Citizens of the World Conference: Adapting (in) the Eighteenth Century
Co-sponsored by the South-Central Society for Eighteenth-Century Studies,
The Centre for Liberal Arts and Social Sciences, and
The Division of English at Nanyang Technological University
Singapore
22-24 June, 2012

In a rapidly globalizing and technophilic world adapting to new developments is a daily undertaking—increasingly, we are aliens in our own lives.  How quickly and effectively can we adapt to innovations in technology, historical knowledge, cultural relations, and academic and economic practices? In honor of Oliver Goldsmith’s fictional Chinese traveler, Lien Chi, and in the spirit of cross-cultural collaboration, the South-Central Society for Eighteenth-Century Studies (SCSECS) is partnering with the Centre for Liberal Arts and Social Sciences (CLASS) and the Division of English at Nanyang Technological University, Singapore (NTU) to host “Citizens of the World,” a conference dedicated to exploring the many ways in which new experiences stimulate self-reflection and adaptation as creative acts. The conference will be held at NTU’s beautiful Yunnan Garden campus and will include excursions to Singapore’s vibrant, cosmopolitan downtown, including the historic Colonial District.

We invite abstracts addressing any aspect of adaptation pertaining to eighteenth-century studies. Topics include but are not limited to:

Adapting to novel, traumatic, or alien environments or experiences
Adapting religious belief to scientific innovation or new epistemologies
Adapting to new technologies such as Eighteenth-Century Collections Online (ECCO)
Adapting the Enlightenment
Adapting to new political or economic realities (industrialization, enclosure, urbanization, etc.)
Adapting eighteenth-century texts for a twenty-first century context (whether on film or in the classroom)
Adapting formal techniques or literary conventions
Adapting postcolonial theory to recent developments in historical scholarship about the complexity of cultural relations in the “long” eighteenth century
Multimodal adaptation: From Page to Stage and beyond
Eighteenth-century orientations (sexual, cultural, geographic, or otherwise)
Professing the eighteenth century: adapting to political/institutional hostility to the humanities
Imitation/translation as adaptation
Identity and legibility: when does adaptation cease to be recognizable as adaptation?
Cosmopolitanism: Negotiating the self and the other
Madness and alterity: Are there limits to adapting to cultural encounters?

Panels include:

“Religions of the World in the Long Eighteenth Century” (sponsored by the journal Religion in the Age of Enlightenment).
Chair: Brett McInelly (BYU)
Contact information: brett_mcinelly@byu.edu

“Accidental Arrivals: Accommodating to the Unexpected and Accommodating the Unexpected.”
Chair: Baerbel Czennia (McNeese State University)
Contact information: bczennia@mcneese.edu

“Women Working and Working Women in the Eighteenth Century”
Chair: Phyllis Thompson (East Tennessee State University)
Contact information: THOMPSOP@mail.etsu.edu

Abstracts of 300-500 words should be submitted to worldcitizen@ntu.edu.sg with "Citizens" in the subject line by 15 April, 2012.