News & Events
NEWS
July 2011: Panmure House Update
Very good news from IASS member Gavin Kennedy, Emeritus Professor, Heriot-Watt University, Edinburgh:
"It has been announced (22nd July) that the Scottish Government has approved the proposals from Edinburgh Business School (Heriot-Watt University) for the sympathetic renovation of "Panmure House," just off old Edinburgh’s historic Royal Mile, where Adam Smith lived from 1778 up to his death in 1790. The planning authorities have at last given the go ahead…to allow the old building (1697) to be suitable for its educational and research purposes…With the final planning approvals, EBS plans to put its ambitious plans into action. The architects can detail their drawings, the funds can now be mobilised from generous donors around the world, and everything prepared for Panmure House to become a (welcome) magnet for visitors to Edinburgh, and also for its serious academic and educational work to commence."
Further details available in the BBC's coverage, available here.
June 2011: CFP and Events
The Society looks forward to its panel on new translations of TMS at the July 2011 meeting of the Eighteenth-Century Scottish Studies Society in Aberdeen; details below under “Upcoming Events.”
IASS is now an affiliate society of the American Society for Eighteenth Century Studies (ASECS), thanks to the efforts of IASS member Catherine Labio. As such, the Society can now cosponsor two panels at the upcoming ASECS meeting. IASS members are encouraged to submit their work for consideration; for details, please see the call for papers below under “Upcoming Events.”
IASS member Maria Paganelli organized an excellent panel for the recent meeting of the History of Economics Society which met at the University of Notre Dame in June 2011; details below under “Recent Events.”
April 2011: IASS and ASECS
IASS is very happy to announce that it has been officially recognized as an affiliate society by the American Society for Eighteenth-Century Studies (ASECS). We very much look forward to working with the ASECS and to sponsoring panels at their annual conferences!
February 2011: Upcoming Panels
The Society has now finalized its plans for two academic events in 2011. For details, please see Events below.
January 2011: Board Election Results
The results of the Society's first Board election are now in! Congratulations to our four newest Board members: Sandra Peart, Charles Griswold, Leonidas Montes, and Douglas Den Uyl. Each will serve a three-year term (calendar years 2011-2013).
June 2010: Smith in the News
The Panmure House Project continues to work on turning Smith's home in Edinburgh into a center for scholarship. Smith's grave, on the other hand, along with Hume's and Robert Stevenson's, has been neglected and the headstone is said to be deteriorating: see story in The Scottish Courier.
EVENTS
Upcoming Events (IASS and non-IASS)
Call for Papers: ASECS Annual Meeting, San Antonio, TX, April 2012.
IASS will be sponsoring the two sessions described below 2012 Meeting of the American Society for Eighteeenth-Century Studies. IASS members and others interested in participating are encouraged to contact the panel chairs listed below. The submission deadline is September 15, 2011.
1. “Adam Smith Now” (International Adam Smith Society) (Roundtable) Catherine Labio, Dept. of English, U. of Colorado at Boulder; E-mail: catherine.labio@colorado.edu
In 2011, the International Adam Smith Society was granted affiliate status in ASECS. We would like to take this opportunity to invite scholars from a wide range of disciplines to participate in a roundtable discussion on the reasons behind the recent surge of interest in the works of Adam Smith. Please submit a 300 word statement explaining what has led you to study Smith’s works, what you see as the key issues and challenges in Smith studies today, and what question you would most like to see discussed in the roundtable. Also include a 2-page cv.
2. “Adam Smith and the Enlightenment: Outlier or Standard-bearer?” (International Adam
Smith Society) Neven Leddy, Montreal; Email: NBLeddy@gmail.com
This session seeks to address Adam Smith’s place in the Scottish Enlightenment. While David Hume has long been considered in – but somehow not of – the Scottish Enlightenment, Smith has had an uncomplicated association from the time of Dugald Stewart’s hagiographical essays dating from the 1790s. Historians of ideas in Scotland have begun to nuance this approach, by suggesting that Smith did not necessarily fit well with a scientific and clerical Enlightenment that, in any case, predated Smith’s moral and economic contributions. We invite contributions that address Smith’s place in the Scottish or broader European Enlightenment. It is hoped that papers will offer a model of Enlightenment as a context for Smith’s specific contributions.
Please be sure to follow these ASECS Rules:
1. Proposals for papers should be sent directly to the seminar chairs no later than 15 September 2011. Please include your telephone and fax numbers and e-mail address. You should also let the session chair know of any audio-visual needs and special scheduling requests.
2. The Society’s rules permit members to present only one paper at the meeting. Members may, in addition to presenting a paper, serve as a session chair, a respondent, or a panel discussant, but they may not present a paper in those sessions they also chair. If you submit a paper proposal to more than one session, you should notify all the chairs to which you have made a submission. If you fail to notify the session chairs, they will have the right to decide between themselves in which session the paper will be presented or if the paper will be excluded entirely.
3. All participants must be members in good standing of ASECS or a constituent society of ISECS. Membership must be current as of November 1 in order to receive pre-registration materials. Those members of constituent societies of ISECS MUST furnish a snail mail address to asecs@wfu.edu to receive pre-registration materials.
