Welcome

On 16 October 2008 the Southampton Centre for Eighteenth Century studies (SCECS) was launched at Chawton House Library. SCECS brings together specialists from a broad range of disciplines (English, History, Music, and Philosophy) and draws on a rich research culture at Southampton in eighteenth-century studies.

• Director - Professor John Oldfield, History
• Deputy Director (Research Students) - Dr Thomas Irvine, Music
• Deputy Director (Events) - Dr Gillian Dow, English
• Administrator - Sandy White 

Members of the group have expertise in areas including Jane Austen, gender theory, women’s writing, Gothic literature, eighteenth-century fiction, political economy, eighteenth-century philosophical aesthetics, Anglo-French female literary networks, slavery and abolition in the Atlantic world, gardens, landscape and aesthetics, education, crime and criminality, and writing for children. Recent publications from staff in eighteenth-century studies can be found on the Publications page.

In addition, scholars at Southampton and Chawton have initiated a number of publication projects, among them the Chawton House Library Series, published by Pickering & Chatto.

SCECS offers an MA in Eighteenth Century studies and has an increasing number of MPhil/PhD students undertaking a variety of disciplinary and interdisciplinary research. Current projects, including those funded the AHRC, can be found on the Postgraduate pages.