BSECS 2026

Left to right: Libby Collard, Nicole Brown, Eleanor Hex and Odile Jordan after their panel at BSECS 2026.

My first conference presentation was at the annual British Society for Eighteenth Century Studies at Pembroke College this January. My paper was titled ‘Navigating the metropole: Lascars and Asian community formation in Georgian London, 1730-1840’, and I had the pleasure to present on a panel alongside my colleagues Libby Collard, Eleanor Hex and Nicole Brown.

We got some great discussions going in the Q&A and I was pleased to see so many presenters and attendees engaged with questions of colonial histories and legacies. (We presented in the building on the second photo!)

I finally got to experience Oxford University, complete with a lavish dining hall and stained-glass windows in the College chapel. There was something slightly surreal about being in a place that has historically excluded women of colour, and I’m glad for the support I received both from BSECS and my colleagues in navigating the conference for the first time.