10-11 June 2025, in-person at the University of Warwick

We are pleased to announce that the Work, Authenticity, and Social Identity in Early Modern Britain (c.1500-1750) Conference, funded and sponsored by the Warwick Early Modern and Eighteenth Century Centre and the AHRC Doctoral Training Partnership Midlands4Cities, will take place at the University of Warwick on 10-11 June 2025.

Keynote addresses will be delivered by Professor Steve Hindle (Washington University in St Louis), Professor Jane Whittle (University of Exeter), and jointly by Dr Mark Hailwood (University of Bristol) & Dr Brodie Waddell (Birkbeck, University of London).

Over the past several decades, scholars of British social and cultural history have fundamentally reshaped our understanding of early modern labour, social identity, and the self, demonstrating the analytical power of incorporating interdisciplinary approaches into their analyses alongside a diverse range of sources, from ballads to legal records. This conference seeks to develop this important body of work, inviting fresh perspectives on themes that have proven foundational to the study of early modern British social and cultural history. Non-elite early modern people spent a large portion of their lives ‘at work’, and their labouring experiences were often a central component of their identities and mental universes. We are interested in further unpacking these intersections between labour and identity, as well as the sociopolitical significance of how such relationships were communicated to individuals and communities—what we have capaciously termed ‘authenticity’ here, in hopes of prompting a variety of interpretations and responses.

We are accepting abstracts of 250 words maximum. Submissions for 20-minute papers or panels of 3-4 speakers might consider, but are not limited to, the following themes:

• ⁠Occupational and labouring identities in print culture and/or everyday life
• The relationship between labouring identities, crime, and/or the legal system
• ⁠The significance of age, class, gender, and race in shaping social identities
• ⁠Literary and theatrical depictions of work and social status
• Individual and communal memories of work and labouring cultures
• Similarities and differences between urban, suburban and rural labouring patterns
• ⁠Non-elite notions of selfhood, practices of self-fashioning, and the social significance of concepts such as authenticity, honesty, credit, trust, etc.
• The role played by religion and politics in the construction and experience of non-elite labouring identities
• ⁠Interdisciplinary approaches, such as the deployment of anthropological or sociological concepts (e.g., the ‘taskscape’), or the material culture of work
• The role of landscape and space in shaping labouring identities and patterns of work
• ⁠The significance of familial and martial relationships in understanding working social relationships

Submissions are due 1 February 2025, and accepted speakers will be notified by 1 March 2025

Please email submissions and any questions to Anna Pravdica at

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