NEASECS 2005: Fredericton, New Brunswick, September 30-October 2, 2005
The program for the 2005 Annual Meeting promises a fascinating mix of presentations, from a range of disciplinary perspectives. There are approximately 150 speakers presenting papers over three days of panels, with topics ranging from eighteenth-century attitudes towards debt, through captivity narratives and a wide-ranging series of panels on cities and their cultures. Participants at the conference will find much to consider and much to enjoy. Issues of technology and eighteenth-century studies will also be addressed, a profoundly important topic for scholars in the coming years. One of the highlights of the conference will be the keynote address on Friday afternoon by Laurel Thatcher Ulrich. Her most recent book, The Age of Homespun, captured the public imagination much as did her earlier Pulitzer Prize winning work on Martha Ballard, a Maine midwife. In addition, conference goers have the opportunity to see one of the finest collections of eighteenth-century British art outside major museums, at the Beaverbrook Art Gallery [http://www.beaverbrookartgallery.org/index.asp].
This region is home to the Mi'kmaq and Malitseet peoples, settled by Europeans from the early seventeenth century with the establishment of francophone Acadian society, which in turn developed strong ties with the indigenous peoples. The next large influx of Europeans came in the late eighteenth century as New England Loyalists moved north by barge, boat and on foot. These three communities remain key parts of present-day New Brunswick and this history can be seen in some of the surviving material culture of old Fredericton. Their attachment to this part of the world can be explained in part by the landscape. This region offers stunning views of the most northerly sections of the Appalachian Mountain chain, low and rolling, intersected by the magnificent St John River. The Saturday night banquet will be held at one of the most beautiful riverside settings, at King's Landing Historical Settlement north of the city of Fredericton [http://www.kingslanding.nb.ca/].
Outside the Delta Hotel conference site, Fredericton is set to receive us, whether at the Saturday morning farmers market, in craft galleries along historic Queen Street, at the Beaverbrook Art Gallery or amidst the burnished hills at King's Landing Historical Settlement. Presenters, participants and their guests are assured a warm welcome.

New NEASECS Web Site
After several months of development, the Society's new web site is now available at this URL: http://www.neasecs.org/. The site has information about the Society (including a brief history, the Society's constitution, a page of information for officers and chairs of the annual meeting, and a list of current officers), information about joining the society, a link to the Annual Meeting site, a page for the Newsletter, and links to related sites.
The designer of the site, Amy O'Neill Houck, did this work at a reduced fee as a favor to the Society. She will maintain the site for the foreseeable future.
As I announced in the last issue, the NEASECS Newsletter has moved to electronic publication. This issue is available on the Newsletter page of the new NEASECS web site and can either be read on the site or downloaded as a PDF file.
I am mailing the Newsletter to members who have requested this service and to others for whom I have been unable to discover an E-Mail address. After this issue, however, I plan to send it by postal mail only to members who have explicitly requested it and who have paid dues for the current year.

Conference Invitation: Gender and Popular Culture 1650-1750, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, October 21-22, 2005
Featured Speakers: Paula Backscheider (Auburn U), Bernard Capp (U of Warwick), Frances Dolan (UC Davis), Anthony Fletcher (U of London), Paula McDowell (Rutgers U), Mary Beth Norton (Cornell U), Ruth Perry (MIT), John Richetti (Penn), Robert Shoemaker (U of Sheffield), Jane Spencer (U of Exeter), William Warner (UC Santa Barbara), Rachel Weil (Cornell University).
This conference aims to bring together two of the richest strands of recent work in early modern cultural history and theory to open up fresh perspectives on a hundred-year period that witnessed significant developments in the configuration of modern conceptions of class and gender in Britain and the American colonies.
Specific topics will include amatory and adventure fiction, popular theatre, the politics of mass culture, alehouse culture, religion and religious imagery, childrearing practices, political plots, conspiracies, and uprisings, ballads and ballad singers, conduct books, crime and criminal biography, canons and anti-canons, gender and social space, caricature and popular satire, women and politics, and the idea of oral tradition. Further conference information and registration materials are available online at http://www.umich.edu/~gpcconf. As space at the conference venue is limited, advance registration is strongly recommended. Registration discounts are offered for students, part-time faculty, and registrations received by August 31.
For additional information, please visit the conference website or contact conference organizer David Porter (dporter@umich.edu).

News of the William Blake Archive (www.blakearchive.org)
Morris Eaves, Robert N. Essick, and Joseph Viscomi, the editors of the William Blake Archive, announce the following news:

• The Archive has been designated an Approved Edition by the Modern Language Association. This is the first time the organization has awarded its "seal" to an electronic edition. The MLA's Committee on Scholarly Editions has been fostering rigorous editorial standards for printed editions since 1976.
  David V. Erdman's Complete Poetry and Prose of William Blake received the MLA seal in 1981. The Committee's guidelines for electronic editions were first published in 2004 as part of a major revision of the Committee's editorial guidelines (http://www.mla.org/cse_guidelines; see also Burnard, O'Keefe, and Unsworth, Electronic Textual Editing, MLA/TEI, forthcoming 2006). Previously, the Archive was the recipient of the MLA's Prize for a Distinguished Scholarly Edition, 2003.
• The British Library has agreed to allow the Archive to publish scholarly editions of its Blake manuscripts. The Library's Blake holdings include some of his most significant extant manuscripts, including the early illustrated poem Tiriel; the notebook in which he drafted poetry, prose, and designs for several decades; and The Four Zoas, the key "prophetic" work of his middle years, on which he worked for about a decade. For the Blake holdings of this and other contributors to the Archive, click Resources for Further Research on the main page.

