Philadelphia Programs in October

A couple of intriguing academic conferences are happening in Philadelphia this month. I’m sharing links to the programs for people who are in the area and those interested in current scholarship.

The McNeil Center for Early American Studies at the University of Pennsylvania is hosting a graduate student conference titled “Lenses and Contacts: Framing Early America” on 5-7 October.

In recent years, scholars have questioned traditional boundaries and envisioning new frontiers. The advent (and departure?) of the Atlantic World has sparked new ways of framing the field and mapping the space of early America. Scholars have polished off traditional lenses of analysis such as politics, economics, and intellectual history.

Our panelists challenge accepted perspectives by offering their own insights into topics such as: spatial lenses, including Atlantic, continental, global, and local; people, places, and ideas on the margins; histories from above and below; perspectives on race, class, gender, and sexuality in early America; ways of knowing, including religion, environmental, scientific, and medical histories; and networks and crossings, disciplinary and otherwise.

The American Philosophical Society has posted the program for its “The Art of Revolutions” conference on 26-28 October:

The tumult and transformations resulting from the Age of Revolutions (1770s-1840s) created a trans-Atlantic body of art and material culture that reflected and inspired new ideas and actions. “The Art of Revolutions”, co-sponsored by the American Philosophical Society, Museum of the American Revolution, and Philadelphia Museum of Art, explores the role of imagery in influencing and giving meaning to the political revolutions that defined the late-18th and early-19th centuries.

The symposium covers the American Revolution, French Revolution, Circum-Caribbean Revolutions, and the Revolutions of 1848. We hope the chronological scope and transatlantic breadth of the conference will stimulate an interdisciplinary dialogue that crosses traditional geographic barriers and transcends the limitations of strict periodization.

Both conferences are free of charge.