What’s New/Announcements
SEA Featured Scholar, March 2026: Anthony Trujillo
SEA Featured Scholar, March 2026: Anthony Trujillo How did you become interested in studying early American literature/culture? I grew up in one of the Native Pueblos in Northern New Mexico on the site of an old Pueblo village turned Spanish settlement that was razed during the Pueblo Revolt of 1680. I used to wonder about…
SEAC Online Discussion of Dean Spade’s “Mutual Aid,” April 3, 2026
Please join the Scholarly Engagement and Access Committee (SEAC) on April 3, 2026 at 1:30 p.m. EDT for an online discussion of Dean Spade’s Mutual Aid: Building Solidarity During This Crisis (And The Next). We will discuss selections from the book as a starting point for how our Society might incorporate mutual aid principles and practices…
2026 EAL Book Prize Nominations Sought
Early American Literature is now accepting nominations for its 2026 Book Prize! The EAL Book Prize is awarded in even calendar years to a first monograph published in the prior two years, and in odd years to a second or subsequent book published in the prior two years. The 2026 prize will be awarded in the first monograph…
Call for Proposals: Society of Early Americanists 2027 Biennial Conference
The Society of Early Americanists seeks submissions for its 2027 biennial conference, to be held in Chicago, March 18-20, 2027. We welcome proposals for individual papers and fully constituted panels, roundtables, or workshops on any aspect of the literatures and cultures of the early Americas. Proposals are due May 26, 2026 on the conference ex…
SEA Essay Contest Deadline Extended to February 6
The deadline for submission to the Biennial Essay Competition has been extended to February 6, 2026. Please submit your entries as an email attachment to SEAEssayContest@gmail.com. All papers presented at our Fourteenth Biennial Conference, this past June, are eligible for consideration. Please limit essays to a maximum of 6,000 words. Your name, the panel title, conference,…
Call for Panel Stream Proposals for 2027 Conference
The Society of Early Americanists seeks proposals for panel streams for the 2027 biennial conference, to be held in Chicago, March 18-20, 2027. SEA has featured panel streams at conferences for over a decade. Panel streams are constituted by 3-4 panels on a theme or topic and work to develop a shared conversation across the…
2027 Common Reading Initiative Call for Nominations
The Society of Early Americanists seeks proposals for the 2027 Common Reading Initiative. Begun in 2021, the Common Reading Initiative aims to create a community of teachers and learners around a single book leading up to and at the 2027 conference. The Common Reading Initiative committee will work together to select a book from member…
SEA Featured Scholar, December 2025: Caroline Wigginton
SEA Featured Scholar, December 2025: Caroline Wigginton How did you become interested in studying early American literature? I began my doctoral program with an interest in twentieth-century transatlantic fiction and the history of science. However, in my second year, while feeling as if maybe grad school was a mistake, I took a seminar in early…
SEA Featured Scholar, September 2025: Lori Rogers-Stokes
SEA Featured Scholar, September 2025: Lori Rogers-Stokes How did you become interested in studying early American literature? It was pure chance. After grad school, I came across James Cooper’s epic book, Tenacious of their Liberties: The Congregationalists in Colonial Massachusetts, and found I was fascinated by the Puritans. It was also through Jeff Cooper that…
SEA Featured Scholar, June 2025: Bradley Dubos
SEA Featured Scholar, June 2025: Bradley Dubos How did you become interested in studying early American literature? I was trained as a high school English teacher and at that time was drawn mainly to Renaissance juggernauts like Dickinson, Poe, Hawthorne, and Whitman. As an unseasoned teacher I found it easier to get students excited about…