Brilliant Women: Gender, Intellect and Representation in Eighteenth-Century Britain

This conference is fully booked

A two-day conference at the National Portrait Gallery, 25-26 April 2008

This conference will address the themes of gender, learning, and display that are the subject of the exhibition Brilliant Women: 18th-Century Bluestockings (13 March-15 June 2008).

Conference | Exhibition | Publication | Audio

List of Speakers and Provisional Paper Titles

Clare Barlow, PhD Candidate, King's College London & National Portrait Gallery: 'Mrs Montagu not Mrs Modish: Virtue, Politeness and Female Learning'

Clarissa Campbell Orr, Head of History, Anglia Ruskin University: 'Charlotte: Bluestocking Queen'

Emma Clery, Professor of Eighteenth-Century Literature, University of Southampton: "To dazzle let the Vain design": Alexander Pope's portrait gallery; or, the impossibility of brilliant women

Kate Davies, Lecturer in American Literature, University of Newcastle: 'Radical Portraits: Catharine Macaulay and Robert Edge Pine'

Harriet Guest, Professor in the Department of English and Related Studies and Director of the Centre for Eighteenth Century Studies, University of York: 'Hints towards a Change of Ministry': Gambling women in 1796'

Devoney Looser, Associate Professor of English, University of Missouri: 'The Blues gone Grey: Portraits of Bluestocking Women in Old Age'

Anne Mellor, Distinguished Professor of English, Women's Studies, Literature and Art, UCLA: 'Romantic Bluestockings: from Muses to Matrons'

Felicity Nussbaum, Professor of English Literature, Critical Theory, Gender Studies, Autobiography and Satire, UCLA: 'Hester Thrale: "What Trace of the Wit?"

Marcia Pointon, Emerita Professor of the History of Art, University of Manchester: 'Sarah Churchill, Duchess of Marlborough's Brilliants'

Susan Staves, Professor Emerita of English, Brandeis University: 'The Learned Female Soprano'

Shearer West, Professor of Art History, University of Birmingham: 'Montagu, Siddons, Lady Macbeth'

Alison Yarrington, Richmond Professor of Fine Art, University of Glasgow: 'Anne Seymour Damer (1748-1828), a sculptor of 'republican perfection'

For a full programme which includes timings of the conference click here.

Brilliant Women: Gender, Intellect and Representation in Eighteenth-Century Britain is now fully booked. Urgent emquiries including inquiries about ticket returns can be addressed to Emma Middleton on 020 7312 2483. Any other inquiries can be emailed to brilliantwomen@npg.org.uk.

We will reply to all inquiries within 10 days.

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All images and text are subject to copyright protection. 21 November 2008