The Project
An innovative tool and an interdisciplinary approach
- An open-access digital encyclopedia with a multi-modal search engine
- An international and interdisciplinary project led by the GIS Sociabilités / Sociability since 2017
- An EU-funded project (Horizon 2020-MSCA-RISE) since 2019, promoting staff exchange and intersectoral collaborations
- A digital humanities project managed by an experienced editorial team
- Encyclopedia entries written in English or French by eighteenth-century scholars in various fields (history, art history, literature, philosophy, material culture, linguistics ...) and reviewed by a dedicated committee
- A complementary anthology of texts related to various aspects of sociability and connected to the entries
Bringing academic research on eighteenth-century sociability to a wider audience
- Explore the wide range of topics related to British Sociability from 1650 to 1850 and learn about the circulation of models of sociability that shaped European and colonial societies.
- Discover the collaborative work between academic researchers on primary source material in their respective fields of expertise
- Browse through 200 entries enriched with illustrations, hyperlinks, footnotes and further reading suggestions
- Search by keywords, by alphabetical order or by categories (People, Places, Practices, Concepts, Objects) and sub-categories
- Navigate easily through a dynamic and updatable resource
- Share content with online media and social networks
Latest entries
Places
Brothels
QUALLS Bethany
Eighteenth-century brothels were spaces with vague and/or fluctuating legal status, functioning as sites of 1) social interactions via sex acts and commerce, 2) public interest and reform efforts to shape civic discourse and laws, and 3) anxiety and/or titillation across a range of print culture, visual and textual alike. This entry explores what we know about the historical reality of sex work and brothels in London and other areas of Great Britain, plus their representation in print and visual culture over the period.
Dr. Alexander Hamilton and the Tuesday Club
SCRIBNER Vaughn
Dr. Alexander Hamilton's (1712-56) Annapolis, Maryland “Tuesday Club” (1745-56) reflected the Scottish-born physician’s life-long, transatlantic pursuit of sociability and identity. After moving to Annapolis in 1739, Hamilton struggled with isolation and poor health. He especially missed Edinburgh’s Whin-Bush Club, which he considered the most civil and successful of all tavern clubs. During a five-month journey through northeastern America in 1744, Hamilton attended various taverns in the hopes of finding a model for his own version of the Whin-Bush Club in Annapolis. Upon returning to Annapolis, Hamilton founded the Tuesday Club, itself a direct reflection of the Whin-Bush Club. Over the next eleven years, the Tuesday Club became a respected and well-attended outlet for sociability, satire, and camaraderie among educated colonists. Hamilton’s death in 1756 marked the Club’s end, illustrating the Scottish physician’s profound impact on British America’s sociable scene.
People
Places
People
Concepts
Edmund Burke
COL Norbert
While Edmund Burke was a lifelong practitioner of sociability at all possible levels ̶ familial, intellectual and political ̶ , what is far more arresting are the gaps between his early theorising, in Sublime and Beautiful, and what happened with the French Revolution. The latter helped Burke show that ambition was now destructive of sociability, no longer just one of its components.
Latest News
Colloque: 'Citoyennes sans citoyenneté dans la Révolution française. Appropriations, reprises et discussions d'un concept (1989-2005)
July 10th 2025
Colloque: 'Citoyennes sans citoyenneté dans la Révolution française. Appropriations, reprises et discussions d'un concept (1989-2005) - Université Rennes 2, 10 & 11 juillet 2025
GIS Interdisciplinary Seminar: 'The Revolutionary Self'
July 8th 2025
GIS Sociabilités seminar 'The Politics of the ‘Sociable Self: Theories and Practices (1650-1850)' - Fifth thematic session on 'The Revolutionary Self', 8 July 2025 at ENS Ulm (salle d'Histoire) - Invited speakers : Lynn Hunt (UCLA) & Sarah Knott (University of Oxford, St John's College).
CFP - Journée d'étude: L’Afrique du voyage, en amont de l’exploration et du partage colonial (XVe siècle – début du XIXe siècle)
May 31st 2025
Appel à contributions: 'L’Afrique du voyage, en amont de l’exploration et du partage colonial (XVe siècle – début du XIXe siècle).
Journée d’études de l’Université Grenoble Alpes, 25-26 septembre 2025.
Date limite: 31 mai 2025