Western Conference on British Studies

10 October 2025

Washington University

Charles F. Knight Executive Education & Conference Center

One Brookings Drive

St. Louis, Missouri, 

 

NOTE: each paper should be no more than 20 minutes unless a panel has 4 presenters. For panels with 4 presenters – each speaker/presenter will be allowed 15 minutes. Panels with four presenters have been marked with “*”

 

REGISTRATION: 8-9AM

 

The registration table will be outside Room 220

 

8:30-10:00 AM

 

*PANEL I: Religion and society in premodern England

Chair: Steven Casement, University of Southern Indiana

Room: Breakout Room 255

 

Conversion from Above and Below: Aristocratic and Peasant Experiences of Christianization in Early Medieval Britain and Ireland, Justin Clark, University of Southern Indiana

 

“Through the Zeal of Your Glory”: The Role of Women in the Spread of Christianity in the British Isles, Gloria Hinterscher, University of Southern Indiana

 

Wages, Worship, and the Black Death: Economic Regulation and Social Upheaval in FourteenthCentury England, McKenna Love, University of Southern Indiana

 

Unequal Crowns: Female Sovereignty in the Age of Queen Elizabeth I and Mary, Queen of Scots, Emma Boyd, University of Southern Indiana

 

PANEL II: Witchcraft, Wordplay, and Water in Early Modern London

Chair: Steve Hindle, Washington University in St. Louis

Room: Breakout Room 240

 

Lechery and Witchery: the 1613 Essex Divorce Revisited, or How Robert Devereux MAY Have Lost His Mojo, Thomas Cogswell, University of California, Riverside

 

The Social Topography of Political Libel in Mid-Seventeenth-Century London, Samuel Fullerton, University of North Texas

 

Dragons and Mud: Steam Engines and London’s Eighteenth-Century Water Supply, Keith Pluymers, Illinois State University

 

PANEL III: Roundtable on AI and teaching history-I

Moderator: Richard Follet, Covenant College

Room: Classroom 220

 

Protecting Your Academic Role in the AI Era, Kyle Thompson, Pittsburg State University

 

Integrating AI on a Case-by-Case Basis, Jeremy Meyer, Arizona State University

 

The Impact of AI on Historical Literacy, Suzanne Farmer, Northeastern State University

 

10:15-11:45 AM

 

PANEL IV: Women in Nineteenth Century Britain

Chair: Kyle Thompson, Pittsburg State University

Room: Breakout Room 255

 

'God's Noble Woman': Female Espionage in the Late Victorian Age, Padraic Kennedy, York College of Pennsylvania

 

"Double Trouble": Women Bigamists in Nineteenth Century England, Arunima Datta, University of North Texas and Laura Tabili, University of Arizona

 

“Curiosity and pleasure”: Cartographic Games, Geographies of Knowledge, and Jane Austen’s Mansfield Park, Sheila Hwang, Webster University

 

PANEL V: Britain and the world

Chair: Derek Blakeley, University of Wisconsin–Stout

Room: Breakout Room 240

 

Comparing indirect rule in Roman Cappadocia (ca. 51 BCE) against British Indirect Rule in Nigeria, Joseph Snyder, Southeast Missouri State University

 

“The Labour Committee For Europe, Organized Labour, and European Integration, 1969-1973, Christopher Frank, University of Manitoba

 

PANEL VI: Matters of Money and Language

Chair: Samuel Fullerton, University of North Texas

Room: Classroom 220

 

“Taxes, Supply, and the Royal Prerogative: Debating Politics and the Financial Revolution in the 1690s”, Abigail Swingen, Texas Tech University

 

“Reprobate Silver Shall Men Call Them:” How Williamite Ministers Sold the Great Recoinage from the Pulpit,” Robin Hermann, University of Louisiana at Lafayette

 

"Lodged in my heart": Petrarchism and Genre in The Spanish Tragedy and Love's Labour's Lost, Anne Mcilhaney, Webster University

 

KEYNOTE and LUNCH: 12-1:15 PM

 

Venue: O’Donnell Lounge

Moderator: Robin Hermann, University of Louisiana at Lafayette

 

Keynote: "Policing the City Upon a Hill: The Carceral Origins of British America" Nicole Breault, University of Texas at El Paso

 

1:30-3:00 PM

 

PANEL VII: Evolution, Body, Pain & Pleasure

Chair: Jamie Bronstein, New Mexico State University

Room: Breakout Room 255

 

Victorian Literature, Philosophy, and the Natural Sciences: A 19th Century Pathology of Writing Pain, Jeremy P. Meyer, Arizona State University

 

Consciousness, Conscience, and Culture: Being Human in Early Evolutionary Thought, Thomas Prasch, Washburn University

 

“Nervous Piece of Flesh: Medical Misogyny and the Clitoris in Seventeenth Century English Medicine”, Ashley Birdsall, University of Louisiana at Lafayette

 

*PANEL VIII: Crafting social and political identities

Chair: Dana Rabin, University of Illinois

Room: Breakout Room 240

 

Bridging Divides: Pet Animals as Connectors in Eighteenth-Century British Portraiture, Luba Kozak, University of Regina, Saskatchewan

 

Lord Curzon, Taj Mahal and History, Derek Blakeley, University of Wisconsin–Stout

 

"We are no Cannibals": The Myth of the Emptiness in John Ogilby’s America, Rafia Sharmin, UL Lafayette

 

The British Atlantic World as a Way of Knowing in the Eighteenth Century, Heesoo Cho, Davidson College

 

3:15-4:45 PM

 

PANEL IX: Britain’s Empire and International Relations

Chair: Christopher Frank, University of Manitoba

Room: Classroom 220

 

“Journeying in Burmah”: British Journalism and the Annexation of Upper Burma, David Baillargeon, University of Texas at Arlington

 

Dunkirk and darkest hour: Sacred Patriotism, Brexit Fantasies Or National Obituary?, Richard Voeltz, Cameron University, Oklahoma

 

PANEL X: Religion, Political culture and Diplomacy

Chair: Robin Hermann, University of Louisiana at Lafayette

Room: Breakout Room 255

 

“Making the Frame for Heaven”: The University Stage and the Prayer Book Rebellion of 1549, Alex Whitley, University of Louisiana at Lafayette

 

Divisions, Majority Rule and Political Culture in the Tudor and Early Stuart House of Commons, David Pennington, Webster University

 

Connecting England and Spain: Religion, Diplomacy, and Collective Security in the Late Seventeenth Century, Steven Casement, University of Southern Indiana

 

PANEL XI: Roundtable on AI and teaching history -II

Moderator: Padraic Kennedy, York College of Pennsylvania

Room: Breakout Room 240

 

How Game Design Can Make You a Better Educator, Caleb Richardson, University of New Mexico

 

History and the Gen Ed Curriculum, Monica Rico, Lawrence University

 

Time-traveling to Education's Past, Jamie Bronstein, University of New Mexico

 

WCBS BOARD MEETING: 5-6 PM (Breakout Room 255)

 

RECEPTION: 6:15-7:15 PM (details will be announced during the conference)