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. 



Telling Time and Tracing Trade: Locating Indigenous and European Exchange Networks in 16th Century Ontario

Friday Seminar
Megan Anne Conger, University of Georgia
Oct 25, 2024 at -

Megan Anne Conger is an Assistant Research Scientist at the Center for Applied Isotope Studies. She received her Ph.D. in Anthropology from the University of Georgia in 2022. An archaeologist by training, Megan’s…



Sentimentalism Aside: The Youth of Eleanor Eldridge and the Realities of Child Labor in Rhode Island, 1784-1830

Friday Seminar
Sherri Cummings, Rhode Island College
Nov 22, 2024 at -

Dr. Cummings is jointly appointed in History and Africana Studies at Rhode Island College. Her research interests include Africa and the Atlantic World, Early African American History and Africana Intellectual History. …



Building Wealth, Building Slavery: On the Terrain of Feelings

Friday Seminar
Sasha Turner, Johns Hopkins University
Dec 6, 2024 at -

Sasha Turner is Associate Professor of History at Johns Hopkins University. She is the author of Contested Bodies: Pregnancy, Childrearing and Slavery in Jamaica which examines the struggles for control over biological…