Lectures and Conference Papers
Plenary Lectures and Keynote Addresses
“Disposing Shakespeare’s Estate in the Eighteenth Century,” keynote lecture, Annual English Graduate Symposium, suny New Paltz, 22 April 2014
“The First Dictionary?,” Joseph S. Schick Lecture in Language, Literature, and Lexicography, Indiana State University, Terre Haute, 27 February 2014
“Not-So-Splendide Mendax: Viewing Fakes from the Inside Out,” De kunst van het liegen in de achttiende eeuw/The Art of Lying conference, Werkgroep 18e eeuw/Dutch-Belgian Society for Eighteenth-Century Studies, Amsterdam, 17 January 2014
“Modes of Definition in Johnson and His Contemporaries,” Johnson at 300: A Houghton Library Symposium, Harvard University, 28 August 2009
“Johnson’s Lives,” bsecs, Oxford, 7 January 2009. Repeated at the University of Ottawa, 3 December 2011
“All Shall Yield to the Mulberry Tree: Of Toothpick Cases, Punch Ladles, Tobacco Stoppers, Inkstands, Nutmeg Graters, and the Legend of Shakespeare,” csecs, Montreal, 16 October 2008
“William Henry Ireland and His Doubles,” mwasecs, Minneapolis, 14 October 2006
“Pope’s Thames,” Literary London conference, Greenwich, 14 July 2006
“Ireland’s Chatterton,” Romanticism & Forgery conference, Bristol, 29 November 2003
Invited Addresses and Public Lectures
“The Author’s Estate in Wit: How to Tell Shakespeare’s Story,” tcnj English Colloquium, Ewing, NJ, 23 April 2019
“Literary Fakery and Forgery,” Branton Lecture, Washington & Jefferson College, 5 April 2018
“Johnson Goes to War,” 34th Annual Daniel G. Blum Lecture, Samuel Johnson Society of the West, Huntington Library, San Marino, 19 November 2017
“How Samuel Johnson Wrote the First Dictionary,” Philobiblon Society, Philadelphia, 10 January 2017
“The Universe in ABC Order,” Lawrence University, Appleton, Wis., 8 November 2016
“Johnson’s Lives,” the Johnsonians annual dinner, Harvard Club, New York, 16 September 2016
“The Universe in Alphabetical Order: What Can We Learn from Old Dictionaries?,” the English Speaking Union of Monmouth County, 21 February 2016
“Real Fakes and Fake Fakes: Materiality and Literary Forgery,” The Matter of Mimesis: Studies on Mimesis and Materials in Nature, Art and Science conference, Centre for Research in the Arts, Social Sciences and Humanities (crassh), University of Cambridge, 17 December 2015; repeated at a forgery symposium, Universitaire Bibliotheken Leiden, Netherlands, 21 June 2019
“Johnson’s Dead Poets Society,” Johnson Society of London, Westminster Abbey, 13 December 2014
tasis England Alumni Speaker Program, Thorpe, Surrey, 10 November 2014
“Nothing Short of Sacrilege: Vortigern and William Henry Ireland’s National Offense,” at “Books, Crooks and Readers: The Seduction of Forgery, 1600–1800,” Universitaire Bibliotheken Leiden, Netherlands, 30 September 2014
“Rarely Harmless, Never Drudges: Lexicographers through the Centuries,” Bonhams sale of the Dictionary Collection of Thomas Malin Rodgers, New York, 2 December 2012
“Spelling, Grammar, and Other Superstitions: The Battle Over ‘Proper’ English,” Whitman and Forbes Colleges, Princeton University, 11 November 2010
“Sabotage in Springfield; or, How a Dictionary Lost the Cold War,” Salisbury University Writers-on-the-Shore series, 1 April 2010
“The Dean Is Dead: Jonathan Swift on the Art of Satire,” South Orange–Maplewood Adult School College for a Day, 25 April 2009
Reading from Twelfth Night, for Authors of Mischief: Banned Books Week, Celebrating the Freedom to Read, Rosenbach Museum & Library, Philadelphia, 5 October 2008
“The Politics of Shakespeare, the Shakespeare of Politics,” the English Speaking Union of Red Bank, New Jersey, 17 February 2008
“The Second Coolest Man in the World,” conference to Honor John Richetti, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, 21 September 2007
“Becoming Shakespeare,” Rosenbach Museum & Library, Philadelphia, 19 September 2007
“Becoming Shakespeare,” University at Buffalo, State University of New York Meet the Author Series, 18 June 2007
