Note: All abstracts must be submitted through the Annual Meeting and Membership portal at  https://www.xcdsystem.com/asecs/member/

You do not need to be a member to submit an abstract through the portal; however, you must be a member of ASECS to present at the conference. The panel chair cannot submit the abstract on your behalf.

The American Society for Eighteenth-Century Studies (ASECS) is pleased to announce its Call for Proposals for the 56th Annual Meeting, to be held April 9 – 11, 2026 in Philadelphia. The Society, established in 1969, is the foremost learned society in the United States for the study of all aspects of the period from the later seventeenth through the early nineteenth century.

ASECS is committed to fostering an inclusive and welcoming conference environment in which all members participate fully in the exchange of knowledge and ideas. The society welcomes scholars pursuing all aspects of eighteenth-century studies and in all careers and career stages: in graduate studies; in tenured, tenure track, or non- tenure track academic positions; in part- time or temporary positions in the academy; and colleagues in contexts beyond the academy including libraries, museums, publishing, and teaching, as well as independent scholars.

Panel session: Crafting Identity: Literature, Objects, and Society in 18th-Century Asia

What does a lacquered box, a poetic manuscript, or a popular print reveal about how people understood themselves and their world in the long eighteenth century? This panel invites proposals that explore the intersection of literature, material culture, and identity formation across Asia between roughly 1680 and 1820. From palace chronicles and theatrical scripts to talismans, textiles, devotional images, and household manuals, it welcomes research on how tangible and textual artifacts shaped meaning and social life.

The panel especially encourages work that examines how writers, artists, performers, and everyday people crafted identities amid political upheaval, religious change, shifting economies, or evolving literary conventions. How did texts and objects reflect or reshape social roles within their cultural settings? How did material and literary forms circulate within or across regional, linguistic, or class boundaries? What kinds of selves were forged—claimed, contested, or reimagined—through these processes? And how might reading objects alongside texts offer a more expansive view of Asia’s historical and cultural diversity?

Proposals are welcome on any part of Asia—including but not limited to China, Japan, Korea, Vietnam, South Asia, and Southeast Asia—and from scholars at all career stages and from any discipline. Papers may focus on literary works, material artifacts, or their interplay.

PRESENTERS SHOULD AIM FOR A 15-MINUTE PRESENTATION in order to allow for four presenters plus Q&A at the end of the session. If the presenter is reading a paper aloud as written, the length should be approximately 2500 words.

Keywords: Asia; Culture/Cultural Studies; Interdisciplinary; Literature; Material Culture

Questions about the panel or about the ASECS conference? Contact Susan Spencer, the panel chair: sspencer@uco.edu