Published work & current projects
Current projects
Postdoctoral fellow, Punch’s Pocket Book Archive, Université de Caen Normandie (Sept. 2024–Feb. 2026)
Part of team launching project to digitize and create a fully searchable open-access archive for 39-volume collection of Punch’s Pocket Book (1843–81), an annual almanac/day planner/accounting book/collection of written and pictorial amusements published by Punch, or the London Charivari (1841–2002). Follow our project blog at https://ppbka.hypotheses.org/ to learn more.
“Flying Reports, Fame, and Fortune: Gossip beyond Celebrity in Eighteenth-Century Print Culture” (book in progress).
Join Bethany, a literary researcher with a passion for the obscure, as she shares recovered and uncovered stories from archives around the world. It’s archival recovery, out loud. Subscribe to Re(un)Covered wherever you get your podcasts
“Politick Whores, Nightwalkers, and She-Friends: Navigating London’s Sex Industry in the Long Eighteenth Century.” American Society of Eighteenth-Century Studies (ASECS) Annual Conference. Philadelphia, PA. April 2026.
“Cataloging the Restoration Jilt: Sexual Commodification, London Guidebooks, and Didactic Erotica.” Special Issue on Aphra Behn of Women’s Writing, edited by Hannah Straw and Elaine Hobby (forthcoming 2027)
“Prostitutes, Priests, and Politics: The Celebrated Sally Salisbury’s Surprising Afterlives”
Recent Publications
Encyclopedia entry on “Brothels” for Open-Access DIGITENS Digital Encyclopaedia on Sociability in Europe in the Long Eighteenth Century (June 2025). https://www.digitens.org/en/notices/brothels.html
with Jessica Gray, “Thirteen Ways of Looking at a Commonplace Book.” K-SJ+ (Keats-Shelley Journal online supplement), Commonplacing and Commonplace Books Special Issue, vol. 2 (Sept. 2024)
Interactive collection “William Hogarth’s Harlot’s Progress (1732) and Rake’s Progress (1734-35)” locations and contexts, mapped via Layers of London (Jan. 2024)
“Selling Sex, Work, and Literature: Then and Now.” Syllabus, 29 August 2023. https://syllabusproject.org/selling-sex-work-and-literature-then-and-now/.
“Gossip’s Ephemeral Longevity: Power, Circulation, and New Media.” NECSUS: European Journal of Media Studies, #Rumors Special Issue, 11, no. 1 (2022): 41–66. https://doi.org/10.25969/mediarep/18836.
with Ashley Bender et al. “WWA Reflection: Continuing to #WriteWithAphra.” ABO: Interactive Journal for Women in the Arts, 1640-1830 11, no. 2 (2021). https://digitalcommons.usf.edu/abo/vol11/iss2/1/.
with Kirsten T. Saxton. “Writing With Aphra: Solidarity, Generosity, and Fight Club Rules Beyond Summer 2020.” ABO: Interactive Journal for Women in the Arts, 1640-1830 11, no. 1 (2021). https://digitalcommons.usf.edu/abo/vol11/iss1/17/.
“‘I Have Such a Piece of News for You’: Serving Gossip at Haywood’s The Tea-Table.” In A Spy on Eliza Haywood, edited by Aleksondra Hultquist and Chris Mounsey, 194–218. New York: Routledge, 2021.
with Sarah R. Creel and Anna K. Sagal. “Introduction,” for Fantomina by Eliza Haywood, 5–17. London: Renard Press, 2021.
“Fashion,” in Broadview Online: Jane Austen in Context. Broadview Press, 2019. https://sites.broadviewpress.com/austenincontext/.
Invited Talks
“Sally Salisbury from Sex Work to Coffin Robbery: A Case Study in Eighteenth-Century Fame.” Open Digital Seminar in Eighteenth-Century Studies (ODSECS). 15 November 2023.
“Recovering the Forgotten Women of Metal Type Design.” Salon Series, Letterform Archive, San Francisco, CA. March 2023.
Roundtable participant for “The Future of the Humanities” presidential session. American Society of Eighteenth-Century Studies (ASECS) Annual Conference. St. Louis, MO. March 2023.
“The Art and Mystery of Gossip; or, How Busybodies, Tittle-Tattle, and Bohea Created 18th-Century Print Culture.” Virtual Coffee Hour, Lewis Walpole Library, Yale University. April 2022.
with Erika Rappaport, guest on “Tea Tables and Empire.” The Global Tea Initiative’s Cha Chat Podcast, episode 8. Nov. 2021.
“Recovering the Forgotten Women of Metal Type Design.” Mellon Public Scholars 2021 Showcase, University of California, Davis. Nov. 2021.
