Graduate Student Caucus History

The Graduate Student Caucus began in Seattle in 1992 at the ASECS annual meeting. At the meeting, the Executive Board decided to pay annual meeting travel expenses for a graduate student who would agree to chair an assembly of graduate student members. Hans Turley of the University of Washington was chosen as the first chair and asked to organize a gathering of graduate students at the next annual meeting in Providence, Rhode Island. It was also decided that the next chair would be chosen from graduate students attending universities near Providence. The Graduate Student Caucus was given the status and independence of an affiliate society.

Since the first gathering of graduate students in Providence in 1993, the Graduate Student Caucus has consistently planned a panel for the annual meeting. The process of selecting a new chair was left in the hands of the previous chair.

In the last several years, the GSC has significantly expanded its activities. For example, it now offers two panels at every annual meeting, organizes mentorship activities and a luncheon at the meeting, presents an Excellence in Mentorship Award, and has established online activities such as a reading blog. We have also shifted to a democratic method for choosing our chair and added a co-chair position. We are in the process of establishing a constitution and bylaws.

If you have any additional information about our history, please contact Kate Parker, Graduate Student Caucus Chair, at klparke@gmail.com.

Past GSC Chairs

2009-10: Kate Parker (Chair), Washington University in St. Louis and Jarrod Hurlbert (Co-Chair) Marquette University
2008-09: Caroline Wigginton (Chair), University of Texas, Austin and Emily C. Friedman (Co-Chair), University of Missouri
2007-08: Crystal Lake (Chair), University of Missouri and Caroline Wigginton (Co-Chair), University of Texas, Austin
2006-07: Crystal Lake, University of Missouri
2005-06: Matthew Russell, University of Texas, Austin
2004-05: Elise Pugh, University of Virginia
2003-04: Kevin Seidel, University of Virginia
2002-03: James Kim, University of Virginia
2001-02: Matthew Binney, Auburn University
2000-01: Caroline Breashears, University of Virginia
1999-00: Catherine Rodriguez, Florida State University
1998-99: Jennifer Elmore, Florida State University
1997-98: Hosted by University of Notre Dame
1996-97: Kerry Walter-Ashby, University of Missouri
1995-96: Pamela Plimpton, University of Oregon
1994-95: Jeanine Hurley, University of Maryland and Leigh Anna Eicke, University of Maryland
1994: Laurie Davis, unknown, and Kathryn Temple, University of Virginia
1993: Hans Turley, University of Washington

ASECS HOME

American Society for Eighteenth-Century Studies Site
Maintained by Vickie Cutting - asecs@wfu.edu
Page Updated July 27, 2009