“Disgraced by Miscarriage: Four and a Half Centuries of Lexicographical Belligerence,” opening reception to the exhibition “Everything from A to Z: The Edward J. Bloustein Dictionary Collection,” Alexander Library, New Brunswick, 6 February 2007
“The Truth, the Whole Truth, and Anything but the Truth: What Can You Say about William Henry Ireland?” first annual David Hosford Lecture, Rutgers University–Newark, 11 April 2005. Repeated at the English Speaking Union of Princeton, 17 April 2005; the English Speaking Union of Naples, Florida, 17 January 2006; the English Speaking Union of New Brunswick, New Jersey, 4 February 2006; and the English Speaking Union of Greenwich, Connecticut, 15 February 2008
“Making Shakespeare,” u.s. Military Academy, West Point, 8 April 2005
“Reading Johnson’s Unreadable Dictionary,” Boston Athenæum, 15 January 2004
“Johnson’s Dictionary Lays Down the Law,” the Athenæum of Philadelphia, 12 April 2004. Repeated at the National Archives, Washington, d.c., 29 April 2004; the English Speaking Union of New Brunswick, New Jersey, 4 November 2006; and the English Speaking Union of Princeton, 5 October 2008
“What’s in a Name? Shakespeare’s Strange Afterlife,” Rosenbach Museum & Library, Philadelphia, 13 December 2002
“Shakespeare, Shylock, and the Spectacle of Anti-Semitism,” address to the American Jewish Committee, Rosenbach Museum & Library, Philadelphia, 13 October 2002
“Splendide Mendax: Fakes and Fakers in the Age of Johnson,” The Eighteenth-Century Semester, Providence College, 16 March 1999
“Brave New Worlds: A Brief History of Twenty-First-Century Literature,” address to the Cum Laude Society assembly at Chestnut Hill Academy, Philadelphia, 11 April 1996
Selected Conference Papers
“The Dictionary Johnson Never Wrote,” scsecs, Dallas, 23 February 2019
“Editing the Hebrides Narratives in the Twenty-First Century” (written with Celia Barnes, delivered by Celia Barnes), asecs, Orlando, 23 March 2018
“Some Little Account of the Man Himself: Eighteenth‑Century Beginnings,” Shakespeare and the Problem of Biography conference, Folger Institute, Washington, d.c., 4 April 2014
“England’s Ireland, Ireland’s England: William Henry Ireland’s National Offense,” Literary Forgery and Patriotic Mythology in Europe, 1450–1800, Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, 10 November 2012
“So Help Me God: William Henry Ireland and the Truth,” Memory/Reason/Imagination: A Symposium in Honor of Daniel Traister, 31 March 2012
“A Disposition to Write: Johnson as Correspondent,” Samuel Johnson: New Contexts for a New Century conference, Huntington Library, San Marino, 9 September 2011
“Generous Liberal-Minded Men: Booksellers and Poetic Production in Johnson’s Lives of the Poets,” asecs, Vancouver, 18 March 2011
“Johnson Writing Lives; Writing Johnson’s Lives; Writing Lives with Johnson,” Johnson at 300 conference, Pembroke College, Oxford, 14 September 2009
“Tristram Shandy and the Rise of the Novel,” asecs, Portland, Oregon, 30 March 2008
“A Just History of Fact,” Congrès de la Société Internationale d’Étude du XVIIIème siècle, Montpellier, 9 July 2007
“The Ignorance of That Editor: The Squabbles over Johnson’s Shakespeare,” Johnson and the Theatre conference, Pembroke College, Oxford, 21 June 2007
“The Life of Johnson, the Life of Johnson, the Lives of Johnson,” bsecs, Oxford, 4 January 2007
“Butterfly-Breaking 101,” Reading Alexander Pope: From “Fatal Sheers” to “Unwilling Ears” conference, University of Pennsylvania, 17 November 2006
“Shakespeare Their Contemporary? The Case of Macbeth, 1660–1818,” British Literature & Culture, 1660–1800: A Symposium in Honor of Eric Rothstein, Madison, Wisconsin, 7 April 2006
“The Age of Korshin: A Scholarly Perennial,” asecs, Montreal, 1 April 2006
“Symbolism, Schmymbolism: Reading Authors Who Say What They Mean,” asecs, Montreal, 31 March 2006
“The Picaresque Biography: William Henry Ireland,” Maskerade und Entlarvung: Das Paradigma des Pikaresken conference, Würzburg, 10 September 2005
