Victorian Expansions: Cross-Cultural Migrations

Event details

The Department of English and Related Literature at the University of York, in collaboration with the Centre for Modern Studies and the Centre for Eighteenth-Century Studies at York, is pleased to announce the return of its Victorian Studies conference, on the topic of “Victorian Expansions: Cross-Cultural Migrations.” 

The Victorian age witnessed the mass movement of peoples and ideas, from empire-builders and settlers migrating to colonial peripheries, to artists, writers, and thinkers from around the world moving to the imperial metropole to create eclectic literary, artistic, and musical forms and genres that combined global influences. In a contemporary climate increasingly characterised by anti-immigration rhetoric and policy, “Victorian Expansions: Cross-Cultural Migrations” will gather interdisciplinary research by postgraduate students and senior scholars to uncover the inherent diversity and dynamism underlying Victorian, and indeed British, culture and identity.

The conference aims to promote the view of the long nineteenth century as characterised by the mobility and convergence of peoples, ideas, and artistic forms, thus offering a historical counternarrative to the isolationism and anti-immigration sentiments that increasingly shape our current moment.

Conference keynote (public lecture): "This Strange Dream Upon the Water: Charles Dickens Drowning in Venice"

Speaker: Professor Ankhi Mukherjee, Professor of English and World Literatures, University of Oxford

Venue and time: 24 April, 6 pm, P/L/002 Lecture Theatre (Physics and Engineering Building)

Link: https://www.york.ac.uk/news-and-events/events/public-lectures/sem2-25-26/strange-dream/

Note: Registration for the keynote/public lecture is free.