The Executive Board of the Eighteenth-Century Scottish Studies Society (ECSSS)—an Affiliate Society of the American Society for Eighteenth-Century Studies (ASECS) since ECSSS’s foundation in 1986—unanimously endorses the ASECS Position Statement below, concerning the Executive Order by the President of the United States of America on travel restrictions to the USA.
The American Society for Eighteenth-Century Studies unequivocally condemns as both unAmerican and unEnlightened the administration’s Executive Order suspending entry of refugees into the United States and blocking entry to citizens of seven predominantly Muslim countries even when they hold visas. As scholars of the era in which the United States was founded and its core principles of equality and justice established, as intellectuals committed to free inquiry, and as educators who recognize that the contributions of students and colleagues from around the world foster our highest intellectual values and promote our highest goals for achieving knowledge and understanding across national, ethnic, and religious boundaries, we call upon government officials to reverse this order and restore the principles that have guided this nation for more than two centuries.
In this difficult and divisive time, we rededicate ourselves to principles of inclusion within our own Society and extend our support to those who are directly affected by these and other discriminatory practices including those by our own government. Our commitment to open and respectful intellectual exchange among people with differing and varied perspectives, which is another of the Enlightenment’s great legacies, is reaffirmed each year in our annual meeting. Should any member of ASECS be barred from entering the United States to attend our annual meeting, ASECS is committed to providing an alternative method for presenting their work.