Keynote Speakers:

Greg Dart (London University)
Lynda Pratt (Nottingham University)
John Strachan (Northumbria University)

Although the study of periodical culture is the focus of increasing scholarly interest, the important literary and historical role played by periodicals before the Victorian period has so far been underexamined. This conference will bring together work in this area with the general aim of interrogating conventional periodizations of British cultural life from 1700 to 1840, and in particular of investigating whether the study of periodical culture lends support to the proposed alternative of a "Romantic Century".

Areas of interest might include:
provincial enlightenments
Joseph Priestley
Romantic journalism
reviewing practices
literature and science
the Quarterly and Edinburgh Reviews
the Gentleman's Magazine
Samuel Johnson
the cultural influence of Addison and Steele
anthologies and magazines
Anna Barbauld
dissenting culture
women's writing
Robert Southey
radicalism
the Black Dwarf
William Hazlitt
print culture
history of the book
publishing and bookselling
William Cobbett
Blackwood's Magazine
early Dickens
Cockney culture

Please send 500w proposals by 1st May 2009 to Gavin Budge and Sam George on and