- Literal hands (working, drawing, writing, growing things, playing music)
- Tricks of the hand (magic, shadow theatre)
- Handicrafts (arts and crafts, textiles, pottery)
- The etiquette of the hand (handshakes, greetings, gloves, rings)
- Hidden hands (masturbation, strangulation, prosthetics, "the dead hand")
- Gendered hands (fighting, being brought up by hand)
- Reading the hand (fortune telling, class, signing)
- Manipulating hands ("by another's hand," "having a hand in," "bad hands")
- Economics and the hand (industrialization and hands," work by hand, injuries to the hand)
- Handwriting (forgery, deceit, shorthand); etc.
The VSAO (Victorian Studies Association of Ontario) will hold its 44th annual conference at the beautiful Glendon Campus of York University, Toronto on 30 April 2011. This one-day event includes a morning panel of three speakers, followed by lunch, the VSAO business meeting, and two plenary speakers in the afternoon. Plenary Speakers are James Eli Adams (Columbia University), "The Dead Hand: George Eliot and the Uses of Inheritance," and Lorraine Janzen Kooistra (Ryerson University), "The Dyer's Hand and What it Works in: Laurence Housman and the Book Arts."
In keeping with this year's theme, Manipulation: Victorian Variations on Hands, Handling, and Underhanded Behaviour, the VSAO executive invites abstracts for papers to be presented at our morning panel. Please send electronic copies of proposals (300-500 words) and a brief biographical statement to Barbara Leckie (barbara_leckie@carleton.ca) by 28 January 2011. Alternatively, hard copies can be sent by mail to Barbara Leckie / Department of English / Carleton University / 1125 Colonel By Drive / Ottawa, ON K1S 5B6.