CAUCUSES

Disability Studies Caucus, est. 2013

Co-chairs: Paul Kelleher, pkelleh@emory.edu & Leslie Thulin, lthulin@g.ucla.edu

Sponsored sessions at the 2025 Annual Meeting:

• Disability and the Environment (sponsored by the Disability Studies Caucus) [ID 55]
• RT: Disability and the Practices of Care (sponsored by the Disability Studies Caucus)
  [ID 56]

Co-chairs: Kelly Plante, Wayne State University and Karenza Sutton-Bennett, University of Ottawa, asecsdh@gmail.com 

If you wish to be added to the DH Caucus email list, please contact Co-chairs Kelly and Karenza and the.ladys.museum at gmail.com.

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Sponsored sessions at the 2025 Annual Meeting
See the List of Sessions for more information!

• RT: Gone Too Soon: Sunsetting and Transitioning Digital Projects (sponsored by the Digital Humanities Caucus) [ID 96]
• SpS Digital Personography: A Hands-on Workshop/Edit-a-thon [Workshop] (sponsored by the Digital Humanities Caucus) [ID 92]

Co-chairs: Taylin Nelson and Shruti Jain

https://asecsgradcaucus.wordpress.com/

The Graduate Student Caucus of the American Society for Eighteenth-Century Studies (ASECS) organizes panels of professional and scholarly interest, runs a mentoring program to connect graduate students with scholars, awards a mentoring prize each year to recognize outstanding faculty, and generally promotes the “next generation” of eighteenth-century scholars.

Sponsored sessions at the 2025 Annual Meeting
See the List of Sessions for more information!

• RT: Labor, Service, & Digitization Projects (sponsored by the Graduate Student and Early Career Scholars Caucus (GECC)) [ID 42]
• The Diasporic Eighteenth-Century (sponsored by the Graduate Student and Early Career Scholars Caucus (GECC) [ID 43]

Chair: Irene Zanini-Cordi

Italian literature and culture in the Long Eighteenth Century emerge from a variety of fields of knowledge and are particularly nourished by art, archeology, music, theatre, religion, philosophy, linguistics, politics, history, medicine, and the sciences.  Eighteenth-century Italian literary and cultural history is also intrinsically tied to developments in other European states and beyond, and one of our aims is to shine a brighter light on those rich connections.  True to the kaleidoscopic nature and spirit of intellectual curiosity in this period, the Italian Studies Caucus is interdisciplinary and inclusive. We welcome all scholars of the eighteenth century, and we foster intellectual exchange and collaboration. Our objective is to create a lively community and network of scholars engaged in exploring diverse facets of Italian eighteenth-century culture from a spectrum of disciplines and perspectives.   

At the ASECS annual conference we regularly sponsor two guaranteed panels and come together socially. No membership is required: if you are interested in being added to our mailing list, please fill out the short Google form below, or send an email to izaninicordi@fsu.edu.

Italian Studies Caucus Mailing List Form

Sponsored sessions at the 2025 Annual Meeting
See the List of Sessions for more information!

• Africans and Africa in Italy (sponsored by the Italian Studies Caucus) [ID 51]
• RT: 25 Years of Italian Eighteenth-Century Women and Gender Studies (sponsored by the Italian Studies Caucus) [ID 52]

Chair: Scott Breuninger, Virginia Commonwealth University, breuningersc@vcu.edu

Sponsored sessions at the 2025 Annual Meeting
See the List of Sessions for more information!

• RT: Moving to the “Dark Side?” Transitioning from Academics to Administration (sponsored by the Irish Studies Caucus) [ID 58]
• Wealth, Poverty, and Civility in Eighteenth-Century Ireland (sponsored by the Irish Studies Caucus) [ID 50]

Co-chairs: Jennifer Vanderheyden, jennifer.vanderheyden@marquette.edu; and Adam Schoene, adam.schoene@mail.mcgill.ca 

If you would like to join the New Lights Forum caucus, please email the co-chair of the Executive Director Benita Blessing (director@asecs.org).

Sponsored sessions at the 2025 Annual Meeting
See the List of Sessions for more information!

• Artificial Intelligence: How Could its Use Enlighten, Enhance or Negatively Affect our Disciplines? (sponsored by the New Lights Forum) [ID 159]
• RT: Law and Language (New Lights Forum) [160]

Chair: Linda Troost, Washington and Jefferson College

The Pedagogy Caucus supports scholarship on current and historical teaching.

If you are interested in being added to the mailing list, please fill out the form below, or email the Pedagogy Caucus Chair or the Executive Director (director@asecs.org).

Sponsored sessions at the 2025 Annual Meeting
See the List of Sessions for more information!

