Dr Elizabeth Eger

Dr Eger taught in the department from 2003 to 2016, during which time she contributed to a number of teaching and research projects, including the creation of the MA in Eighteenth-Century Studies, in partnership with the British Museum and the founding of the Centre for Enlightenment Studies at King’s.  She co-organised, with Prof Anne Goldgar (History), a conference on the history of collections at the Huntington Library in 2017.  Speakers explored how early modern collections they were used and experienced in their own time.

She initiated the department’s research blog, King’s English, in 2015. Now focusing on her research, she is completing a biography of Elizabeth Montagu for Oxford University Press.

Research Interests

• Cultural history of the ‘long eighteenth century’
• Conceptual history of luxury
• Women’s writing
• Poetry
• Visual culture

For more details, please see her full research profile.

Expertise and Public Engagement

Exhibition

2008 Brilliant Women: 18^th-Century Bluestockings, National Portrait Gallery, March 11-June 15.

Initiator and co-curator of this exhibition, whichexplored the impact of the original 'Bluestocking Circle', a group of celebrated women writers, artists and thinkers. The exhibition attracted c 180, 000 visitors, with international media coverage including BBC Radio 4, Chicago Public Radio, Guardian Saturday review, Spectator, The Independent, New Statesman, The Economist, Italian Vogue. (For more information see ‘Impact Case Study’ REF 2014)Accompanying book (co-author): Brilliant Women: 18th-Century Bluestockings(NPG Publications/Yale University Press, 2008). Wonthe 2009 Collaborative Project Award from Society for the Study of Early Modern Women (USA)

Since then, Dr Eger has given public talks at a range of museums, literary societies and on the radio, including as a contributor to In Our Timeon Radio 4.