ITPS-Thomas Paine Cottage Museum Virtual Book Talk: Dr. Jeanne Zaino on American Crisis in Democracy
2021-03-24 19:00 - 20:30 (America/New_York)
We’re thrilled to host Iona College’s Dr. Jeanne Sheehan Zaino on March 24, 2021, for a virtual discussion of her new book, American Democracy in Crisis: The Case for Rethinking Madisonian Government (Palgrave Macmillan), in conjunction with the Huguenot & New Rochelle Historical Association in New Rochelle, NY. Zaino will discuss her book in conversation with ITPS Public Historian Dr. Michael Crowder. Free registration here!

ITPS Constitution Day Event: "Legacies of the Constitution"
2021-09-16 18:00 - 20:00
Co-hosted by the ITPS and Thomas Paine Cottage-Huguenot & New Rochelle Historical Association, “Legacies of the Constitution” is a virtual roundtable discussion to commemorate Constitution Day on September 16, 2021, 6:00PM-8:00PM. The roundtable features ITPS Scholar-in-Residence Dr. Lindsay Chervinsky, Dr. Sally E. Hadden (Western Michigan University), Dr. Martha Jones (The Johns Hopkins University), Dr. Kate Masur (Northwestern University), and Dr. Jeanne Sheehan Zaino (Iona College), moderated by ITPS Director and Gardiner Assistant Professor of History Dr. Nora Slonimsky. Free registration is available here.

ITPS-Revolutionary Westchester 250 Roundtable Book Group
2022-01-30 14:00 - 16:00 | Ryan Library 202, Iona College, 714 North Ave., New Rochelle, NY, 10801, United States
The Institute for Thomas Paine Studies at Iona College is joining RW250 to expand participation as a cosponsor and host of the RW250 Roundtable Book Group. This session’s selection is Nathaniel Philbrick, Valiant Ambition: George Washington, Benedict Arnold, and the Fate of the American Revolution. In this award-winning book, Philbrick brings his engaging style and critical research to this fascinating story, highlighting Westchester County’s important role in the American War for Independence. ITPS Public Historian Dr. Michael Crowder will moderate the discussion. This event is a hybrid format of Zoom and in-person attendances, Sunday, January 30, 2021 from 2:00-4:00 PM. In-person attendance at Ryan Library, Iona College, Room 202. If you are interested in in-person attendance, please contact Connie Kehoe of Revolutionary Westchester 250 (1776rw250@gmail.com) or Dr. Michael Crowder (mcrowder@iona.edu). Free Zoom registration here.

Dean Tomiko Brown-Nagin (Ratcliffe Institute, Harvard University) in Conversation with Christopher J. Farley
2022-02-03 18:00 - 19:30 | LaPenta School of Business, Henry Lecture Hall, Iona University & Virtual via Zoom
Hosted by the Institute for Thomas Paine Studies (ITPS) and co-sponsored by the Office of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion at Iona College, this virtual hybrid event features a talk from Dean Tomiko Brown-Nagin, Dean of Harvard Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study, the Daniel P.S. Paul Professor of Constitutional Law at Harvard Law School, and Professor of History at Harvard University. Moderated by journalist, author, and novelist Christopher J. Farley, this event will highlight Dean Brown-Nagin’s new book, Civil Rights Queen: Constance Baker Motley and the Struggle for Equality, published by Pantheon Books in January 2022.
Iona College in-person student reception at LaPenta School of Business, Henry Lecture Hall (105). Attendance limited to fifty (50), email Dr. Michael Crowder at mcrowder@iona.edu to RSVP. Scan the QR code below for free registration.

Dr. Nora Slonimsky, Remember the #Ladies: Women Printers and the Social Media of the American Revolution
2022-03-23 19:00 - 20:30
Presented by the Alexander Hamilton awareness Society in collaboration with the Hamilton Grange National Memorial, the Institute for the Thomas Paine Studies, and the Fort Plain Museum. Virtual event, free registration here.
From Common Sense to the Declaration of Independence, there are many iconic publications associated with the American Revolution. The importance of printing and of communication before, during, and after the war for independence is well established, with the social networks of the eighteenth century playing just as big a role in society as their digital counterparts do today. Women printers were pivotal to this work of the revolutionary movement, and yet they are often given only a small role in the history of media in the late eighteen century. This talk will remember, in the words of Abigail Adams, some of these ladies, women like Elizabeth Hunter Holt and Mary Katherine Goddard, and consider what impact their work had on Alexander and Elizabeth Schuyler Hamilton.
Dr. Nora Slonimsky is the Gardiner Assistant Professor of History at Iona College, where she also serves as Director of the Institute for Thomas Paine Studies (ITPS). Nora’s research focuses on the intersection of intellectual property, commerce, and politics in colonial, revolutionary, and early national America.

