RSVP

The Research Society for Victorian Periodicals

RSVP News

Want to Learn About the Indian Punch?

Cover page of Avadh Punch 1878
Cover page of Avadh Punch, 1878. Image courtesy of Wikimedia Commons

RSVP’s Digital Events committee is pleased to welcome Maryam Sikander for our next virtual event. As the inaugural presenter in our Speaker’s Forum series, Maryam will deliver a talk titled “Avadh Punch (1877-1938): Transformation of Colonial Text and Context” on Wednesday, March 1 at 8 a.m. PST / 11 a.m. EST / 4 p.m. GMT / 9:30 p.m. IST.

Maryam Sikander is a Junior Fellow at Nehru Memorial Museum and Library, New Delhi. She was awarded our 2021 Sally Mitchell Dissertation Prize for her PhD thesis which she completed at SOAS University of London in 2021. Her thesis explored the relationship between the Victorian magazine Punch and its Indian rendition Avadh Punch. Previously, she has also been awarded a Curran Fellowship by RSVP to further her research on Anglo-Indian Punches.

Join Us March 1

As always, RSVP digital events are free and open to the public. Complete the brief registration form below to receive the Zoom link.

Register Now

Digital Events Return Feb. 3 with “Pick A Periodical”

RSVP’s Digital Events Committee is back in action!

We’re delighted that Lorraine Janzen Kooistra will inaugurate our year’s events on Friday, February 3 at 8 a.m. PST/10 a.m. CST/ 11 a.m. EST / 4 p.m. GMT. She will be guiding attendees in the first of our recurring “Pick a Periodical” event series with a discussion of Volume 5 (April 1895) of The Yellow Book.

What Is Pick A Periodical?

Pick A Periodical is a new event series we will host…periodically…in which we ask a scholar and member of RSVP to select an issue (or range) of a newspaper or periodical that we will circulate ahead of time. Attendees should browse the issue prior to the event. Drawing on the lead’s expertise and attendees’ observations, our event time will be devoted to discussing what everyone found revelatory, fascinating, perplexing, or otherwise interesting about the issue(s) in question. In so doing, we hope to generate collaborative discussion, collective learning, and congenial conversation!

Join Us February 3

As with most RSVP digital events, this event is free and open to all, though we welcome and encourage you to become a member of RSVP if you are not already one. You will receive a Zoom link info upon registration. We hope to see you there!

Register Now

Why Volume 5 of The Yellow Book?

Dr. Kooistra has selected Volume 5 (April 1895) of The Yellow Book (open access!) to kick off our first “Pick a Periodical” event on February 3. The Yellow Book offers a unique opportunity to read a single issue of a magazine in relation to its editorial processes and title’s overall brand in the context of an international media event and its fallout. The April 1895 arrest of Oscar Wilde, who was carrying a yellow-bound book (mistakenly identified by the press as the “Yellow Book,” but actually a French novel), resulted in the firing of Aubrey Beardsley as art editor of the magazine, and the removal of his illustrations from the volume before it went to print.

Since then, scholarship has typically examined The Yellow Book along the fault line of before and after Beardsley. The actual contents of the watershed Volume 5—its selections, deletions, substitutions, sequences, and adjacencies—have received only minimal attention.

Dr. Kooistra will open the discussion by drawing attention to a single artwork, Constantin Guys’ “A Sketch.” We’ll then turn to your observations, comments, thoughts, and questions about the volume, its contents, contiguities, images, etc.

Register for this FREE event here

Stay Tuned for More Events in 2023

In addition to our “Pick a Periodical” series, Digital Events has many other kinds of events planned, including:

  • A Speaker’s Forum, where we hear of members’ work
  • Periodic Support sessions, or informal sessions for troubleshooting and solving research and pedagogical questions
  • A Reading Group, in which we discuss an important, relevant, or thought-provoking piece of scholarship within periodical studies

We have a full slate – an event almost every month! – and hope you will join us as RSVP continues to build community and intellectual exchanges through multimodal events and communication.

Call for Contributors to RSVP Bibliography

We Need Your Help!

RSVP seeks contributors to its biennial bibliography, which will be published in Victorian Periodicals Review in Fall 2023.

Contributors to the bibliography are asked to adopt three to ten scholarly journals from a list, identify articles published between December 2017 and December 2020 that have direct relevance to the study of Victorian journalism, and compile a list of annotated entries.

All contributors are acknowledged in the published bibliography. Entries will be due in May 2023.

If you are interested in contributing to this project or can recommend someone, please email Dr. Kristin Kondrlik at for the complete guidelines and list of journals.

