Panel on global/imperial letters and correspondence
Hi all! I’m hoping to form a methodologically oriented panel on using letters and correspondence to investigate global and imperial topics. My own work looks at family relationships among middle-class British migrants to Argentina, the U.S., New South Wales, and coastal China over the long nineteenth century, with thematic focuses on family structure, gender, migration, and children/childhood. However potential papers need not overlap with this specific geography or themes. I’m most interested in having a conversation about how other historians are thinking about letters as sources broadly, including the contents, letter as a material object, representations of correspondence in British culture, etc. I imagine this topic will be most relevant to 19th-20th century, but would be happy to hear from early modernists if it sounds relevant.
I’ll be proposing a paper that explores practices of sharing, lending, and forwarding letters in familial and social circles, and considers how these practices built global consciousness among Britons in the mid-nineteenth century. I’m a Fellow in the Liberal Arts at University of Chicago. Get in touch with interest or questions at clairecarnold@uchicago.edu