Since its inception in 1975, the South Central Society for Eighteenth-Century Studies (SCSECS) has provided a forum for scholars of the "long" eighteenth century (c. 1660-1830). A regional affiliate of the American Society for Eighteenth Century Studies, SCSECS is an interdisciplinary scholarly organization that enjoys a reputation for exceptional conviviality and inclusiveness. This year, we will meet at North Carolina's fabled Pinehurst Resort for our annual meeting and celebration of our fiftieth anniversary.
Founded in 1895 by the Boston philanthropist James Walker Tufts, Pinehurst served as a health resort, where members of the middle class retreated from cities to recuperate from respiratory ailments. Tufts believed the "pine ozone" found only in this region of the country held curative properties. Visitors engaged in popular activities of the day such as riding, polo, lawn bowling, archery, bicycling, and tennis. Golf followed shortly. Pinehurst continues today as a world-class resort and frequent host to the prestigious U.S. Open golf championship. Nestled in a late 19th-century village, it features bountiful restaurants, quaint shops and an array of activities. Guests might relax at the spa, take a carriage ride through the village, watch races at the harness track, visit the Tufts Archives, take their turn in a round of croquet, pedal through the streets of the village, or sip bourbon at the North South Bourbon Bar. Designed by Frederick Law Olmstead, the village features beautiful well-maintained historic homes and Olmstead's signature curvilinear and concentric system of streets. It offers a peaceful atmosphere for your morning run, afternoon walk, or quiet meditative moment.
In keeping with the topic and this year's sport-related venue, our plenary speaker will be Peter Radford, Professor of Sport Sciences at Glasgow University and Brunel University in London and, recently, a Fellow of the Folger Shakespeare Library in Washington D.C. A former British sprinter who has broken world records and won Olympic medals, Professor Radford is the author of The Celebrated Captain Barclay: Sport, Money and Fame in Regency Britain (Headline Book Publishing, 2001). In 2023 his new book, They Run with Surprising Swiftness: The Women Athletes of Early Modern Britain, was published as part of the University of Virginia's Peculiar Bodies: Stories and Histories series. You can find a brief interview at the UVA Press's "Author's Corner."
Gather at 2:45 in front of the Given Memorial Library and Tufts Archives
Kick off the weekend with a one-hour Historical Walking Tour of Pinehurst, offered as a delightful pre-event 3:00 PM-4:00 PM before our opening reception.
This guided tour will be led by the incomparable Audrey Moriarty, Executive Director of the Given Memorial Library and Tufts Archives, acclaimed local historian, author of Pinehurst: Golf, History, and the Good Life, and the passionate steward of the Village's rich archival heritage.
Meet Audrey (and your fellow attendees) for a leisurely stroll through the charming Village of Pinehurst--a designated National Historic Landmark District famed for its Olmsted-designed landscape, elegant architecture, and origins as a premier health and leisure resort. Founded in 1895 by James Walker Tufts as a restorative escape in the pine-scented Sandhills, Pinehurst embodies evolving ideas of wellness, nature, genteel recreation, and Southern resort culture--echoing eighteenth-century pursuits of health tourism, landscape improvement, and polite society pleasures that we'll explore throughout the conference.
Audrey's expert narration, drawn from the unparalleled collections of the Tufts Archives, will bring to life the Village's historic streets, key buildings, the iconic Village Green, and stories of how Pinehurst's founders adapted Northern resort models to create a haven of mild exercise, fresh air, and refined leisure--long before golf became its signature draw.
The tour is free and exclusive to registered SCSECS attendees--space is limited, so please RSVP in advance by texting "I'm in for the walk!" to 434-825-8616. Be sure to include your full name in your message. We will gather at 2:45 PM at the Given Memorial Library on the Village Green--just across the street from the Holly Inn and only a short walk from the Carolina or Manor.
4:30-6:30 PM: Registration will be open in the Cardinal/South Foyer of the Carolina Hotel.
5:30-6:30 PM: Welcome Reception - Enjoy Light Refreshments and Elegant Harp Music in the South Ballroom
We are delighted to welcome the extraordinarily gifted harpist Phoebe McCallum from Pembroke, North Carolina, for our opening reception.
Although Phoebe only began playing the harp at age thirteen, her musical journey started far earlier: at the tender age of four she took up the piano, and she continues to study both instruments with equal passion. Coming from a distinguished family of musicians--her parents are both college-trained music educators and classically trained operatic singers--Phoebe brings a profound classical foundation and a deep reverence for musical tradition to every performance. Her program will provide the perfect graceful welcome to our conference.