Recent Events (IASS and non-IASS)
Eighteenth-Century Scottish Studies Society (ECSSS) Annual Meeting, Aberdeen, July 2011.
In conjunction with the 2011 Annual Meeting of the ECSSS, IASS was very pleased to sponsor a roundtable dedicated to "Moral Sentiments in Translation: A Roundtable on New Editions of Smith's TMS." The roundtable highlighted several new editions and translations of TMS that have been recently published, and featured contributions from several translators of TMS, including Dionysius Drosos (Ioannina) and Matti Norri (Helsinki), as well as comments (in absentia) on the Spanish translation by Estrella Trincado Aznar (Madrid) and the German translation by Christel Fricke (Oslo), and comments (in absentia) from Adelino Zanini (Ancona) and Cesare Cozzo (Rome). The roundtable was chaired by Nicholas Phillipson (Edinburgh).
History of Economics Society Panel, June 2011.
IASS was pleased to cosponsor a panel at the 2011 Annual Meeting of the History of Economics Society in South Bend, IN. Papers included Paul Oslington, “Adam Smith and the Future Hope”; Maria Paganelli, “The Scottish Enlightenment and Public Governance of the Economic System”; and Don Matthews, “When the private pursuit of self-interest causes harm, according to Adam Smith,” with Jeffrey Young and Cecilia Miller as discussants.
Central APA Panel, April 2011.
The Society was very pleased to host Michael Gill (Arizona) as our featured speaker at our recent meeting in conjunction with the 2011 Central Division meeting of the American Philosophical Association held in Minneapolis in April. Professor Gill delivered a paper entitled "Moral Pluralism in Smith's Theory of Moral Sentiments," and Colin Heydt (U. of South Florida) provided formal comments.
Association for Private Enterprise Education Meeting Panel, April 2011.
At the recent APEE meeting in the Bahamas, four new papers were presented on the panel "New Perspectives on Adam Smith": "Conjectural History as Emergent Justification," John Thrasher (Univ. of
Arizona); "Smith, Mandeville, and the Refashioning of Spontaneous Order,"
Brandon Turner (Clemson Univ.); "A Theory of the Nature and Causes of
Citizenship," Nicola Moore (Institute for Humane Studies); "Integrating
Trade into Smith's Theory of Language: Language as a Signal of Homogeneity,"
Diana W. Thomas (Utah State University).
Nicholas Phillipson's Adam Smith: An Enlightened Life, London, October 2010.
The Centre for the Study of the History of Political Thought at Queen Mary, University of London, sponsored a one-day symposium dedicated to Nicholas Phillipson's new biography of Adam Smith. Speakers included Duncan Kelly (Cambridge), Chandran Kukathas (LSE), Fonna Forman-Barzilai (San Diego), Ryan Hanley (Marquette), Craig Smith (St. Andrews), Istvan Hont (Cambridge) and Donald Winch (Sussex). Nicholas Phillipson generously provided concluding comments. Many thanks to Jeremey Jennings and QMUL for hosting the outstanding event.
Eighteenth-Century Scottish Studies (ECSSS)/IASS Joint Conference, Princeton, June 2010.
IASS was very pleased to have an opportunity to consponsor the 2010 Annual Meeting of the Eighteenth-Century Scottish Studies Society: "Thomas Reid, William Cullen and Adam Smith: The Science of Mind and Body in the Scottish Enlightenment." The conference featured several panels and rountables with many IASS members in attendance, as well as plenary addresses by Aaron Garrett and Guenter B. Risse. Both societies are deeply indebted to Gordon Graham and the Princeton Theological Seminary for hosting the event.
Central APA Panel, February 2010.
Paul Guyer (University of Pennsylvania) delivered a paper entitled "Adam Smith's Original Theory of Imitation" at the 2010 IASS meeting, held in conjunction with the Central Division meeting of the American Philosophical Association in Chicago. James Harris (University of St. Andrews) served as commentator.
Adam Smith and the Enlightenment, University of Athens, December 2009.
An outstanding conference was held in December 2009 at the University of Athens on "Adam Smith and the Enlightenment." Organizers Athanasia Glycofrydi-Leontsini and Dionysius Drosos organized a diverse collection of panels on topics ranging from Smith's contribution to the Scottish Enlightenment to Smith's European and especially Greek reception. A conference volume is forthcoming.
The Philosophy of Adam Smith, Balliol College, Oxford, January 2009.
The International Adam Smith Society, together with the Adam Smith Review, organized a conference at Balliol College, Oxford in January 2009 to mark the 250th anniversary of The Theory of Moral Sentiments. Titled The Philosophy of Adam Smith, the conference featured plenary addresses by Stephen Darwall, Charles Griswold, David Raphael, Emma Rothschild, and Geoffrey Sayre-McCord, along with sessions at which almost 40 presentations were given. Topics ranged from Smith on the paradox of tragedy to Smith's influence on Hegel, with papers on a wide variety of topics in politics, moral psychology, theology, and history as well. A volume of selected papers has been published in volume 5 of the Adam Smith Review.