2006 conference program Peruse the SCSECS 2006 program
SCSECS 2006

February 23–26, 2006, at the Doubletree Oceanfront Hotel — Cocoa Beach, Florida

Universally Inviting Theme: “The Spacious Ark of Eighteenth-Century Studies”  
SCSECS President Kevin L. Cope was delighted to invite both perennial members of the SCSECS community as well as occasional visitors and newcomers to participate in the 2006 SCSECS Convention, slated for February 23 through 26 on The Florida Space Coast, an amalgam of beautiful and culturally enticing beachfront settlements comprised of Cape Canaveral, legendary Cocoa Beach, Satellite Beach, and Melbourne. As is well known to all members of the long-eighteenth-century studies community, SCSECS is legendary for the intellectual vigor of its academic events, for the splendor and pleasure suffusing its convention venues, and for the general joviality of its conference atmospheres. The 2006 meeting was no exception to this admirable rule. Conventioneers were treated to an academic program that, nearly a year before the event, reached an unprecedented level of both intellectual excellence and wide-ranging appeal.

President Cope described the meeting in his Call for Papers as follows:

Special events abound. Plenary addresses will be offered by no less than Patricia Bruckmann of the University of Toronto, whose witty, no-nonsense, and sharp scholarly contributions to intellectual history have outshone all the supernovas in the galaxy of university superstars, and by no less than the ever-eminent Linda Veronika Troost, whose place in the scholarly heavens is so singular as to make a run-of-the-mill constellation look downright common. There will be no pause for sluggards on opening day; the conference will reach stellar heights early on owing to a special opening-day power-panel of eminent journal editors, a panel that will reach beyond the usual “how to get published” theme and will peer into the long-range future of the various scholarly media.

Still another event in the still-unfolding program will be a special honorary panel probing the accomplishments of eminent Americanist J. A. Leo Lemay, who will also attend to receive his well-deserved honors and to offer his own reflections, speculations, and prophecies. None of these stars would twinkle so well as they shall were it not also for a veritable galaxy of panels, each of them filled with innovative papers treating the many, diverse, and highly original themes that are already showing the special genius of SCSECS members.

The renowned Sayre Greenfield, known worldwide for his ornithological as well as scholarly expertise, has agreed to provide us in SCSECS with a wonderful Sunday-morning event by way of winding-down from the convention while winding up for more good times. Sayre will lead us on one of his renowned bird walks—the excellence of which are well known to such discerning virtuosi as those who attended the most recent ECASECS conference in Cape May. The treat will be made even more special by the fact that Cape Canaveral is one of the world’s largest and most bio-diverse bird sanctuaries. It’s paradise for aviphiliacs, and that paradise will turn into the seventh heaven when amplified by the wit, genius, expertise, and all-around-good-guyness of our guide, Sayre.

As if the foregoing enticements were not enough, the venue itself is what the Michelin guide might call “worthy of a special voyage.” Under-promoted by the tourist industry and therefore free of the pollutions of the traveling mob, The Florida Space Coast offers some of the finest beaches not only in America but in the entire world. No less than 72 miles of pristine, white-sand beaches grace a clear view of the refreshing Atlantic sea. Fans of the new discipline of “transatlantic studies” will have a clear view across vigorous waves and will have an opportunity in the amenable climate—a typical February high of 78 degrees Fahrenheit!—to take an exuberant plunge in the ocean that brought us so many conference paper topics. Our conference hotel, The Cocoa Beach Doubletree Beachfront, is itself a model of freshness.

Following the calamitous hurricane season of 2004, an infusion of reinsurance syndicate money from those notorious offshore banks and foreign speculators enabled the proud proprietors of this world-class facility to upgrade the hotel to meet the most discriminating modern taste. Gone is what one tourist professional called “the Miami Vice look”; now awaiting SCSECS members is a Euro-New York style mega-boutique hotel in suave modern color and furnishing schemes with a definitive arts-community-approved “look.” Facing directly onto the beach and offering an ocean view from every room, the Doubletree provides private access to historic Cocoa Beach—where, if not invented, surfing was perfected, as if in commemoration of Alexander Pope’s and John Dryden’s opinion that improvement is usually better than originality—as well as a lovely sun deck on which to delectate the Florida sunrises and sunsets. All in all, this is a truly PREMIUM venue.

SCSECS members have come to expect the best in cerebral, ludic, and culinary diversions, all of which are in abundant supply along the amazing Space Coast and in the context of the SCSECS convention. Plans are underway for a variety of conference-related entertainments, including an excursion taking conventioneers to the Kennedy Space Center Visitor Center, where high-minded colleagues may get an edifying view of the artifacts from America’s space heritage and may sample the incredibly optimistic atmosphere of the “space port,” one of the greatest expressions of human hope and ambition. For those with more terrestrial enthusiasm, area attractions range from the Brevard County Zoo, with its renowned butterfly habitat, to the world’s largest bird sanctuary on the grounds of the Cape Canaveral/Kennedy launch facility, to Ron-Jons famous Surf Shop, open 24 hours per day and offering a mind-boggling array of everything related to the beach, from the merriest toys to the most elegant sportswear, to the quaint and altogether convivial Cocoa Village, a historic settlement abounding with cafés and boutiques—a genuine threat to the waistline of SCSECS President Kevin L. Cope! Even more events and entertainments and repasts within the convention program—all covered by our single registration price—are in the planning phase!

All in all, SCSECS 2006 will be more than uplifting—it will launch you into to new academic, spiritual, and collegial adventures! Send in your proposal now—don’t get shut out when the capsule closes and the countdown begins!!!!!

SCSECS 2006 MISSION COMMAND AWAITS YOUR INQUIRY, EXPRESSION OF INTEREST, PANEL PROPOSAL, PAPER PROPOSAL, OR INNOVATION!

Contact Prof. Kevin L. Cope, plushtoy@bellsouth.net or encope@lsu.edu. USA + 225–766–2719 (telephone) USA + 225–766–4616 (FAX)

Postal: Department of English, Louisiana State University, Baton Rouge, Louisiana, 70803, USA