Thursday, August 30, 2012

Last Call for Registration: Edward Lear: The Bicentennial Conference (9/21-22/2012)


Edward Lear: The Bicentennial Conference
Jesus College, Oxford, 21-22 September 2012


Edward Lear (1812-1888): zoological illustrator, landscape painter, cartoonist, travel writer, drawing master to Queen Victoria, depressive, diarist, friend of the Tennysons, epileptic, exile, and nonsense poet of genius. Praised by Ruskin and Eliot, elegized by Auden, analysed by Orwell and Huxley, Lear has never ceased to fascinate and delight. His life and works intersect major artistic currents of the nineteenth century, and his influence can be felt in successors as diverse as Stevie Smith and John Ashbery, James Joyce and James Thurber.

This two-day conference will be the first ever gathering of scholars to celebrate and discuss Lear’s work in his various creative fields. Interdisciplinary in scope, it will set the agenda for future study, resituating Lear as a major figure in his own time, and showing how he continues to speak to our own.

Speakers: Anna Barton * Gillian Beer * Matthew Bevis * Aingeal Clare * Richard Cronin Christopher Decker * Hugh Haughton * Daniel Karlin * Robert M. Peck * Adam Phillips * Seamus Perry * Peter Robinson * Anne Stillman * Peter Swaab * James Williams


Registration is now open at: http://www.oxforduniversitystores.co.uk/browse/extra_info.asp?compid=1&modid=2&prodid=108&deptid=110&catid=22. Registration closes September 14, 2012. 

For further information, please contact james.williams@jesus.ox.ac.uk

Reminder: Other Worlds (9/14/2012; 12/3/2012)



Other Worlds
Victorian Network Conference
3 Dec 2012, Senate House, University of London

Keynote Speakers: Dr John Holmes (Reading) and Professor Cora Kaplan (KCL)

From other lands to other planets to other dimensions, the nineteenth-century imagination thrived on the idea of ‘elsewhere’. Alongside a developing rhetoric of geographically and intellectually bounded identities grew a fascination with alterity. Other Worlds seeks to explore the many ways in which Victorians looked beyond their quotidian spheres to imagined alternatives. We invite submissions which explore nineteenth-century modes of thought which position themselves as other, alternative, transcendent, secret or hidden.

This conference also seeks to explore how we, as a network of Victorian scholars, construct the ‘other Victorian’. We use ‘Victorian’ to denote a period of time, describe our research, talk of a people and a nation. Yet this casual use is juxtaposed with a tacit recognition of the instability of the term and its homogenizing tendency as it collapses differences to construct an ideologically seamless era. Abandoning the quest for what ‘Victorian’ really means – an inevitable failure – this conference seeks to embrace the multiplicity of worlds that the term denotes and inhabits and the rebellious tendencies of the ‘Victorians’ themselves towards the idea of a single world.

Other Worlds aims to bring together scholars working in a wide range of disciplines to explore in greater depth the many fields of thought covered by the conference theme.  Papers might deal with some of the following topics:

  • Private worlds; confessional writing; secrecy
  • The spiritual world; prayers, religious writing; heaven, hell and purgatory
  • Fantastical and imaginary worlds
  • Children's writing; childhood fantasy
  • Marginal or subversive communities
  • Travel, exploration, unknown countries
  • Alternative histories
  • The Victorians as ‘other world’

Please send abstracts of around 250 words to otherworldsconference@gmail.com along with a brief biography by 14th September 2012.

Other Worlds is a joint conference between King’s College London and Victorian Network and is organised by Sarah Crofton, Melissa Dickson and Fariha Shaikh. It is supported by the AHRC.

Tuesday, August 28, 2012

Curran Fellowship for Research on the Victorian Press (10/15/2012)





The Research Society for Victorian Periodicals (RSVP) is pleased to announce the competition for the fifth annual Curran Fellowship, a travel and research grant intended to aid scholars studying 19th-century British magazines and newspapers in making use of primary print and archival sources. Made possible through the generosity of Eileen Curran, Professor Emerita of English, Colby College, and inspired by her pioneering research on Victorian periodicals, the Curran Fellowship is awarded annually in the form of two grants of $2,500 each.

The projected research may involve study of any aspects of the periodical press in any of its manifold forms, and may range from within Britain itself to the many countries, within and outside of the Empire, where British magazines and newspapers were bought, sold, and read
during “the long nineteenth century” (ca. 1780-1914).

Applications for the Curran Fellowship for research to be undertaken in 2013 must be submitted in electronic form and sent to curranfellowship@rs4vp.org by October 15, 2012. Applicants should send a c.v., the names and contact information of two scholars who are familiar with the applicant and his or her research goals, and a description of the project to which these funds would be applied. Any queries about the application may be sent to the same address.

