“The Coquette and the Boarding School: A Norton Critical Edition Speakers Series Event”

Hosted by Bryan Waterman on October 2nd, 2026

Join editor Bryan Waterman (New York University) for a discussion of the enduring legacy of the works of Hannah Webster Foster as America 250 comes to a close. How do seduction novels of the early American republic continue to speak to questions of gender and sexuality, freedom, and identity today? How does Foster’s work anticipate the scandals and gendered double standards that have come to characterize American politics during the #MeToo era? Audience members are invited and encouraged to ask questions in an open Q&A during the second half hour.

Bryan Waterman is Associate Professor of English at New York University. He is the author of The Friendly Club of New York City and the Making of American Literature and several essays on American literature and culture published in American Literary History, Early American Literature, The William and Mary Quarterly, and elsewhere. He is the coeditor, with Cyrus R. K. Patell, of The Cambridge Companion to the Literature of New York.

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