Iona College Scholar's Day
2022-04-04 15:00 - 2022-04-07 16:00
Iona Scholars Day (ISD) is an annual event to celebrate the scholarship and creative activities performed by Iona students. The day showcases faculty-mentored student work and allows students in all disciplines to recognize and appreciate each other’s work through oral presentations, panel sessions, performances, and poster presentations. We encourage all students to engage in scholarly and creative work with faculty, and share your work with the Iona community. ISD projects may be initiated as part of a course or as independent collaborations with faculty. This year, from the ITPS and Iona College History Deparment, Iona College students Gabriela Barreiro, Charles Greco, and Emily Varker will present on “Exploring American History Through Digital Humanities,” on April 7, 2022, 3:00 PM-4:00PM. More information here.

Let's Get Digital
2022-04-11 12:00 - 13:30
Iona College Month of Excellence, “Let’s Get Digital: Using Digital Humanities to Embrace Data Fuzziness”
Tuesday, April 12, Noon, Zoom
Speaker: Dr. Leah Hendrickson, University of Leeds (UK)
Dr. Leah Henrickson is a lecturer in Digital Media at the University of Leeds (UK). She leads the School of Media and Communication’s MA New Media in addition to contributing to various modules across the BA Digital Media. Leah’s current research projects use theoretical frameworks and empirical methods to investigate the social and literary implications of textual technologies, commercial and community applications of digital storytelling, and social perceptions of artificial intelligence. She tweets @leahhenrickson.
Zoom Information
Topic: Leah Hendrickson Data Science talk
Time: Apr 12, 2022 12:00 PM Eastern Time (US and Canada)
Join from PC, Mac, Linux, iOS or Android: https://iona.zoom.us/j/6631862091
Or iPhone one-tap (US Toll): +16465588656,6631862091# or +13126266799,6631862091#
International numbers available: https://iona.zoom.us/u/aClMmXJpC

International Center for Public History, Public History for Young Audiences
2022-05-16 08:00 - 17:00
The International Center for Public History’s Explorers program hosts three Macquarie University students discussing their work in Public and Oral History on May 17, 2022, at 7:00 PM via Zoom. Free registration here.

ITPS-Huguenot & New Rochelle Historical Association Virtual Talk, Kirsten Fischer, American Freethinker
2022-06-02 19:00 - 20:30
On Thursday, June 2, 2020, the ITPS and Huguenot & New Rochelle Historical Association hosts Prof. Kirsten Fischer (University of Minnesota) for a discussion of her new book, American Freethinker: Elihu Palmer and the Struggle for Religious Freedom in the New Nation (University of Pennsylvania Press, 2021). Prof. Fischer will discuss the book and then ITPS Public Historian Dr. Michael Crowder will host a conversation and Q & A session. Free registration here.

ITPS Constitution Day 2022
2022-09-14 12:00 - 13:30 | LaPenta School of Business, Henry Lecture Hall, Iona University & Virtual via Zoom
Hosted by the ITPS and Iona University Arts Council, writer and director Ian Ruskin will perform “To Start the World Over Again: The Life of Thomas Paine.” Henry Lecture Hall, LaPenta School of Business 105. Free registration here!

Revolutionary Westchester 250 Roundtable Book Group: Mary Beth Norton, 1774
2022-10-16 14:00 - 15:30
We are excited to announce that historian Mary Beth Norton, the author of our next book group selection, will join us to discuss her book 1774: The Long Year of Revolution. Her book traces the critical “long year” of 1774 and the revolutionary changes that took place, from the Boston Tea Party and the First Continental Congress to the Battles of Lexington and Concord.
The Institute for Thomas Paine Studies at Iona University is once again joining RW250 as a cosponsor and host of the RW250 Roundtable Book Group. Dr. Michael Crowder, ITPS Public Historian will moderate the discussion.
Free and open to the public on Zoom. Free registration here.

