VISAWUS, the Victorian Interdisciplinary Studies Association of the Western United States, announces its 17th annual conference:

"Victorian Transnationalism: The Atlantic Legacy in the Long 19th Century" October 11-13, 2012

This year's conference is scheduled to take place during the height of the fall foliage season, on the campus of SUNY Plattsburgh in Plattsburgh, NY, which is situated on beautiful Lake Champlain, across from Burlington, VT, and an hour south of Montreal. We are pleased to announce that the keynote speaker will be Amanda Claybaugh, Professor of English at Harvard University and author of The Novel of Purpose: Literature and Social Reform in the Anglo-American World (Cornell, 2007).

Our focus for 2012 will be Victorian transnationalism, with particular emphasis on the Atlantic legacy in the long 19th century. Possible topics include (but are not limited to):

 Intertextuality across national boundaries  Transnational influences in art  Concert tours and musical influences  Theatrical trends and tours  Transnational friendships, famous and infamous  Periodical press and public relations  Sports and amusements, competitions and crazes  Fashion and fads  Celebrity authors and book tours  Literary and other piracies  Transnational science—synergies and squabbles  Expeditions and exploration  Migration of religious and spiritual movements  The Imperial project in Britain and the Americas  Legacies of war (Revolutionary, Napoleonic, War of 1812)  Transnational relations during the American Civil War  Race, racism, and slavery  Transatlantic social reform movements and actors

 International affiliations and antipathies  Transportation, tourism, and travel  Expatriots: immigration and emigration  Communication technologies (telegraph, e.g.)  Transatlantic commerce and commodities  Nautical technologies, marine life, aquaria  Fishing and whaling  Indigenous peoples, real and imagined  Wilderness and civilization  National symbols, stereotypes, and slurs  National identities and ideals  Clashing national manners and customs  Transnational gender-role differences  Ways of speaking: accents in English  National tastes in food and drink  Cosmopolitanism and provincialism  Definitions of class difference and labor issues  Contagion and containment, infectious diseases and epidemiology  Contact zones, ethnographies, and autoethnographies.

To submit: By March 5, 2012, email 300-word abstracts and a 1-page CV (name on BOTH) to: Genie Babb at gbabb001@plattsburgh.edu.

Conference Hotel: Best Western Inn at Smithfield. To make reservations please call the hotel directly at 518-561-7750, dial extension 2 to reach the front desk and ask for the Victorian Interdisciplinary Studies Association to receive the group rate. There is a cut off date of 09/10/2012; rooms will need to be booked on or by this date to receive the group rate. (Group rates available 10/10 through 10/13/2012.)

Looking for past VISAWUS conference information?

The 2005-2011 conference schedules are now archived online. Click here to view and download them, or browse the list below.

1996 - California State University, Northridge - Victorian Success - James R. Kincaid
1997 - California State University, Northridge - Victorian Sights and Sounds - Philippa Levine
1998 - Clark College (Vancouver, Washington) - Victorian Sexualities - Donald Hall
1999 - Clark College (Vancouver, Washington) - Victorianisms - Alison Winter
2000 - UCLA - Artifacts of Victorian Culture - Sally Mitchell
2001 - UCLA - The Victorian World - Chris Kent
2002 - Boise State University - Victorian Institutions - Linda K. Hughes
2003 - University of Texas (Austin) - Victorian Legacies - Martin Wiener
2004 - University of Washington (Seattle) - Victorian Innovations - Susan P. Casteras
2005 - University of New Mexico (Albuquerque) - Victorian Rituals, Celebrations, and Anniversaries - James R. Kincaid
2006 - Pepperdine University (Malibu) - The Presence of the Past in the Victorian Age - Philippa Levine
2007 - University of Colorado (Boulder) - Victorians in Motion - Lawrence Goldman
2008 - University of Washington (Seattle) - The Public and Private Politics of Victorian England - Antony Harrison
2009 - Coast Renaissance Hotel (Vancouver, British Columbia) - Victorian Markets and Marketing - Erika Rappaport - Joint Conference with the Victorian Studies Association of Western Canada
2010 - University of Hawaii (Honolulu) - Oceania and the East in the Victorian Imagination - Jane Samson
2011- University of Houston-Downtown - The Vulgar and the Proper: Victorian Manners and Mores - Helena Michie