VICTORIAN TRADE

May 2026; Winnipeg MB

The Victorian Studies Association of Western  Canada is pleased to announce that its next  conference, on the topic of Victorian Trade, will  take place in Winnipeg MB (Treaty One  Territory) on May 1 and 2, 2026. We look  forward to welcoming Dr. Sarah Fee (Senior  Curator, Global Fashion & Textiles; Royal  Ontario Museum) as our plenary speaker. 

Trade establishes new relationships and shapes existing ones. Nineteenth-century trade evokes not only  economic pursuits, labour activism, and the geographical movement of goods but also the exchange of ideas.  We encourage proposals that expand our ideas about Victorian trade, whether focused on material objects,  people, knowledge, identities, values, or emotions.  

Topics for exploration include but are not limited to: 

-the movement of raw materials, manufactured goods, and knowledge between people and places treaties, agreements, and contracts 
-the trade in enslaved people and products of their labour 
-bartering and bargaining 
-the nineteenth-century book trade 
-the nineteenth-century art market 
-trade unions, guilds, and apprenticeships 
-vocational schools, workingmen’s libraries, and reading rooms for tradespeople 
-trade publications 
-the emergence of new professions and professional identities 
-national and regional borders 
-physical and conceptual borders 
-non-commercial forms of exchange, including gift culture 
-material culture and craft 
-stock exchanges and banking 
-stamps, monetary systems, and the gold standard 
-transportation and communication systems 
-street trade, peddling, arcades, and department stores 
-mutuality, trust, distrust, and betrayal 
-hoarding, frauds, swindles, and scams 
-neo-Victorian authors who ‘trade’ in Victorian tropes 
-the trading of ideas in the context of contemporary or Victorian-era education 

We welcome proposals for papers, panels, and workshops that explore the theme of Victorian Trade. Established  scholars, emerging scholars, independent scholars, and graduate students are all encouraged to apply. Please  send a proposal of no more than 200 words, accompanied by a brief biographical statement, to vsawc2026@gmail.com. In the case of panels or workshops, please share participants’ materials in a single  email. Please submit proposals no later than December 1, 2025. 

Our conference will be held at the Alt Hotel in downtown Winnipeg. Graduate students and underemployed  scholars will have the opportunity to apply for funding to reduce the cost of participation. Please direct any  questions to conference host Dr. Vanessa Warne (vanessa.warne@umanitoba.ca). To learn more about the  Victorian Studies Association of Western Canada and past conferences, please visit our site. To learn more about  our organization’s journal, Victorian Review: An Interdisciplinary Journal of Victorian Studies, please visit: https://victorianreview.org/

Image: Detail of a mid-nineteenth-century Four Seasons shawl (collection of the Metropolitan Museum).