Walpole Library Renovation
The Lewis Walpole Library is preparing for a major renovation and addition that together will include a spacious reading room, state-of-the-art collection storage, and new staff and conservation workspace. Construction is planned to begin in spring 2006, and to be complete by late spring 2007.
The building schedule has recently been revised.
Beginning in November 2005 there will be only very limited access to the collection, parts of which will be completely inaccessible until the new spaces are open. The Library staff will be in temporary quarters as well. Extended research at the Library will not be possible during this time.
The Library collection will remain fully available to researchers through October 2005. To schedule a visit please contact the Librarian as soon as possible:
The Librarian, The Lewis Walpole Library, 154 Main Street, Farmington, CT 06032. Telephone 1 860 677-2140. E-Mail walpole@yale.edu
In light of the renovation project in the 2006-2007 academic year, the Lewis Walpole Library regretfully announces that no visiting research fellowships will be awarded for that year.
The Lewis Walpole Library is a research library for eighteenth-century studies and the prime source for the study of Horace Walpole and Strawberry Hill. Its collections include significant holdings of eighteenth- century British books, manuscripts, prints, drawings and paintings, as well as important examples of the decorative arts. Housed in an historic frame house in Farmington and given to Yale by Wilmarth Sheldon Lewis and Annie Burr Lewis, the Lewis Walpole Library is a department of Yale University Library, open to researchers by appointment.
http://www.library.yale.edu/walpole/
Susan Odell Walker, Assistant Librarian, The Lewis Walpole Library, Yale University, 154 Main Street, Farmington, CT 06032; susan.walker@yale.edu; phone: (860) 409-7096 or (860) 677-2140 fax: (860) 677-6369.

Fourth International Conference on New Directions in the Humanities, University of Carthage, Tunisia, 3-6 July 2006
The conference will continue in its endeavors over recent years to develop an interdisciplinary agenda for the humanities. It will include keynote presentations by internationally renowned speakers and numerous small-group workshop and paper presentation sessions. Presenters may choose to submit written papers for publication before or after the conference in the fully refereed International Journal of the Humanities, published in print and electronic formats. If you are unable to attend the conference in person, virtual registrations are also available which allow you to submit a paper for refereeing and possible publication in the journal, as well as access to the electronic version of the conference proceedings. The deadline for the first round call for papers is 31 October 2005.
Full details about the conference, including an online call for papers form, are to be found on the conference website: http://www.HumanitiesConference.com

News of Members
Lisa Berglund (English, Buffalo State College) has published two recent articles: "What is Samuel Johnson's Role in Contemporary Fiction?" in Johnsonian News Letter (September 2004) and a review essay, "'Like the Pedant in Hierocles': Thoughts on the Present and Future of the Eighteenth Century Studies Anthology," in The Age of Johnson 15 (2004).
Theodore E. D. Braun (French, Emeritus, University of Delaware) has published "Voltaire, Metastasio, and Le Franc de Pompignan's Didon," in Francis Assaf, ed., The King's Crown: Essays on XVIIIth and XIX Century Literature, Art, and History Honoring Basil J. Guy (Louvain-Paris-Dudley, MA: Éditions Peeters, 2005). He has edited, together with John B. Radner, The Lisbon earthquake of 1755: representations and reactions in Studies in Voltaire and the Eighteenth Century (2005:02) and is the author of an essay, "The Lisbon Earthquake," in that volume.
Catherine Labio (French and Comparative Literature, Yale) has published Origins and the Enlightenment: Aesthetic Epistemology from Descartes to Kant (Cornell University Press, 2004).
An essay entitled "Stylistic Strategies in William Hogarth's Theatrical Satires" by Mary K. Lindberg (Independent Scholar), which originally appeared in The Question of Style in Philosophy and the Arts (Cambridge University Press, 1996), has been reprinted in Literature Criticism from 1400 to 1800, vol. 112 (Gale, 2005). Another essay by Ms. Lindberg, "Inebriation or Dramatic Event: A Study of Cornelis Troost's NELRI Series" was published in Theatre Studies at Play (Theaterwetenschap spelenderwijs), Liber amicorum for Professor Dr. Rob Erenstein, ed. Peter Eversmann, Rob van Gaal, and Rob van der Zalm. (Amsterdam: Pallas Publications, 2004). Her poem "Spring" was published in Blueline (Spring XXVI), 2005, and "Hanging Loose" is forthcoming in Waterways (September 2005).

MEMBERSHIP DUES
The Society began its fiscal year 2005-2006 on September 1, 2005. Many members have paid 2005-06 dues with their registration for the 2005 Annual Meeting. If you have not already paid 2005-2006 dues, please send a check for $15 (all dues in U.S. funds, please) to Charlotte Craig, NEASECS Secretary-Treasurer, 2 Fieldstone Court, Eatontown, New Jersey 07724.

NEWS OF MEMBERS
(Queries and notes also welcome)
Please provide Name, Discipline and Affiliation, Recently published books, articles, etc. (please include bibliographic information)
Return to John H. O'Neill, Department of English, Hamilton College, 198 College Hill Road, Clinton, New York 13323-1292. Or reply by E-Mail to joneill@hamilton.edu

Online Archive of Newsletters
March 2005 - View as .pdf