8:30 AM-5:00 PM: Publishers' Exhibition
9:00-10:30 AM: Session A
1. Forbidden and Forgotten Pleasures: Moral Boundaries, Everyday Leisure, and Imagined Recreations in Early American Life10:30-10:45 AM: Coffee Break
Chair: Kathryn DUNCAN, St Leo UniversityLouise BREEN, Kansas State University, "A Servant's Life: The Trials and Tribulations of Lidea Chapin in Puritan New England"
Colin RAMSEY, Appalachian State University, "A Testimony Against Several Profane and Superstitious Customs Now Practiced by Some in New England (London, 1687): the Pleasures of Reading Increase Mather, Who, Despite His Title, is Not Actually Against Pleasure"
Laura HAKALA, UNC Pembroke. "The Hidden Impact of Leisure: Race, Childhood, and the South in Caroline Howard Gilman's Children's Periodicals"2. Dressing for the Game: Identity, Value, and the Recreation of Self in Eighteenth-Century Novels and Plays
Chair: Susan SPENCER, University of Central OklahomaBarbara BENEDICT, Trinity College, "Pleasures Of Adornment And The Fight For Identity: Showing Off Things in Frances Burney's Novels"
Victoria HOOVER, Stephen F. Austin State University, "How Much is a Woman Worth? Agency and the Commodification of Women in Plays by Centlivre and Gay"
Ashley SCHOPPE, Catawba College, "'The fashionable trappings of woe': Policing Class Performance of Mourning Dress"3. Royal Beds, Poetic Maladies, and Highland Wanderings: Unconventional Pleasures of the Long Eighteenth Century
Chair: Duane COLTHARP, Trinity UniversityDominika TOKARZ, Jagiellonian University, "Illness as Play: The Paradox and Malady in 'Songs Sung to Myself' by Konstancja Benisławska"
Duane COLTHARP, Trinity University, "Mixing Business with Pleasure: John Knox's Tour of the Highlands and the Hebrides"
Bruce GRAVER, Providence College, "Sleeping in Queen Caroline's Bed"
10:45 AM-12:15 PM: Session B
4. Pleasures of the Mind and Heart: Reading, Romance, and Music as Eighteenth-Century Leisure
Chair: Catherine PARISIAN, University of North Carolina PembrokeKyung Hwa EUN, University of Alberta, "Curating Female Agency: Reading, Collecting, and Everyday Practice in Frances Burney's Cecilia"
Elizabeth CUDDY, Hampton University, "Pleasures in Fact and in Fiction: Elopement News Items and Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice"
Samantha MEEKS, University of Central Arkansas, "The Appearance and Sublimity of Music in Ann Radcliffe's Mysteries of Udolpho"5. Eighteenth-Century Gardens of Inspiration in Literature and the Arts
Session in Memory of Gloria Eive
Chair: Linda REESMAN, Queensborough Community CollegeFrancien MARKX, George Mason University, "Reichardt's Garden: Romantic Refuge for Musicians, Poets, Artists, and Thinkers"
Kelly MALONE, Sewanee: The University of the South, "John Philips's 'Demi-Paradise': The Shakespearean Nationalism of Cyder"
Linda REESMAN, Queensborough Community College, "An Eighteenth-Century Garden of Medieval Love Tales: Coleridge and Boccaccio"
Stacey JOCOY, Library of Congress "Pills to Purge Melancholy in London's Vauxhall Gardens"
12:15-2:00 PM: Luncheon and Plenary Speaker
Peter RADFORD, "The Arrival of the Championesses"
Join us for this inspiring and illuminating keynote delivered by the distinguished Peter Radford--former Olympian (representing Great Britain in track events), celebrated sports historian, and Professor Emeritus with deep expertise in the cultural history of athletics.Drawing from his acclaimed book They Run with Surprising Swiftness: The Women Athletes of Early Modern Britain (University of Virginia Press, 2023), Dr. Radford will bring to life the remarkable, often overlooked stories of eighteenth-century (and earlier) women who defied conventions to compete as runners, wrestlers, boxers, footballers, and more. These "championesses" challenged gender norms, drew huge crowds, and demonstrated extraordinary physical prowess and agency--long before modern notions of women's sports emerged.
This engaging presentation promises to blend rigorous historical scholarship with vivid storytelling, offering fresh insights into the body, gender, performance, and popular culture in the long eighteenth century. Whether your research touches on women's history, sport and leisure, embodiment, or the intersections of gender and society, this plenary will enrich our conversations and spark new connections. UVa Press will be on hand with copies of Dr. Radford's book, and he has kindly agreed to sign copies.
2:00-3:15 PM: Session C
6. Launching the Future of Eighteenth-Century Scholarship: Gale Presents ECCO III
Vince VESSALO, Senior Director, Gale
Becky SOWERS, Gale Senior Customer Success Manager, Training & Engagement, Gale
Join us for an exclusive world-premiere session where Gale unveils Eighteenth Century Collections Online, Part III (ECCO III)--the most significant expansion to the definitive digital archive of 18th-century print culture in over two decades!