“The First English Dictionary,” Celebrating Johnson’s Dictionary conference, Pembroke College, Oxford, 26 August 2005
“How Johnson’s Dictionary Became the First English Dictionary,” Johnson and the English Language conference, Birmingham, 25 August 2005
“The Dignity of an Ancient: Johnson Edits the Editors,” Johnson’s Shakespeare, Shakespeare’s Johnson conference, University of Nevada, Reno, 29 April 2005
“Cyberization and Its Discontents,” asecs, Las Vegas, 2 April 2005
“Johnson and the Least Disagreeable Noise,” ec/asecs, Cape May, N.J., 23 October 2004
“Johnson’s London and Johnson’s London,” Literary London conference, University of London, 15 July 2004
“Johnson’s Encyclopedia,” asecs, Boston, 27 March 2004
“William Henry Ireland: Anything but the Truth,” neasecs, Providence, 8 November 2003
“Packaging Johnson and His Age,” csecs, Vancouver, 25 October 2003
“Judging Web Sites by Their Covers: Seeking Authority in Cyberspace,” mla, New York City, 29 December 2002
“Samuel Johnson and the Majesty of History,” neasecs, New York City, 17 October 2002
“Frankenstein: The Pennsylvania Electronic Edition,” New Technology and the Future of Publishing Colloquium, Clemson University, 4 April 2002
“Samuel Johnson, Unbeliever,” Johnson Society of the Central Region, Milwaukee, 26 April 2001
“Patrick Hume on Paradise Lost and the Creation of the Classic,” asecs, New Orleans, April 2001
“Betwixt Two Ages Cast; or, Just How Long Is the Long Eighteenth Century?” asecs, Philadelphia, 13 April 2000
“Pyrrhonism and Paranoia: Recognizing a Fake When You See One,” Princeton Eighteenth-Century Society Conference, 18 March 2000
“The Search for Respectability: Cutting-Edge Anxieties in a Digital Age,” mla, Chicago, 28 December 1999
“The Love of Truth: Johnson and Literary Fraud,” asecs, Milwaukee, 25 April 1999
“The Web of Disorderly Erudition: Electrifying the Eighteenth-Century Classroom,” asecs, Notre Dame, 3 April 1998
“Johnson and the Revival of Learning,” ec/easecs, Ursinus College, 25 October 1997
“False Refinement and Declension: Johnson on the History of the Language,” the Inaugural Conference of the Johnson Centre, Birmingham and Lichfield, uk, 12 September 1997
“Hideous Progeny, Version 0.4 Beta,” mla, Washington, d.c., 28 December 1996
“Workshop of Filthy Creation, Cyberspace Division,” nassr, Boston, 15 November 1996
“The Ground-Work of Style: Use, Elegance, and National Identity in Johnson’s Dictionary,” neasecs, Worcester, Mass., 29 September 1996
“Authorizing Ossian,” mwasecs, Minneapolis, 5 October 1995
“Studied Barbarity: Johnson, Spenser, and Literary Progress,” asecs, Tucson, 8 April 1995
“Babel and Empire in Paradise Lost,” Contextualizing the Renaissance conference, Center for Medieval and Early Renaissance Studies, Binghamton University, 22 October 1994
“Preventing Play: Annotating the Battle of the Books,” ec/easecs, Penn State University, 13 October 1994
Seminar Presentations
“Webster’s Patriotic Exertion,” MetroLex: Politics and Ideology in the History of Dictionary Making meeting, New York City, 3 February 2017
“William Henry Ireland’s National Offence,” Visiting Fellows’ Colloquium, All Souls College, Oxford, 2 December 2014
“Shakespeare Forger and Cretan Liar: Puzzling over William Henry Ireland,” Restoration to Reform Seminar, St. Peter’s College, Oxford, 17 November 2014; repeated at Ghent University, 10 December 2015
“Generous Liberal-Minded Men: Booksellers and Poetic Production in Johnson’s Lives of the Poets,” Ghent University, 14 January 2014
“Authentic Accounts: William Henry Ireland Comes Clean,” Columbia University Libraries Book History Colloquium, New York City, 1 February 2012
Discussion of Deception and Detection in Eighteenth-Century Britain, nyu Eighteenth-Century Colloquium, New York City, 17 November 2009
“William Henry Ireland and His Doubles,” Columbia Seminar on Eighteenth-Century Europe, New York City, 19 October 2006
“What Was James Macpherson’s Crime?” Princeton University, 17 November 2004