History Needs Collecting: A Conversation with Sid Lapidus and Karin Wulf
2022-10-19 12:00 - 14:00
The ITPS is thrilled to welcome Sid Lapidus, renowned philanthropist and collector, for a conversation with Karin Wulf, the Beatrice and Julio Mario Santo Domingo Director and Librarian at the John Carter Brown Library and Professor of History at Brown University to Iona University. Sid and Karin will discuss the Lapidus Collection here at Iona, a repository of antique books, bibliographies, and scholarly monographs that relate to the history of the eighteenth century. The Lapidus collection includes materials on the history of slavery and anti-slavery, book history, revolution, and Thomas Paine himself. Sid and Karin will share insights into collecting, archives, and the value they bring for education and learning.
This event will take place between 12pm-2pm in Room 800 of the Ryan Library.
For in-person attendance, please register here: itps.ticketleap.com/history-needs-collecting-a-conversation-with-sid-lapidus-and-ka/.
To attend virtually via zoom webinar, please register here: https://iona.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_rXD40h4PQrygtVCnv4ch3g.

Rachel Walker, Beauty and the Brain
2023-03-06 18:00 - 19:30 | LaPenta School of Business, Henry Lecture Hall, Iona University & Virtual via Zoom
To kick off Women’s History Month, on March 6, 2023 at 6:00 PM in LaPenta Business 105, Dr. Rachel Walker (Assistant Professor, Hartford University) will join the ITPS-Thomas Paine Cottage Museum author series to discuss themes and topics from her new book, Beauty and the Brain: The Science of Human Nature in Early America (University of Chicago Press, 2022). Dr. Walker will discuss themes from the book, and ITPS Public Historian Dr. Michael Crowder will moderate an audience Q & A session. This is a hybrid event, and virtual participation is available through pre-registration on Zoom Webinar.

Matthew Kruer, Time of Anarchy
2023-04-14 18:00 - 19:30 | Hynes Institute, Spellman Hall, Iona University/Virtual Via Zoom
On April 14, 2023 at 6:00 PM in the Hynes Institute at Spellman Hall, Dr. Matthew Kruer (University of Chicago) will join the ITPS-Thomas Paine Cottage Museum author series to discuss themes and topics from the recently- published book, Time of Anarchy: Indigenous Power and the Crisis of Colonialism in Early America (Harvard University Press, 2022). Dr. Kruer will discuss themes from the book, and ITPS Public Historian Dr. Michael Crowder will moderate an audience Q & A session. This is a hybrid event, with in-person registration and Zoom Webinar registration.

Data Science Symposium
2023-04-28 10:00 - 12:00 | LaPenta School of Business, Henry Lecture Hall, Iona University & Virtual via Zoom
On April 28, 2023, Iona University is hosting Data Science Symposium, in-person at Henry Lecture Hall, LaPenta School of Business, Iona University, and virtual via Zoom.

10:00 AM-11:00 AM: Dr. Alison Parrish, (New York University), “Nothing Survives Transcription, Nothing Doesn’t Survive Transcription”
Zoom Registration: https://iona.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_ogW1WGq5QBO10k1QQ4rLTw

11:00 AM-12:00 PM: Dr. Scott B. Weingart, “21st Century Citizenship: What It Takes To Be Engaged in a Data Saturated World”
Zoom Registration: https://iona.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_DLyTo187QHaDhuHPPHKAxw

Dr. Nayma Qayum, Village Ties
2023-05-02 12:00 - 13:00 | LaPenta School of Business, Henry Lecture Hall, Iona University & Virtual via Zoom
Dr. Nayma Qayum (Manhattanville College) discusses her book,Village Ties: Women,NGOs and Informal Institutions in Rural Bangladesh, in honor of Asian-American Pacific Islander Month. In-person and via Zoom.
Zoom registration: https://iona.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_2eRX4hWcR3ivOImHJ3O9HA

American Revolution(s) in Word and Action: A Conversation with David Waldstreicher and Benjamin Carp
2023-10-24 18:00 - 19:30
On 10/24/2023 at 6:00 PM, join us for a special discussion and Q & A with Dr. Waldstreicher (CUNY Graduate Center) and Dr. Benjamin Carp (Brooklyn College, CUNY) about the intersections between their recent works. In-Person at Ryan Library 800, Iona University, and virtual via Zoom. ITPS Public Historian Dr. Michael Crowder will moderate the Q & A. Find more info about in-person registration and Zoom registration.

