Glittering masquerades, held at the most fashionable London venues, dominated the calendars of the Georgian elite. A thrilling opportunity to gather, flirt, and consume, hosts such as “Empress of Pleasure” Teresa Cornelys welcomed the great and the good in elaborate costumes—including diamond-covered gowns, harlequin outfits, or, in some cases, very little at all.
Organised by wealthy impresarios, the masquerade allowed the aristocracy to flaunt their status and enjoy themselves behind the closed doors of opulent ballrooms, theatres, and gardens, dressed by an industry of ever more inventive habit makers. For the rest of society, the masquerade was notorious for mischief and misbehaviour, and a focus for voracious gossip.
Join JASNA-NC for a fascinating afternoon learning about the social history of masquerade, which will be an excellent prelude to the AGM’s Masquerade Ball at the end of October!
The Details
What: “The Masquerade” with Meghan Kobza
When: September 20, 2026 from 2:00-3:30 p.m.
Where: In the comfort of your home via Zoom
RSVP: This event is open to members and interested guests; it is FREE but registration is required. Register for Zoom here.
Accessibility: We have auto-captions available in the Zoom meeting for our conversation, and any accompanying slides with text and images that will be as clear and as high-contrast as possible. If you have accessibility needs we have not addressed here, please let us know.
About Our Speaker
Dr Meghan Kobza is a historian of leisure culture, costume, and commercialization in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. Her book, The Masquerade: A History of Extravagance and Intrigue, brings this vibrant cultural phenomenon to life through the varied and colourful experiences of people, places, and material objects that were crucial in establishing this historic entertainment within the elite Georgian social calendar and public imaginations of the past and present.
Meg currently holds a Leverhulme Early Career Fellowship at Newcastle University where she completed her PhD in 2020. This postdoctoral project explores the interconnections between display, performance, and consumer culture and how making, selling, and/or wearing leisure costume impacted cultural perceptions of race and gender within the British Empire. This research will produce a second book that examines the role of amateur performance, play, and dress in enforcing and challenging racial hierarchies of the long nineteenth century.
As an extension of this work, Meg has collaborated with the National Trust to bring an accessible and experiential history of Georgian fancy dress to the Bath Assembly Rooms. This has inspired further collaboration with the National Trust and forthcoming experiential events with the British Academy that examine past and present relationships between fancy dress and fashion.
Meg has given a number of public talks at heritage sites, including Powderham Castle and the Bath Assembly Rooms, and has lectured at the Royal Academy. She has also taught at a range of higher education institutions during her international academic career. She currently teaches at Newcastle University (UK) and has taught at Arrupe College Loyola University Chicago, National Louis University, and Moraine Valley Community College (Illinois, USA). She is the domestic conference organiser for the British Society for Eighteenth-Century Studies and an Associate Fellow of the Royal Historical Society.