Romance, Revolution and Reform Journal will host our 2026 conference on the theme of 'Sex in the Long Nineteenth Century.' The conference will take place in-person at the University of Stirling on 15th January, with keynote speaker Dr. Michael Shaw.

In The History of Sexuality (1976), Foucault outlines the ‘discursive explosion’ that occurred around sex during the long nineteenth century. Modern queer theorists first situated their work within nineteenth-century studies (Eve Kofosky Sedgewick, Between Men, 1985), and recent work in the field historicises marginalised groups (Jen Manion, Female Husbands: A Trans History, 2020). Sex encourages us to consider the broader cultural and societal dynamics of the long nineteenth century, and the lasting influence of these structures today.

We invite papers of 15 minutes on the topic of sex in the long nineteenth century (1789-1914) in all its forms and in a global context for our in-person conference. We encourage broad interpretations of the topic and invite submissions that explore its fluid and multifaceted nature. The journal encourages multi- and interdisciplinary papers from across the Arts, Social Sciences, and Humanities and invites contributions from those at any career stage, including PGRs and ECRs.

Possible topics may include, but are not limited to:

• Sexuality and queer studies
• Gender, feminism, and masculinities
• Trans studies
• Pregnancy, childbirth, and childcare
• Sex scandals in court and politics
• Gothic literature
• Decadence; hedonism
• Sex work
• Women’s writing
• Sexual health, contraception, and the
• medical humanities
• Postcolonial and ecocritical perspectives on gender and sex
• Print culture; pornography and Victorian erotica

Abstracts (up to 300 words) and biographies (up to 100 words) should be submitted together in one document by 23:59 GMT on Monday 22 September 2025 to rrr@soton.ac.uk. With generous funding from the British Associaiton of Victorian Studies, we are pleased to offer a small travel bursary to some of our PGR and ECR delegates. Please indicate if you would like to be considered for a travel bursary, and include your full name, discipline and institutional affiliation in your correspondence.