Western Conference on British Studies
Western Conference on British Studies
22-23 September 2023
University of Texas at Arlington
University Center
300 W. First St.
Arlington, TX 76019
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Friday 22 September
Registration: 8:15am-11:15am in Rio Grande A
Continental Breakfast: 9:00am–10:00am in Rio Grande A
Session 1: 9:30am–10:45am
Panel A: Traveling Women: 18th Century Strides for Women
Room: Perdenales
Chair: Ashley Bender (Texas Women’s University)
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Susan Spencer (University of Central Oklahoma)
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Teaching Lady Mary Wortley Montagu’s Turkish Embassy Letters in the 21st-Century Classroom
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Tom Prasch (Washburn University)
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My Countrywomen would Rather Hear...”: Hester Piozzi’s Regendering of the Grand Tour
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Dona Cady (Middlesex Community College)
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Mary Somerville’s Italian Brush and Pen: “To See a World in a Grain of Sand...”
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Panel B: South Asia and the British Empire
Room: Neches
Chair: Tarquin Schwartz (Pittsburg State University)
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Andrew R. Muldoon (Metropolitan State University of Denver)
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Remembering to be Forgotten: Veterans and the British Commemoration of the Second World War in Asia
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Session 2: 11:00am–12:15pm
Panel A: Empire: Espionage and Rebellion
Room: Neches
Chair: David Baillargeon (University of Texas at Arlington)
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Padraic Kennedy (York College of Pennsylvania)
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“To hist th’ queen an’ th’ Rooshian cza-ar without th’ aid iv th’ elevator:” The Tynan Plot and the British Secret Service 1896–7
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Derek Blakeley (McNeese State University)
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Britain, India, and the Suppression of the ‘Boxer Rebellion,’ 1900–1901
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Jay Coyt Ransom (University of Texas at Arlington)
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From Archaeology to Espionage: T.E. Lawrence and his Social Network, 1909–1914
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Panel B: Early Modern
Room: Perdenales
Chair: Robin Hermann (University of Louisiana-Lafayette)
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J. Suzanne Farmer (Northeastern State University)
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“The Accomplish’d lady’s delight:” Women’s Receipt Books and the Fomenting of an Aspirational Culture in Early Modern England
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Catherine Lila Chou (Grinnell College)
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Catholic Experiments with Parliament in Elizabethan England and Jacobean Scotland
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Noah Fore (Texas Tech University)
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Buried Histories: Uncovering the Marginalization of Pirates in the Early Modern British Atlantic
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Lunch Break: 12:30pm–1:30pm
Session 3: 1:45pm–3:00pm
Panel A: The Body in Literature and History
Room: Neches
Chair: Catherine Lila Chou (Grinnell College)
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Paul Child (Sam Houston State University)
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The Dean Disordered: Jonathan Swift and the Humoral Body
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Ashley Umphenour (University of Texas at Arlington)
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Mrs. Hobart’s Breasts and Lady Archer’s Face: British Satirical Representations of “Misbehaving” Women in the Late Eighteenth Century
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Kaylah Lewis (Pittsburg State University)
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Ableist Perceptions: Misconstrued Characterization in Wuthering Heights
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Panel B: Modern Labor
Room: Perdenales
Chair: Jamie Bronstein (New Mexico State University)
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Marissa Knaak (Michigan State University)
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In the Shadows of Window Displays: Department Store Employees and Class Boundaries in Late Victorian Sheffield
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Elizabeth Stice (Palm Beach Atlantic University)
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Muddy Trenches or Motor Pool? Other Experiences of the First World War
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Chris Frank (University of Manitoba)
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Organized Labour and British Entry into the European Economic Community, 1969–1973
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Session 4: 3:15pm–4:30pm
Panel A: Cultural and Literary History
Room: Neches
Chair: J. Suzanne Farmer (Northeastern State University)
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Jennifer M. Barnett (Pittsburg State University)
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Changing the Identity of Witches Through Literature
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Jeremy Meyer (Arizona State University)
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Cricket and Literature, Literature and Cricket: Intersections Between Cricket and British Literature from the 16th to 21st Centuries
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Panel B: Africa and the Empire
Room: Perdenales
Chair: Kyle Thompson (Pittsburg State University)
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William Meier (Texas Christian University)
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Colonial Curiosities: The Chamberlain Family’s Collections at Highbury
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Tarquin Schwartz (Pittsburg State University)
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Men on the Margins: Masculinity and Street Fighting in post-Abolition South Africa
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WCBS Reception: 4:30pm–6:00pm
Hors d’oeuvres in Rio Grande A
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Saturday 23 September
Continental Breakfast: 8:45am–9:45am in Rio Grande A
Session 5: 9:20am–10:15am
Panel A: Working the Margins: Transgression, Peril & Resistance in Britain
Room: Neches
Chair: Arunima Datta (University of North Texas)
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Robin Hermann (University of Louisiana-Lafayette)
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Women Writers, Reasonable Appetites, and the Danger of Witchcraft: Making Trouble in the Early Modern Kitchen
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Laura Tabili (University of Arizona)
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Protest, Passing, Mimicry and Subterfuge: How Colonized Subjects Resisted Exclusion and Subordination in Interwar Britain
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Session 6: 10:30am–11:25am
Panel A: War and the Empire
Room: Neches
Chair: Laura Tabili (University of Arizona)
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David Baillargeon (University of Texas at Arlington)
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Mining the Empire: Metalliferous Ores and the British Empire in the Inter-War Years
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Kaityln N. Ross (Texas A&M University)
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“They Can’t Have Their Cake and Eat It”: The British Military, Women, and the Legacy of World War I Service
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Panel B: Victorian Politics
Room: Perdenales
Chair: Padraic Kennedy (York College of Pennsylvania)
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Andrew Walsh (University of Oxford)
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Looking East: Public discourses on the Eastern Question in the Victorian Era
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Kyle Thompson (Pittsburg State University)
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The Struggle for the Future of Liberalism: Chamberlain vs. Goschen
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Lunch Break: 11:30am–12:30pm
Keynote Address: 12:45pm–1:45pm
Room: Rio Grande A
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Jamie Bronstein (New Mexico State University)
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"Methodologies for the History of the Emotions"
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Session 7: 2:00pm–2:55pm
Panel A: Early Modern and Modern Families
Room: Neches
Chair: Lynn MacKay (Brandon University)
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Angela Austin (University of Texas at Arlington)
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Child Servitude and the Exploitation of Underprivileged Populations in Early Modern Britain and Ireland
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Samantha Lack (Texas Tech University)
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Petitions from Tender Children: Petitions written by convicted youths between 1824-39​​
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Session 8: 3:10pm–4:05pm
Panel A: Traveling Women in the 19th Century: To and From the Metropole
Room: Neches
Chair: Michael Springer (University of Central Oklahoma)
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Marilyn Button (Lincoln University)
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“Flying Visit” to Final Home: Mrs. Trollope in Italy
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Arunima Datta (University of North Texas)
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Travelling Ayahs and Ayahs’ Homes: Humanitarianism, Evangelism, and Profit in the Metropole
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Jessica A. Sheetz-Nguyen (University of Maryland Global Campus)
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Josephine Butler’s Dissertation: St. Catherine of Sienna​
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WCBS Business Meeting: 4:15pm–5:15pm in Perdenales