Locating the Victorians

A major international conference commemorating 
150 years since the Great Exhibition and the centenary of Queen Victoria’s
death

South Kensington, London, UK

Hosted by the Science Museum, London
PART OF THE SOUTH KENSINGTON FESTIVAL
Call for expressions of interest
12-15 July 2001

The year 2001 will mark the sesquicentenary of the Great Exhibition of 
1851 and the centenary of the death of Queen Victoria. Coinciding with the
dawn of a new millennium, these anniversaries provide the opportunity to
review our interpretation of the culture of the Victorian period. The Science
Museum, the Victoria & Albert Museum and the Natural History Museum in
London’s South Kensington, a cultural quarter itself funded from the
profits of
the Great Exhibition, will therefore host a great Victorian festival with
major
exhibitions and an international conference which will interpret the 19th
Century for the benefit of the 21st. 

The dates of the conference will be 12-15 July 2001. The location will be in
South Kensington, London, with events at the Museums. Accommodation will
be arranged at hotels and at local university dormitories. Before and after
the
meeting there will be a variety of more specialised groups meeting under the
rubric of ‘The Victorian Fringe’. It is likely that the registration cost
will be
between £100 and £150. In some cases it may be possible to defray part of the
cost. 

The meeting is being structured so as to be interdisciplinary,
broadly-based and
summative. It is intended to foster communication between students of all
branches of Victorian history, culture and literature. It will address
questions
such as the Victorian concepts of progress and time, of certainty and
reality, of
participation and inclusion, of gender and class, of association and
organisation,

of art and imagination. 

During 1999 we intend to consult extensively so as to construct a meeting with
the widest possible appeal and the greatest possible benefits for the future. 

Currently the planning committee is thinking of 10 to 15 themes each of which
will incorporate four to six sessions perhaps made up of three papers or,
alternatively, of discussion panels. We are however eager to hear proposals
for
unconventional formats. Themes should each be multidisciplinary incorporating
treatments of literature, art, culture, economics, science, technology etc.
We see
contributions to this conference as summations and interpretations rather than
opportunities to present new research findings. Some potential themes chosen
to highlight the interdisciplinary intent are listed below. These themes
are of
course subject to revision as the conference takes shape. 

We now seek proposals from anyone who would like to be a theme organiser. 
Please give a brief description of your concept of the theme, possible panel
headings and indicative lists of people you would invite to speak. On the
basis
of these proposals, the selected organisers will then be asked to invite
speakers
formally. We encourage partnerships of two organisers for each theme. 

The organising group: Robert Bud of the Science Museum (convenor), 
Bob Bloomfield (Natural History Museum), Paul Greenhalgh (Victoria & Albert
Museum), and Michael Wolff (University of Massachusetts) is being guided 
by a wide-ranging planning committee.

Please submit your ideas not later than 1 October 1999. If you do intend to
do so, we would be grateful if you could alert us to your interest now or
as soon as possible by emailing [log in to unmask], using the subject name
‘Victorian themes’ and indicating the likely theme and your name. Of course
if you have
any special vision of how you would organise your theme, then please
mention it. 

Even if you do not wish to organise a session but would like to attend,
please tell us what you would like
to experience at the meeting or get out of the occasion.  Please email
[log in to unmask], using the
subject name ‘Victorian conference’ with your suggestions. While we cannot
promise to satisfy everyone,
we shall try to use the time available to organise a truly memorable
conference. 

Potential themes: An indicative list

n    Democratic consumption and popular culture
n    Mass production 
n    Spectacle - museums, theatre, sport and the circus
n    Making music
n    1851 and other exhibitions

n    Ghosts, new technologies and the boundaries 
     of the real
n    Faith and doubt
n    The avant-garde
n    The artist
n    Contexts of knowledge: the professional 
     and the enthusiast 
n    Books print and communication

n    Evolution, progress and degeneration
n    Managing, representing and imagining nature
n    Encounters and exchanges
n    Managing capitalism: regulation, statistics, class,
                                        

                                        

                                                         
                        
     immigration and socialism

n    The built environment
n    Middle class women
n    Workers’ movements
n    The individual and the state
n    Heroes and sages
n    The city as organism and idea

n    Death: representation and cultural challenge
n    Sexuality and the body
n    The underworld
n    The representation of people: what is a human? 

n    Victorian studies
n    Victorianism around the world
n    Victoria herself



Planning Committee

David Allen
Bob Bloomfield
Robert Bud (Chair)
Martin Daunton
Felix Driver
David Feldman
Paul Greenhalgh
Ian Inkster
John Mackenzie
Peter Mandler
Jim Secord
Joanne Shattock
Jennifer Tann
Michael Wolff

For more details and to keep up-to-date consult 
the website:
www.sciencemuseum.org.uk/researchers/victorians
Robert Bud
Head of Research (Collections)
The Science Museum, London SW7 2DD, UK
Tel: (+44) (0) 171 938 8041
Fax: (+44) (0) 171 938 8050
http://www.nmsi.ac.uk/collections/staff/r_bud.html



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