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The Center for Eighteenth-Century Studies at Indiana University is pleased to announce the 4th annual Bloomington Eighteenth-Century Studies Workshop, May 11-14, 2005 at Indiana University. The topic is "Custom, Ritual, Habit, Fetish: The Idols of the Eighteenth Century." Religious ritual, pagan fetishes, the customs of the unwashed, the habits of the unlettered: these were the idols 18th-century men and women sought to cleanse from human society and culture, at times by force of conquest. Even so, it was precisely in this period that the very modes of description observers developed to represent others, they turned back on themselves, making custom, ritual, and habit into crucial elements of social and mental life. In so doing, they raised a host of questions about everyday life in the domestic sphere, habit in the operations of the mind, custom and tradition as the essence of nations, and ritual as a structure of religious belief, among others.
The workshop format, which has proven extraordinarily fruitful, will consist of intense discussion of 4-6 precirculated papers a day, amidst socializing and refreshment. Papers will be selected by an interdisciplinary committee. The workshop will cover most expenses of those scholars chosen to present their work: accommodations, travel (up to a certain limit)and most meals.
We ask that applications be submitted by January 4, 2005. The application consists of a two-page description of the proposed paper as well as a current CV. Please email or send your application to Dr. Barbara Truesdell, Ashton-Aley West, Room 264, Bloomington, IN 47405, Telephone 812-855-2856, e-mail address provided below. For further information, see our website at the following web address or contact Dror Wahrman, Dept. of History, e-mail dwahrman@indiana.edu.
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