Discover groundbreaking enhancements, including
Hear directly from the Gale team about seamless integration with the Gale Primary Sources platform and Gale Digital Scholar Lab for advanced text and data mining--tools that will supercharge your research, challenge traditional narratives, and open fresh avenues for discovery in this pivotal era.
- Stunning high-quality, full-color images of broadsides, maps, marginalia, illustrated title pages, book covers, and spines
- Diverse perspectives, such as ~80% of English-language titles printed in the West Indies during the century
- Expanded content from global collections, enabling deeper exploration of underrepresented voices, regional publications, and interdisciplinary connections
Special conference attendee benefit: Everyone who attends this launch session will receive a complimentary trial subscription to ECCO III, giving you immediate, extended access to explore the new content hands-on and integrate it into your ongoing projects right away!
3:15-3:30 PM: Coffee Break
3:30-5:00 PM: Session D
7. Samuel Johnson and His Circle
Chair: John SCANLAN, Providence CollegeDavid NUNNERY, Stanford Online High School, "Johnson and the Sweet Science"
Brian GLOVER, East Carolina University, "Christopher Morley, the Mid-Twentieth-Century Middlebrow, and Boswell's London Journal"
Ari MESSER, Independent Scholar, "Fever Powder: Johnson, James, and the limits of Medical Imagination"
Mozer ZHAO, University of Virginia, "'A Hateful Tax': Samuel Johnson's Entry on Excise Illustrated"
8. Roundtable: What the Early Presidents Read
A roundtable discussion with contributors to the book What the Presidents Read (Bloomsbury, 2025), a collection of essays focusing on the childhood reading of the U.S. Presidents. This discussion will feature experts on the early Presidents and their reading.
Chair: Elizabeth GOODENOUGH, University of MichiganAndrea IMMEL, Princeton University Library
Marilynn OLSON, Texas State University
Mark GRAHAM, Grove City College
Gil LEAF, Ferdinand Alliance
Don OLSON, Texas State University
5:15-6:15 PM: SCSECS Business Meeting
Saturday, February 21
8:30 AM-3:00 PM: Registration8:30 AM-3:00 PM: Publishers' Exhibition
9:00-10:30 AM: Session E
9. Pleasures of the Pen: Narrative Play, Gossip, and Humor in Eighteenth-Century Letters and Print10:30-10:45 AM: Coffee Break
Chair: Colin RAMSEY, Appalachian State University StevensGordon BYRD, UNC Pembroke, "Constituting the Clergyman: Narrative, Gossip, and the Fragility of Collective Ethos"
Charles TITA, UNC Pembroke, "The Anatomy of Pleasure in Ignatius Sancho's Letters of the Late Ignatius Sancho: Toward a Poetics of Double Consciousness"
Brent KENDRICK, Laurel Ridge Community College, "Pleasure, Play, and the Colonial Press: Unmasking 'The Humourist' In Eighteenth-Century Charleston"10. Roundtable: Birds Make Us Human: Eighteenth-Century Children's Pastimes with Wild Birds and Tame
In a century increasingly engaged in the study of natural history and questions of the relation of human beings to the animal creation, birds--most popular among early companion animals and easily available for juvenile scrutiny--intertwine with child culture in many ways. A source of pleasure on many levels, this panel looks at the beliefs, dreams, games, and stories that their presence inspired.
