Movements and Migrations
Research Society for Victorian Periodicals (RSVP) – 2026 Conference
Trinity College, Dublin, 23 – 25 July 2025
The nineteenth century was marked by unprecedented migration, as people moved to urban centers; were forcibly or semi-forcibly relocated; and emigrated to escape war, famine, economic instability, or other crises. As people moved across Britain and the globe, they created new networks of communication and political alliances. “Migration in this period,” Josephine McDonagh writes, “was a print phenomenon [that] triggered people’s curiosity about emigration, and provided the means, the motives, and the informational framework in which their journeys took place.” Periodicals were a key site where migrations and movements were presented, debated, negotiated, and imagined.
The Research Society for Victorian Periodicals invites scholars to examine the relationship between periodicals, migrations, and movements for our 2026 conference. Topics might include:
- National/transnational circulation of periodicals
- (Foreign) correspondents
- Periodicals moving across space/place (colonial editions)
- Movement & migration within & between periodicals (editors, proprietors, contributors, print formats, etc.)
- Transnational periodical networks
- Periodicals moving across genres, discourses, voices, forms, media
- Periodicals that challenge generic, linguistic, & regional borders
- Changing methodologies in periodical studies (particularly regionalism & periodization)
- Translation, translingualism, & movements across languages
- Transatlantic & transpacific migrations/movements/ communications
- Provincial & urban migrations
- Diasporic communities and news
- Temporary or seasonal movements & migrations
- Logistics of the movement of people and goods
- Political movements (in the national & provincial press)
- Colonialisms/Imperialisms (settler, formal, informal, etc.)
- The Great Famine & its aftermaths
- Nationalisms & transnationalisms; boundaries & borders
- Reform, resistance, rebellion – domestically & transnationally
- Enslavement & abolitionism
- Free trade in the periodical press
- Race & racialization
- Identities & identity construction in response to movements & migrations
- Trade journals and professional movements
- Immobility/mobility in periodicals
- Distance and/or proximity in periodicals
- Intimacy and/or detachment in periodicals
- Transports
- Travel guides and advertising in the Victorian press
- Religious movements; moving to or away from a faith or a belief system
- Musical or poetic movements in the press
We particularly welcome papers on Ireland, which saw mass outmigration throughout the nineteenth century. We also invite proposals on the changing contours of Victorian periodical studies over the past decades. In what ways have our subjects of study moved and migrated? How must we adapt our methodologies to attend to these new subjects? What is our archive(s) and how might scholarship move across national and linguistic borders? In what ways does the study of nineteenth-century periodicals speak to the world today?
Panel Honoring Brian Maidment
We also invite proposals for a special panel honoring Brian Maidment and his important contributions to RSVP and periodical studies. Proposals could be for the Dublin conference or a pre-conference Digital Event and could take the form of individual papers, a panel, or a roundtable.
Keynote Lectures
The Colby keynote speakers will be Andrew Lewis (British West Indian Newspapers and the Abolition of Slavery) and Teja Varma Pusapati (Model Women of the Press: Gender, Politics and Women’s Professional Journalism, 1850-1880). The Wolff keynote speaker will be Katherine Bode (Australian National University)
Pre-conference Digital Events
Due to local capacities, the Dublin conference will be a fully in-person event. Building on the success of 2025’s pre-conference Digital Events, we are planning a series of online panels (tentatively scheduled for June 5, June 12, and June 26) on the conference theme. We invite proposals for online presentations in one of two formats:
- Individual papers (8-10 minutes maximum
- Panels of 3 presenters (papers 8-10 minutes each)
Preference will be given to panels with closely integrated papers and speakers who represent a diversity of locations, career stages, and/or professional tracks.
Submission Guidelines
The conference committee invites proposals in one of three potential formats:
- Individual papers (15-20 minutes maximum)
- Panels of 3 presenters (each paper 15-20 minutes maximum)
- A roundtable of 5 – 6 presenters (each speaking for 6-7 minutes maximum)
Preference will be given to panels and roundtables with closely integrated papers, and speakers who represent a diversity of locations, career stages, and/or professional tracks.
Delegates can present either digitally at one of the pre-conference digital panels or in-person at the conference in Dublin, but not both.
Proposals for both the in-person conference and pre-conference digital event can be submitted here between 1 September and 1 November 2025 (due by 11:59 PM PST).
All presenters at the pre-conference digital event sessions and the in-person conference must be an active member of RSVP at the time of the event. You can renew or activate your RSVP membership here.
Questions can be directed to Mary Grant ([email protected]).