Below is a list of annual conferences held nearly since the Society’s inception. More recent conferences include links to the conference program or a description of conference activities. For information about this year’s annual conference, please visit the main Conference page.
2023 – Currents in the Periodical Press
Université Caen Normandie
Caen, France
Colby Lecture: Jennie Batchelor, The Lady’s Magazine (1770-1832) and the Making of Literary History
Watch videos of the Wolff lecture and the Colby lecture on YouTube.
2022 (virtual) – Margin/Limit/Periphery/Edge
Held virtually on Whova/Zoom
Colby Lecture: Prithi Joshi, “Pressing In from the Margins”
Watch videos of the Wolff lecture and the Colby lecture on YouTube.
2021 (virtual) – Revolution(s), Evolution(s), Circulation(s)
Held virtually via Zoom
Colby Lectures: Elizabeth Tilley, The Periodical Press in Nineteenth-Century Ireland, and David Finkelstein, The Edinburgh History of the British and Irish Press: Volume 2, Expansion and Evolution, 1800-1900
2020 (postponed) – RSVP Digital Salon
Held virtually via Zoom and Twitter
2019 – Work/Leisure, Duty/Pleasure
University of Brighton
Brighton, UK
2018 – The Body and the Page in Victorian Culture
A Joint Conference of RSVP and VSAWC
University of Victoria
Victoria, BC Canada
Colby Lecture: Co-editors Alexis Easley, Andrew King, and John Morton, “The Shape of Water: Victorian Periodicals Research Now”
Watch a compilation video of the Colby lecture from the editors and some of their contributors on YouTube.
2017 – Borders and Border Crossings
Freiburg University
Freiburg im Breisgau, Germany
Colby Lecture: Co-editors Andrew King, Alexis Easley, John Morton, “Periodical Collaborations: Past, Present, and Future”
2016 – Bigger, Better, More! Growth and Expansion in the Victorian Press
University of Missouri-Kansas
Kansas City, MO USA
Colby Lecture: Mary L. Shannon, “Mornings on Wellington Street: The Print Culture of a Victorian Street”
Watch videos of the Wolff lecture and the Colby lecture on YouTube.
2015 – Life and Death in the 19th-Century Press
University of Ghent
Ghent, Belgium
Colby Lecture: Caroline Bressey, Empire, Race and the Politics of Anti-Caste
2014 – Places, Spaces and the Victorian Periodical Press
University of Delaware – Wilmington Campus
Wilmington, DE USA
Colby Lectures: Fionnuala Dillane, “’In type’ for Maga: Aesthetics, Affect and the Victorian Periodical” and
David Latane, “William Maginn and the Denial of Authorship”
2013 – Tradition and the New
University of Salford
Manchester, UK
Colby Lecture: Aileen Fyfe, “‘Creating a Proper System of Publishing’: The Technological Trials and Tribulations of Chambers Edinburgh Journal“
2012 – Sentiment and Sensation in Victorian Periodicals
University of Texas-Austin
Austin, TX USA
Colby Lecture: Joel H. Wiener, “Newspaper Sensationalism”
2011 – Work and Leisure
Canterbury Christ Church University
Canterbury, UK
Colby Lecture: Patrick Leary, “Lost Voices”
Listen to the Colby lecture and download its presentation slides to follow along.
2010 – The Material Cultures of Periodicals
Yale University
New Haven, CT USA
Colby Lecture: Mark Schoenfield, “The Taste for Violence in Blackwood’s Magazine”
2009 – Victorian Networks and the Periodical Press
University of St. Thomas
St. Paul, MN USA
Colby Lecture: Catherine Waters, “‘Much of Sala, and but Little of Russia’: ‘A Journey Due North’, Household Words and the Birth of a Special Correspondent”
2008 – Characters of the Press
Roehampton University
London, UK
Colby Lecture: Kathryn Ledbetter, “‘Ideologic Tokens’: Poetry in Victorian Periodicals; or, More on What the Wellesley Left Out”
2007 – Time and Victorian Periodicals
Virginia Commonwealth University
Richmond, VA USA
Colby Lecture: David Finkelstein, “Re-evaluating Blackwood and its Magazine”
2006 – Victorian Geographies
Graduate Center
The City University of New York (CUNY)
New York, NY USA
Colby Lecture: Roundtable featuring Michael Clarke, Linda Peterson, and Alexis Easley, “Unequivocal Virtues: The Legacy of Robert and Vineta Colby”
2005 – Victorian Periodicals and Politics
George Washington University
Washington, DC USA
2004 – Image and Text, Image in Text
University of Ghent
Ghent, Belgium
2003 – The Victorian Periodical Press: Texts and Contexts
Varscona Hotel
Edmonton, AB Canada
2002 – Enriching the Empire: Social, Scientific, and Cultural Developments at Home and Abroad
University of Michigan
Ann Arbor, MI USA
2001 – Rethinking Victorian Periodicals in the 21st Century
The City University of New York (CUNY)
New York, NY USA
2000 – Victorian Encounters: Publishers, Editors, and Readers
Birkbeck, University of London
London, UK
Previous Conferences (1969-1999)
- New Haven, CT 1999
- Wolff Lecture: Laurel Brake, “Star Turn? Magazine, Part-issue, and Book Serialisation”
- Vancouver, BC 1998
- Chicago, IL 1997
- Portland, OR 1996
- Edinburgh, UK 1995
- Tampa, FL 1994
- Ann Arbor, MI 1993
- Manchester, UK 1992
- Washington, DC 1991
- Waco, TX 1990
- Pasadena, CA 1989
- Chicago, IL 1988
- Aberystwyth, UK 1987
- New York City, NY 1986
- Toronto, ON 1985
- Cambridge, MA 1984
- Leicester, UK 1983
- New York City, NY 1982
- Tacoma, WA 1981
- Philadelphia, PA 1980
- St. Louis, MO 1979
- New York City, NY 1978
- Chicago, IL 1977
- Leicester, UK 1976
- Toronto, ON 1975
- Minneapolis, MN 1974
- Washington, DC 1973
- Cambridge, MA 1972
- Urbana, IL 1971
- New York City, NY 1969 & 1970