2025 Conference
Meet me in St. Louis for VISAWUS 2025: Gateways
October 3-5, 2025
Saint Louis University
Keynote Speaker: Kristin Mahoney, Michigan State University
Saint Louis University is a Catholic, Jesuit institution in mid-town Saint Louis, founded in 1818. The campus and surrounding neighborhood abound with buildings dating from the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Saint Louis University is also close to the St. Louis Art Museum, the Missouri History Museum, the St. Louis Botanical Gardens, and many beautifully preserved Victorian House Museums, including the Samuel Cupples House on campus as well as the Campbell House Museum and Chatllon-Demenil Mansion nearby.
Welcome
The Victorian Interdisciplinary Studies Association of the Western United States (VISAWUS) is a non-profit scholarly association founded in 1995 by Kathleen Peck to promote Victorian interdisciplinary studies. Our aim is to bring together scholars from across the disciplines with an interest in the Victorian period. Members include graduate students, faculty, and independent scholars with interests in Victorian literature, history, music, art, science, and medicine. We place a strong emphasis on mentoring junior faculty and graduate students.
Our annual conference invites faculty, graduate students, and independent scholars working on the long nineteenth century in Britain and within a broader transnational context to showcase the innovative work being performed in the field. The conference is known as a particularly generous site for networking and collaboration. The conference includes themed pedagogy roundtables where participants have the opportunity to discuss pedagogy with new and seasoned instructors and to get feedback on some aspect of their teaching (an assignment, an approach to the text, or a classroom activity).
Each year we award an exemplary graduate student presenter with the William H. Scheuerle Graduate Student Paper Award.
Membership in VISAWUS is open to all who share an interest in its scholarship and goals. Membership includes a one-year subscription to Victorian Review.
The VISAWUS Constitution (PDF, 2023)