RSVP

The Research Society for Victorian Periodicals

Graduate News

Writing Your Curran Application: Advice & Guidelines

from Punch, or the London Charivari, vol. 34 (13 Mar. 1858): 102. Image courtesy of Gale Primary Sources.

Join us October 12, 2023 at 4 p.m. (BST) / 11 a.m. (EST) / 8 a.m. (PST) for a special RSVP Digital Event on writing competitive grant applications!

At this 50 minute information and advice session, Russ Wyland, long-time RSVP member and Curran Award Committee member will talk us through the Curran Fellowships. Russ will offer specific advice on application requirements and guidelines on how to write a competitive application.

There will be 15-20 minutes for all of your questions. This session should be of interest to any first time fellowship application writers; those who want to know more about this programme; and those who would like to rework a Curran application from previous years.

We Hope You’ll Join Us!

Like all RSVP Digital Events, this event is free and open to the public, and will be recorded. Register below to receive the Zoom link

Register Here

Congrats to our 2nd Annual Mitchell Prize Winner!

The results are in! Our 2022 Mitchell Dissertation Prize Winner is Maryam Sikander for her “Oudh Punch (1877-1915): Satire and Parody in the Colonial Contact Zone.” Dr. Sikander’s dissertation examines the transcultural life of Punch in India through the framework of the colonial “contact zone.” Per our Mitchell Prize committee, this ambitious project demonstrates a deft touch in managing the breadth of translation and archival work as it crosses historical and geographical boundaries. It makes a clear contribution to the study of Victorian periodicals and their transformations in colonial contexts.

Honorable Mention

An honorable mention goes to Elizabeth Rawlinson-Mills’s “Bards, Priests and Prophets: The Newspaper Poets of the South African War (1899-1902).” Our committee called Dr. Rawlinson-Mill’s project “a beautifully written and methodologically interesting exploration of bards, poets and prophets during the Second Boer War.”

About the Mitchell Dissertation Prize

Black-and-white portrait of scholar Sally Mitchell

The Sally Mitchell Dissertation Prize is awarded annually to the best Ph.D. dissertation, defended in the previous calendar year, that explores the 19th-century British periodical press (including magazines, newspapers, and serial publications of all kinds) as an object of study in its own right, not as a source of material for other historical topics.

Established in 2020, the prize honors Sally Mitchell, a longstanding and highly valued member and leader of RSVP. Notably, Sally was a committed and ardent mentor of graduate students who worked hard to support their work and advance their careers.

Thanks to all who sent in submissions for this year, and especially to our committee members who had to choose just one from so many wonderful submissions!

VanArsdel Prize Winner Announced

The 2021 VanArsdel Prize has been awarded to Elizabeth Howard (PhD Candidate, University of Minnesota) for her essay, “‘Keeping Christmas’ on the Page: the Adelaide Observer, Alice in Wonderland, and the Australian Periodical at Play.”

The committee commented, “This is an excellently written, interesting essay that focuses on an understudied area to make an original contribution to the field of periodical studies. Its astute analysis of the Adelaide Observer highlights this newspaper’s status as a colonial/settler production but contains insights more broadly relevant to newspaper culture in the Victorian world.” 

The VanArsdel Prize, established in 1990 to honor Rosemary VanArsdel, is awarded annually to the best graduate student essay investigating Victorian periodicals and newspapers. The winning essay will be published in Victorian Periodicals Review. Congratulations, Elizabeth Howard!

Curran Index Seeks PT Paid Research Assistant

We are delighted to announce that The Curran Index is recruiting a part-time, paid research assistant to help the current editors, Dr. Emily Bell and Dr. Lara Atkin, to expand the attribution data that is currently incorporated into the Index.

The Role

A Research Assistant is required to undertake archival work examining the Chambers Journal ledgers at the National Library of Scotland. The ideal candidate will be based in easy travel distance of the NLS and will have a research background in Victorian periodical studies, either studying for a PhD or post-doctoral.

