Category: WSG News

WSG Seminar Reminder: Saturday March 15, 2025 at the Foundling Museum

Saturday March 15, 2025 at the Foundling Museum, 40 Brunswick Square, London, WC1N; 1.00 for 1.30 pm, Finishing 4.30 pm Greenwich Mean Time

Susannah Lyon-Whaley: Small Enough to Hold: Stuart Consorts and Knowing Nature Through Cabinets, Miniatures, and Books.

Susan Bennett: ‘Fancy, Design and Taste’: Promoting female artistic talent in the 18th century.

To read the speakers’ abstracts, please find them on the seminars page on the WSG website.

This is an in-person meeting. The seminars are free and open to the public although non-members will be asked to make a donation of £2 for refreshments.

Those attending the seminars are welcome to look round the museum before or after the seminar. We will be allowed into the room at 1.00, Greenwich Mean Time, to give us time to sort out paperwork and technology, but sessions will run from 1.30 – 4.30. Please arrive between 1.00 and 1.30. There is a break for tea, coffee and biscuits halfway through the session.

The Foundling is a wheelchair accessible venue, and directions for getting to the Museum can be found here, including for those who are partially sighted.

If you have any queries please contact the Chair, Carolyn D. Williams, or Co-Chair, Gillian Williamson, by email at wsgworkshop@gmail.com

We look forward to welcoming you.

Reminder: WSG Reading Group, Her Stories, March 10, 2025, 7–8pm (GMT) via Zoom

The next WSG Reading Group, Her Stories, is on 10th March, 7-8pm 2025 (GMT) 

The Women’s Studies Group (WSG) will host its next “Her Stories” Reading Group meeting on March 10th, 2025, from 7-8pm GMT. All members are welcome to participate in this upcoming session, organized and hosted by Karen Lipsedge.

The group will discuss Louise’s selected text: Jennie Batchelor’s The Lady’s Magazine (1770–1832) and the Making of Literary History (2022, Edinburgh University Press). For those unable to read the entire book, Louise recommends either the Conclusion or Chapter 6, “Achievements and Legacies: The Lady’s Magazine in Literary History.”

Members can access a virtual copy of the book through a provided link, though they should note it’s a large file and check their connection in advance. Thanks go to Louise for providing this link.

Each reading group follows a consistent format: the member who selected the text gives a brief introduction explaining their choice, followed by participants sharing one aspect of the text they wish to discuss—whether it relates to characters, style, readership, or even a single word or phrase.

Anyone interested in joining “Her Stories” can contact Karen Lipsedge directly.

Reminder: Special Seminar with Merry Wiesner-Hanks February 13, 2025 via Zoom

Zoom starting at 7.00 pm, finishing at 8.00 pm GMT. Waiting room will open at 6.45pm.

Please join us for our special seminar with distinguished Professor Emerita Merry Wiesner-Hanks who will discuss her book Women and the Reformations. She will speak for 30 minutes, leaving 30 minutes for questions.

If you have not already registered for the event, please contact Valerie Schutte.

Reminder: Two WSG Seminars This Week

Zoom Seminar

Thursday 16 January, 2025 – ZOOM

STARTING 6.45 FOR 7 PM, FINISHING 8.30 PM. GREENWICH MEAN TIME

Speakers and papers:

Jasmin Bieber: Unprecedented Paths Beyond Europe: British Women’s Travel Writing 1680-1780.

Chandni (Anjali) Rampersad: Female Genius In Memoriam: Women Writers’ Afterlife in the Gentleman’s Magazine (1731-1806).

Rosalyn Sklar: Healing women: Early modern women as healers in their own texts, practices and representations.

The seminar will take place on Zoom. Please be aware, you must be a member of the WSG to gain access to the Zoom sessions. The links are distributed through our WSG mailing list 24-hours before the event.

For further information, please see our seminars page.  To join the WSG, please see our membership page.

Special Seminar Travellers in Eighteenth-Century Europe: The Sexes Abroad

Saturday 18 January, 2025 – FOUNDLING MUSEUM, LONDON

STARTING 1 FOR 1.30 PM, FINISHING 4.30 PM GREENWICH MEAN TIME

The Women’s Studies Group will be holding a special seminar at the Foundling Museum in London on 18 January 2025, from 1.30pm to 4.30pm. Come along and listen to Julie Peakman introduce a new edited collection, Travellers in Eighteenth-Century Europe: The Sexes Abroad.

Julie and contributors from the book will give short talks on their chapters. Speakers include Valentina Aparicio, Maria Grazia Dongu, Louise Duckling, Miriam al Jamil, and Teresa Rączka-Jeziorska. Please see the attached PDF for more details and the full book contents.

There will be plenty of time for sociability, so we hope you can join us. Friends and partners are welcome. Please RSVP to wsgpostbox@gmail.com with ‘Travellers’ in the Subject Line and please indicate if you are bringing a guest.

The Foundling is a wheelchair accessible venue, and directions for getting to the Museum can be found here, including for those who are partially sighted.

Come and join us for a glass of wine at this social event.

Call for Papers: Adapting the Tudors: From Novels to Film to Public History

WSG member and historian Valerie Schutte is co-editing an exciting new two-volume collection with Jessica S. Hower and William B. Robison that explores how the Tudor period has been adapted across various media and forms. This timely collection comes as Tudor-themed adaptations continue to captivate audiences, from the National Portrait Gallery’s recent Six Lives exhibition to new screen productions like Firebrand and Shardlake.

The editors welcome submissions examining any aspect of Tudor adaptation, from historical novels and screen adaptations to museum exhibits and heritage sites. The collection aims to investigate how history is adapted for public audiences and what these adaptations reveal about both the Tudor period and the times in which they were created.

Potential topics include, but are not limited to:

  • Historical novelists and their works, focused on the Tudor period
  • Screen adaptations of Tudor-themed novels
  • Theatrical adaptations
  • Historians who have ventured into historical fiction
  • Museum exhibitions and heritage sites
  • Digital adaptations, including virtual exhibitions and video games

Submission Guidelines:

  • Abstract length: 250-300 words
  • Chapter length: approximately 7,500 words
  • Deadline: Friday, 31 January 2025
  • Full contributions due: early 2026
  • Please include a brief academic CV (max 3 pages)

Submit abstracts to all three co-editors:

This collection promises to be an essential resource for academics, students, and enthusiasts of Tudor history and its contemporary interpretations.

For the complete CFP and further details, please see the full CFP: Adapting the Tudors

Do not miss this opportunity to contribute to this significant collection—remember to submit your abstract by Friday, 31 January 2025.