“Sov’reign Truth: Puzzling over William Henry Ireland,” cuny Eighteenth-Century Seminar, New York City, 12 March 2004
“Unexplored Regions: The Pennsylvania Electronic Frankenstein,” Department of English, Kingston University, uk, 1 May 2002
“I Believe Hardly a Word of It: Fact, Fiction, and Forgery in Eighteenth-Century Narratives,” cuny Eighteenth-Century Seminar, New York City, 10 March 2000
“Horry, the Ruffian, and the Whelp: Three Fakers of the 1760s,” Columbia Seminar on Eighteenth-Century Europe, New York City, 20 May 1999
“England’s Golden Age: The Eighteenth Century’s Age of Elizabeth,” nyu Eighteenth-Century Seminar, New York City, 8 April 1999
Response to Robert J. Griffin, “Fact, Fiction, and Anonymity: The Case of Love and Madness: A Story Too True (1780),” cuny Eighteenth-Century Seminar, New York City, 9 March 2001
“Orientalism as Performance Art: The Strange Case of George Psalmanazar,” cuny Eighteenth-Century Seminar, New York City, 29 January 1999
“Bestowing Animation upon Lifeless Matter: The Pennsylvania Electronic Frankenstein,” nyu/neach Talks on Humanities Computing Series, New York City, 8 May 1998
“The Pre-History of the Post-Book,” University of Pennsylvania History of the Book Seminar, 27 February 1995
“An Introduction to Hypertext,” Kings Court-English House Lecture Series, University of Pennsylvania, 5 December 1994
Roundtable Sessions
“Departmental Review and the Role of Department Chairs,” aaup-aft Promotion and Tenure Workshop, Rutgers University–Newark, 27 March 2017
“Leaders Inspiring Change,” Chancellor’s Conference on the New Professoriate: Tenure, Diversity, Engagement, Rutgers University–Newark, 29 October 2016
“Challenges of the Humanities,” Rutgers 250th Anniversary Presidential Symposium on Higher Education: Why the Humanities Matter, New Brunswick, N.J., 26 October 2016
“The Doctor Is in: Help Desk and Mentoring,” asecs, Pittsburgh, 1 April 2016
Closing roundtable, bsecs, Oxford, 10 January 2014
“What’s the Good Word?” Empire State Book Festival, Albany, 10 April 2010
“When Does It End?; or, How Long is the Eighteenth Century?” asecs, Richmond, Virginia, 28 March 2009
“Old-Fashioned Archives in a High-Tech Age: A Roundtable on Research Methods,” asecs, Richmond, Virginia, 27 March 2009
“Sustaining the Eighteenth Century: The Disciplinary Impact of ams Press,” asecs, Richmond, Virginia, 26 March 2009
“Academic Perspectives on Publishing the Long Eighteenth Century Online,” bsecs, 7 January 2009
“Approaches to Eighteenth-Century ‘Lives’ and Lives,” bsecs, 6 January 2009
“Satire,” cuny Eighteenth-Century Seminar, New York City, 13 April 2007
“Awkwardness,” asecs, Atlanta, 25 March 2007
“Publishing” (asecs Graduate Student Caucus roundtable), asecs, Atlanta, 25 March 2007
“The English Short Title Catalogue: A Relaunch and Roundtable Discussion,” bsecs, Oxford, 4 January 2007
Symposium on Classical, Hellenistic, and Late Antique Texts in the Eighteenth Century, New York City, 20 September 2003
“Publishing on the Web: Differing Approaches,” isecs, Los Angeles, 3–10 August 2003
“Publishing on the Web: Differing Approaches and Experiences,” ec/asecs, Rosemont, Penna., 18 October 2002
“Teaching the Electronic Eighteenth Century,” neasecs, New York City, 17 October 2002
“Justifying a Third Edition of the Cambridge Bibliography of English Literature: What’s New, What’s Needed, What’s Not?” asecs, New Orleans, April 2001
“Getting New Tricks out of Old Dogs: Approaches to Teaching the Eighteenth Century,” neasecs, Boston, 12 December 1997
Selected Panels Chaired
“Chaucer and Shakespeare in the Eighteenth Century,” bsecs, 7 January 2009
“The Languages of Literature,” asecs, Portland, Oregon, 30 March 2008
“Johnson’s Dictionary,” isecs, Los Angeles, 3–10 August 2003
“Improving Opinion into Knowledge: Literary Criticism in the Eighteenth Century,” asecs, Philadelphia, 15 April 2000
“Slow Rises Worth: Johnson and Poverty,” asecs, Milwaukee, 25 April 1999
“The Internet, Electronic Resources, and Electronic Publishing in Eighteenth-Century Studies,” asecs, Notre Dame, 3 April 1998