Dear Colleague,

Invitation to Participate

Dear Colleague,

Thank you for your interest in the NEH Seminar on Scottish Enlightenment aesthetics and its German reception that we are giving this summer at St. Andrews University, Scotland. We look forward to discussing the questions concerning aesthetic value and artistic production posed in central works of this movement, surrounded by the natural beauty and sublimity of Scottish landscape and the art and material culture that inspired and informed their authors.

We invite applications from college and university teachers interested in aesthetics, Scottish or German enlightenment thought, and (more broadly) the literature, art, visual and material culture, intellectual history, or philosophy of eighteenth century Europe. We are excited by the opportunity offered by the seminar to engage in collegial discussion of these works and their place in the Enlightenment project, with colleagues who will bring varied expertise and disciplinary approaches – and we hope, after learning more about the details of the seminar, that you will share our enthusiasm.

The seminar is a three week program that will take place from July 23 through August 10, 2007. Each participant will be awarded $2,400 to help defray travel expenses and living expenses during the duration of the seminar. The seminar format is designed to facilitate group discussion of central texts and independent work on related projects, and to exploit the opportunities offered by holding the seminar in Scotland. We will meet as a group three afternoons a week from 1:00 to 4:00. These meetings will primarily be opportunities to discuss particular, assigned texts as introduced by the directors, but will also incorporate guest lectures by three prominent scholars of the Scottish Enlightenment, Dr. James Harris (St. Andrews), Professor Alexander Broadie (University of Glasgow), and Professor Peter Jones (University of Edinburgh, emeritus).

In addition to participating in these group meetings, participants will pursue or develop an independent research project on a topic connected to that of the seminar. The seminar schedule therefore leaves ample time apart from the group meetings for archival research, independent work on writing projects, and smaller group meetings on more focused interests. We anticipate that some participants will come to the seminar with well-defined projects or works in progress, on which they plan to work during the seminar, while others will aim to formulate new directions for research through the seminar and small group discussions. We will meet with participants in the first week of the seminar to help identify smaller groups with common interests and to suggest resources or directions that would be productive for individual research projects. We will also be available throughout the duration of the seminar for consultation on individual projects. In the final week of the seminar, we will have a concluding synthetic discussion, in which participants may present aspects of their research projects, and discuss other avenues for further development of their work in the seminar, including (for example) conference panels or integration of seminar texts into graduate and undergraduate teaching.

The seminar will also offer participants the opportunity to visit the universities and cities, in which the works that we will discuss were written, and museums of fine art, craft, and design of the eighteenth century, as well as other historical sites pertinent to the Scottish Enlightenment. On the scheduled trip to Edinburgh, participants may also obtain visiting memberships at the National Library of Scotland, which maintains the most extensive archives of Scottish Enlightenment works and related materials in the world. Click here for details concerning this library and its collections.

We are excited by the prospect of the seminar, and delighted that you are interested in it as well. Please do not hesitate to contact us if you have further questions; we are best reached through Daniel Gross, the administrative assistant for the seminar: d-gross-1@northwestern.edu.

Cordially,

Paul Guyer and Rachel Zuckert