About

The Group/Blog

This is a blog for Indiana University's Eighteenth-Century Studies graduate reading group. This our fourth year as a reading group, and we are always excited by the level of lively engagement and quality of ideas our peers produce in this casual meeting space. Even if it isn't your specialty, you should join the group! We cover everything from historical texts to philosophy and political treatises, to medical and scientific documents, to novels, poetry, and drama.

At the beginning of the term, we meet weekly to discuss readings of our choosing. Toward the end of the semester, when weekly meetings are far too hectic for everyone involved, we shift to our monthly/bi-monthly "Dinner with...." Series, which usually focuses on one major C18 author and one faculty member from our interdisciplinary Center for Eighteenth-Century Studies. We go out to a local restaurant of the faculty member's choosing, and we drink, dine, and discuss in a relaxed atmosphere that nonetheless gives us the benefit of faculty expertise. Usually, the "Dinner with..." Series are our most popularly attended events--so don't miss out!


The History

Rachel Seiler-Smith (username: thewanderingmuse) and Kate Blake (username: Kate B) started this reading group back in 2012  as a way to foster an engaging, but intimate community of graduate students in fields ranging from the late Renaissance to Romanticism--even the early Victorian era; from History and English to French, German, Italian, Religious Studies Departments, etc. We moved websites in 2013, so our 2012 archives are lost--however, roam as you will to see what sort of activities and meetings the group facilitates--and feel free to suggest other ways to get involved. Please do not hesitate to contact your new facilitator, Tracey, with any comments or concerns.

Facilitators

Current Facilitator(s)

Tracey Dale Hutchings-Goetz, Department of English, Indiana University
Dissertation:
Advisor: Jesse Molesworth
Contact:
Areas of Specialization:


Past Facilitator(s)

Katherine Blake, Department of English, Indiana Universty

Dissertation: Putting it Down: Memory, Hybridity, and Objects in Shakespeare and Wordsworth
Advisor: Linda Charnes
Contact: katblake@indiana.edu
Areas of Specialization: English Renaissance, Shakespeare, memory, poststructuralism, cognitive science

Rachel Seiler-Smith, Department of English, Indiana University

Dissertation: Un/Accountable Enlightenment: Precarity and the Ethics of Form, 1650-1830
Advisor: Mary Favret
Contact: raseiler@indiana.edu
Areas of Specialization: long eighteenth-century British literature and culture (including Restoration and Romanticism), bio/political theory, gender and sexuality studies, ethics, bodies, theories of form