Chair: Marilynn OLSON, Texas State UniversityAndrea IMMEL, Princeton University Library
Mary GALBRAITH, San Diego State University
Marilynn OLSON, Texas State University
Elizabeth GOODENOUGH, University of Michigan11. The Pleasures of Texts in the Long Eighteenth Century
Chair: Greg CLINGHAM, Bucknell UniversityAshley MARSHALL, University of Nevada, Reno, "'A stomach capacious, a hunger voracious': Gastro-porn before the Age of Gastronomy"
Christopher CATANESE, UNC Chapel Hill, "The Pleasure of the Digression: Eighteenth-Century Poetry's Narratological Unconscious"
Harrison WICK, Indiana University of Pennsylvania Libraries, "Once upon a Parlor Trick: The Advent of Hidden Fore-edge Paintings"
10:45 AM-12:15 PM: Session F
12:15-1:45 PM: Lunch12. Interdisciplinary Approaches to the Long Eighteenth Century
Chair: Kathryn DUNCAN, St Leo UniversityCara GARGANO, Long Island University, "The Pleasures of Subversive Dancing in Late Eighteenth-Century France"
Christina L. REITZ, Western Carolina University, "Goethe's Der Erlkönig: from Ballad to German Lied"
Ambre EMORY-MAIR, Ohio State University, "Cultivating Grace: Dance Training and Sociability in the Eighteenth Century"13. The Other Kind of Re-Creation: Bringing the Past into the Present by Updating, Imitating, Revising, Reforming, Adapting, Extrapolating, Enlarging, Exaggerating, Enhancing, Inventively Copying, or Otherwise Deploying Earlier Achievements in Later Times
Chair: Kevin COPE, Louisiana State UniversityGreg CLINGHAM, Bucknell University, "Visions from the Veld: Lady Anne Barnard Channels and Translates Dryden and Johnson (and Others) at the Cape of Good Hope, 1799"
Cedric REVERAND II, University of Wyoming, "Alexander Pope's Dark Spaces: The Grotto Reconsidered"
Laura RUNGE, University of South Florida, "Aphra Behn's Currency"
1:45-3:15 PM: Session G
14. Transcribe-a-Thon: Hands-On Transcription with Zooniverse and Maria Edgeworth's Letters
Chair: Jessica RICHARD, Wake Forest UniversityJoin fellow conference attendees in an engaging, interactive session where you will dive into the world of digital humanities through a transcribe-a-thon! Using the Zooniverse platform, participants will gain practical experience transcribing original letters from Maria Edgeworth (1768-1849), the influential Anglo-Irish novelist known for works like Castle Rackrent. Your contributions will directly support the Maria Edgeworth Letters Project, a collaborative open-access initiative to digitize, transcribe, and annotate her vast correspondence for researchers worldwide. No prior expertise required--just bring your laptop and a passion for literary history. This session offers a unique opportunity to connect with the past while building skills in citizen science and archival work!
3:15-3:30 PM: Coffee Break
3:30-5:00 PM Session H
15. "Methodism in Motion: Music, Leisure, and the Press in 18th-Century Britain"5:15-6:15 Closing Reception: A Highland Farewell on the Pines
Chair: Brett MCINELLY, Brigham Young University KendallBrett C. MCINELLY, Brigham Young University, "'Read All About It!' Methodism in the Eighteenth-Century British Newspaper"
Brandon WASON, Emory University, "Music, Methodism, and High Society: The Wesley Concerts of Marylebone (1779-1787)"
Elizabeth LYNCH, University of Virginia, "Beyond Pulpit and Study: Clerical Recreations in the Long 18th Century"16. Blushing Pleasures: Erotic Recreations and Utopian Leisure in Eighteenth-Century France
Chair: Gordon BYRD, University of North Carolina PembrokeTodd LARKIN, Montana State University, "The Primrose Path of the Picturesque Garden: Wertmüller's Portrait of Marie-Antoinette and Her Children Walking in the Park at Trianon (1785)"
Carissa DOOLIN, Virginia Commonwealth University, "Making Her Blush: The role of queer women's literature, fashion subcultures, and theatrical pastimes in the creation and consumption of François Boucher's erotic paintings"
Denis GRÉLÉ, University of Memphis, "Finding (sexual) pleasures in Utopia: The case of Félicia ou mes fredaines"17. At the Edges of Colonial Imagination
Chair: Susan SPENCER, University of Central OklahomaSusan SPENCER, University of Central Oklahoma, "Beyond Nabobs and Nawabs: A Visual Record of Everyday Life in Eighteenth-Century Bengal"
Kevin MACDONNELL, Wake Forest University, "'Where many a garden flower grows wild': William Jones's Pastoral Bengal after the 1770 Famine"
A. MODHA, Boston College, "The Colors of the Shadows: The Specter of Race in Pamela and Millennium Hall"Join us for a memorable close to our conference as we celebrate the rich Scottish heritage that has long shaped the cultural landscape of North Carolina and the Pinehurst area. In special tribute to these deep historical ties, renowned piper and Scottish heritage scholar Bill Caudill will perform on the Scottish Highline bagpipes delivering the stirring, powerful sound that has defined Highland traditions for centuries.
Bill Caudill, a native North Carolinian with roots in both Highland and Ulster Scots traditions, is a distinguished performer, instructor, and former director of the Scottish Heritage Center at St. Andrews University. His mastery of traditional piping will provide the perfect musical farewell, blending haunting melodies with the warmth of live acoustic performance.
This special closing reception offers an opportunity to relax, reflect on the scholarly conversations of the weekend, and savor the connections between eighteenth-century studies and the enduring legacies of Scottish culture in our host region.
All registered attendees are warmly invited. Light refreshments will be available.
Let the pipes play us out in style--see you there!
Illustrations from Outlines of Figures, Landscapes, and Cattle etch'd by T. Rowlandson for the Use of Learners. London: S.W. Fores, 1790
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