Applicants will be notified by January 15, 2013. Successful applicants will be required to submit a brief report to RSVP at the conclusion of the funded portion of their project, describing the results of their research, and are asked to acknowledge the fellowship in any published work based on that research.

This call for applications may be found on the RSVP website at http://www.rs4vp.org/prizes.html A set of additional guidelines for applicants may be found at http://www.rs4vp.org/curran_fellowship_guidelines.pdf

CFP: Victorian Motherhood, NeMLA (9/30/2012; 3/21-24/2013)




This panel invites papers on Victorian motherhood: the literal figure and/or its literary incarnations. What is the evolution of this role, its ideals and their practicality? What is the intersection between literature and these concepts? Topics to consider include but are not limited to: philosophical constructs of motherhood, societal expectations and realities, idealizing the Victorian mother, radical motherhood, and literary mothering. Please email 250-500 word abstracts to Kristin.LeVeness@ncc.edu.

Chair: Kristin Le Veness

New Tenure-Track C19 Job in English, U of Washington (11/16/2012)





Assistant Professor: The Global Nineteenth Century, Department of English, University of Washington

The English Department of the University of Washington is seeking a full-time, tenure-track Assistant Professor whose primary research and teaching expertise include 19th-Century British and/or British Empire Fiction. Preference given to candidates working in one of the following areas: comparative colonialisms, slavery, gender/sexuality, popular culture, law, performance and visual studies, trans-Atlantic and trans-Pacific studies, religion/secularization. Applicants should have PhD degree by the start of appointment.  University of Washington faculty engage in teaching, research and service.  As a public institution, the University of Washington seeks candidates committed to working with diverse student and community populations; applicants are encouraged to describe in their applications how their scholarship and teaching contributes to diverse communities. Please submit application materials including a letter of application, c.v., dossier, dissertation abstract, teaching portfolio, and writing sample to the MLA Interfolio ByCommittee Job Application Web site.  Contact information: Gary Handwerk, Chair, Department of English, University of Washington, Padelford Hall A101, Box 354330, Seattle, WA, 98195.  Priority will be given to applications received by November 16, 2012.

The University of Washington is an affirmative action, equal opportunity employer.  The University is dedicated to the goal of building a culturally diverse and pluralistic faculty and staff committed to teaching and working in a multicultural environment and strongly encourages applications from women, minorities, individuals with disabilities, and covered veterans.


Reminder: Essay Collection on Thomas Hardy’s Short Stories (9/7/2012)



Hardy’s short stories have had little attention as compared to his novels and poetry. Therefore, I am organizing a volume of previously unpublished essays and seek articles of 6,000 to 8,000 words on any aspect of Hardy’s short stories which help deepen our understanding of his use of the genre. Proposals may address a story individually or the stories as collected in the volumes Wessex Tales (1888), A Group of Noble Dames (1891), Life’s Little Ironies (1894), A Changed Man (1913).

Key themes and topics might include:

Implications of periodical publication;
Readership of individual stories and/or collected stories;
Use of sensationalism;
Use of humor;
Emphasis on class and cultural issues;
Importance of music;
Gender relations;
Use of setting;
Use of supernatural, mystery, mythical aspects;
Use of religion;
Emphasis on community relations and mores;
Use of narrative form

Please send proposals of up to 500 words, for articles of between 6,000-8,000 words, by 7 September 2012 to Juliette B. Schaefer: schaefej@ohiodominican.edu Ohio Dominican University (614) 251-4667. Proposals should include the article’s working title, the author’s academic affiliation, and a 100-word biography.

Inquiries are welcome. I will aim to inform authors that they have been selected for the volume by the second week of October. 

Monday, August 27, 2012

Job Listing: Children’s/Victorian Literature at East Carolina University



The Department of English at East Carolina University (http://www.ecu.edu/english) seeks a tenure-track assistant professor specializing in Children’s Literature and Victorian Literature, to begin August 12, 2013. Ph.D. or equivalent by August 2013 is required.

Candidates should demonstrate expertise in each field and contribute to teaching and course development in both areas at the undergraduate and graduate levels. The successful candidate will be expected to pursue an ongoing research agenda in either area and provide appropriate service to the university, community, and profession.

Screening begins November 1, 2012, and will continue until the position is filled. Candidates for this position must complete a candidate profile and submit a cover letter, curriculum vitae, one-page statements of teaching philosophy and research agenda, and writing sample online at www.jobs.ecu.edu.  In addition, arrange for three current reference letters to be sent to:

Jeffrey Johnson, Chair
Department of English
Mail Stop 555, Bate Building 2201
East Carolina University
Greenville, NC 27858-4353

East Carolina University is an Equal Opportunity/Affirmative Action University that accommodates individuals with disabilities. Individuals requesting accommodation under the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) should contact the Department for Disability Support Services at (252) 737-1016 (Voice/TTY). Proper documentation of identity and employability is required at the time of employment. Official transcript required upon employment.

