FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE October 15, 2014 Gov. Edwin W. Edwards To Serve As Honorary Chairman For Montréal Conference On Enlightenment BATON ROUGE, LA. (USA)—Governor Edwin W. Edwards, former Congressman and four-time Governor of the State of Louisiana of the United States, will serve as Honorary Chair of the panel, Eighteenth Century Louisiana, a perspective of the three hundred year heritage of French intellectual contributions to American governance and social theory within the context of the Enlightenment, at the conference, Revolutions in 18th Century Sociability, in Montréal, Canada, October 15-18, 2014. Co-sponsored by the Canadian Society for Eighteenth-Century Studies and the Eighteenth-Century Scottish Studies Society, this conference explores the questions of social cohesion and harmony. Organizers explain that this conference sets out to examine the evolution of sociability in the “long eighteenth century” through the prism of the numerous revolutions — political, commercial, industrial, scientific, literary and artistic — which helped to redefine sociability’s forms and to redirect its practices. “Serving as Honorary Chair was not my idea, but I am flattered,” Governor Edwards said. ”I have never claimed to be an historian, a scholar or an intellectual, much less a member of the Enlightenment. But the organizers approached me, and convinced me that promoting Louisiana, and particularly, its Louisiana French intellectual contributions, is long overdue. I have always supported and promoted this State and welcome this opportunity as well.” Panel contributor Fernin F. Eaton, a lawyer and historian in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, said having the former Governor agree to serve as Honorary Chairman is an honor to both the Conference and the State of Louisiana. “Governor Edwards gave Louisiana permission to come out of the closet and to be French again, and to reclaim its French heritage,” Eaton said. "I could think of no one better qualified to serve as chairman of this panel than Governor Edwards.” Historian Jari Honora further noted “Governor Edwards’ unashamed efforts at achieving political successes on his own terms and in keeping with Louisiana’s rich political legacy is exactly the form of responsive government and self-identification advocated by so many Enlightenment-era thinkers.” “Governor Edwards,” said Honora, “is a perfect commentator for this panel given his advocacy for Louisiana’s Francophone cultural communities during his four terms as governor. After several decades of ‘Americanization’ and suppression of French language and culture in Louisiana, Governor Edwards’ conscious self-identification as an Acadian descendant marked a high-point for the Cajun/Creole cultural renaissance in this state.” Keynote speakers for this conference will be Pierre Serna, professor at the University of Paris–I Panthéon-Sorbonne, director of the Institut d’histoire de la Révolution française, and vice-president of the Commission internationale d’histoire de la Révolution française; and James Moore, emeritus professor at Concordia University. The Conference is jointly organized by the Groupe de recherche en histoire des sociabilités and the Centre interuniversitaire de recherche sur la première modernité, and will be hosted by the Université du Québec à Montréal, with the support of the Stewart Museum and the Macdonald Stewart Foundation. Governor Edwards will appear over video as he is in the final weeks of his campaign for the United State’s Congress, in Louisiana’s 6th Congressional District. More information about the Conference, as well as the program, is available at the website: http://scedhs2014.uqam.ca/en/program.html Please direct all media inquiries to press@edwinedwards4congress.com