Quaff & Quill: Book Talk with Eran Zelnik
2025-04-10 18:00 - 19:00 | Ryan Library, 715 North Ave, New Rochelle, NY, 10801
Join the Institute for Thomas Paine Studies for a talk with Professor Eran Zelnik (California State University, Chico) about his new book, American Laughter, American Fury, to explore how humor helped to define whiteness and masculinity in early North America.
Light refreshments will be served.

Ryan Library
on the campus of Iona University
715 North Ave.
New Rochelle, NY 10804
Map and Directions
REGISTER HERE
Presented in partnership with the Huguenot & New Rochelle Historical Association

Book Talk by Dr. Jeanne Sheehan Zaino
2025-05-01 12:00 - 13:30 | LaPenta School of Business, Henry Lecture Hall, Iona University & Virtual via Zoom
Join us for a discussion of Professor Jeanne Sheehan Zaino’s new book (Primus Press) about one of the most underappreciated figures in 20th Century South Asian history and politics, Sikander Hyat-Khan. In honor of Asian American/Pacific Islander Heritage month the History, ITPS (Institute for Thomas Paine Studies), Office of the Provost and COD, Pi Sigma Alpha (Political Science Honor Society), & Political Science/International Studies Departments are proud to sponsor this book talk – moderated by Prof. Josh Leon – which challenges us to reflect on what we know about the figures who participated in the struggle for independence and freedom in South Asia.
All students, faculty, and staff are invited to attend.
Dr. Sheehan Zaino is the author most recently of Sikander Hyat-Khan: Collected Papers of the Premier of United Punjab, 1928-1942 (Primus) and professor in the Political Science Department.
This program will be presented in person in Henry Lecture Hall (105) in the LaPenta School of Business and virtually via Zoom here.

Taking Stock and Setting Agendas: A Workshop on Data, Digital Humanities, and Early American Studies
2025-09-19 - 2025-09-20 | LaPenta School of Business, Henry Lecture Hall, Iona University & Virtual via Zoom
CALL FOR PAPERS
Over thirty years of digitally informed scholarship have proven that the digital humanities have much to offer the field of early American studies. The Institute for Thomas Paine Studies at Iona University, the McNeil Center for Early American Studies at the University of Pennsylvania, the Open U.S. History Lab at the University of Texas at Dallas, and the journal, Early American Studies, invite proposals for a workshop exploring the intersection of the digital humanities (DH) and early American studies. The hybrid workshop will be held in person at the campus of Iona University in New Rochelle, New York, and virtually through Zoom from Friday, September 19th, 2025, to Saturday, September 20th, 2025.
Participants in the workshop will precirculate papers of approximately 5,000 words and be expected to read and comment on the work of three other participants. All papers will be considered for publication in a special issue of Early American Studies that will attempt to both historicize digital scholarship in early American studies and consider where the field should go from here. We welcome scholars from a host of disciplines including, but not limited to: literature and literary studies, history, computer science, anthropology, religious studies, art history, library and information science, area studies, communication, Native American and Indigenous studies, geography, media studies, and all others who explore how the digital humanities offer new insights to the study of early America.
Proposals should fall into one of two categories: 1) “taking stock,” or reflections, broadly defined, on different aspects of digitally informed scholarship in the field of early American studies, and 2) “setting agendas” or considerations of where to go next. Accepted participants in both categories will be expected to submit papers of approximately 5,000 words by August 1, 2025.
Authors who contribute to the “Taking Stock” section will write surveys of how scholars have used a given digital method or tool over the last several decades. Examples of these methods or tools may include digital mapping, text mining, data visualization, network analysis, augmented/virtual reality, digital curation, podcasting, transcription, artificial intelligence, and more. We envision these pieces as examinations of the use of these methods across the field of early American studies, not as individual project profiles.
Authors who write for “Setting Agendas” will write argument-driven, “thought” essays which use the digital humanities to offer a scholarly intervention in the field of early American Studies or pieces that demonstrate how deeper insights into early America change our understanding of the digital world. We envision these papers as more future-oriented works.
To submit a proposal, please send a single document including a brief biographical statement and abstract of no more than 300 words in one document to bgw@utdallas.edu by June 1, 2025. We will notify presenters of acceptance by June 15th, 2025. The program committee includes the editors of Early American Studies, Rosalind J. Beiler, University of Central Florida, and Judith Ridner, Mississippi State University; along with Emma Hart and Peter Olsen-Harbich of the McNeil Center and the University of Pennsylvania; Mark Boonshoft, Virginia Military Institute; Nora Slonimsky, Iona University and the Institute for Thomas Paine Studies; and Ben Wright, the University of Texas at Dallas and the Open U.S. History Lab.
Join us for a dynamic conversation on the evolving relationship between the digital humanities and Early American Studies. We look forward to your contributions!
For inquiries, please contact Ben Wright at bgw@utdallas.edu.
CLICK HERE FOR THE PROGRAM