Sunday, August 26, 2012

CFP: Architecture of Cultures and Identities in Canada (9/30/2012; 5/13-15/2013)




The House that Isaac Built:
The Architecture of Cultures and Identities in Canada
May 13-15, 2013        
Huron University College at Western
London, Ontario, Canada

Huron University College, Western's founding college, is pleased to announce an interdisciplinary conference in celebration of its Sesquicentennial, 1863-2013 —“The House that Isaac Built: The Architecture of Cultures and Identities in Canada”— focused on the history, context, and influence of Huron's founding generation.  As a global citizen in the Victorian age, Isaac Hellmuth, Huron's first principal, embraced a broad vision for the future of Canada. The conference invites a reassessment of that vision and its implications, in their full complexity.

Born near Warsaw, Isaac Hellmuth began life as Isaac Hirschmann, changing his name following a painful break with his family in the wake of his conversion from Judaism to Christianity. Hellmuth moved to England, and then to Canada, where was ordained in the Church of England, and began a career that included a professorship in Hebrew at Bishop's University, oversight of the Colonial Church and School Society operations in Canada, and the office of Bishop in the Diocese of Huron. His role in expanding institutions of higher learning as the first Principal of Huron College and founder of Hellmuth College for Boys, Hellmuth Ladies' College, and, in 1878, Western University was shaped by the powerful tenets of evangelical liberalism. It was in accord with his engagement in the movement to abolish slavery, and to extend the work of the church "without distinction of race."

Hellmuth emerges from the historical record as an institution-builder whose work embraced a broad and liberal vision of progress in Victorian Canada, but "the house that Isaac built" has always been a work under construction, and opens outward on more expansive vistas than might first be supposed. Hellmuth spent much of his life challenging established expectations, crossing and transgressing boundaries of nation, empire, and religion. “The House that Isaac Built” begins by taking new measure of Huron's first global citizen and the contested cultural landscape that his work helped to shape.

Taking its lead from the diverse intellectual interests and global engagement of Hellmuth, “The House that Isaac Built” seeks papers from multiple disciplinary perspectives including history, education, political science, literature, theology, Canadian studies, First Nations studies, and cultural studies.

Paper and panel themes may include, but are not limited to:

  • the age of Huron's founders in international context
  • education and the liberal arts
  • anti-slavery in Victorian Canada and the Atlantic world
  • evangelicalism and religion
  • race, gender, and identity
  • First Nations history
  • the regional history of south-western Ontario
  • contemporary scholarship on Canadian culture and evolving conceptions of community

We invite academics, independent scholars, and graduate students to submit proposals for individual papers and complete panels. Suggestions for roundtables are also encouraged.  Presenters may be invited to submit papers for a proposed edited collection reassessing Isaac Hellmuth, and his historical context and influence. 

Please direct proposals to huron150conference@uwo.ca  by September 30, 2012.

For individual 20-minute papers, send the title and a 250-word abstract; for panels, include the panel title and a brief description, plus a 250-word abstract with title for each paper. Applicants should also provide a one-page CV or short biographical statement. Notification of acceptance will be provided by mid-November 2012.

Visit the conference website at: www.huronuc.ca/conference150

Friday, August 24, 2012

CFP: Exhibiting Human Remains (9/1/2012; 6/4/2013)





History and Cultural Representations of Human Remains
This series of 3 interdisciplinary conferences will examine the relationship between anatomical knowledge and practice and their cultural representations so as to offer an overview of the cultural reception of the exhibition of human remains. The conferences are aimed at scholars from a variety of medical humanities.

Medical Museums and Anatomical Collections
Natural History Museum – Toulouse, February 4, 2013

Anatomical Models
Academy of Medicine – Paris, April 4, 2013

Exhibiting Human Remains
Hunterian Museum – London, June 4, 2013

Call for Papers: Exhibiting Human Remains
Hunterian Museum – London
June 4, 2013

In the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, the issue of emotional responses related to the dissection and exhibition of human remains was increasingly at the heart of debates related to the constitution (and closing down) of medical museums. This last conference will analyse the reception of medical museums and their exhibited human remains, focusing more particularly on the impact of an increasingly fragmented and commodified human body. The conference will therefore look at the history of and debates around the exhibition of human remains and how these debates were represented in literature and the arts. It will investigate the changes in representation, tracing the evolution from the aestheticized bodies of the Renaissance to the human remains exhibited in nineteenth-century medical museums, and also explore how the exhibition of human remains radically changed ideas about the diffusion of knowledge and the relation between science and nature as well as suggested new epistemological strategies. Using literature and the arts as significant media in the popularisation of a new scopic regime (examining, for instance, literary and artistic representations of embalmed corpses, exhibited skeletons or bottled specimens), the conference will highlight the way in which the artistic field often offered a more humanized or ethically more complex version of the gruesome business of dissection that anatomists and curators were daily trying to make presentable to their audiences. In this way, the conference will probe the links between episteme and transgression, and call attention to the ethical questions that were raised (and still are) by the exhibition (or even trafficking) of human remains.

