Seminars

The McNeil Center sponsors a works-in-progress seminar series that meets approximately twice a month between September and May. The paper for each session circulated two-weeks in advance. Over two hundred people attend at least once a year, with an average attendance of 40 to 50 at meetings held at various sites in the Delaware Valley. While most of the regular attendees are graduate students and faculty from institutions in the Philadelphia area, participants come from as far afield as Long Island, New York City, Princeton, Baltimore, Annapolis, and Washington. All are welcome to attend the seminars, each of which is followed by a happy hour reception with catered refreshments. 

Attendees are asked to register in advance through the link found at each seminar’s event page. Registrants will be emailed the pre-circulated paper and, if they are joining remotely, the Zoom link. To receive regular notifications of the seminars, join our mailing list by emailing us at: mceas@sas.upenn.edu. 



Finding Dignity in Injury: Wheatley's Poems, the Declaration of Independence, and Jefferson's Notes on the State of Virginia

Seminar
Jeannine DeLombard, University of California, Santa Barbara
Sep 4, 2025 at -

Jeannine Marie DeLombard is Vice-Chair of the English Department at the University of California, Santa Barbara, where she also maintains an affiliation with the History Department. She specializes in African American…



The Architecture of Republicanism: Jefferson’s design for the University of Virginia

Seminar
Louis Nelson, University of Virginia
Sep 18, 2025 at -

Louis P. Nelson is Professor of Architectural History and the Vice Provost for Academic Outreach at the University of Virginia. He is a specialist in the built environments of the early modern Atlantic world, with…



The Bleeding Edge: The Royal African Company as Innovator in the Transatlantic Slave Trade

Seminar
Matthew David Mitchell, Sewanee: The University of the South
Oct 16, 2025 at -

Matthew David Mitchell is Associate Professor and Chair of the Department of History at Sewanee: The University of the South in Tennessee. He earned his PhD in history at the University of Pennsylvania in 2012,…



Breaching the Secret Cells

Seminar
Amanda Summers, Queen’s University
Oct 30, 2025 at -

Amanda Summers is the Global Indigeneity Postdoctoral Fellow at Queen’s University. She received her PhD in Colonial Latin American history from Temple University and was formerly the Duane H. King Postdoctoral Fellow…



Seminar Title TBA

Seminar
Buck Woodward, William & Mary
Nov 13, 2025 at -

Registration opens the week before the seminar. To be notified when registration opens, please join our Seminar mailing list.



Seeing Like a Polycentric Monarchy: The Case of Plymouth Colony

Seminar
Alexander B. Haskell, University of California, Riverside
Dec 4, 2025 at -

Alexander B. Haskell is Associate Professor of History at the University of California, Riverside. He is the author of For God, King, and People: Forging Commonwealth Bonds in Renaissance Virginia (Williamsburg, Va.,…