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.

Call for Papers

We invite papers from graduate students and academics that explore migrations across geographical, chronological, artistic, and disciplinary margins in the Victorian era. We welcome papers on topics that include, but are not limited to:

• Outward migrations from the British Isles to the periphery of empire, and beyond;
• Migrations from the colonies as well as Europe and the Americas to the British Isles;
• The Black Atlantic in the 19^th century;
• Attitudes towards migration in literary and artistic works across Britain and the empire;
• Migrations of forms and across disciplines, and resulting hybrid works (in literature, art, music, criticism, and other fields);
• Theories of migration pertaining to the long nineteenth century;

…and any other migrations that you may find relevant to the field.

Please send abstracts (250-words) and CVs to victorian-expansions-2026@york.ac.uk by 31 January 2026. Further details of the programme, registration, and venue are forthcoming. We welcome any queries, and look forward to seeing you at the conference!