About This Conference

Market Women from Henderson's A history of Brazil: Comprising its geography, commerce, colonization, Aboriginal inhabitants, &c. &c. (London: Printed for the author, and published by Longman, Hurst, Rees, Orne, and Brown, Paternoster-Row, 1821) Courtesy of the Library Company of PhiladelphiaIn the early modern Anglophone world, men and women spoke of "bustle and stir" in reference to the transformations (sometimes welcome, sometimes not) they experienced in their social and economic lives. Inspired by these terms, this conference will reconsider movement and exchange in early America and in the broader Atlantic world before 1850.

The conference organizers are interested in movers and shakers from all walks of life, whether such actors were free or unfree, in power or in revolt, making a killing or barely surviving. We are also interested in the movement of things, ideas, goods, substances, plants, animals, genres, emotions, pathogens, fashions, beliefs, and ethical systems that shaped and transformed early America through their circulation or non-circulation. In pairing exchange with movement, we hope to invite reconsideration of the types and spaces of encounter that defined trade, diplomacy, sexuality, gender relations, and the multifarious creative forces that emerged from interactions, both intimate and impersonal. We seek to draw together scholars from multiple disciplines to contribute to an understanding of the vibrant and unstable ground of this world in flux.

The conference will be held 8-10 October 2015 at the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia. Unless otherwise indicated, all events will take place at the McNeil Center, 3355 Woodland Walk. (34th and Sansom Streets)

Sponsored By:
McNeil Center for Early American Studies
Department of English, University of Pennsylvania
Department of History, University of Pennsylvania
Africana Studies, University of Pennsylvania

Special Thanks to: Amy Baxter-Bellamy, Barbara Natello, and Laura Keenan Spero for their support and organizing wizardry; and the following individuals whose contributions helped make this conference possible: Nicole Scalessa, Daniel K. Richter, Conference Co-Chairs Sarah L.H. Gronningsater, Maxime Dagenais, and Christine Croxall, and the McNeil Center fellows of 2014-2015 and 2015-2016.


All inquiries should be directed to mceas2015conference@gmail.com.

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