The essays in volume 49 of Studies in Eighteenth-Century Culture feature equal attention to multifarious aspects of eighteenth-century culture and archives and to the theories, pedagogies, and media that illuminate them. The place of eighteenth-century studies in the university is a particular focus of this volume. The Caribbean, Ireland, North America, Britain, France, and Poland anchor the range of essays.

Featuring the President's Lecture and the Clifford Lecture, the first section addresses issues of race, empire, slavery, and colonial rule in the Caribbean, Americas, and Ireland. It also attends to recently created archives of slaves' music and plantation layout and the anti-racist methodologies scholars employ for researching and teaching them.

With a strong visual component, the second section highlights the material culture of transportation on the ground and in the air. It also details the business of manufactures and elite collections in civil and court societies of England, France, and Poland.

The final section features current trends in theory that illuminate new aspects of eighteenth-century studies. What does a postcritical eighteenth century look like? How does a study of multiple genres remake Irish studies? What is the role of eighteenth-century studies in today's Humanities?