We invite 20-minute papers that engage with, but are not limited to, the following topics :

  • the history of the exhibition of human remains in medical essays, journals, manuals of dissection
  • the reception of human remains, audiences and gender issues
  • the policing of the gaze in medical museums
  • audience responses to natural anatomies and artificial models
  • the links between human remains and other anatomical tools
  • human remains, ethics and medicine
  • exhibited human remains and anatomical legislation
  • representations of human remains in broadsides, pamphlets, caricatures, advertising and fiction
  • representations of the corpse as commodity/anatomical material
  • representations of tissue trafficking
  • the reception/representation of human remains and the issue of mortality
  • the meaning(s) of human remains
  • human remains in Gothic/sensation/detective fiction
  • representations of anatomists and bodysnatchers in fiction and non-fiction (essays, manuscripts, letters, diaries, etc.)
  • stories and testimonies relating supplies of cadavers, the relation between anatomists and grave-robbers, dissection

Please send 300-word proposals (attached as a .doc-file; in English only), together with a short biographical note to Laurence Talairach-Vielmas (talairac@univ-tlse2.fr) & Rafael Mandressi (rafael.mandressi@damesme.cnrs.fr). Please write ‘EXPLORA/Exhibiting Human Remains/Abstract’ as email object. Deadline for submissions: September 1, 2012. Contributors will be notified that their proposal has been accepted by mid-October 2012.

Registration Open: Victorian Things (8/22/2012)





Victorian Things: Nineteenth-Century Literature and Material Culture
22 September 2012, Oxford Brookes U

Booking has now opened on Victorian Things: Nineteenth-Century Literature and Material Culture. To confirm a place, please visit http://shop.brookes.ac.uk/browse/extra_info.asp?compid=1&modid=2&prodid=45&deptid=24&catid=37 .

Details about the symposium can be found on the linked site. 

For any further information or for a full schedule, please email Dr. Tatiana Kontou, Dr. Verity Hunt, Dr. Andrew Mangham or Verity Burke at victorianthings12@gmail.com

Please also see our facebook page (http://www.facebook.com/victorianthings) or hashtag #VicThings on twitter.

Thursday, August 23, 2012

Reminder: “Loco/Motion,” 34th annual NCSA conference (9/30/2012; 3/7-9/2013)


Loco/Motion
34th Annual Conference of the Nineteenth Century Studies Association
Fresno, California, March 7-9, 2013

The long nineteenth century set the world on the move. Travel became increasingly important for business and pleasure, for war and peace. At the same time, new forms of moving people arose: the balloon, ships, undergrounds, funiculars, the railroads. Each carried riders to great distances, different locales, and novel pursuits. But motion wasn’t purely spatial; new movements arose as well, sweeping the inhabitants of the period into fresh vistas of thought and endeavor. We seek papers and panels that capture the sense of movement at work and at play during the long nineteenth century (1789-1914). Papers may address the intersections of movement/s, focus on technologies of motion in isolation, or reveal the desires—for gain, glory, greed—that set the world on its feet.

Some suggested topics:

  • Gold Rushes (Mineral Manias and Speculative Destinations)
  • Literature of the Sea
  • Maps and Cartography
  • The Science of Exploration (Darwin’s Voyages)
  • Narratives of Time Travel, Travel into Space (Jules Verne, Arthur Conan Doyle)
  • The West as Destination and Concept
  • Celebrity Performance Tours
  • Movement of Goods and Ideas
  • Migration and Relocation
  • Expeditions
  • Concepts of Motion and Stasis
  • New Forms of Creative Motion and Locomotion (Moving Pictures, Photography, Dance, Music)
We also welcome other interpretations of the conference theme.

The campus of California State University, Fresno, will host us in 2013. Its setting makes it the perfect place to explore the conference theme, since Fresno is ringed by the original Gold Rush towns and three superb national parks (Yosemite, Sequoia, and Kings Canyon), two of which are nineteenth-century creations. As a result, Fresno still bears evidence of the vast changes caused by the movements of the nineteenth century. The library of CSU Fresno houses the Donald G. Larson Collection on International Expositions and Fairs; material from this archive will be featured in a special exhibition for the conference.  Please note: submission of a proposal indicates intent to present.

