State of the Field: Victorian Studies

     In recent years, the future direction of Victorian studies has become a controversial topic. Scholars have vigorously discussed the role that history and historicism should play in our work, and the extent to which our scholarship should engage with concerns of the twenty-firs century, such as climate change and globalization. Two years ago, the V21 Collective (Victorian Studies for the 21^st Century) issued a manifesto calling for greater innovation, more engagement with critical theory, and a move away from a certain insularity that has come to characterize Victorian Studies in recent years. This and other stimuli have given academics the impetus to grapple with or embrace inter- and cross-disciplinarity, digital tools, synthetic and speculative methods: more agile forms of scholarship.

     This event will bring together graduate students and faculty of all levels to spark intense and thoughtful discussion about the state of the field of Victorian studies and how our research fits into the direction that 19^th-century scholarship is headed. We want to bring major methodological questions to the table, consider alternate approaches, and explore new scholarly innovations.

Reception in the Thorp Library to follow event.