Dickens Society 25th Annual Symposium: 17th–19th July 2020, Bloomsbury, London

Call for Papers

OUR DICKENS: DICKENS AND HIS PUBLICS

Charles Dickens's study in the Charles Dickens Museum.

By kind permission: Newangle © Charles Dickens Museum

In 2020, the 150-year anniversary of Dickens's death, the annual Dickens Society Symposium will take place in Bloomsbury, Dickens's home for periods of time and where he produced some of his most memorable novels. Organised by Royal Holloway, University of London, in collaboration with the Charles Dickens Museum (formerly the Dickens House Museum), the anniversary Symposium seeks to explore what Dickens means to so many people across the world and why he has meant so much to diverse publics over time.

Proposals from scholars, independent researchers, and graduate students on the theme of 'Our Dickens: Dickens and his Publics' are invited; as is customary at Dickens Society symposia, proposals on other aspects of Dickens's life and work will also be considered. One page (250–300 word) abstracts for papers deliverable in 20 minutes, plus 150-word bios, may be submitted 1 Sept. – 1 Nov., 2019 to Dickens.Symposium.2020@gmail.com

For more information, please visit dickenssociety.org or contact Program Committee Chair, Elizabeth Bridgham at bridgham@providence.edu Topics may include, but are not limited to, the following:

• • Dickens and Fame

• • Dickens and Celebrity

• • Adaptation

• • Dickens as children's literature

• • Dickens's cross-class appeal

• • The Public Readings

• • The use of Dickens in education

• • The use of Dickens in conflict zones

• • Dickens and literary tourism

• • Dickens and the Heritage Industry

• • Dickens and Journalism

• • The political uses of Dickens

• • Dickens in translation

• • Imagined Community

• • Fandom

• • Dickensian 'tat'

• • Postmodern Dickens

• • Memorials and/or commemoration

• • Authors's houses

• • Place

• • Dickens and the Visual

• • Animated Dickens

• • Neo-Victorian Dickens

• • Intertextuality

• • Myth-making

• • Public history

• • Nostalgia

• • Commodification

• • Personal memories

• • Online communities

The Symposium will commence on Thursday 16th July with a welcome drinks reception at the Dickens Museum. On Friday 17th July, there will be a drinks reception in Royal Holloway's Victorian Picture Gallery, which includes works by Millais, Frith, Landseer and others; the Victorian campus has more than once been voted the most beautiful in the world. On Saturday 18th July, for the first time ever, the Dickens Society will join the Dickens Fellowship for a joint dinner at Goodenough College in Bloomsbury to commemorate the 150-year anniversary.

Charles Dickens by Samuel Lawrence

By kind permission © Charles Dickens Museum

The Robert B. Partlow, Jr. Prize

The Partlow Prize is named in honor of the original Secretary-Treasurer and one of the founding members of the Dickens Society. It may be in the form of EITHER one stipend of $500 OR two of $300 (if two recipients are chosen), and is intended to defray costs of attending the Dickens Symposium, in order to deliver a paper on any aspect of Dickens's life or work. The registration fee and cost of the Dickens Dinner will also be waived. Eligibility is restricted to students (graduate or undergraduate), independent scholars, and nontenured faculty. Candidates should submit a CV and a completed paper of 20 minutes duration to the designated Program Committee Chair by the announced deadline. Should the paper be of publishable quality, Dickens Quarterly shall have first right of refusal.