Please e-mail abstracts (250 words) for 20-minute papers that provide the author’s name and paper title in the heading, as well as a one-page cv, to Prof. Toni Wein at NCSA-2013@sbcglobal.net by September 30, 2012. Please note that submission of a proposal indicates intent to present. Presenters will be notified in November 2012. Graduate students whose proposals are accepted may, at that point, submit complete papers in competition for a travel grant to help cover transportation and lodging expenses. 

Wednesday, August 22, 2012

Announcing an Updated Version of the Victorian Women Writers Project





The Indiana University Digital Library Program and Indiana University Libraries are proud to announce the launch of an updated version of the Victorian Women Writers Project: http://www.dlib.indiana.edu/collections/vwwp.

The Victorian Women Writers Project (VWWP) was begun in 1995 at Indiana University under the determined leadership and editorship of Perry Willett. The VWWP was celebrated early on for exposing lesser-known British women writers of the 19th century, writers whose popularity did not make the transition into the 20th century or inclusion in a literary canon. Originally the VWWP focused on poetry, but soon Willett acknowledged the variety of genres in which women of that period were writing—novels, children’s books, political pamphlets, religious tracts and so on. Thus the collection was expanded to include genres beyond poetry and so the VWWP grew until about the turn of the twenty-first century, ultimately including nearly two hundred texts as part of the corpus.

Quiet since 2003, the VWWP is pleased to be back with an expanded purview that includes women writing in the nineteenth century in English beyond Britain. As before, the project will devote time and attention to the accuracy and completeness of the texts, as well as to their bibliographical descriptions. New texts, encoded according to the Text Encoding Initiative (TEI) P5 Guidelines, will adopt principles of scholarly encoding, facilitating more sophisticated retrieval and analysis.

Since 2010, the Victorian Women Writers Project has served as a pedagogical tool, imparting to English graduate and undergraduate students—at Indiana University and beyond—the critical and technical skills commonly employed by digital humanists. It has also served as a significant research tool to which the graduate and undergraduate students directly contribute. Their contributions include scholarly encoded texts, enhanced bibliographic access, and contextual materials such as scholarly annotations, introductions, and author biographies that shed further light on these little known women writers.

New features that are part of this release include: genre browse based on the Modern Language Association Thesaurus, an interactive timeline situating authors, publications and major events in historical context, and contextual materials authored by students.

Now available are approximately twenty encoded texts that were created as part of a new digital humanities seminar (ENG L501: Professional Scholarship in Literature: Digital Humanities Practicum) taught in the IU English department during the Fall 2010 semester under the fearless leadership of Professor Joss Marsh, also known as "the manager." Monographs by Mrs. M. Alexander, Mary Cholmondeley, Juliana Ewing, Fanny Kemble, and Anne Thackeray Ritchie are now part of the collection along with introductions to the these texts and biographies authored by the L501 graduate students. Since then, the VWWP editors have partnered with Judson College and Texas A & M for additional contributions to the project as part of their respective English courses and curricula. We look forward to establishing the VWWP as a reliable and respected pedagogical and scholarly online resource, and in turn growing and evolving the VWWP in the coming years.

To learn more about the technical details surrounding the new web site, please visit the project information page (http://webapp1.dlib.indiana.edu/vwwp/projectinfo.do ), where specifics about text encoding and technical implementation are provided. Or skip the boring stuff and explore the new web site: http://www.dlib.indiana.edu/collections/vwwp.

Stay tuned as we continue to add monographs and contextual materials over time!

Happily,
Michelle, Co-Editor, VWWP

Michelle Dalmau, Digital Projects & Usability Librarian
Indiana University Digital Library Program
Herman B Wells Library
http://mypage.iu.edu/~mdalmau/

Registration Open: Moving Towards Science in the Long Nineteenth Century (9/12/2012)





12 September 2012, The Literary and Philosophical Society, Newcastle upon Tyne

Guest speakers:
Dr Peter Garratt (Northumbria University), Professor David Knight (Durham University), and Professor Jennifer Richards and Dr Anne Whitehead (Newcastle University)

The North East Postgraduate Research Group for the Long Nineteenth Century (NENC) is pleased to announce that registration is now open for this postgraduate symposium held on Wednesday 12 September 2012.