Call for VPR Submissions Editors

“Printing-Office (The Victoria Press) in Great Coram-Street, for the Employment of Women as Compositors” from The Illustrated London News (Jun. 16, 1861). British Library, P.P. 7611

Victorian Periodicals Review (VPR) is expanding its editorial board to include Submissions Editors who will facilitate the double-blind peer review process. The journal invites expressions of interest from individuals working in nineteenth-century periodical studies who meet the criteria described below.

What’s Involved

Each Submissions Editor takes responsibility for securing specialist reviewers for approximately three submissions per year. On the basis of the reviewers’ reports, the Submissions Editor then provides a recommendation to the Editor. In the case of a recommendation for major revisions, the Submissions Editor’s opinion is usually sought on resubmission.

Submissions Editors will play a major role in shaping the journal and its critical interests in the years to come. Besides cultivating exciting new work in our field, Submissions Editors are encouraged to develop ideas for the journal’s occasional features, including Retrospectives, Review Conversations, and Round Tables. The VPR editorial team is unpaid and operates on a voluntary basis. Members of the editorial board serve for a three-year term with the option to renew.

Who Should Apply?

VPR is deliberately seeking to diversify its editorial board, and we encourage expressions of interest from scholars from a wide range of backgrounds, specializations, and career levels. We welcome applications evidencing one or more of the following:

  • Expertise in nineteenth-century periodicals or newspapers in any area or discipline. We are particularly looking to expand the board’s coverage of transatlantic, transnational, and transimperial print culture; the provincial press; working-class periodicals; comic and illustrated periodicals; race and ethnicity; and the long nineteenth century.
  • Editorial experience, such as working on a journal or digital project, editing special issues or collections of essays, or supervising MA/Ph.D. students.
  • A proven track record of collegiality and team contributions to the field through the activities of learned societies or conference organization.
  • Nineteenth-century subject expertise developed within organizations outside the university, such as libraries, museums, or galleries.

How to Apply

Interested candidates should send a one-page statement explaining their interest in the role and a one-page CV to VPR Editor Katherine Malone by Monday, January 9, 2023.

Upcoming Joint RSVP/ESPRit Online Event

Join Us for a Virtual Seminar on The Foreign Language Press

RSVP and ESPRit are delighted to host a joint online event featuring colleagues from TransfoPress, the Transnational network for the study of Foreign Language Press from the 18th to the 20th century. The seminar will take place 8th December 2022 at 5 p.m. GMT / 6 p.m. CET via Zoom, and will last approximately 90 minutes. During the seminar, the below speakers will give 15-minute presentations, followed by Q&A and discussion. The seminar is free and all are welcome.

Registration Information

This virtual event will be held 8 December at 5 p.m. GMT / 6 p.m. CET via Zoom.

Once registered, participants will receive a Zoom link via email.

Register Here

Invited Speakers

At this online event, we’re pleased to welcome the following colleagues from the Transfopress network who will give the following presentations:

  • Diana Cooper-Richet (Université Paris-Saclay): “The Transfopress network (2012-2022): object, activities, publications”
  • Jennifer Hayward (Wooster College, Ohio) and Michelle Prain (Universidad Adolfo Ibànez, Valparaiso): “The English-Language press in Chile: 19th Century global networks to 21st Century digital dialogues”
  • Nicolas Pitsos (BULAC/Université Paris-Saclay): “The foreign-language press and the emergence of a polyphonic capital: the case of Paris”
  • Isabelle Richet (Université Paris Cité): “Helen Zimmern and the Italian Gazette: the editor as cultural go-between”

We hope to see you there!

RSVP Seeks New Communications Coordinator

RSVP is now hiring a new Communications Coordinator! With many thanks and best wishes for our current coordinator, Alison Hedley, we find ourselves in search of someone to follow in her illustrious footsteps.

The RSVP Communications Coordinator administers communications related to awards, events, member news, and elections. Supervised by the President, the Communications Coordinator consults with the Vice-President and Treasurer as needed and collaborates with the Webmaster and Social Media Coordinator.

Help RSVP Thrive in This Paid Position

The work of the Communications Coordinator is estimated at 5 hours per week and paid at the rate of $20 USD per hour. The major duties of the Communications Coordinator include: 

  • Managing fellowship, grant, and prize applications and notifications in SM Apply in coordination with the awards committees and the President
  • Preparing the monthly newsletter: writing announcement copy, assembling  and editing submitted text and images, and distributing the newsletter by email using MailChimp
  • Assisting with digital event enrollment and administration as needed
  • Supporting communications related to the annual conference and elections
  • Responding to queries submitted to RSVP via the website contact form
  • Updating and maintaining the membership list 
  • Developing guidelines and other materials to support recurring and ongoing RSVP activities (for example, award committee decision-making)

Interested in Applying?

Applicants should send a cover letter indicating their interest in and qualifications for the position, along with a 1-2-page cv, to RSVP President Fionnuala Dillane by 10 October, 2022.