The study of labour in the long nineteenth century has enjoyed a rich critical history, guided by the twentieth century’s New Left focus on class formation and experience, and extended in more recent years by scholarship which has diversified traditional and non-traditional categorisations of ‘labour’. This conference seeks to question the thinking by which we identify forms of labour in the first place: who, both in the nineteenth century and now, is allowed to decide what counts as labour? Which voices of the long nineteenth century emerge if we diversify our definition(s) of labour? And, how can the scholarship of labour – or the labour of scholarship – help us navigate the nature, purpose, and value of labour in a post-Covid era? 

Papers of 10-15 minutes are warmly invited on the topic of labour in the long nineteenth century between 1789-1914. We welcome multi- and inter-disciplinary papers from a variety of fields and approaches including the Arts, Social Sciences, and Humanities, and encourage applications from those at any stage in their careers, including PGRs and ECRs.

Abstracts (up to 300 words) and biographies (up to 100 words) should be submitted together in one document by Monday 30th October 2023 to rrr@soton.ac.uk. Please indicate your full name, discipline, and institutional affiliation in your correspondence.

For more information, visit our website: https://www.rrrjournal.com/events