Past events
The organisation has organised a major conference every year since its founding in 2000. See further details...The London Victorian Studies Colloquium, Royal Holloway, University of London, 16-28 April 2013
The London Victorian Studies Colloquium was a new initiative, a weekend residential colloquium for postgraduates and accompanying staff members working in Victorian Studies. The weekend consisted of postgraduate papers, reading groups and professionalisation workshops.
Towards the Metropolis?, Leeds Trinity University, 11-12 April 2013
This event was the 6th Annual Joint Colloquium of the Leeds Centre for Victorian Studies with the Centre de recherche sur les identités comparées des sociétés occidentales contemporaines, based in the University of Cergy-Pontoise. Based around the theme of the city, panels ranged from the topics of invasion and class to women and work in urban environments.
‘Strange New Today’ Victorian Studies conference, Exeter, 17 September 2011
Keynote speakers:
Professor Regenia Gagnier (University of Exeter), Professor Philip Davis (University of Liverpool), with a special plenary by Jane Davis and Dr Josie Billington from The Reader Organisation.
This conference explored the significance of crisis in how we read and interpret Victorian literature, and what that might mean for the future of Victorian Studies. How did Victorians perceive the state and future of society, and in what ways did different disciplines seek to respond to these questions? How might contemporary scholarship, itself experiencing uncertain times, learn from or emulate Victorian responses? What forms of advice or consolation can Victorian literature offer to the contemporary reader? A collection of papers from this conference have been published by the Journal of Victorian Culture Online.
Nature and the Long Nineteenth Century, 6 Februaury 2010. Edinburgh.
Keynote speakers:
Dr Martin Willis, University of Glamorgan
Dr Christine Ferguson, University of Glasgow
Professor Nick Daly, University College Dublin
Darwin, Tennyson and their Readers
Anglia Ruskin University, Cambridge, 17 October 2009
Keynote papers from Professor Dame Gillian Beer and Professor George Levine.
2009 is the bicentenary year of both Charles Darwin and Alfred, Lord Tennyson. Darwin's reading radically affected the ways in which he was able to conceptualise 'Nature'; Tennyson's poetry was read by and affected the work of scientists like Thomas Huxley. The aim of the conference is to explore this two-way cultural traffic, looking at a wide range of nineteenth century figures and at the important social and cultural consequences of the interaction of two different modes of thought. Please see the conference website for more details.
Victorian Soundscapes
Leeds University, 16th - 17th March 2007
Speakers include: John Picker (Harvard University), Stephen Banfield (University of Bristol), Delia da Sousa Correa (Open University), Rachel Cowgill (University of Leeds), Matthew Bevis (University of York), Phyllis Weliver (Wilkes University), Michael Allis (University of Leeds)
A two day interdisciplinary colloquium jointly hosted by the Leeds University Centre for English Music and Leeds Centre for Victorian Studies. See full conference programme...
Victorian Studies: Pasts and Futures
University of Leicester, 31st March 2007
Keynote Speakers: Isobel Armstrong, Catherine Hall; Plenary Panel Speakers: J. B. Bullen, Cora Kaplan, Joanna de Groot, Catherine Robson, Gareth Griffiths, Sally Ledger
A one-day conference to celebrate the 40th Anniversary of the Victorian Studies Centre at the University of Leicester. For full details see the Centre website.
'From House to Home': Representations in Victorian Literature and Art
University of Warwick, 3 rd March 2007
Keynote Speaker: Dr Catherine Spooner (University of Lancaster)
This postgraduate conference examined issues concerning representations of houses and homes in Victorian literature and art. Full details at the conference webpages...
Where Next in Victorian Literary Studies?
School of English, University of Leeds, 25 November 2006
Panel speakers: Professor David Amigoni (University of Keele); Professor John Bowen (University of York); Professor Valerie Sanders (University of Hull); Professor Joanne Shattock (University of Leicester)
This day explored how literary scholars working in the area conceive its future development over the next 4-5 years. View the conference programme…
Victorians Disciplining Race
Institute of English Studies, 15th November 2006
Speakers: Cora Kaplan, Josephine McDonagh and Benjamin Zachariah
This afternoon seminar explored how Victorians thought about race (including how race was "disciplined" in terms of science, politics, and imperial expansion), and addressed the role of " race " in Victorian Studies today. Organised by Heike Bauer.
Victorian Binaries: The Beautiful and The Ugly
MIVSS Postgraduate Conference, Birmingham & Midlands Institute, 21 October 2006
Keynote Speaker: Professor Barrie Bullen (University of Reading)
The Midlands Interdisciplinary Victorian Studies Seminars are held regularly in Birmingham, UK, as a research forum for academics working in the Victorian period. This study day was a special session of MIVSS at which members of the postgraduate community explored notions of beauty and ugliness in Victorian culture. Read full details of the conference, including the programme...
Victorian Masculinities
Keele University, 20-21st April 2006
Guest speaker: Dr. Colin Cruise (Staffordshire University)
This postgraduate conference brought together research students from across the humanities interested in the topic of masculinity in the Victorian period. The event included a workshop on academic publishing led by Professor David Amigoni (Keele University) and Philippa Joseph (Blackwell Publishing). Visit the conference website.