The 29th Annual Dickens Society Symposium

deadline for submissions: 
January 22, 2024
full name / name of organization: 
The Dickens Society

Call For Papers:

We are delighted to welcome you to the University of Birmingham!

The theme of the 2024 symposium will be “Dickens, Context and Co-occurrence.” We invite you to think of the various contexts that Dickens’s works are set in, connect to, and imagine. Contexts are where things co-occur – with various effects.

Topics of papers can cover Dickens and the context of theatre, the world of fashion, or the natural environment; Dickens and changing contexts through travel, translation, and time; contexts of family and friends; you may also want to think about the relationship between real world contexts and the textual contexts of the words on the page. As is the case every year, proposals on other aspects of Dickens’s life and works are welcome, too.

ABSTRACT SUBMISSION:

Please submit your abstract of 300 words (maximum) and bio of 150 words (maximum) to the organisers Michaela Mahlberg and Caroline Radcliffe at dickens2024@contacts.bham.ac.uk.

Please note that you need to be a member of the Dickens Society to present at the annual conference. Membership is conferred by subscription to Dickens Quarterly. Find out more here.

Birmingham is known for its status as the UK’s “Second City” (after London) and for its industrial heritage. Centrally located in the West Midlands, it boasts excellent transportation access, located less than two hours from London, and has its own international airport. Home to the largest creative sectors outside the capital, it is one of the most multicultural cities of the UK, and also one of the greenest cities in the country. If you are thinking of spending a few days before or after the symposium in Birmingham, you might find this information useful.

The University of Birmingham is England’s first civic university. Cultural assets on campus include the Barber Institute of Fine Arts, the Lapworth Museum of Geology and the Winterbourne House and Garden. Charles Dickens visited Birmingham on several occasions, the most notable time probably occurring in 1853 when he gave his first public reading of A Christmas Carol in Birmingham Town Hall.

Details about travel, accommodation, and the conference programme will be posted and updated on the Dickens Society website.