Quaff & Quill: Book Talk with Emily Conroy-Krutz
2025-10-16 18:00 - 19:00 | LaPenta School of Business, Henry Lecture Hall, Iona University & Virtual via Zoom
Join the Institute for Thomas Paine Studies for a talk with Professor Emily Conroy-Krutz (Michigan State University) about her book Missionary Diplomacy: Religion and Nineteenth-Century American Foreign Relations (Cornell, 2024) to learn about the crucial place of religion in 19th-century American diplomacy.
Light refreshments will be served.

This is a hybrid event. Please join us in person or online via Zoom.
IN PERSON REGISTRATION
Henry Lecture Hall, LaPenta School of Business
on the campus of Iona University
715 North Ave.
New Rochelle, NY 10804
Map and Directions
CLICK HERE TO JOIN THE ZOOM WEBINAR
Presented in partnership with the Huguenot & New Rochelle Historical Association

Quaff & Quill: Book Talk with Alec Zuercher Reichardt
2025-10-29 18:00 - 19:00 | Ryan Library and via Zoom
Join the Institute for Thomas Paine Studies for a talk with Professor Alec Zuercher Reichardt (University of Missouri) about his book Roads to Power, Roads to Crisis: The War for the American Interior and the Infrastructural Routes of Revolution (2025) to learn about imperial competition to control communication networks during the Seven Years’ War and the American Revolution.
Light refreshments will be served.

This is a hybrid event. Please join us in person or online via Zoom.
IN PERSON REGISTRATION
Ryan Library
on the campus of Iona University
715 North Ave.
New Rochelle, NY 10804
Map and Directions
CLICK HERE TO JOIN THE ZOOM WEBINAR
Presented in partnership with the Huguenot & New Rochelle Historical Association

Lapidus Lecture in Paine Studies
2025-11-06 17:00 - 18:30 | LaPenta School of Business, Henry Lecture Hall, Iona University & Virtual via Zoom
Join us for the Second Annual Lapidus Lecture in Paine Studies featuring Joyce Chaplin, Ph.D., the James Duncan Phillips Professor of Early American History in the Department of History at Harvard University. Professor Chaplin will deliver a lecture titled “Tom Paine’s Sunshine Patriotism: Telling the Truth About the Weather” on Thursday, November 6, 2025 beginning at 5:00 p.m. in Henry Lecture Hall, LaPenta School of Business, on the campus of Iona University. Attendees may also watch the lecture via Zoom webinar. A reception will follow.
At Harvard University, Professor Chaplin teaches the histories of science, climate, colonialism, and environment. She is also an Affiliated Faculty Member in Harvard’s Department of the History of Science, an affiliate of the Department of Landscape Architecture at the Harvard Graduate School of Design, a Faculty Member of Harvard’s American Studies Program, and is on the Faculty Steering Committee for the Salata Institute for Climate and Sustainability. She serves on the Faculty Executive Board of the Harvard Museums of Science and Culture and is a Trustee of the Massachusetts Historical Society, the first historical society in the United States (1791). A former Fulbright Scholar to the United Kingdom, she has taught at six different institutions on two continents, an island, and a peninsula, and in a maritime studies program on the Atlantic Ocean. Back on dry land, she was elected a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 2019 and of the American Philosophical Society in 2020.
An award-winning author, Professor Chaplin’s major works include An Anxious Pursuit: Agricultural Innovation and Modernity in the Lower South, 1730-1815 (1993), Subject Matter: Technology, the Body, and Science on the Anglo-American Frontier, 1500-1676 (2001), The First Scientific American: Benjamin Franklin and the Pursuit of Genius (2006), Round about the Earth: Circumnavigation from Magellan to Orbit (2012), and (coauthored), The New Worlds of Thomas Robert Malthus: Rereading the Principle of Population (2016). She is the editor of Benjamin Franklin’s Autobiography: A Norton Critical Edition (2012) and An Essay on the Principle of Population: A Norton Critical Edition (2017), and is a coeditor of two essay collections, Food in Time and Place (2014) and Genealogies of Genius (2016). Her work has been translated into French, Japanese, Korean, Portuguese, Estonian, and, forthcoming, into Chinese. Her reviews and essays have appeared in the Times Literary Supplement, the New York Times Book Review, the London Review of Books, the Wall Street Journal and Aeon. Her most recent book is The Franklin Stove: An Unintended American Revolution (2025), for which she received a 2018 Guggenheim Fellowship.
For in person registration, click here.
To register for the Zoom webinar, click here.

