Loco/Motion
34th Annual Conference of the Nineteenth Century Studies Association
Fresno, California, March 7-9, 2013
The long nineteenth century set the world on the move. Travel became increasingly important for business and pleasure, for war and peace. At the same time, new forms of moving people arose: the balloon, ships, undergrounds, funiculars, the railroads. Each carried riders to great distances, different locales, and novel pursuits. But motion wasn’t purely spatial; new movements arose as well, sweeping the inhabitants of the period into fresh vistas of thought and endeavor. We seek papers and panels that capture the sense of movement at work and at play during the long nineteenth century (1789-1914). Papers may address the intersections of movement/s, focus on technologies of motion in isolation, or reveal the desires—for gain, glory, greed—that set the world on its feet.
Some suggested topics:
- Gold Rushes (Mineral Manias and Speculative Destinations)
- Literature of the Sea
- Maps and Cartography
- The Science of Exploration (Darwin’s Voyages)
- Narratives of Time Travel, Travel into Space (Jules Verne, Arthur Conan Doyle)
- The West as Destination and Concept
- Celebrity Performance Tours
- Movement of Goods and Ideas
- Migration and Relocation
- Expeditions
- Concepts of Motion and Stasis
- New Forms of Creative Motion and Locomotion (Moving Pictures, Photography, Dance, Music)
We also welcome other interpretations of the conference theme.
The campus of California State University, Fresno, will host us in 2013. Its setting makes it the perfect place to explore the conference theme, since Fresno is ringed by the original Gold Rush towns and three superb national parks (Yosemite, Sequoia, and Kings Canyon), two of which are nineteenth-century creations. As a result, Fresno still bears evidence of the vast changes caused by the movements of the nineteenth century. The library of CSU Fresno houses the Donald G. Larson Collection on International Expositions and Fairs; material from this archive will be featured in a special exhibition for the conference. Please note: submission of a proposal indicates intent to present.
Please e-mail abstracts (250 words) for 20-minute papers that provide the author’s name and paper title in the heading, as well as a one-page cv, to Prof. Toni Wein at NCSA-2013@sbcglobal.net by September 30, 2012. Please note that submission of a proposal indicates intent to present. Presenters will be notified in November 2012. Graduate students whose proposals are accepted may, at that point, submit complete papers in competition for a travel grant to help cover transportation and lodging expenses.