The Work

You will be expected to examine the Chambers’s Journal Ledgers, particularly the notebooks containing details of the cash payments made to authors for contributions to the journal and other work between 1839-1903. High quality scans of these ledgers should be taken, and a research report produced highlighting any attribution data gathered from the ledgers that could be integrated into The Curran Index.

You will work independently but report to Dr. Lara Atkin and Dr. Emily Bell, co-editors of The Curran Index. This job is suitable for an advanced postgraduate or postdoctoral ECR, with a background in archival work and periodical studies, who is based within commutable distance from the National Library of Scotland. The timings for the work are flexible and can be fitted around existing research and teaching commitments.

How To Apply

More information on how to apply and a full job description can be found on the job listing at the University of Kent website.

 If you have any further questions, please email Dr. Atkin.

Join Our Grad Students for a Research Workshop

Part of the RSVP Digital Salon Series 2021

We warmly invite everyone to join us on Friday, February 26 2021 at 1 p.m. (EST) / 6 p.m. (UK) for our next #RSVPDigitalSalon event, Doing Periodical Research Online: A Graduate-Directed Workshop on Process and Practice! This online workshop is led by graduate students, for graduate students, and welcomes all scholars of the periodical press.

Discussions about our research often focus (understandably) on our methodologies. This workshop will turn to our processes and practices as researchers.

Graduate students will give brief responses to a series of “How to” questions, followed by an open discussion where audience contributions will be encouraged. We hope to share our practices, provide each other with practical insights, and generate a shareable list of tips, tricks, and resources as we continue to conduct much of our work online.

We’ll answer questions like “How do you:

  • Discover primary research materials?
  • Identify secondary materials?
  • Organize your sources and notes?
  • Write? (ideas, drafts, revision…)
  • Use particular tools or practices?
  • Fit your research into ongoing discussions?
  • Pivot when obstacles come up?

Register here for this free online event. Participation does not require RSVP membership; all are welcome.

Though this event is organized by graduate students in support of graduate students, supervisors and anyone interested in periodical research are also encouraged to attend!

For any queries about this event, please contact us and direct your enquiry to our Vice President.

 

 

Announcing the Sally Mitchell Dissertation Prize

Black-and-white portrait of scholar Sally MitchellThe Research Society for Victorian Periodicals (RSVP) invites submissions for the Sally Mitchell dissertation prize. This prize will recognize the best Ph.D. dissertation, defended in 2020, that explores the 19th-century British periodical press (including magazines, newspapers, and serial publications of all kinds) as an object of study in its own right, and not only as a source of material for other historical topics. We welcome projects from a range of disciplinary perspectives focused on any aspect of the periodical press within Britain itself or in the many countries, within and outside of the Empire, where British magazines and newspapers were bought, sold, and read during “the long nineteenth century” (ca. 1780-1914).

The winner will receive a monetary award of $1,000.

How to Apply

Applicants should submit the following via the Fluid Review application portal by March 1, 2021:

  • A cover letter with full contact information
  • A title page, abstract and table of contents
  • A sample chapter (do not submit the full dissertation with these materials)
  • The name and email address of your dissertation advisor

Applicants’ dissertation advisors will be asked to confirm the successful viva/defense date.

After reviewing these materials, the prize committee will solicit full dissertations for further consideration. Applications will be accepted beginning February 1, 2021. The Mitchell Prize winner will be announced in July or August of 2021.

Questions about this dissertation prize may be directed to the president of RSVP at president@rs4vp.com.

About Sally Mitchell

The Sally Mitchell Dissertation Award was named in honor of Sally Mitchell, a longstanding and highly valued member of RSVP who served on the organization’s board and on its senior advisory committee. She was the author of five books, including the biography Frances Power Cobbe: Victorian Feminist, Journalist, Reformer and The New Girl: Girl’s Culture in England, 1880-1915. Much of her work focused on women writers, women’s history, the social history of the period, and the role of periodicals. Sally Mitchell was a committed and ardent mentor of graduate students and worked hard to advance their careers.