Due to concerns about safe travel during the global Covid-19 pandemic, RSVP was forced to reschedule its 2020 conference, originally to be held at Temple University, for 2021. In lieu of an in-person conference, we hosted a series of free online events designed to engage our members and newcomers alike.
With the success of our inaugural “salon” in September 2020, RSVP’s membership elected to continue offering free virtual events periodically. Below is a record of our panels, interviews, workshops, roundtables, Twitter chatter, and conversations — all moments of connection we found with both colleagues and Victorian periodicals during an otherwise distanced and disconcerting time.
2021 Digital Salon Events
Race and Transimperialism in Periodicals — A Workshop Series
Megan Kuster (University College Dublin), “Returning Citation: The Journal of the Polynesian Society, Natural Science and Indigenous Agents” (May 2021)
Watch a recording of this event on our YouTube channel.
Vaibhav Singh (University of Reading), “The Making of Transimperial Technological Networks: A Case-Study of Select Marathi Periodicals” (October 2021)
Watch a recording of this event on our YouTube channel.
2021 Digital Salon Spring Series
Our 2021 Digital Salon events for spring 2021 convened once a month and included a variety of topics.
A Discussion Decolonizing Periodical Studies (January 2021)
Moderator: Lara Atkin (University of Kent)
Watch the recording of this event on our YouTube channel or download the chat transcript.
Doing Periodical Research Online (February 2021)
This event was not recorded in support of open discussion. Download the list of resources we brainstormed.
Teaching Periodical Studies Online (March 2021)
the creative ways they use digital affordances to connect students with Victorian periodicals research, especially in the time of distance learning.
Moderator: Helena Goodwyn (Northumbria University)
Watch the recording of this event on our YouTube channel or download the chat transcript.
To access or download the assignments/activities discussed by our panelists, visit our Teaching Materials page.
Household Words: How to Do Primary Source Research at Home (April 2021):
Moderator: Rebecca Nesvet (University of Wisconsin-Green Bay)
Watch the recording of this event on our YouTube channel or download the chat transcript.
Zotero Workshop with Marie Léger-St-Jean (April 2021)
Born out of our February brainstorming session, Marie kindly took us through the finer points of using Zotero, an open-source software for organizing research
Watch the recording of this event on our YouTube channel.
Doing Research as an Independent Scholar (May 2021)
Moderator: Kaari Newman (University of Delaware)
Watch the recording of this event on our YouTube channel or download the chat transcript.
2020 RSVP Digital Salon
Our inaugural Digital Salon consisted of four sessions convened over the original conference dates, September 10-12, 2020. It included:
- A Colby Book Prize Interview with Dr. Thomas Smits (Utrecht University), winner of the 2020 Colby Book Prize, about his new book, The European Illustrated Press and the Emergence of a Transnational Visual Culture of the News, 1842-1870 (Routledge). The session was chaired by Andrew Hobbs.
- A Digital Humanities and Periodical Scholarship Roundtable with:
- Troy Bassett (Purdue University Fort Wayne), At the Circulating Library: A Database of Victorian Fiction, 1837-1901
- Jesse Erickson (University of Delaware), Ouidiana and America’s Black Press
- Marie Léger-St-Jean (Independent Scholar), Price One Penny: Cheap Literature, 1837-1860, a 2020 RSVP Field Development Grant recipient
- Jessie Reeder (SUNY Binghamton), British Chilean News: Digitizing the 19th-Century British Press in Chile, a 2018 RSVP Field Development Grant recipient
- Matthew Poland (University of Washington), Moderator
- A “Twitter Taster” event previewing scholarly work by RSVP members:
- Helena Goodwyn, The Author Evolution: Walter Besant’s Pellucid Prose
- Andrew King, Circulating Rhythms: Victorian Trade Periodicals and Everyday Myths
- Laura Fiss, Andrew Fiss & Michelle Jarvie-Eggart, ‘Pioneer of the Technical and Trade Press of the World’: Mining Periodicals in the Holdings of Michigan Technological University
- Justin Gilbert & Marie Léger-St-Jean, Gabriel Alexander and G.W.M. Reynolds: Changing Bylines and the Transatlantic Circulation of Penny-Number Revolutionary William Wallace
- Alexis Easley, The Reprinting of the Brontës’ Poetry in the Periodical Press, 1846-99
- Kirstie Blair, Factory Times
- Kaari Newman, Circulations of Civil War: The American Civil War According to the Preston Chronicle
- An RSVP Social Hour based on Ann M. Hale’s Nineteenth-Century Periodicals Lockdown House meme. The meme asked us to choose a set of historical figures to join for the duration of the pandemic. Inspired by the lively social media conversations that ensued, we sought to create a similar atmosphere in cyberspace to chat with colleagues and mingle with a select group of Victorians, where we could never escape the inimitable Dickens!