The Research Society for Victorian Periodicals holds its annual conference each summer or early fall at a different location in North America or Europe, on a theme relating to Victorian culture and society as reflected in its periodicals. RSVP offers a limited number of travel awards for graduate students and independent or retired scholars to assist with the costs of presenting at the conference. All those giving a paper at the RSVP conference are required to be members of the Society.
“Voices and Visions”
July 10-12, 2025
The Research Society for Victorian Periodicals (RSVP) will hold its annual conference in downtown Chicago, July 10-12, 2025.
RSVP invites submissions on the conference theme of “Voices and Visions.” Periodicals provided a platform for an enormous range of voices and visions throughout the nineteenth century. This year’s conference will explore the dynamic interplay between the diverse voices featured in newspapers and periodicals and the broader visions that guided these publications. Papers addressing any aspect of nineteenth-century British and colonial periodicals are welcome, but RSVP particularly encourages proposals relating to voices and/or visions.
Areas of focus might include:
- The role of illustrations, typography, layout, and graphic design in establishing a publication’s voice or vision (their “brand”)
- The representation of marginalized, emerging, or dissenting voices and viewpoints
- The evolution of editorial visions
- Spaces for non-editorial voices (e.g. letters to the editor, Spirit of the Press sections, advertisements)
- Tensions between periodical form (miscellaneity) and editorial control
- Reprints or “scissors-and-paste” and their relation to voices and visions
- The press’s role in shaping public discourse and personae
- The promotion of political ideologies, agendas, or movements
- Voices and visions of the non-human realm: religion, spiritualism, or the supernatural
- The construction and dissemination of ideas about national identity and imperialism
- Varying mediums and modes of oral expression, including representations of song, speech, interviews, and other oral formats
- Readers’ responses to and perceptions of periodicals’ branding and identity formation
- Speculations about future social, political, aesthetic, scientific, or technological developments
- Viewing periodicals from different disciplinary perspectives (art; engineering; scientific; medical; judicial; technical)
- Visions of Chicago in the British and colonial press
- Visions of the world as depicted in periodical coverage of World’s Fairs (Chicago was the site of the 1893 World’s Fair)
- Visions for the future of periodical studies, pedagogy, or research methodologies
We also welcome papers related to our host city, Chicago which underwent dramatic changes in the nineteenth century: rapid urbanisation, industrialization, and rebuilding in the wake of the Great Fire of 1871, events that led writers in the periodical press to rethink how to “see” or envision a city in an interconnected age. (Our local hosts are planning optional outings in Chicago, including an architecture tour).
Submission Guidelines
The RSVP conference committee invites proposals in one of three formats:
- Individual papers (15-20 minutes maximum);
- Panels of 3 presenters (15-20 min papers); or
- A round-table of 5-6 presenters (each speaking for 6-7 minutes maximum)
In order to maximize voices and cross-fertilization, preference will be given to panels and roundtables with closely integrated papers and speakers who represent a diversity of locations/generations/professional tracks.
Remote Options
The Chicago conference will be an in-person event. RSVP remains committed, however, to making our gatherings accessible to as wide a range of members as possible and will continue to experiment with various formats. This year’s two keynote addresses and Annual General Meeting will be transmitted live and will be available free without registration. In addition, we are planning a series of pre-conference Digital Event panels held online on the conference theme on the Fridays leading up to the conference (tentatively June 13, 20 &, 27 pending interest). If you would prefer to present an 8-10 min paper at one of these pre-conference Digital Events, please check the relevant box in the submission portal.
RSVP is also planning a pre-conference, half-day, in-person DH workshop in Chicago to help scholars use and refine DH tools for periodical research. More information will be forthcoming, including information about local arrangements.
Proposals must be submitted via RSVP’s digital application portal by 1 November 2024. Acceptance decisions will be sent out by mid-December.