Dr Charles Walton, core member and former Director of the 18th Century Centre, has returned to Warwick after a productive year based in Paris. He received a fellowship from the Paris Institute for Advanced Studies for the academic year 2015-2016 to work on his project From Eden to Terror: Reciprocity, Redistribution and the French Revolution. During this time, he also completed an essay review on Thomas Piketty’s Capital in the Twenty-first Century and an article entitled ‘The Birth of Reciprocity in Eighteenth-century France’. He also began writing a book on the French Revolution for Penguin Books’ revived Pelican series.

Dr David Taylor (Warwick) presenting his paper ‘Digital Gillray: from the printshop window to the Windows phone’

In May, it was Warwick’s turn to host the annual workshop held jointly with the University of Birmingham. This year’s theme was 'The Eighteenth Century Past and Present' and it set out to explore how the C18th helps/hinders us to think about contemporary issues, how aspects of the C18th are presented/represented in any form now, parallels/discontinuities between past and present, and C18th issues which still have purchase on current debates. The keynote presentation by Steve Pincus (Yale) on ‘Making a State in 1776: Political Economy, Imperial Politics and the Declaration of Independence’ was followed by panels on The Culture of Objects, The Digital Eighteenth Century, and Historical Perspectives. Postgraduate researchers from both institutions had the opportunity to present alongside established scholars. 30 people took part and the day was judged a great success.

The Eighteenth Century Centre's seminar programme for 2015-16 is almost finalised, with the first event on Thursday 5th November and further events throughout the year.

Ensemble Room, Warwick Arts Centre

The concert marks the launch of the online exhibition ‘The Last Stand: Napoleon’s 100 Days in 100 Objects’, a collaboration between Mark Philp from the History department, the AHRC-funded project ‘French Theatre of the Napoleonic Era’ led by Katherine Astbury, and the European History Research Centre.