Victorian Intimacies
Hosted by the Victorian Studies Association of Western Canada
VSAWC 2016 Conference • Winnipeg, Manitoba • April 22–23

Conference dates: April 22–23, 2016

Publication workshop: April 21 and 24, 2016

The Victorian Studies Association of Western Canada invites proposals for its 2016 conference, “Victorian Intimacies.” The conference will explore Victorian concepts, representations, and experiences of intimacy. We invite papers that examine Victorian studies’ enduring interest in the intimate relationships among bodies, things, environments, and practices.

Possible topics for discussion might include autobiography and life writing; intimacy with objects and commodities; human-animal relationships; the care of the self; altruism and care for others; grooming and etiquette; dress and adornment; private and public secrets; homes and/or private spaces; rest and relaxation; introspection and seclusion; eroticism and sexual relations; proximity and closeness; the intimacy of media and technology; nerves and nervous systems; the intimate experiences of race, class, and/or gender; global/imperial expressions of intimacy; friendships; family relationships; letter-writing/correspondence; sexual health and the purity movement; pornography; spiritualism and ghostly encounters; neo-Victorian and intertextual intimacies; reading practices.

The conference organizing committee welcomes papers from scholars working in different disciplines and employing varied methodologies (history, art history, architecture, music, theatre, literary studies, popular culture, digital humanities, media history/archaeology, disability studies, affect theory, postcolonialism, critical race theory, phenomenology, gender studies, and queer theory). We also encourage would-be participants to propose panels of three papers on related themes.

To see full call, including special events and submission instructions, please visit: http://web.uvic.ca/vsawc/vsawc-conferences/2016-conference/