The theme of the symposium reflects two parallel ‘moves’ towards science. First, it references the rise of the ‘natural sciences’, the scientific method, and the professional scientist across the long nineteenth century. Second, it recognises moves in contemporary arts and humanities scholarship towards a more nuanced disciplinary relationship with the sciences and the possibility of ‘one culture’.  Adopting an exploratory methodology, the day will allow delegates to think widely about how literary culture of the period approached, adapted, and rejected emergent scientific, technological, and medical discourses and methods. More broadly, we will consider how and why literature and science might move together in the contemporary academy.

Ranging across the early modern period to the end of the long nineteenth century in their areas of specialisation, our guest speakers will consider in particular how they have approached or made use of scientific discourses in their own research. This will provide delegates with an opportunity to gain insight into some of the methodological and theoretical benefits and challenges of a turn towards science. 

Registration
The symposium is free to attend, and all are welcome. To register your place, please email: movingtowardsscience@gmail.com with your title, name, institutional affiliation, any dietary or access requirements, and whether you would like to reserve a place at the conference dinner, to be held in Newcastle city centre after the event. Registration will close on Saturday 8 September.

Programme
The full programme can be viewed on the NENC website:

Location
The symposium will be held at Newcastle upon Tyne's Literary and Philosophical Society, the largest independent library outside of London, which dates from 1825. The Lit & Phil is situated in the city centre, a five minute walk from the central rail station.

The symposium is generously supported by the British Society for Literature and Science (BSLS) and by the three host Universities (Newcastle, Durham, and Northumbria). 

Tuesday, August 14, 2012

Call for Applicants: editorial team for the Journal of British Studies (11/30/2012)



The North American Conference on British Studies is seeking a new editorial team for the Journal of British Studies, including a new general editor or co-editors, and a new book review editor or co-editors. The current editors' term ends in summer 2014, and the Association hopes to select new editors a year earlier to facilitate the transition process. Editors are appointed to a five-year term.  Those interested in applying should contact Professor Cynthia Herrup of the University of Southern California History Department (herrup@usc.edu). The application deadline
for both positions is November 30, 2012.

The Journal of British Studies, published four times a year, is the premier journal in the field, with a very high ISI citation impact rating. Starting in January2013, the journal will be published by Cambridge University Press.

Interested parties should be aware that the editorship and the book review editorship (both open to a team) are not related. Applicants should specify which of these positions interests them.  Editorial subventions provide funding for editorial assistants for each of the two positions, but applicants will require a commitment of support from their home institutions.  The current editorial teams are happy to answer questions about their duties.  You can contact Brian Cowen (brian.cowen2@mcgill.ca) or Elizabeth Elbourne (elizabeth.elbourne@mcgill.ca) about the journal editors' responsibilities and Amy Froide (froide@umbc.edu) or Gail Savage (glsavage@smcm.edu) about the book review editorsš responsibilities. Questions and inquiries can also be directed to the NACBS president, Dane Kennedy (dkennedy@gwu.edu), or vice president/president-elect, Keith Wrightson (keith.wrightson@yale.edu).

Friday, August 10, 2012

CFP: Re-Visioning the Brontës (9/28/2012; 1/29/2013)



29 January 2013 - Call for papers: `Re-Visioning the Brontës', University of Leeds conference in conjunction with the exhibitions, `Wildness Between the Lines' and `Visions of Angria'

Recent adaptations and interpretations of the Brontës' lives and works through film, art, literature and theatre raise questions about the continuing fascination with these literary figures, as well as highlighting the wider potential for artistic intervention or collaboration between artworks and audiences. Similarly, it is through innovative contemporary arts programmes that organisations like the Brontë Parsonage Museum and the Brontë Society seek to move beyond simple `caricatures' of the family and encourage diverse audience engagement.

This one day cross-disciplinary conference will explore the recent `re-visioning' of the Brontës through critically examining artistic responses and interpretations of their work. The conference will address ways in which the legacy of the Brontës is exerting an influence in a range of creative fields, and across a variety of media.

A collaboration between the Stanley & Audrey Burton Gallery and the School of Fine Art, History of Art and Cultural Studies, the conference is taking place to coincide with two exhibitions. The first, `Wildness Between the Lines', at Leeds College of Art, brings together the work of a wide range of artists who have been influenced by the Brontës. `Visions of Angria', at the Stanley and Audrey Burton Gallery, showcases Brontë material from the University of Leeds Special Collections, accompanied by illustrations from students at Leeds College of Art.

This theme lends itself to a broad field of research and practice. Submissions are welcomed from academics, artists, research students and professionals, and the format is not restricted to formal papers. Topics for discussion might include, but are not limited to:

  • The Brontës' influence in contemporary culture
  • Creative adaptations or reinterpretations of the Brontës' lives and works
  • Curatorial interpretations of the Brontës
  • The myth and legacy of the Brontës
  • Responses to exhibitions of Brontë material
  • Representations of the Brontës in literary biographies

Confirmed speakers include Jane Sellars (Curator of Art, Mercer Art Gallery, Harrogate) and Professor Blake Morrison (Goldsmiths, University of London) in conversation with Dr Richard Brown (University of Leeds).


