Empire and Colonialism Caucus

Representative: Amanda Shubert
The Empire and Colonialism Caucus is a network of interdisciplinary scholars working on nineteenth-century empire and colonialism. Our scholarship and teaching include a range of approaches, including postcolonial studies, critical race theory, transimperialism, transnationalism, and feminist and queer theory. What we share in common is the effort to enlarge the field of Victorian Studies by centering non-British and non-white cultural producers, historical subjects, and perspectives on colonial and imperial histories.

The Empire and Colonialism Caucus emerged through relationships built between primarily junior scholars and graduate students at NAVSA 2022 at Lehigh who share a commitment to highlighting colonial histories and perspectives that are still all too often marginalized in our field; dismantling legacies of white supremacy and colonialism in Victorian Studies; and advocating for and building community between emerging scholars of color. We will meet for the first time as a formal caucus at NAVSA 2023 in Bloomington, where we have also put together a stream of three panels. We look forward to creating conversations around race, colonialism, caste, indigeneity, slavery, and indenture in the nineteenth century and to providing scholars with formal and informal contexts to connect with each other, including panels, symposia, special issues, and peer mentoring.