Happy New Year to all our subscribers! As we look ahead to 2026, we are particularly excited about a new event in our calendar. We hope you can join us and take part in this initiative.
To celebrate International Women’s Day, on Saturday 7th March 2026, members of the Women’s Studies Group will be delivering a series of short talks in the museum galleries at the Foundling Museum, London.
WSG members are invited to propose a short presentation (around 15 minutes) in the museum for the visiting public to hear, loosely based on the topic ‘Women’s Lives in the eighteenth century: Struggle, Fame and Fortune’. These talks can take place in front of one of the museum’s paintings or objects or in a room of your choice. Short talks, play-readings, poetry, extracts from letters, etc., are all possibilities. Presentations can focus on women’s history topics such as mothers and children; women and the army; actors and writers; risk, sensation and exposure; the law and society’s attitudes to transgression.
Our members cover a wealth of subjects in their research which would be of interest to visitors, and we are keen to involve as many of our members as possible. If you are interested in participating, please contact the WSG at 2wsgevents@gmail.com
The Women’s Studies Group 1558-1837 is a small, informal, multidisciplinary group formed to promote women’s studies in the early modern period and the long eighteenth century. Established in the 1980s, the group has enabled those interested in women’s and gender studies to keep in touch, hear about one another’s research, meetings and publications, and meet regularly to discuss relevant topics. We organize regular meetings and an annual workshop (see membership application form) where members can meet and discuss women’s studies topics. This season we shall also be hosting two book launches for publications by our members. We can offer advice and opportunities to engage in activities that increase opportunities for publication or enhance professional profiles in other ways. The WSG is open to men, women, and non-binary people, students, faculty, and independent scholars, all of whom are invited to join the group and give papers.
The group now has two kinds of meetings for seminars.
In-person seminar meetings. These will take place at the Foundling Museum, 40 Brunswick Square, WC1N 1AZ, UK, on Saturday afternoons. We will be allowed into the room at 1.00 pm., to give us time to sort out paperwork and technology, but sessions will run from 1.30 – 4.30 pm. So please arrive a little early if you can.
ZOOM seminar meetings. These will take place on Thursday evenings and will be hosted by a member of the WSG committee. They will run from 19:00 – 20:30 GMT , with the waiting room opening at 18.45 GMT.
Topics can be related to any aspect of women’s studies: not only women writers, but any activity of a woman or women in the period of our concern, or anything that affects or is affected by women in this period, such as the law, religion, etc. Male writers writing about women or male historical figures relevant to the condition of women in this period are also a potential topic. Papers tackling aspects of women’s studies within or alongside the wider histories of gender and sexuality are particularly welcome; so are topics from the early part of our period. We would also welcome how-to presentations for discussion: examples of suitable topics would include, but are not limited to, grant applications, setting up research networks, becoming a curator, co-authorship, using specialised data, and writing about images. Papers should be 20-25 minutes.
Dates of seminar meetings:
Saturday 4 October 2025
In-person, Foundling Museum London 13:00 for 13:30 – 16:30, British Summer Time (GMT +1)
Thursday 6 November 2025
ZOOM 19:00 – 20:30 (GMT)
Saturday 6 December 2025
In-person, Foundling Museum, London 13:00 for 13:30 – 16:30 (GMT)
Thursday 15 January 2026
ZOOM 19:00 – 20:30 (GMT)
Thursday 12 March 2026
ZOOM 19:00 – 20:30 (GMT)
Saturday 7 February 2026
In-person, Foundling Museum, London 13:00 for 13:30 – 16:30 (GMT)
Please reply to 2wsgevents@gmail.com with expressions of interest and draft titles, listing all the seminar sessions when you are available to present your paper by 31 April 2025.
Final titles and abstracts will be expected to follow by the end of May 2025.
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
UPDATE: 13 April 2016. We are delighted to announce that a fourth date has been added to our seminar series: we will now also be meeting on 18 March 2017, with a focus on work in progress.
WSG is issuing its annual cfp. Please note potential topics and thechange of seminar dates to the 3rd Saturday in each month.
The Women’s Studies Group: 1558-1837 is a small, informal multi-disciplinary group formed to promote women’s studies in the early modern period and the long eighteenth century. The group organises regular meetings and an annual workshop.
WSG membership is open to men and women, graduate students, faculty, and independent scholars. Papers can be any length up to 25 minutes, and can be formal or informal, or even work in progress. The papers are followed by very supportive and informal discussion. Speakers are strongly encouraged to become members of WSG.
Topics can be related to any aspect of women’s studies:
Not only women writers, but any activity of a woman or women in the period of our concern, anything that affects or is affected by women in this period, such as the law, religion, etc
Male writers writing about women or male historical figures relevant the condition of women in this period
Papers tackling aspects of women’s studies within or alongside the wider histories of gender and sexuality are particularly welcome
Topics from the early part of our period are also especially welcome
Work in progress is invited for the March session.
We will be allowed into the room at 12.30 pm, to give us time sort out paperwork and technology, but sessions will run from 1.00 – 4.00pm. So please arrive a little early if you can. Please reply to WSG Seminars Organiser Carolyn D. Williams on cdwilliamslyle@aol.com.
WSG member Valerie Schutte has just had her book Mary I and the Art of Book Dedications: Royal Women, Power and Persuasion published with Palgrave Macmillan (£60 hardback). It is the outcome of her doctoral research, and argues that dedications and the negotiations accompanying them reveal both contemporary perceptions of how statecraft, religion, and gender were, and the political maneuvering attempting to influence how they ought to be. It is part of Palgrave’s Queenship and Power series, for which Valerie is also currently co-editing, with Sarah Duncan, The Birth of a Queen: Essays on the Quincentenary of Mary I (2016).
Valerie Schutte, Front cover of Mary I (Palgrave Macmillan, 2015)
Valerie earned her PhD from the University of Akron. She has a further research project underway, an edited collection on “Unexpected Heirs in Early Modern Europe”, for which she is currently seeking chapter proposals:
This collection seeks scholarship on queens and kings who were not expected to become rulers in their own right. In the early modern era many unexpected heirs came to power, but how, why, and the repercussions have never been the subject of one singular volume. The collection will be submitted to the Queenship and Power series (Palgrave Macmillan) edited by Charles Beem and Carole Levin, with planned publication for late 2017/early 2018.
This volume seeks proposals for submissions that consider unexpected heirs and how they achieved their queenship and kingship. Particularly sought are papers that explore issues facing these monarchs before and after their accessions, how they were educated and prepared for ruling, or their lack of preparation, familial relationships, and obstacles to obtaining power. Proposals on unexpected male and female heirs are welcome, as are papers that examine heirs who did not go on to be queens or kings. The intention for the volume is to engage in the actual lives and cultural afterlives of illegitimate children, daughters, and younger sons and the reception of such heirs.
Chapter proposals of 500 words, accompanied by a brief biography, must be submitted to unexpectedheirs@gmail.com by 1 January 2016 to be considered. Accepted authors will be notified by March 2016, and complete essays will be due by 15 October 2016.
Women's Studies Group 1558 - 1837 