Page of Reason | April 2025
Dispatches from your most humble servant
Page of Reason is the newsletter of the Institute for Thomas Paine Studies (ITPS) at Iona University in New Rochelle, New York. Learn more about the ITPS and our activities at our Research Portal. You can follow us on X @TheITPS, BlueSky @theitps.bsky.social, and Mastodon @ITPS@historians.social.
In this newsletter, you’ll find:
Book talk with Jeanne Sheehan Zaino | May 1 at 12:00pm
New Thomas Paine Ambassadors program for Iona students
CFP: Taking Stock and Setting Agendas | Due May 15, 2025
CFP: Common Sense at 250 | Due June 15, 2025
Book talk with Jeanne Sheehan Zaino
Thursday, May 1, 2025
Henry Lecture Hall, Iona University
12:00-1:30pm
Free
Watch via Zoom here
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.
New Thomas Paine Ambassadors Program for Iona Students
Inspired by the legacy of Thomas Paine, the Thomas Paine Ambassadors program will hekp students develop skills that are essential for twenty-first century scholarly and professional paths, whether in law, policy, data science and information literacy, social and digital media, or history and advocacy.
Up to five Thomas Paine Ambassadors will receive a $1,000 stipend to participate in four (4) mandatory programs with the Institute for Thomas Paine Studies (ITPS) over the course of an academic year both on and off campus, including public lectures and field trips. Ambassadors will also enroll in a specialized course on public and digital history (DH 210 offered every spring semester). As Ambassadors, students will also have the opportunity to earn academic credit for internships in public history, digital history, and other fields that reflect Thomas Paine’s legacies.
This opportunity is open to currently enrolled Iona students in good academic standing who have at least two semesters left in their undergraduate years at Iona. Students in all academic disciplines and majors are welcome to apply.
The deadline to apply is AUGUST 1. Click here for more details.
Taking Stock and Setting Agendas:
A Workshop on Data, Digital Humanities,
and Early American Studies
Co-sponsored by the Institute for Thomas Paine Studies,
the McNeil Center for Early American Studies, and Early American Studies
September 19th – September 20th, 2025
Iona University, New Rochelle, New York, and Virtually
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 May 15th, 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.
Common Sense at 250: Legacies of Democracy from Paine to Today
January 9 – 10, 2026
Virtually and in-person in Lewes and Sussex, EnglandWith keynotes from Dr. Danielle Allen, James Bryant Conant University Professor, Harvard University,
and Professor Gregory Claeys, Royal Holloway, University of London
In the winter of 1776, Thomas Paine published Common Sense, one of the defining texts of the North American movement for independence from the British empire. In this incendiary, revolutionary pamphlet, Paine coupled his famous denunciation of monarchy with a critique of empire, a radical programme for self-rule, and a principled call for a Declaration of Independence.
In its bold reimagining of democracy and representation, rights and republicanism, freedom and independence, Common Sense occupies a central position in modern political thinking. While it was a major expression of Enlightenment visions of America’s future as a prosperous democratic republic, it also shared some of its silences, particularly around slavery and territorial expansion. But Paine’s pamphlet speaks to our age too. In his famous declaration that “we have it in our power to begin the world over again,” Paine’s text considers enduring questions about civic engagement in our present-day.
Two hundred and fifty years later, this conference will consider the impact of these ideas, past and present. Hosted by Thomas Paine: Legacy at Bull House, the University of Sussex, and the Institute for Thomas Paine Studies (ITPS) at Iona University, “Common Sense at 250: Legacies of Democracy from Paine to Today” is interested in presentations that consider the topics and arguments Paine raised in Common Sense, their dissemination and impact across the Age of Revolutions, and the complex ways they resonate today.
The organizers encourage applicants to take as broad an approach as possible to these themes, including perspectives from Paine’s contemporaries in the print trade and revolutionary cause, as well as those from different backgrounds, including women, enslaved and free people of color, Indigenous Americans, and other disenfranchised communities around the Atlantic world.
The conference will be held in-person and virtually at the University of Sussex campus and at Bull House (Paine’s home and place of business) in Lewes from January 9th to January 10th, 2026, the actual date of the 250th anniversary Common Sense.
“Common Sense at 250” is made possible thanks to the generous support of the Lapidus Initiative for Early American Inquiry at the ITPS and the Centres for American Studies, Social & Political Thought and Intellectual History at the University of Sussex. Possible presentations can include traditional papers and roundtables along with posters, digital humanities projects, performances, and other artistic exhibits. We are especially eager for a wide range of disciplinary perspectives and welcome proposals from history, public history, museum studies, literature, political science, archaeology, visual and performing arts, library and information science, archival studies, digital humanities and data science, amongst others.
Please submit a 300-word abstract and 250-word bio as one document by June 15, 2025, to ITPS@iona.edu.
Modest travel support may be available to facilitate travel to the conference, and we ask that applicants include any need for support in their proposals.
Please direct any questions to the conference organizers, Ms. Leanne O’Boyle, Dr. Iain McDaniel, and Dr. Nora Slonimsky at leanne.oboyle@thomaspainelegacy.org, I.R.Mcdaniel@sussex.ac.uk, and nslonimsky@iona.edu.