Megan Bennett • 📚🪡☕️

British Society for Eighteenth Century Studies Postgraduate and Early Career Researcher Conference Improvement Degeneration Stagnation University of Montpellier 3-4 September 2026 Paul-Valery

We invite proposals for papers for this year’s collaborative Postgraduate and Early Career Researcher Conference between the British Society for Eighteenth-Century Studies, the Société d’Études Anglo-Américaines des XVIIe et XVIIIe siècles and the Société Française d’Études du XVIIIe siècle, held at the University of Montpellier Paul-Valéry. Topics considering improvement, degeneration and stagnation could include, but are not limited to: · The materiality of any of, or all, these terms · Social, economic, moral and physical wellbeing · Medical perspectives, including the development of psychiatric and psychological medicine and alternate (pseudo-)scientific endeavours such as alchemy or spiritualism · Ideas around taste, attitudes, values and class, both in the social and literary domains · Debates and evolutions regarding language · National identities and comparisons · The pace of improvement and/or degeneration · Science, innovation and the improvement of knowledge · Colonisation and slavery · Religion, secularisation and Enlightenment thought · Gender, sexuality and the perception of the female body · Conceptions of improvement or degeneration in art, design and architecture; as well as in literature and philosophy · The notion of change and teleological narratives of progress · The ambiguities surrounding the notion of progress and the uncertain boundaries between improvement, stagnation and degeneration All submissions should be sent to montpellierconference2026@gmail.com for consideration. Submissions can be in either French or English. For individual papers, please send abstracts of 250 words and a short biography. For fully formed panels, (3-4 speakers), roundtables or workshops please send abstracts of 250 words for each paper along with brief details of the proposed theme, biographies of speakers, and proposed chair. CFP opens 7th January 2026 and closes 13th March 2026.

En lien avec le rôle joué par Montpellier dans le développement des connaissances médicales en Europe, le colloque de cette année étudiera les notions de progrès, de dégénérescence et de stagnation. Nous invitons les participants à interpréter les termes de progrès, de dégénérescence et de stagnation de façon large, sans restrictions géographiques, étymologiques ou conceptuelles. Les propositions pourront s’intéresser aux questions suivantes: · La matérialité de ces termes · Le bien-être social, moral et économique · Les perspectives médicales, incluant le développement de la médecine psychologique ou psychiatrique et des (pseudo-)sciences comme le spiritualisme ou l’alchimie · La question du goût, des mentalités, des valeurs et des distinctions entre groupes, tant dans le domaine social que littéraire · Les débats et évolutions concernant le langage · Les identités et comparaisons nationales · Le rythme du progrès et/ou de la dégénérescence · Science, innovation et développement des savoirs · Exploitation coloniale et esclavage · Religion, sécularisation et pensée des Lumières · Genre, sexualité et perception du corps féminin · Conception du progrès et de la dégénérescence dans l’art, le design et l’architecture · La notion de changement et la vision téléologique du progrès · Les ambiguïtés autour de la notion de progrès et les frontières incertaines entre le progrès, la dégénérescence et la stagnation Les propositions de communication, en français ou en anglais, sont à envoyer à l’adresse montpellierconference2026@gmail.com, sous la forme d’un résumé de 250 mots assorti d’une courte biobibliographie. Les propositions d’ateliers, de tables rondes ou de séances complètes (entre 3 et 4 intervenants) doivent être accompagnées d’un résumé pour chaque proposition et d’une courte présentation du thème, des intervenants, et du/de la président.e de séance pressenti.e. Les propositions sont à envoyer avant le 13 mars 2026.

You may only just have recovered from #BSECS2026, but our hardworking reps are already planning our #PGR #ECR conference, University of Montpellier Paul-Valery, 3-4 September 2026 on 'Improvement, Degeneration, Stagnation'
Deadline for submissions: 13 March 2026
#skystorians #18thC 🗃️

Thank you !!

I’m excited and grateful to share that I have been selected to be a BSECS PG Representative @bsecs.bsky.social. Looking forward to working with everyone over the coming years 🫶🏻

Craziest thing about Katabasis is that Kuang did all this academic research but didn’t think to google when the first Wetherspoon opened in Oxford

Dreadful behaviour. You’re being swindled

You start hoping the 13 min delay becomes a 16 min just so you can submit the form

The rush I feel when I receive my £3 delay repay refund is unmatched

‘Beware; for I am fearless, and therefore powerful.’- Mary Shelley, Frankenstein ✨

Had a great time in Oxford for my first #BSECS2026. Thanks to @elementaladam.bsky.social for having me on and chairing the panel ‘Bodies Politic, Bodies Satiric: Satirical Embodiment in Georgian Britain and Ireland’ where I talked all things Fielding, drink, and Jacobite!

