Comments & Queries

Comments & Queries are welcome via e-mail. Our address is victstu@indiana.edu.

On the Cover is “Columbia’s Fix,” from Punch 28 Dec. 1861: 258. On the back cover is “Waiting for an Answer,” from Punch 14 Dec. 1861: 238.

Changes at VS: This summer our office bids farewell to Managing Editor Matt Kaul, whose efforts to broaden his editorial range and interdisciplinary connections have led him to other editorial opportunities. VS trusts he will not stray too far from the MLA-Chicago hybrid that makes up the journal’s distinguished house style. Matt continues to work on his dissertation on secularization, liturgy, and form in the Victorian period. We will miss his editorial sagacity, deadpan humor, and knack for coming up with apt gmail tags, and we would like him to know that we have retired the Blue Pen in his honor.

Now Managing Editor, Beth Bevis is thrilled to be working so closely with the essays that VS publishes and to be taking on the almost equally humbling task of designing covers. Her work as an editor has in turn shaped her interest in the relationship between Victorian religion and narrative technique. She is planning a dissertation on moments of inarticulacy and other problems of narration that crop up when Victorians attempt to put personal convictions into words.

Molly Boggs has taken over the position of Assistant Managing Editor. She is interested in Victorian representations of political, economic, and social systems. Currently working on a project about Victorian lost property offices, she takes a special interest in the many mysterious objects from past years that have been left behind in the Victorian Studies office.

This summer we have also had the privilege of working with two excellent undergraduate interns.

Katie Hand is a senior majoring in English, pursuing a business certificate, and finishing minors in psychology and classical studies. She is grateful to Victorian Studies for including her in the office over the summer and entertaining these varied interests. She became familiar with the editing process and office work in a way that is sure to stick. She loves being in charge of the VS social media and combining Victorian and pop cultures. Though Katie has no idea what job she wants when she graduates, she knows it will have to be in a place with a staff that tries to be as competent, cooperative, considerate, and absolutely fun as the staff at VS.

Marissa Caranna is a junior working on a degree in English with minors in history and cello performance. She is especially interested in Victorian England, and working as an intern in the book review department of Victorian Studies was the perfect way to explore it further. Since her time there, she has become an expert on the history of chairs and now writes all her formal papers and blog posts exclusively in house style. She would like to thank everyone at Victorian Studies for a great experience, especially Jeanette, Brian, and Beth for answering countless questions and making difficult judgment calls on how to appropriately address professors. After finishing her degree, Marissa intends to continue on to get her Masters and eventually put the skills she learned at Victorian Studies to good use in an editorial job.

As always, Victorian Studies thanks the Indiana University Honors College, without whose generous support our internship program would not be possible.