ITPS-Huguenot & New Rochelle Historical Association Virtual Talk, Kirsten Fischer, American Freethinker
2022-06-02 19:00 - 20:30 (America/New_York)
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.

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, “Historical Originalism, Fractured Imagination, and Public History”

Session Two: 11:15am – 12:45pm
“Paine and the Lasting Language of Revolution”
Chair and Commentator: Robb Dunphy
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, “Anti-Imperial Republicanism and the Politics Geography in Common Sense”

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
“Ben Franklin’s World Feature: Common Sense Today”
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

Session Eight: 4:15pm to 5:45pm
Keynote with Danielle Allen
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.