Quaff & Quill: Book Talk with Whitney Nell Stewart
2025-12-10 18:00 - 19:00 | American Irish Historical Society, 991 5th Avenue, New York City, 991 5th Avenue, New York, NY, 10028, United States
Join us for a conversation with historian Whitney Nell Stewart, the Executive Director of Coastal Georgia Historical Society on St. Simons Island, about her award-winning book This Is Our Home: Slavery and Struggle on Southern Plantations (2023).
This hybrid program will be hosted at the American Irish Historical Society, 991 5th Avenue, New York City, and a livestream will be made available via Zoom. Light refreshments will be served.
Click here to register to attend the event in person at the American Irish Historical Society.
Click here to register to watch the livestream via Zoom webinar.

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.

Quaff & Quill: Book Talk with Zara Anishanslin
2026-01-21 18:00 - 19:00 | Thomas Paine Cottage Museum, 20 Sicard Drive, New Rochelle, NY, 10801, United States
The war that we now call the American Revolution was not only fought in the colonies with muskets and bayonets. On both sides of the Atlantic, artists armed with paint, canvas, and wax played an integral role in forging revolutionary ideals. Zara Anishanslin charts the intertwined lives of three such figures who dared to defy the British monarchy: Robert Edge Pine, Prince Demah, and Patience Wright. From London to Boston, from Jamaica to Paris, from Bath to Philadelphia, these largely forgotten patriots boldly risked their reputations and their lives to declare independence.
Join the Institute for Thomas Paine Studies for a talk with Professor Zara Anishanslin (University of Delaware) about her new book The Painter’s Fire: A Forgotten History of the Artists Who Championed the American Revolution (Harvard, 2025) to learn about an extraordinary cohort of artists whose experiences testify to both the promise and the limits of liberty in the founding era.
Light refreshments will be served.

This is a hybrid event. Please join us in person or online via Zoom.
CLICK HERE FOR IN PERSON REGISTRATION
Thomas Paine Cottage Museum
20 Sicard Avenue
New Rochelle, NY 10804
Driving Directions
CLICK HERE TO REGISTER FOR THE ZOOM WEBINAR
Presented in partnership with the Huguenot & New Rochelle Historical Association

Quaff & Quill: Book Talk with Jacqueline Beatty
2026-03-11 18:00 - 19:00 | Thomas Paine Cottage Museum, 20 Sicard Drive, New Rochelle, NY, 10801, United States
Join us for a Women’s History Month program with Professor Jacqueline Beatty (York College of Pennsylvania) about her new book In Dependence: Women and the Patriarchal State in Revolutionary America (2023) to learn about women’s agency in early America and how their dependent status – rather than their independent status – enabled them to achieve financial and legal protections.
In Dependence explores the ways in which women in Boston, Philadelphia, and Charleston manipulated their legal, social, and economic positions of dependence and turned these constraints into vehicles of female empowerment. Although the law and social custom established restrictions on women’s rights and behavior, early American women were not completely powerless in their dependent state. By using legislative petitions, divorce cases, marriage settlements, equity cases, probate records, manumission deeds, freedom suits, almshouse records, and charitable institutional files, In Dependence demonstrates that women defined their relationship with the patriarchal state—the colonial, revolutionary, and early national governments and organizations helmed by elite men—in terms of their multifaceted dependencies.
Light refreshments will be served.