• Poster Session: Teaching the Eighteenth Century (Pedagogy Caucus) [ID 79]
• RT: Teaching the Eighteenth Century with AI (sponsored by the Pedagogy Caucus) [ID 115]

Co-chairs: Shelby L. Johnson (shelby.l.johnson@okstate.edu) and S. Yarberry (n5t3r3@u.northwestern.edu)

ASECS’s Queer and Trans Caucus emerged in 2021 out of its former iteration, the Gay and Lesbian Caucus, which was established in 1993. This name change reflects our continued scholastic, political, and pedagogical values as we approach the historical study of sexuality, gender, and desire as plural, porous, ever-evolving categories and metrics that necessitate regular recalibration. The caucus aims to develop an interdisciplinary approach to the long eighteenth century that re-evaluates the intimacies among categories of gender and categories of sexuality that likewise explore archives that include gender variance and asexual desires. We remain invested in expanding eighteenth-century queer and trans perspectives inside and outside Eurocentric contexts with an eye to cultural and geographic differences that can enrich the study of queerness, transness, and sexuality.

If you are interested in being added to the mailing list, please fill out the form below, or email the Queer and Trans Caucus Co-Chairs or the Executive Director (director@asecs.org).

Queer and Trans Caucus Mailing List Form

Sponsored sessions at the 2025 Annual Meeting
See the List of Sessions for more information!

• RT: A History of Our Own: Stories from ASECS’s Queer and Trans Caucus (sponsored by the Queer and Trans Caucus) [ID 64]
• Transing the Transatlantic (sponsored by the Queer and Trans Caucus) [ID 73]

Race and Empire Caucus

Chair: Jeremy Chow

Race and Empire Caucus Link

Race and Empire Graduate Student Essay Prize, due July 15, 2024

If you are interested in being added to the mailing list, please email the Caucus chair.

Sponsored sessions at the 2025 Annual Meeting
See the List of Sessions for more information!

• RT: South-South Connections in the Eighteenth Century (sponsored by the Race & Empire Caucus) [ID 95]
• RT: South-South Connections in the Eighteenth Century (sponsored by the Race & Empire Caucus) [ID 95]

Co-chairs: Al Coppola, Anita Guerrini, and Helen Thompson

Sponsored sessions at the 2025 Annual Meeting
See the List of Sessions for more information!

• RT: Roy Porter and his Legacy (sponsored by the Science Studies Caucus) [ID 82]
• Smollett and Science (sponsored by the Science Studies Caucus) [ID 80]

Society for Eighteenth-Century French Studies (SECFS)/Société d’études françaises du XVIIIe siècle

Co-chairs: Masano Yamashita (President, Masano.Yamashita@colorado.edu) and Flora Champy (Vice President)

The Society for Eighteenth-Century French Studies was founded in 1997 to encourage and advance studies and research in eighteenth-century culture in France and all francophone countries.

If you are interested in being added to the mailing list, please fill out the form below, or email the SECFS Co-Chairs or the Executive Director (director@asecs.org).

French Studies (SECFS) Mailing List Form

Sponsored sessions at the 2025 Annual Meeting
See the List of Sessions for more information!

• France-Asia (sponsored by the Society for Eighteenth-Century French Studies/Société d’études françaises du XVIIIe siècle [SECFS]) [ID: 69]
• RT: Saisir le moment: Performance, Orality, and Composition in the Eighteenth-Century Francosphere (sponsored  by the Society for Eighteenth-Century French Studies/Société d’études françaises du XVIIIe siècle [SECFS]) [ID 98]

https://tapscaucus.weebly.com/

Contact: asecstaps@gmail.com, or reach out directly to our co-chairs Angelina Del Balzo (angelina@bilkent.edu.tr) and Francesca Saggini (francesca.saggini@googlemail.com)

The Theatre and Performance Caucus aims to bridge disciplines and geographies, bringing together scholars from the diverse fields mentioned above with the goal of deepening our understanding of Restoration and eighteenth-century performance culture through collaboration and the exchange of ideas from different scholarly perspectives and methodologies. Now moving into its third year of existence, the TaPS caucus is working on establishing a graduate student paper prize and hosting a performance event at the annual meeting.

Sponsored sessions at the 2025 Annual Meeting
See the List of Sessions for more information!

• Screening and Streaming: What Happens When Performance of the Eighteenth Century Goes Virtual (sponsored by the Theatre and Performance Studies Caucus) [ID 86]
• Theorizing the Fan (sponsored by the Theatre and Performance Studies Caucus) [ID 85]

http://www.asecswomenscaucus.com/

Co-chairs: Misty Krueger and Elizabeth Porter

The Women’s Caucus grew out of efforts in the mid-seventies to ensure equitable representation of women and women’s concerns within ASECS. In its more than forty-year history, it has served as a forum for discussing topics related to women in the field of 18th-century studies and for evaluating the status of women in the profession.

Sponsored sessions at the 2025 Annual Meeting
See the List of Sessions for more information!

• Data Feminism and Feminist Data (sponsored by the Women’s Caucus) [ID 84]
• RT: Feminist Praxis: A Roundtable Discussion on Connection and Care (sponsored by the Women’s Caucus) [ID 97]
• RT: Celebrate! The Women’s Caucus Turns 50! (Presidential-sponsored session) [ID 93]