Our Keynote Speaker will be Amanda Claybaugh, Professor of English at Harvard University, author of The Novel of Purpose: Literature and Social Reform in the Anglo-American World (Cornell, 2007).
The focus of this year's conference is Victorian Transnationalism, with particular emphasis on the Atlantic legacy in the long 19th century. As the site of a decisive American victory in the War of 1812, Plattsburgh is a testament to the fraught history of the “special relationships” between Britain and her neighbors across the pond. The town is home to an annual re-enactment of the Battle of Plattsburgh as well as historical sites relevant for scholars of the nineteenth century. We encourage papers across all disciplines exploring various aspects of the relations among and between the UK, Canada, the US, and other nations and regions across the Americas. Possible topics include, but are not limited to the following:
- Intertextuality across national boundaries
- Transnational influences in art
- Concert tours and musical influences
- Theatrical trends and tours
- Transnational friendships, famous and infamous
- Periodical press and public relations
- Sports and amusements, competitions and crazes
- Fashion and fads
- Celebrity authors and book tours
- Literary and other piracies
- Transnational science—synergies and squabbles
- Expeditions and exploration
- Migration of religious and spiritual movements
- The Imperial project in Britain and the Americas
- Legacies of war (Revolutionary, Napoleonic, War of 1812)
- Transnational relations during the American Civil War
- Race, racism, and slavery
- Transatlantic social reform movements and actors
- International affiliations and antipathies
- Transportation, tourism, and travel
- Expatriots: immigration and emigration
- Communication technologies (telegraph, e.g.)
- Transatlantic commerce and commodities
- Nautical technologies, marine life, aquaria
- Fishing and whaling
- Indigenous peoples, real and imagined
- Wilderness and civilization
- National symbols, stereotypes, and slurs
- National identities and ideals
- Clashing national manners and customs
- Transnational gender-role differences
- Ways of speaking: accents in English
- National tastes in food and drink
- Cosmopolitanism and provincialism
- Definitions of class difference and labor issues
- Contagion and containment, infectious diseases and epidemiology
- Contact zones, ethnographies, and autoethnographies
By March 5, 2012, email 300-word abstracts and a 1-page CV (name on BOTH) to Genie Babb at gbabb001@plattsburgh.edu. For further information on the conference, please contact Genie Babb. We are currently having problems with our website, but I hope in a week or so those will be resolved at which time, please visit VISAWUS.org.
Conference Hotel: Best Western Inn at Smithfield. To make reservations please call the hotel directly at 518-561-7750, dial extension 2 to reach the front desk and ask for the Victorian Interdisciplinary Studies Association to receive the group rate. There is a cut-off date of 09/10/2012; rooms will need to be booked on or by this date to receive the group rate. (Group rates available 10/10 through 10/13/2012.)
VISAWUS: http://visawus.org/