I invite you to please consider submitting a abstract for the following panel to be hosted ASECS (American Society for Eighteenth Century Studies) at the 2026 Conference. This conference will be help April 9-11 in Philadelphia.

As America’s 250th birthday nears, considerations of legacy, collective memory, and national imagination are of necessity as the nation considers its future – especially in the midst of such unprecedented executive oversight. Many eighteenth-century scholars have considered the influence of founder’s chic on the American consciousness, and to what extent it influences what Americans choose to believe about their national identity. Most recently, founder’s chic was used to address the impact that the musical Hamilton had on the generation coming of age in the late 2010’s. However, there are other ways in which founders’ chic impacts the everyday fabrics of how the country functions. This panel seeks papers that largely examine founder’s chic and the way that it impacts the current historical, political moment, and/or the way that it may impact America’s future. 

Potential 200 word abstracts may address:

• Current television shows, movies, or plays that address the lives of the ‘founding’ fathers and mothers
• Consideration of how founding moments and people are addressed in political conversation, national elections, issues of national attention…etc…
• Ways that historical moments, ideas, or peoples are re-imagined to create news narratives in either positive or negative ways
• Analysis of eighteenth- and nineteenth-century poetry or other forms of writing that would constitute what we consider founder’s chic; i.e. poetry about Washington and other ‘founders’
• Consideration of how untold stories or otherwise silenced voices interrupts the narratives that we tell ourselves about America’s founding moment

 If you are interested in submitting an abstract, please upload the abstract at the ASECS Meeting portal linked here: 

https://asecs.org/2026-submission-page/

In addition, please submit your abstracts and notification of your submission directly to ktonti2@gmail.com if able.