This is a hybrid event. Please join us in person or online via Zoom.
CLICK HERE FOR IN PERSON REGISTRATION
Thomas Paine Cottage Museum
20 Sicard Avenue
New Rochelle, NY 10804
Driving Directions
CLICK HERE TO REGISTER FOR THE ZOOM WEBINAR
Presented in partnership with the Huguenot & New Rochelle Historical Association

Quaff & Quill: Book Talk with Jordan B. Smith
2026-04-15 18:00 - 19:00 | LaPenta School of Business, Henry Lecture Hall, Iona University & Virtual via Zoom
Join the Institute for Thomas Paine Studies for a talk with Professor Jordan B. Smith (Widener University) about his new book, The Invention of Rum: Creating the Quintessential Atlantic Commodity (2025) to learn the complex history of rum, from its production to its consumption, and from its origins in the Caribbean to its impact on the Atlantic world.
It was strong. It was cheap. It was ubiquitous. Fermented and distilled from the refuse of sugar production, rum emerged in the seventeenth-century Caribbean as a new commodity. To conjure something desirable from waste, the makers, movers, and drinkers of rum arrived at its essential qualities through cross-cultural experimentation and exchange. Those profiting most from the sale of rum also relied on plantation slavery, devoured natural resources, and overlooked the physiological effects of overconsumption in their pursuit of profit. Focusing on the lived experiences of British colonists, Indigenous people, and enslaved Africans, The Invention of Rum shows how people engaged in making and consuming this commodity created a new means of profit that transformed the Atlantic world.
Light refreshments will be served.

Presented in partnership with the Huguenot & New Rochelle Historical Association.
For in person registration, click HERE.
To register for the Zoom webinar, click HERE.

This program is produced with support from the Lapidus Initiative for Early American Inquiry and the “Common Sense and the Constitution: Civic Engagement in the Spirit of 1776” initiative from the American History and Civics Education – Seminars (AHC-Seminars) Program at the Department of Education.

Quaff & Quill: Book Talk with Emily Sneff
2026-04-22 18:00 - 19:00 | LaPenta School of Business, Henry Lecture Hall, Iona University & Virtual via Zoom
Publishing for the 250th anniversary of the United States, When the Declaration of Independence Was News focuses on the nation’s founding document at the moment of its creation in 1776, before anyone knew what the legacy of the Declaration would be or if the United States would win the war against Great Britain. It explores how the Declaration was communicated to people in the new nation and around the Atlantic world and reveals the stories of the many people involved in the process of declaring independence, from printers to soldiers to diplomats to translators.

Dr. Emily Sneff is an early American historian and leading expert on the Declaration of Independence. She earned her Ph.D. in History from William & Mary. She is a consulting curator for exhibitions marking the 250th anniversary of the Declaration at the Museum of the American Revolution and Historic Trappe.

Light refreshments will be served.

Presented in partnership with the Huguenot & New Rochelle Historical Association.
For in person registration, click HERE.
To register for the Zoom webinar, click HERE.
This program is produced with support from the “Common Sense and the Constitution: Civic Engagement in the Spirit of 1776” initiative from the American History and Civics Education – Seminars (AHC-Seminars) Program at the Department of Education.

Quaff & Quill: Book Talk with Jack Kelly
2026-04-29 18:00 - 19:00 | Ryan Library and via Zoom
Join the Institute for Thomas Paine Studies for a talk with historian Jack Kelly about his new book, Tom Paine’s War: The Words That Rallied a Nation and the Founder for Our Time (2026) to explore two of Paine’s essays–Common Sense and The American Crisis–that turned a rebellion over taxes into a true revolution. Kelly’s tribute to 250th anniversary of American independence, the book is a riveting reflection on the power of words and belief.
Light refreshments will be served.

Presented in partnership with the Huguenot & New Rochelle Historical Association.
For in person registration, click HERE.
