Washington Early American Seminar Series
Free and open to all, the Washington Early American Seminar Series brings senior scholars, junior faculty, and advanced graduate students to College Park to discuss their work in progress. The seminar is composed of graduate students and faculty from the University of Maryland and a host of other area institutions and is convened by Professors Rick Bell, Christopher Bonner, Holly Brewer, Clare Lyons, and Whit Ridgway.
The seminar meets at regular intervals throughout the academic year on Fridays at 4pm in Taliaferro Hall 2110. Papers (typically 30-40 pages) are pre-circulated among seminar participants seven days in advance of each meeting. The ninety-minute workshop is followed by dinner with the presenter at a local restaurant.
To join the seminar email list or to apply to present a work in progress in future cycles, please contact Prof. Rick Bell (rjbell@umd.edu) or Prof. Holly Brewer (hbrewer@umd.edu).
Schedule of Events
Schedule of Events, 2019-2020
Fall 2019
September 6: 4pm, TLF 2110. Michael E. Woods (Marshall University): “‘The Making of a Professional Racist: The Rise of John Van Evrie’s Racist Publishing Empire in Pre-Civil War America." Respondent: Roger Bailey (Maryland)
October 11: 4pm, TLF 2110. Chris Florio (Hollins University): “Poor Freedom: A Problem of Poverty in an Age of Gradual Emancipation." Respondent: Sophie Hess (Maryland)
November 15: 4pm. Special Location: 328 Phillips Hall, George Washington University (801 22nd Street, NW, Washington, DC, 20052). Stephanie K. Lawton (Virginia): “Praises to the Dead: The Heroes of Antiquity and the Eulogies of George Washington." Respondent: Matthew Goetz (George Washington)
December 6: 4pm. Special Location: National Museum of American History. Zachary Dorner (Johns Hopkins): “Concerning Medicine, Money, and (Early) Modernity in the Atlantic World." Respondent: Nicole Mahoney (Maryland/McNeil Center)
Spring 2020
February 7: 4pm, TLF 2110. Vivian Bruce Conger (Ithaca College): “Self-Fashioning and the Intergenerational Gendered Body in Eighteenth-Century Philadelphia.” Respondent: Holly Hynson (Maryland)
March 6: 4pm, TLF 2110. Adrian Chastain Weimer (Providence College): “Subjecthood and Sovereignty in Restoration Massachusetts Bay." Respondent: Joe Rooney (Maryland)
April 10: 4pm, TLF 2110. Marcus P. Nevius (University of Rhode Island): “'An Intire Tax': Dismal Plantation and the Question of Petit Marronage, 1760s to the 1790s." Respondent: Taylor Kocher (Maryland)
May 8: 4pm. Special Location: Fred W. Smith Library at George Washington's Mount Vernon. Travis Glasson (Temple University): “'A ‘Neutral and Equivocal Character’: Peter Van Schaack and the Price of Conscience in the American Revolution." Respondent: Derek Litvak (Maryland)
Other DC-area seminars of interest to scholars of Early American history include:
The Slavery, Memory and African Diasporas Seminar hosted by Howard University
The Early Modern Global History Seminar hosted by Georgetown University
The 19th-Century U.S. History Workshop hosted by Georgetown University