Please email submissions, including a title, 400 word abstract and CV, to: bronte.revision@gmail.com by no later than Friday, 28 September 2012. Successful applicants will be notified by the 30 November 2012. Further questions are welcomed at this address.

Find us at:

The Stanley & Audrey Burton Gallery
Parkinson Building
Woodhouse Lane
University of Leeds
Leeds
LS2 9JT

Telephone: 0113 343 2778
Fax: 0113 343 5561 (Please mark for the attention of the Art Gallery)
Email: gallery@leeds.ac.uk 


Wednesday, August 08, 2012

CFP: Historical Fiction in the Nineteenth Century, NeMLA (9/30/2012; 3/21-24/2013)



44th Annual Convention, Northeast Modern Language Association (NeMLA)
March 21-24, 2013
Boston, Massachusetts
Host Institution:  Tufts University

Panel: "Under Scott’s Shadow: Historical Fiction in the Nineteenth Century"

This panel seeks papers on nineteenth-century historical fiction and criticism. Most accounts of the historical novel emphasize the achievements of Walter Scott, and while papers on Scott are welcome, this panel also seeks papers on aspects of historical fiction that are often neglected or under-appreciated. How have different authors approached this genre? How have they critiqued or challenged the model of the historical novel created and popularized by Scott? Please send 250-500 word abstracts to Lesley Goodman at lgoodman@fas.harvard.edu.

Deadline:  September 30, 2012
Please include with your abstract:
Name and Affiliation
Email address
Postal address
Telephone number
A/V requirements (if any; $10 handling fee with registration)

CFP: Nineteenth-Century Studies on the Move (9/6/2012; 3/7-9/2013)



34th Annual Conference of the Nineteenth Century Studies Association
Fresno, California
March 7-9, 2013

Panel: Nineteenth-Century Studies on the Move in the 21st Century

In recent years the field of public humanities has created new ways of building connections among scholars, arts and cultural heritage institutions (libraries, historic sites, archives, museums, etc.), and individuals who have a shared interest in preserving, creating knowledge about, and studying people or cultures.  Some are turning to social justice causes or environmental reform as an outgrowth of their scholarship, while others are collaborating with local museums or communities to educate and preserve the cultural institutions they write about in their work.  

This panel will look at the movement of our field out of the tower and onto the street, to address the intersection of scholarship and civic engagement.  Papers might consider any of the following:  How has public humanities moved interdisciplinary nineteenth-century studies in new directions?  How might nineteenth-century scholarship transform, reform, preserve, or better serve the world in which we live?  How might our collaborations with non-academic institutions and people help to reinvigorate the humanities and/or nineteenth century studies scholarship for the 21stcentury? 

Please submit 300 word abstracts for 20 minute papers and a short CV (2 pages) to Heidi Kaufman at kaufman@udel.edu no later than September 6, 2012.



Saturday, August 04, 2012

Literature and Crime in the Early Nineteenth Century (9/30/2012; 3/21-24/2013)



44th Annual Convention, Northeast Modern Language Association (NeMLA)
March 21-24, 2013
Boston, Massachusetts
Host Institution: Tufts University
Panel: Literature and Crime in the Early Nineteenth Century

This panel will explore ways in which nineteenth-century British literature published before 1859 engages with issues of crime and criminality. Papers might examine social responses to this literature or situate issues of class and gender in relation to the broader theme of the panel, though a focus on these particular inquiries is not required. Possible texts include, but are not limited to, gothic fiction, Newgate novels, penny 'bloods,' and works by G.W.M. Reynolds. Please send 300-500 word abstracts to Elizabeth Stearns, efporter@syr.edu.

Deadline: September 30, 2012

Please include with your abstract:
Name and Affiliation
Email address
Postal address
Telephone number
A/V requirements (if any; $10 handling fee with registration)

Openings in 18th-19th-C British Lit, University of Minnesota (10/19/2012)



The Department of English at the University of Minnesota invites applications for two full-time assistant professorships: tenure-track, 2/2 course load, begins fall semester 2013.

Required qualifications: (1) PhD or equivalent degree in English or related field, with degree in hand by July 1, 2013; (2) evidence of expertise and high-quality work in 18th- and/or 19th-c. British literature and one or more of the following: (a) literature and empire; (b) literature, science, and technology; (c) literature and the other arts; (d) new approaches to comparative literature; (e) literature, sexuality, and gender; and (f) other innovative interdisciplinary scholarship on literature and a domain of material culture, politics, history, or society; (3) undergraduate teaching experience.

