In Enlightenment Shadows (2013), Genevieve Lloyd argues that the “Age of Reason” was also an age of imagination. Lloyd examines the interplay of intellect, emotion, and imagination in the texts of Montesquieu, Smith and Kant (among others) in search of ways to “better understand our contemporary intellectual predicaments and moral conflicts” (3). One of the main themes of her study is the pivotal role of the imagination in Enlightenment cosmopolitanisms. This panel seeks to build on Lloyd’s work by delving deeper into the relationship between the imagination and cosmopolitan thought in the eighteenth century. Possible avenues of inquiry include, but are not limited to, the link between the imagination and cosmopolitanism in educational theory, literature, moral philosophy, political philosophy, travel writing, theology, psychology, and anthropology. 

Scholars interested in the topic should send a 150-word abstract to the panel organizer Andrea Speltz (aspeltz at uwaterloo.ca) by March 15.