BSECS Annual Conference BSECS Annual Conference: the annual meeting of the British Society for Eighteenth-Century Studies is Europe's largest and most prestigious annual conference

Happy New Year #18thCists #skystorians!
We can't wait to welcome you to @pembrokeoxford.bsky.social NEXT WEEK for #BSECS2026.
You can register FOR THE CONFERENCE ONLY [no accommodation or meals] at the registration desk from 8am, 7 January.
Programme available here:
www.bsecs.org.uk/conferences/...

Voices of the V&A: The Curators' Lives Oral Histories Archive • V&A Blog What is the Curators’ Lives Archive? Within the institutional archives of the V&A sits a little-known collection of oral histories. Aptly named ‘The Curators’ Lives’, this project was devised by Resea...

My first post for the V&A blog has gone live. Check it out to see and hear more about the Curators' Lives Archive that I've been researching and cataloguing 😊
www.vam.ac.uk/blog/caring-...

‘Everyday, give yourself a present’. The Twin Peaks cross stitch is DONE!! ✨🫶🏻

It’s my last week at my current retail job meaning I’ll no longer be lovingly known as “curtain lady” 🫡

Word of the Day is ‘theic’ (19th century), defined as ‘one given to immoderate tea-drinking; a tea drunkard’.

Save our pioneering widening participation undergraduate degree in English Literature and Community Engagement at the University of Bristol 19 August 2025 Dear Evelyn Welch (Vice-Chancellor) cc Judith Squires (Deputy Vice-Chancellor and Provost), Tansy Jessop (Pro Vice-Chancellor for Education and Students) The School of Humanities has ...

Please help. Please sign & share. I work on a degree programme known as ELCE for mature students who didn't or couldn't do a degree at 18. Bristol uni has decided to close it. Bristol was set up to serve this community & now we are losing our most accessible degree.

docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1F...

Paperback edition of 'Made in Manchester', due near the end of this month, has a new cover illustration. I'll be signing copies at Waterstones Oldham, Saturday 23rd August 12-2pm. All welcome. www.waterstones.com/events/brian...

My poem ‘Desiderium’ is in the recent issue of Twisted Ink! Read it (and everyone else’s lovely work) here >> twistedinks.wordpress.com ✨🫶🏻

LOVE studying literature until I’m walking around with 7 books and my laptop in my bag and my backs trying not to snap in half

Ooo I don’t but it fits right into my interest in the Romantics 🫢 thank you !!

Went to the National Museum of Scotland and just had to take some time appreciating all the Jacobite drinking glasses 🍷🍷

Had a fantastic time at my first @defoesociety.bsky.social conference! I presented my research on drink, class, and narrative in Fielding and Defoe 🍻 Big thanks to @nick-seager.bsky.social for organising & the board who awarded me the John Richetti Student Bursary to enable me to go 🫶🏻

First post 🥳 A little intro to my PhD project.

I'm currently researching surrealist aesthetics and tendencies in contemporary world cinema. My current focus is on the Surrealist documentary of Jean Painlevé and the docufiction of Apichatpong Weerasethakul. 🎬

Digital Defoe vol. 16 Features

Digital Defoe vol. 16 Book Reviews

Attention Digital Defoe readers! The 2025 (Vol. 16) issue just dropped! Content screenshots below with exciting article abstracts to follow. Thanks for reading and sharing!
cedar.wwu.edu/digitaldefoe/
#18thCentury #C18 #C18th #18thC #danieldefoe #defoe

Had a great couple days attending the Drinking Studies Network’s Women and Alcohol Cluster’s #dangerouspleasure conference in Dublin 🍻 some great discussions from a range of disciplines and I got to present my own research on the Georgian pub landlady in art and literature!

Panel 5 of #womenandalcohol #dangerouspleasure leads off with Megan Bennett, exploring figures of the Georgian landlady in Fielding & others, and the extraordinary figure of Mary Robinson, the Maid of Buttermere, who became something like a tourist attraction in the Lakes for Coleridge & others 1/3

Panel two reflects on visualizing pleasures. Megan Bennett starts with a brilliant reading of the land lady in literary and visual cultures of 18C

In true drinking studies fashion, I’m ending today at the University Arms after a jam-packed workshop talking about publishing ✨ Organised with my fellow PGRs on behalf of the Centre for Nineteenth-Century Studies at @uos-artshumanities.bsky.social Grateful for everyone who came and who spoke 🫶🏻

A great day attending and presenting my research on Margaret Harkness at today’s Sheffield PGR Colloquium on Archive and Preservation!

Took grandad to Old Trafford as an early bday present ❤️❤️

My 18thC reading does sometimes make my reading tracker a tad bit skewiff