simon Fraser University
“Do Women Have a Book History?”

Session 2: Enlightenment and the Nation
Moderator: William Handley, University of Southern California

Noah Comet, The Ohio State University at Mansfield
“Bad ‘Attitudes’: Emma Hamilton, L.E.L., and the Gendering of Antiquity”

Theresa M. Kelley, University of Wisconsin-Madison
“Women, Matter, and Plants”

John Bender, Stanford University
“The Novel and Extended Mind (with co-author Jonathan Kramnick)”

Session 3: Gender and the Arts
Moderator: Julie Carlson, University of California, Santa Barbara

Ann Bermingham, University of California, Santa Barbara
“Gainsborough’s Daughters: A Pastoral”

Roxanne Eberle, University of Georgia
“Amelia and John Opie: Marriage, Sociability, and the Professional Arts”

Jeffrey N. Cox, University of Colorado at Boulder
“Text as Context: Editing Pantomimes as Performance”

Session 4: Romanticism and Gender
Moderator: Margaret Russett, University of Southern California

Alan Bewell, University of Toronto
Romantic Mobility and Gender

Susan Wolfson, Princeton University
Romantic Melancholy and Gender