British Association of Victorian Studies conference
University of Kent, Canterbury
September 4-6, 2014
Deadline: March 31, 2014
“Victorian Sustainability”
From emerging ideas about the perils of environmental degradation to the establishment of the National Trust, the concept of sustainability began to take on a new importance in the Victorian period that remains relevant in 21-st century modernity. We welcome proposals which address any aspect of Victorian sustainability and especially encourage interdisciplinary approaches.
Topics may include but are not limited to:
- Victorian nature writing and/or discourses of nature and science
- Heritage and preservation (of built environments, natural landscapes, species, material cultures)
- Climate change and the Victorians
- Sustenance and sustainability
- Victorian discourses of emotional/psychological sustainability or wellbeing
- Eco-criticism and environmental aesthetics in Victorian literature
- Sustaining the Victorians (literary and/or cultural legacies)
- ‘Green imperialism’ and/or colonial sustainability
- The emergence of self-sufficiency and sustainable ways of life in the Victorian period
- Waste/pollution vs. recycling/renewal in urban and industrial contexts
- Narratives of catastrophe, risk, decay or crisis in the Victorian period
- Representations of growth, flourishing and/or transformation in Victorian literature and culture
- Social ecology and the relation between human and non-human in the Victorian period
- Victorian pastoral and/or the legacy of Romanticism
- The sustainability of Victorian Studies
Proposals (300 words max.) are due by March 31, 2014, and should be sent to kentbavs2014@gmail.com. Panel proposals (comprised of 3 paper proposals, plus an additional 300 words explaining how the papers are linked in addressing the theme) are also welcome.
The 2014 BAVS conference will be hosted by the new Centre for Victorian Literature and Culture at the University of Kent, Canterbury. Any inquiries about the Centre or the conference may be sent to the Centre Director, Professor Wendy Parkins at W.J.Parkins@kent.ac.uk