Students participate in early career research symposium at Huntington Library, L.A.

On 13 April 2017, WRoCAH-funded students Fiona Hobbs-Milne, Harrie Neal, Hannah Jeans and Millie Schurch, will be participating in an interdisciplinary symposium afternoon, in collaboration with the Centre for Eighteenth Century Studies, University of York, and the Huntington Library, California.

The theme of the event is “Interiority, character, networks” and, as well as exploring important interlocking concepts in eighteenth-century studies, the symposium aims to foster discussion about the experience and process of graduate and early-career research with archival resources such as those available at the Huntington Library.

The first half of the afternoon will take the format of two panels of short papers exploring the key themes. In the second part of the afternoon, we are delighted to welcome Sara Austin, editor of Huntington Library Quarterly, who will share some comments on publishing for early-career scholars. Prof. Jon Mee, a visiting fellow at the Library from York, will then lead a workshop-style discussion, where we will explore how the themes of interiority, character and networks play out across our different specialisms, and we will consider the scholarly experience of using archival and rare-book materials at research libraries such as the Huntington. Professors Kevin Gilmartin (Caltech) and Fuson Wang (UC Riverside) will also join in the workshop discussion, which will also draw in other early career scholars at the Library.

Fiona, Harrie and Hannah are able to undertake research at the Huntington and organise the event thanks to a WRoCAH Large Award.. Millie’s research at the Huntington is facilitated by the AHRC International Placement Scheme. The event represents an exciting collaboration between York and the Huntington, and is part of an exciting exchange of ideas and practice that we hope offers a model for future events.