Common Sense at 250: Legacies of Democracy from Paine to Today
2026-01-09 - 2026-01-10 | Lewes and Sussex, England and virtually via Zoom
In-person Registration Links
FRIDAY, JANUARY 9, 2026 at the University of Sussex — In-person registration: https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/common-sense-at-250-legacies-of-democracy-from-paine-to-today-tickets-1760714497459?aff=oddtdtcreator.
SATURDAY, JANUARY 10, 2026 at Bull House, Lewes — In-person registration: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/common-sense-at-250-legacies-of-democracy-from-paine-to-today-tickets-1769369715449?aff=oddtdtcreator. (please note in-person registration is currently limited to conference presenters at this time, virtual registration is open to all).
SATURDAY, JANUARY 10, 2026 at the White Hart, Lewes — In-person registration for the evening reception: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/common-sense-at-250-day-two-closing-reception-tickets-1838344390559?aff=oddtdtcreator.
*Please note that due to the historic nature of the buildings, in-person registration capacity is limited for the sessions at Bull House on Saturday, January 10, and for the closing reception that evening at the Headstrong Room at the White Hart. Please notify us if you are no longer able to attend so the spot may be opened to others on the waitlist.
Conference Program
Friday, January 9, 2026: The University of Sussex
Coffee and tea: 9:00am- 9:30am
Sponsored by the University of Sussex

Session One: 9:30am – 11:00am
“Paine, Commemoration, and the Politics of Memory”
Chair and Commentator: Scott Cleary
Virtual registration: https://iona.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_2xSvh8BqTUKQ63NdnerNUw

Josh Dight, “Common Sense as Cultural Memory in the radical ‘paper pantheon’, 1831-1849”

Lyne Hervey-Passée, “Ink, Imagination, and Algorithm: Returning to Common Sense” (virtual)

Anthony Kalume, Title forthcoming

Robert Wolff, “America at 250: Historical Originalism, Fractured Imagination, and Public Memory”

Session Two: 11:15am – 12:45pm
“Paine and the Lasting Language of Revolution”
Chair and Commentator: Michael Jonik
Virtual registration: https://iona.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_d55nn8qWQ7SVYzWNjDjiBQ

Lucas Barcos Rodrigues, “From Swine to Citizens: The Radical Afterlives of Paine in the British Swinish Multitude”

Silvia Guselli, “Liberty Applied and Contested: Twain, Callahan, and the Ideological Afterlife of Paine’s Common Sense”

Catherine Packham, “‘Words of sound’: Common Sense, Mary Wollstonecraft, and Legacies for Political Speech”

Emily Sneff, ““Es ist jetzt unter der Presse”: German Translation in Philadelphia in 1776” (virtual)

Lunch break: 12:45pm – 2:15pm (on your own)

Session Three: 2:30pm to 4:00pm
“Common Sense in Conversation: Influence and Authorship in the Atlantic World”
Chair and Commentator: Liz Covart
Virtual registration: https://iona.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_Xr31hmB8Rzm9iy35ESacXQ

Jon Chandler, “Continental Republicanism: Paine, Print, and the Politics of Place, 1775–1777″

Tom Cutterham, “Common Sense, Civil Liberty, and the Transatlantic Revolutionary Tradition”

Adam Lebovitz, “Thomas Paine’s Maritime Imagination”

Karen Racine, “The Cause of All Mankind: Thomas Paine and Spanish American Independence”

Session Four: 4:15pm to 5:45pm
Plenary with Greg Claeys: “Thomas Paine and the Three Revolutions that Weren’t”
Chair and Commentator: Iain McDaniel
Virtual registration: https://iona.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_49kf0Om2RgK_iuUknw3a-g

Reception: 5:45pm – 7:00pm
Sponsored by the University of Sussex

Saturday, January 10th, 2026: Bull House, Lewes
Coffee and tea: 8:30am- 9:00am
Sponsored by the Institute for Thomas Paine Studies at Iona University

Session Five: 9:00am – 10:30am
“A Template for Democracy: Common Sense and Civic Life”
Chair and Commentator: Joseph Adelman

Leanne O’Boyle, Common Sense and Public History

Nicole Mahoney, Common Sense and Women’s and Gender History

Jeanne Sheehan Zaino, Common Sense and Contemporary Politics

Please note that this session includes a live recording for a special episode of the Ben Franklin’s world podcast that will be publicly available and there is no virtual option.

Session Six: 10:45am – 12:15pm
“Common Sense and Evolving Democratic Institutions”
Chair and Commentator: Emma Hart
Virtual registration: https://iona.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_wWiilXotRq20KVbLmS5IqQ

Samuel Burry, “Paine and Intergenerational Rights: From Common Sense to Agrarian Justice”

Daniel Gomes de Carvalho, “From Common Sense to Constitutional Balance: Thomas Paine and the Bicameral Turn after the French Revolution” (virtual)

Colin Manton, “Reform, Radicalism, and Reaction: Bright Politics, 1832”

David Williams, “Democracy and the Two Times of Common Sense”

Lunch break: 12:15pm – 1:45pm (on your own)

Tour of the Town of Lewes: 1:45pm-2:15pm (please meet at the entrance to Bull House)

Session Seven: 2:30pm – 4:00pm
“Revolutionary Legacies in Lewes”
Chair and Commentator: Leanne O’Boyle
Virtual registration: https://iona.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_rnRk1eZSTR6Vh_qw7bxCFQ

Deborah Gage
Rebecca Stott
Paul Myles
Barbara Keal

Session Eight: 4:15pm to 5:45pm
Keynote with Danielle Allen, “Thomas Paine: The Junius Years”
Chair and Commentator: Nora Slonimsky
Virtual registration: https://iona.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_81-mpDJ1SjS9_vXD3rK3Aw

Reception: 6:00pm – 7:30pm
The Headstrong Room at the White Hart
Sponsored by the Institute for Thomas Paine Studies at Iona University

Read the Call for Papers here.

This conference has been generously supported by the Lapidus Initiative for Early American Inquiry at the Institute for Thomas Paine Studies, the University of Sussex, and Thomas Paine: Legacy. The contributions of these organizations play a vital role in advancing our understanding of Thomas Paine and the early Atlantic world in which he lived and worked.
