BIGGER, Better, More! — Growth and Expansion in the Victorian Press
University of Missouri-Kansas City, September 9–10, 2016
The Research Society for Victorian Periodicals invites proposals for its 2016 conference on the theme of growth and expansion in the Victorian press. Broad interpretations are encouraged of what “Bigger, Better, More!” means for Victorian newspapers and magazines, with possible topics including:
- Proliferation of news events, headline stories, scandals
- Serialization, sequels, symposia, rejoinders, recurring columns
- Developments in printing technology, formats, editorial vision
- Increased readership, population, urban and imperial expansion
- Economic growth, profits, investments, windfalls, boom-and-bust cycles
- Excess, hyperbole, filler
- Malignant growth, plagues, floods, parasites
- Natural growth, plants, parks, green spaces
- Education, maturation, age, experience, longevity
- Emerging taxonomies, catalogs, indexes, censuses
- Developing networks, movements, professional and amateur organizations, bureaucracies
- Growth of periodical studies, methodologies, pedagogies, archives
RSVP is an interdisciplinary and international organization welcoming all scholars interested in the richly diverse world of the 19th-century British press. Please send a proposal (250 words maximum) and one-page CV to rs4vp2016@gmail.com by February 1, 2016. Individual presentations should be fifteen to twenty minutes, and proposals for panels of three are welcome; be sure to include a brief rationale for the panel along with an abstract and CV for each presenter. A limited number of travel grants will be awarded to graduate students and independent scholars; please indicate in your email if you would like to be considered for one of these grants.
The eighteenth annual Michael Wolff Lecture will be given by James Mussell, Associate Professor of Victorian Literature at the University of Leeds and author of Science, Time and Space in the Late Nineteenth-Century Periodical Press (2007) and The Nineteenth-Century Press in the Digital Age (2012). The RSVP conference also features the Robert and Vineta Colby Lecture, given by the winner of the Colby Prize for the year’s best book on the Victorian press. This year’s recipient will be announced in spring 2016.
The University of Missouri-Kansas City is a vibrant public research institution located in the heart of the city. It is walking distance to the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, built on the estate of a nineteenth-century newspaper tycoon. The museum houses one of the world's largest collections of daguerreotypes. Attendees will find lodging on the Country Club Plaza, an outdoor retail and dining destination, the first of its kind when it was established in 1922. Nearby is historic Westport, site of a Civil War battle and final stop on the way to the Western Frontier, with its many locally owned eateries, live music venues, and funky shops.
For more information, please visit the conference website: rsvp2016-kc.com.