In May 2013, Warwick and Queen Mary partnered together to lead a series of workshops on the theme of Friendship in the long eighteenth century. The intention of the partnership was to bring scholars and PhD students working across the humanities at the Eighteenth Century Centre at Warwick and Queen Mary Centre for Eighteenth-Century Studies to a series of workshops exploring concepts and practices of friendship across the long eighteenth century. The exploratory workshops were a great success, one held at Warwick in Februaryand the other in London in May, with presentations on a number of themes and useful conversations on a range of methodologies and techniques for the study of friendship.

The outcome of the network was to debate and extend current scholarly work on friendship (broadly conceived) in the long eighteenth century, and to establish an agenda for future research by identifying patterns of friendship formulation; analysing the discourse of friendship across genres (including letters, literature, material culture, medical writing and philosophy); exploring the networks created by friendship in politics, religion, trade and science; and testing methodological approaches from different disciplines.

Sessions at the first workshop included presentations on clubs and societies, technologies for research, friendships in religion, friendships in moral philosophy and conduct literature and media facilitating friendship. The second workshop included discussions on methodologies and networks of friendship, scientific friendships, international friendship, political friendships, trading coteries and gift-giving.

Following the success of the workshops, the organisers hope to continue the network through compiling collaborative readings lists and bibliographies, as well as future activities such as an international conference, library visits and further workshops to bring together scholars from other institutions. The participants were invited in July 2013 to visit the eighteenth century gardens at Stowe in Buckinghamshire, which was an ideal opportunity to continue to discuss and explore some of themes that emerged from the friendship workshops.

Workshop 1: University of Warwick, Friday 8 February 2013

Workshop 2: Queen Mary, London, Friday 24 May 2013