MIDWEST VICTORIAN STUDIES ASSOCIATION

Call for Work-in-Progress | Conference dates: May 6-8, 2022

CURRENT DIRECTIONS IN VICTORIAN STUDIES

IN-PERSON and VIRTUAL Work-in-Progress Seminars

MVSA offers annual seminars open to graduate students, faculty, and independent scholars to provide a collaborative opportunity to read and receive/provide feedback on each other’s research. Unlike previously, this year’s seminars are not limited to specific themes. Instead, seminars are accepting works-in-progress addressing any topic related to the field of Victorian Studies, broadly construed.

To participate, you don’t have to write a new paper! Join us to talk about any work that would benefit from the input of other engaged scholars. To increase accessibility given current public health concerns, one seminar will run in a virtual format, while the other runs in person.

Participants submit 5-10 pages of work-in-progress to be pre-circulated to other participants one week prior to the conference. Seminar leaders and participants typically identify points of intersection and divergence among papers, help each other think through future areas of inquiry or revision, and often form longer-lasting collaborations. Seminars are limited to 12 participants.

All seminar participants are listed in the conference program and will need to become members of MVSA ($40). In-person seminar participants will register for the 2022 conference, “Sonorities and Stained Glass: Aestheticism, Sensation, and the Arts of Sensing in Victorian Britain,” in Richmond, Indiana, May 6-8, 2022, and have full access to panels, the Stedman Lecture by Christina Bashford, a special roundtable “Engaging the Victorian Salon” led by Linda K. Hughes and Phyllis Weliver, organ performance, meals, and more. See conference website for more details. Virtual seminar participants will register for the conference at the reduced rate of $35, which will provide Zoom access to the Saturday-morning seminar, the Stedman Lecture, the Hughes/Weliver roundtable Salon (featuring Veronica Alfano, Mary Arseneau, Elizabeth Howard, Vincent Lankewish, and Kathleen McCormack), and to networking and programming opportunities throughout the coming year. (Please note: the full set of conference panels will ONLY be available to those attending in person, due to technical limitations.)

To apply, please send a 300-word abstract and brief CV (as Word or PDF files) by April 4, 2022. Selected participants will receive confirmation of their acceptance by April 8, 2022.

If you are interested in the in-person seminar and conference, submit your proposal to Christopher Ferguson (cjf0006@auburn.edu).

If you are interested in the virtual seminar and events, submit your proposal to Andrea Kaston Tange (akastont@macalester.edu). 

The Midwest Victorian Studies Association is an interdisciplinary organization welcoming scholars from all disciplines who share an interest in nineteenth-century British history, literature, art, and culture. For more information, visit www.midwestvictorian.org.