Eighteenth Century and Romantics Research School

Portrait at Fairfax House, York

The Eighteenth Century and Romantics Research School provides a research context for scholars in the department whose interests include the eighteenth century and Romantic periods.

Centre for Eighteenth Century Studies

Centre for Eighteenth Century Studies

The Centre for Eighteenth Century Studies (CECS) was founded in 1996 at the University of York, and is now an internationally renowned centre for the study of the 'long' eighteenth century, 1650-1850.

All members of the school are members also of the Centre for Eighteenth Century Studies (CECS), an interdisciplinary centre which brings together, at King's Manor in the centre of York, members of the departments of Archaeology, English, History, History of Art and Philosophy.

In association with the school, CECS runs two or three day conferences a year and a well-attended research seminar which meets five or six times a term and is largely addressed by speakers from outside (often outside the UK); some recent events have been Women's Letters 1750-1850, Bringing the Empire Home, and Antiquarianism and Cultural Politics.

In connection with CECS, the school also sponsors the annual Copley lecture, in commemoration of Stephen Copley, one of the Centre's founding members. Recent speakers have been Kathryn Sutherland, Peter Kitson, and Vivien Jones.

Currently the school has over 20 research students. It runs the MA programme, Romantic and Sentimental Literature, 1770-1830 and contributes to the Centre's interdisciplinary MA in Eighteenth Century Studies.

Staff

Staff

Staff

Interdisciplinary approach

The school has a strongly but not exclusively interdisciplinary character.

The recent work of John Barrell has focused especially on the politics and propaganda of the 1790s; Harriet Guest has recently completed a monograph on Captain Cook's second circumnavigation, and is involved in a major research project on women writers of the 1790s; Stephen Minta is working on a political biography of Lord Byron; and James Watt works on orientalism, empire, and race.

Books recently published by members of the school include:

  • John Barrell's Imagining the King's Death and The Spirit of Despotism (both Oxford University Press)
  • Harriet Guest's Small Change: Women, Learning and Patriotism 1750-1810 (University of Chicago Press)
  • James Watt's Contesting the Gothic (Cambridge University Press)