Events and Calls for Papers

Call for Participants
Global Decadence and Aestheticism Lesson Plan Cluster (2024)

Undisciplining the Victorian Classroom

Overview

Undisciplining the Victorian Classroom (UVC), a digital humanities project that reimagines how to teach Victorian Studies through a positive, race-conscious lens, invites contributors to an innovative lesson plan cluster about global decadence and aestheticism.

Contributors are welcome to explore any aspect any aspect of decadence and aestheticism as they relate to race; enslavement; empire; anti-colonial, decolonial, and postcolonial resistance; or global circulation, translation, and reception (particularly in the global south).

Anyone with relevant professional interests is encouraged to apply, but we are especially interested in submissions from early-career scholars and those with backgrounds that are under-represented in Victorian Studies and academia more broadly. For examples of lesson plan clusters that we have already published, please visit our lesson plans page.

You can send your submission or apply for a role through this form. All questions should be sent to Cherrie Kwok. The deadline is February 28, 2025.

Full Solicitation

Undisciplining the Victorian Classroom (UVC) is a collaborative and peer-reviewed digital humanities project that reimagines how to teach Victorian Studies through a positive, race-conscious lens.

This call is looking for contributors for a lesson plan cluster that expands the geographical, temporal, and methodological boundaries of how instructors teach decadence and aestheticism, or other allied movements such as symbolism. We are seeking contributors who are interested in producing lesson plans that encourage students to explore any aspect of decadence and aestheticism as they relate to race; enslavement; empire; anticolonial, decolonial, and postcolonial resistance; or global circulation, translation, and reception. This cluster welcomes submissions that link the topics above with the long-standing focus of gender and sexuality in decadence and aestheticism, especially in relation to queerness, transness, and disability. Applicants are also welcome to submit proposals about topics that are not listed on the CFP so long as they explain how those topics illuminate dimensions of decadence and aestheticism that are related to the critical interventions and commitments that shape UVC’s mission.

Global, comparative, and multilingual approaches are encouraged. We are especially interested in proposals that engage with the global south. While this cluster’s temporal focus is the nineteenth century, applicants are also welcome to link nineteenth-century decadence with decadence in the past and present, from the classical and medieval periods to the modern and contemporary. Similarly, while the visual arts and literature are long-standing mediums of focus in this field, we welcome engagements with other mediums, such as dance, music, theater, and more.

We have a simple submission process. For this cluster, we request a proposal of 250 words about a lesson plan that you have already taught or would like to teach. You can submit as a plan as an individual or as a group. You can also request to be paired with someone else. For instance, if you have an existing or in-progress lesson plan or assignment about decadence and imperialism in Britain and Japan but want to collaborate with someone else who has a lesson plan about decadence in Latin America in order to develop a more global set of materials, then you can request this, and we will try to facilitate that collaboration.

Anyone with relevant professional interests is encouraged to apply, but we are especially interested in submissions from early-career scholars and those with backgrounds that are under-represented in Victorian Studies and academia more broadly. You can send your submission through our Google form. The deadline is February 28, 2025.

Submissions will be reviewed by the UVC Co-Directors. Please contact Cherrie Kwok if you have any questions.

Journal of Victorian Culture Prize Essay Talk

The Afterlife of a Stuart Princess in Victorian Culture 

Sarah Betts

This talk explores the afterlife of Elizabeth Stuart, daughter of Charles I, and how her untimely death reverberated in Victorian culture. Exploring a range of sources, from history-genre paintings to newspapers and diaries, it will discuss how Elizabeth’s memory was shaped into a tragic and fascinating story by Queen Victoria and others, that reveals fresh perspectives on the relationship between visual culture, historicism, and traditions of commemoration in Victorian society.

Sarah Betts is a PhD student at the University of York, working on the cultural memory of the English Civil War. She has published on royal history, memories of conflict, and history on television.