Centre for Victorian Studies

Click for Centre of Victorian Studies research outputs.|

The Centre for Victorian Studies at Royal Holloway draws together academic staff and postgraduate students from across the College who share research interests in the Victorian period. Members belong to the Departments of English, Drama and Theatre Studies, History, Media Arts, School of Modern Languages, Literature and Culture, Geography, and Music.

The Centre for Victorian Studies provides a forum for cross-disciplinary collaboration, meetings and discussion. It engages with a breadth of Victorian and nineteenth-century topics in languages, cultures, and countries beyond the context of English Literature and British identity. It maintains regular contact with local, national and international centres and media for the study of Victorian culture, and contributes to setting the agenda for research developments in the field.

Members’ research interests are stimulatingly diverse. They include: the bachelor in the nineteenth century, nineteenth-century Conservatism, the Victorian Theatre,  the stage coach, shipwrecks, maritime widows, slavery, literature and sculpture, Dickens, Victorian sentimentality, nineteenth-century radicalism and socialism, pantomime, utopian literature, imperialism and the British empire, children’s literature, hidden histories of exploration, literature and the Risorgimento, literature and sculpture, Anglo-Italian cultural relations, French realism and naturalism, the fin de siècle, Aestheticism, the music of Chopin.

The Centre hosts regular conferences, seminars and symposia, including major events such as Victorian Europeans in June 2005, the inaugural Victorian Studies Centres UK: First Summit Meeting 3rd — 4th April 2009 and Sculpture and Literature in the Nineteenth Century 25th April 2009. Our core activities include our C19th Studies Reading Group which brings together staff and graduate students from across the college and research seminars collaborating with other groups and Centres in the College, including - most recently - the Royal Holloway Postcolonial Reading Group. Our current event planning focuses on marking the return of the Royal Holloway Art Collection| from its highly successful tour of the USA from Spring 2011 onwards with a series of symposia.

People

Director, Centre for Victorian Studies: Dr Ruth Livesey, Reader in Nineteenth-Century Literature and Thought, Department of English

In addition to co-organising conferences and events in the Centre for Victorian Studies, Ruth Livesey is Assistant Editor of the Journal of Victorian Culture|. She is on the Editorial Boards of Nineteenth-Century Gender Studies|; 19: Interdisciplinary Studies in the Long Nineteenth-Century| and an advisor to Adam Matthews Digital London Lowlife|. She is the author of Socialism, Sex, and the Culture of Aestheticism, 1880-1914 (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2007) and is currently working on a project entitled ‘Writing the Stagecoach Nation, 1780-1870’.

Deputy Director: Dr Vicky Greenaway, Lecturer in Nineteenth-Century Literature, Department of English.

Steering Group: Jacky Bratton, Department of Drama and Theatre Studies; Giuliana Pieri, SMLLC; Hannah Thompson, SMLLC; Anne Varty, English; Alex Windscheffel, Department of History.

Members

Prof. Tim Armstrong|
English

Prof. Jacky Bratton|
Drama and Theatre

Dr Gilli Bush-Bailey|
Drama and Theatre

Prof. Greg Claeys|
History

Prof. Felix Driver|
Geography

Prof. Katharine Ellis|
Music

Dr Sophie Gilmartin|
English

Dr Vicky Greenaway|
English

Dr Jane Hamlett|
History

Prof Robert Hampson|
English

Dr David Lambert|
Geography

Conferences and Symposia

Past Events

• April 2009: Sculpture and Literature in the Nineteenth Century Supported by the Henry Moore Foundation. Organisers: Vicky Greenaway; Ruth Livesey.
• April 2009: Victorian Studies Centres UK: A Symposium Organisers, Sally Ledger; Ruth Livesey.
• June 2008: The Idea of America in Nineteenth-Century British Culture Organisers: Ruth Livesey; Ella Dzelzainis (collaboration between the Centre for Victorian Studies, RHUL and Birkbeck Centre for Nineteenth-Century Studies held at the IES)
• June 2005: Victorian Europeans RHUL 23-24 June Organisers: Ruth Livesey; Ana Vadillo (Joint venture between the Centre for Victorian Studies, RHUL; the Centre for Nineteenth Century Studies, Birkbeck College; Centre for Nineteenth-Century Studies, University of Exeter). Supported by the British Academy.
• Spring 2004: Locating Nineteenth-Century Aesthetics: Interdisciplinary Conversations on the Politics of the Arts, 1800-1910. First joint seminar series of the Humanities and Arts Research Centre and the Centre for Victorian Studies, Royal Holloway.

London C19th Studies Seminar

The Centre for Victorian Studies is affiliated to the London C19th Studies Seminar which meets three times a term on Saturdays at Senate House in Central London with the support of the University of London Institute of English Studies. Follow this link| for details of forthcoming events relating to nineteenth-century studies at the IES. Several members of the Centre for Victorian Studies at Royal Holloway are actively involved in the University-wide steering committee that plans these seminars and have co-organised themed programmes of events with the IES including The Nineteenth-Century on the Move (co-organisers Mark Turner, King’s College; Ruth Livesey RHUL) October- December 2008 which brought together literary scholars and historical and cultural geographers to examine new thinking in relation to mobility and culture.

All graduate students associated with the Centre for Victorian Studies are encouraged to participate in and contribute to the events that take place at the IES.

Dickens Project

The Centre for Victorian Studies at Royal Holloway is one of only 3 UK institutions affiliated to the University of California Dickens Project|. In recent years the Department of English has supported a member of staff and the successful PhD candidate in our annual competition to attend the week-long Dickens Universe Summer School at the University of California, Santa Cruz. Participants follow an intensive programme of teaching and lectures alongside a diverse range of scholars and students, from high school students to renowned Ivy League Professors in this exceptional international exchange of ideas.

PhD Programme

Prospective PhD students are invited to make contact with the member of staff most closely aligned to their areas of interest for informal discussion of developing research proposals. The Department of English has a good record of AHRC funding and other scholarships for students pursuing research in C19th Studies. Recent doctoral students in the Department of English have gone on to academic positions in the University of London and been the recipients of major postdoctoral research awards. All PhD students affiliated to the Centre are invited to participate in our C19th Reading Group and other activities. The English Department Research Committee also supports student-led initiatives such as postgraduate conferences and symposia.

Pursuing doctoral research in nineteenth-century studies at Royal Holloway not only offers the opportunity of working within the outstanding atmosphere and resources of this Victorian Institution but also a chance to engage in dialogue with the exceptional international interdisciplinary community of scholars in the wider University of London. The Centre for Victorian Studies ensures that the Library at Royal Holloway supports the needs of our research students with excellent digital and physical provision, augmented by easy access to the British Library and the resources of Senate House Library in the University of London.

Please see also:
MA Victorian Literature, Art, and Culture|
Royal Holloway Art Collection and Picture Gallery|