The Australian and New Zealand Society for Eighteenth-Century Studies is pleased to announce that the sixteenth David Nichol Smith Seminar, Natures and Spaces of Enlightenment, will be held in Brisbane, Australia, at Griffith University and the University of Queensland.

The following keynote speakers will be presenting at the conference:

  • Deidre Lynch (Harvard University)
  • Jan Golinski (University of New Hampshire)
  • Georgia Cowart (Case Western Reserve University)
  • Sujit Sivasundaram (University of Cambridge)

We welcome proposals for papers or panels on the theme ‘Natures and Spaces of Enlightenment’, broadly conceived as referring to the plurality of Enlightenments as well as the ideas and uses of nature which they endorsed, and the spaces in which they developed.  In the inclusive spirit of the David Nichol Smith Seminar, proposals may address any aspect of the long eighteenth century. Especially relevant topics include:

  • Enlightenment and religion, science, empire or gender

  • Popular, moderate and radical enlightenments

  • Regional, national and global enlightenments

  • Climate, the environment and the Anthropocene

  • Emotion, sentimentalism and the language of feeling

  • Theories of human nature and civil society

  • Improvement and social utility

  • Travel, exploration and discovery

  • Trade and commerce

  • Philanthropy and the culture of moral/social reform

  • Spaces of sociability such as clubs, salons, coffeehouses and taverns

  • Urban and rural spaces

  • Ideas of landscape and forms of land use

  • Nature in art, literature and music

  • Natural history, natural philosophy, natural law and natural theology

  • Nature in economic and political writing

  • Nature, medicine, sexuality and the body

  • Botany, geology and geography

  • Representations and uses of animals

  • Work, leisure, technology and industrialisation

We welcome proposals for 20-minute papers and panels comprising 3 x papers.  Please submit an abstract of 250 words (maximum) and a 2-page CV, as PDF documents, to the following email address: dnsconferenceqld[at]gmail.com

Participants must be current members of ANZSECS12

For inquiries about the conference, please email one of the conference organisers:

  • Dr Lisa O’Connell (l.oconnell[at]uq.edu.au)

  • Dr Peter Denney (p.denney[at]griffith.edu.au)

  • 1. https://anzsecs.com/
  • 2. Click here to join: http://events.sydney.edu.au/office3/getdemo.ei?id=30577&s=_9SS0K8XL9