“Eighteenth-Century Periodicals, Gossip, and Social Media: or, How to best profit from the stories of strangers.” Sponsored by the Brandeis Arts and Sciences Co-curricular Fund, Brandeis University. Sept. 2021.
“Who Spilled the Tea? Gossip, Tea Tables, and Eighteenth-Century Print Culture.” San Francisco State University English Department. March 2020.
“‘We see Thick Scandal circulate with right Bohea’: Bringing Gossip, Fame, and Tattling Jades to the Table.” Sterling Library, Yale University. Aug. 2018.
Recent Conference Presentations
“Visions of Pocket Technology: Materiality as Digital Practice with the Punch’s Pocket Book Archive Project.” Research Society of Victorian Periodicals (RSVP) Annual Conference. Online Virtual Panel, June 2025
“Uncommon Fame, Reputation Transitions, and Information Shifts in Richardson’s Clarissa.” Société d’Études Anglo-Américaines des XVIIe et XVIIIe Siècles (SEAA 17-18) workshop at Société des Anglicistes de l’Enseignement Supérieur (SAES) Annual Conference. Toulouse, France, June 2025
“Have Cats Always Been Memes? The Prevalence of Signifying Felines in Imagetexts from the 1700s to Today.” American Society of Eighteenth-Century Studies (ASECS) Annual Conference. Online, March–April 2025
“Cataloging the Restoration Jilt: Sexual Commodification, London Guidebooks, & Didactic Erotica.” Aphra Behn and Her Restoration International Conference, Aphra Behn (Europe) Society. University of Kent, UK. July 2024.
“Teaching the Jilt; or, Possible Futures of Eighteenth-Century Sex Worker Literature in Twenty-First-Century Classrooms.” Western Society of Eighteenth-Century Studies (WSECS). San Francisco, CA. Feb. 2024. Helene W. Koon Memorial Award, 2eme place
“‘Gimme more’: What Defoe’s Roxana and Britney Spears Can Tell Us about Celebrity, Commodification, and Autonomy.” Defoe Society and Early Caribbean Society Atlantic Routes & Roots Conference. San Juan, Puerto Rico. July 2023.
“Modernism Goes Eighteenth-Century: Literary Hoaxes, Travel Narratives, and The Diary of a Young Lady of Fashion, 1764–1765 (1925).” American Society of Eighteenth-Century Studies (ASECS) Annual Conference. St. Louis, MO. March 2023.
“Tittle-Tattle, News, or Babble? Gossip’s Many Branches, Circulations, and Bad Reputation in Early Modern England.” Gendering News in the Early Modern World. Durham University, UK. Aug. 2022.
“Reimagining the Creation of B-List Celebrity: Sally Salisbury’s Eighteenth-Century Transmedia Adaptations.” ASECS Annual Conference. Baltimore, MD. April 2022.
“Print, Social Media, and Gossip’s Longevity: From The Tea-Table to #SpillTheTea.” ASECS Annual Conference. Online. April 2021.
“Serving Gossip and Fame at Haywood’s The Tea-Table.” Eliza Haywood: 300 Years of Love in Excess Conference. Indianapolis, IN. April 2019.
“Secret Histories, Secret Signals, and Subalterity in the Haitian Revolution.” ASECS Annual Conference. Denver, CO. March 2019.
“Talking Statues, Treasonous Bishops, and Grave Robbery: Creating the Celebrated Sally Salisbury’s Print Afterlives.” ASECS Annual Conference. Orlando, FL. March 2018. Winner of the ASECS Women’s Caucus Catherine Macaulay Prize.
“How Sally Gets Around: Gossip, Information, and Serial Print Culture in Victorian England.” Interdisciplinary Nineteenth-Century Studies (INCS) Conference. San Francisco, CA. March 2018.
“Women on Display in the Papers: Prostitute Narratives and Charlotte Lennox’s The Lady’s Museum.” ASECS Annual Conference. Minneapolis, MN. March 2017.
“Getting Graphic: Sex Work, Comics, and Coalitions of Genre.” Pacific Ancient and Modern Language Association (PAMLA) Annual Conference. Portland, OR. Nov. 2015.
“Sleeping Her Way to the Top: The Menace of the Female Sexual Predator in Early American Cinema.” Humanities Education and Research Association Annual Conference. San Francisco, CA. April 2015.
“Just Who Is Moving that Invisible Hand? Virtue Production and Commodification in Transatlantic Nineteenth-Century Mysteries.” PAMLA Annual Conference. Riverside, CA. Nov. 2014.
Bethany Qualls 