The main aim of the network is to explore the future possibilities of interdisciplinary work linking cultural forms [e.g. sentimentalism, romanticism, melodrama] to emergent political processes of modernity [e.g. politically-engaged drama, expanded political and popular press, the dynamics of elections and political assemblies, revolutionary agitation, secret societies, political parties].

Starting without assumptions about priority or causality, the workshops aim to discern how histories of the 'revolutionary' era and its aftermath, c. 1750-1900, might be written to inter-relate the cultural and the political, at a time when both fields were moving decisively towards what we can call [with a host of necessary reservations] 'modernity'.

Concretely, the network will be seeking UK official funding to host its first round of meetings, and will also explore potential European/international sources of project funding to develop aspects of this research field further.

Individuals already involved with planning the network include:

Matthew Buckley, Associate Professor of English, Rutgers University
Simon Burrows, Professor of History, University of Leeds
Julia Douthwaite, Professor of French, University of Notre Dame
Dan Edelstein, Assistant Professor of French, Stanford University
Paul Friedland, Associate Professor of History, Bowdoin College
Ian Haywood, Reader in English, Roehampton University
Mark Ledbury, Associate Director of Research, Clark Art Institute
Jann Matlock, Senior Lecturer in French, University College London
Jeffrey Ravel, Associate Professor of History, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Maurice Samuels, Professor of French, Yale University
Sophie Wahnich, Chargée de recherche, CNRS, Paris

Please contact the network coordinator, David Andress, Professor of Modern History, University of Portsmouth, for further details: david.andress@port.ac.uk