Preferred qualifications: significant scholarship in peer-reviewed venues (e.g., conference papers, journal articles, chapters in edited collections, monographs); graduate-level teaching and advising; demonstrated potential for continued success as scholar and teacher.

The university expects faculty members to maintain an active program of scholarly research and publication, teach undergraduate and graduate courses, advise students, and contribute service to the department, college, university, and profession.

Applicants must apply online at https://employment.umn.edu/applicants/jsp/shared/position/JobDetails_css.jsp?postingId=560554. Provide a cover letter, a curriculum vitae, 20-25 pages of your scholarly writing, and syllabi for two courses you have taught.  Deadline is Oct. 19, 2012; applications will be acknowledged.  Selected applicants will be contacted for three letters of recommendation and for interviews at the MLA Convention in Boston.  The University of Minnesota is an Equal Opportunity Employer.

The Department of English has 34 core faculty members, approximately 650 undergraduate student majors, and 110 graduate students. Our scholarship, creative work, and teaching span a broad range that includes literature, language, creative writing, literacy and rhetorical studies, linguistics, and cultural inquiry.  For more information about the department, please see our website at: http://english.cla.umn.edu.  For information about the College of Liberal Arts, see: http://cla.umn.edu.

If you have questions, please contact Pamela Leszczynski at leszc001@umn.edu.


Thursday, August 02, 2012

Deadline Extended: Moving Towards Science in the Long Nineteenth Century (8/13/2012; 9/12/2012)


Following expressions of interest from a number of postgraduates seeking a further opportunity to submit abstracts for the symposium, the call for papers deadline has been extended to 13 August 2012. Abstracts of 250 words for twenty-minute papers should be emailed to movingtowardsscience@gmail.com. The day will be free to attend and we are delighted to be able to offer a number of travel bursaries. Please indicate in your email if you would like to be considered for a bursary.

‘Moving Towards Science in the Long Nineteenth Century’: 
A Postgraduate Symposium
 
12 September 2012, The Literary and Philosophical Society, Newcastle upon Tyne

Guest speakers:
Professor Jennifer Richards and Dr Anne Whitehead (Newcastle University), Professor David Knight (Durham University), and Dr Peter Garratt (Northumbria University)

The North East Postgraduate Research Group for the Long Nineteenth Century (NENC) invites proposals for a one-day postgraduate symposium held on Wednesday 12 September 2012.

The theme of the symposium reflects two parallel ‘moves’ towards science. First, it references the rise of the ‘natural sciences’, the scientific method, and the professional scientist across the long nineteenth century. Second, it recognises moves in contemporary arts and humanities scholarship towards a more nuanced disciplinary relationship with the sciences and the possibility of ‘one culture’.  Adopting an exploratory methodology, the day will allow postgraduate delegates to think widely about how literary culture of the period approached, adapted, and rejected emergent scientific, technological, and medical discourses and methods. More broadly, we will consider how and why literature and science might move together in the contemporary academy.

Ranging across the early modern period to the end of the long nineteenth century in their areas of specialisation, our guest speakers will consider in particular how they have approached or made use of scientific discourses in their own research. This will provide delegates with an opportunity to gain insight into some of the methodological and theoretical benefits and challenges of a turn towards science. Accordingly, we invite proposals from postgraduates for papers which broadly consider ‘moves’ towards science in the literature of the long nineteenth century, or in contemporary approaches to nineteenth-century literature.

Possible topics could include, but are not limited to:

  • Defining science then and now: shifting linguistic terms
  • Science in the public arena: the role of institutions in shaping relations between literature and science
  • The popularisation of science through literary forms: prose, poetry, periodical, and pamphlet
  • Reading in new ways: approaching the scientific text across disciplinary lines
  • Specialisation and the figure of the professional scientist 
  • Evolution: approaches, responses, reactions
  • Developing narratives: the Enlightenment, discovery, invention
  • Science in literary forms and the literary form of science
  • Medicine and the burgeoning medical industry
  • Science at the margins: gender, class, race, and geography
  • The collaboration of scientific and literary circles
  • Science and anxiety: resistance to scientific ideas in literature 
  • The rise of psychology and theories of the mind
  • Pseudoscience and quackery: authenticity, belief, demonstration, and revelation

Abstracts of 250 words for 20-minute papers should be submitted by 13 August 2012 to movingtowardsscience@gmail.com.

The symposium is being generously supported by the British Society for Literature and Science (BSLS) and by the three host Universities (Newcastle, Durham, and Northumbria). The day will therefore be free to attend, and we are delighted to be able to offer a number of postgraduate travel bursaries.

Please indicate in your abstract if you would like to be considered for a bursary.