victorian

Victorian popular fiction is replete with animals – racing horses, loyal dogs, caged birds, exotic creatures, and anthropomorphic companions. These beings carried immense symbolic significance: they could function as status symbols, metaphors for the body or soul, expressions of sentiment, or instruments of moral instruction. Animals also frequently offered a lens through which Victorians addressed issues surrounding empire, industrialisation, science, social mobility, and domesticity. In popular fiction, animals were not merely background – they were moral barometers, class indicators, narrative devices, and symbols of broader anxieties regarding industrialisation, gender roles, and empire.

Perhaps the most relevant question we are facing today, both in and out of the university, is how to deal with AI. In academia, different disciplines handle this question in a myriad of ways, some insisting that to not embrace AI in the classroom is harmful to the students, while others believe the utilization of AI must weaken critical thinking skills. Regardless of the differing opinions on how to use it appropriately, no one disagrees that it is here to stay. Living through the development of this world-changing technology means that we are the ones facing the question of what it means to live well in the age of AI.

Reminder: CFP due soon. Please reach out with any questions!

Special Issue, Nineteenth Century Theatre and Film Call for Papers: 

Adapting Thackeray 

Reminder! Please submit by January 15, 2026BWWC 2026: Call for Papers

Paper proposals are welcome on any aspect of Hardy’s life, work, and legacy for the Twenty-Seventh International Hardy Conference and Festival (Dorchester, Dorset, UK; July 25th—August 1st 2026). Significant Hardy anniversaries in 2026 include the 150th anniversary of The Hand of Ethelberta, the 140th anniversary of The Mayor of Casterbridge, the 120th anniversary of The Dynasts (Part 2), and the 110th anniversary of Selected Poems. Proposals for papers on any of these anniversary texts are especially welcome.

Papers should be planned for delivery times of a maximum of 20 minutes (approximately 2000 words).

Extended Deadline

Conference: March 20, 2026

Lehigh University, Bethlehem PA

Contact email: slb322@lehigh.edu

The London Journal Early Career Publishing Workshop

The London Journal is committed to supporting early career scholars develop work into a publishable journal article. To this end, we are hosting a free workshop to provide practical advice and support on developing research (which might include thesis chapters or conference papers) into publishable, full-length journal articles.

Updated: In the mid-nineteenth century, the literacy rates among women and girls were on the rise. This was due to changing attitudes toward educating girls and women and the increasing popularity and availability of reading materials aimed at girls and women. Authors such as Lydia Maria Child, Louisa May Alcott, Juliana Horatia Ewing, E.D.E.N. Southworth, L.T. Meade, and Sarah Tytler wrote works specifically for girls, from novels and short stories to periodicals and conduct manuals.

Chapter Proposal Abstract: Part I – Medieval Seeds

God Rest Ye Scary Gentlemen: The Jolly Misanthrope and Victorian Christmas.  Learn about the happiest time of the year, and the old men who love nothing better than to shit all over it. From Scrooge to Sherlock Holmes, what’s with confirmed bachelors and Christmas? An irreverent and illuminating romp through 19th Century Victorian Christmas, its origins in older traditions, Oliver Cromwell, how it became an institution worldwide, and how one cantankerous old man really ties the whole thing together!  This lecture will be a rollicking and intellectual hour and thirty minutes WITH a ten minute bathroom break.  Bring your humbugs, we’ll be breaking out the turkey dinners and coals! Ninety minutes of holiday cheer. 

CALL FOR PAPERS

Charles W. Chesnutt Association

American Literature Association
37th Annual ConferenceMay 20-23, 2026Palmer House
17 East Monroe Street
Chicago, IL  60603

The Charles W. Chesnutt Association welcomes abstracts of no more than 300 words for presentation at two sessions on the work of Chesnutt at the 2026 ALA conference in Chicago.

Subjects for submissions are open but may include one of the following:

Volcanic Materiality: Cultural Phenomena in the Age of the Anthropocene

Editor: Dewey W. Hall

Call for Contributions 

Irish-American(s and) Periodicals

Kirsten McLeod and Tim Lanzendörfer

Sponsored by the Research Society for American Periodicals

The Dickens Project is excited to announce a new week-long Victorianist Writing Retreat, held at UC Santa Cruz as part of our annual summer Dickens Universe conference. This retreat offers scholars who are not affiliated with Dickens Project consortium institutions the opportunity to attend the Universe, as well as to dedicate time during the week to writing in community.

In 2026, the Dickens Universe, including the Victorianist Writing Retreat, will take place from July 26-August 1. While the 2026 Universe will be focused on Bleak House, participants in the retreat need not be writing on Bleak House or on Dickens. Scholars working in any area of global British nineteenth-century studies are free to apply.