"Victorian News" — 2016 Conference Webpage

Arboretum at Mizzou Botanic Garden

The Midwest Victorian Studies Association will hold its 2016 annual conference at the University of Missouri–Columbia, April 8-10. Taking as its starting point the remarkable explosion in the periodical press and the availability of cheap print in the Victorian Era, the conference presentations will reflect fresh and current thinking about this theme. This includes topics on new perspectives on Victorian print culture; innovations in the periodical press; print technologies and “cheap print”; periodicals and the arts: fiction, poetry, art, music, and theater; the specialist press; publications for children, women, hobbyists, and the professions; science and the press; the serialization of novels; poems in periodicals; technologies of illustration; interplay of text and image; the press and popular culture; crime, sensationalism, and the press; viral news and literature; the press in the Colonies; politics and the press; gender and print culture; criticism and reviews; journalism as a profession; the economics of periodical publishing; newspaper and magazine advertising; the role of the press in the construction of taste; “neglected” publications; and newspapers as historical sources. Click the following link to register, or download the program.

For the third year, MVSA’s conference will feature three seminars open to graduate students, faculty, and independent scholars led by senior scholars on topics related to the conference theme. Seminar participants pre-circulate 5-to-7 page papers. This year’s topics are “Print Culture and the Mass Public,” led by Julie Codell; “Finding/Creating a Voice in the Periodical Press,” led by Leanne Langley; and “The Transatlantic Periodical Press,” led by Jennifer Phegley.

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Plenaries

MVSA’s 2016 Jane Stedman Plenary Speaker will be Leanne Langley, Associate Fellow at the University of London’s Institute of Musical Research, social and cultural historian of music, and leading authority on music journalism in nineteenth-century Britain. Her talk is entitled “Musical Times: The Achievement of the Musical Press in Nineteenth-Century England.”

Hotel Accommodations, Transportation, and Venues

The Broadway, a downtown hotel, has rooms reserved for MVSA 2016 at a convention price of $129 per night; to make a reservation, call 573-875-7000, or book online using the group code “MVS” to receive the conference rate. The Hampton Inn & Suites Columbia (at the University of Missouri) also has rooms available at a reduced convention price of $119 per night; to make a reservation, call 573-214-2222, or book online using the group code “VSA” to receive the conference rate.  Please make reservations by March 12 in order to receive the MVSA discount.

Alternatively, for those traveling to the conference by car, the Stoney Creek Hotel & Conference Center is located only 1.74 miles from campus, offering rooms with extra amenities starting at $135 per night. Further away, but still convenient for those who are driving, is Candlewood Suites Columbia, which books rooms at around $119 per night.  

For air travel, you can fly directly into Columbia Regional Airport (COU) on American Airlines (though the flights can be somewhat limited); all flights go through either Chicago or Dallas. You could also choose to fly into St. Louis (STL) and take the MO-X Shuttle to Columbia, which is about a 2-hour ride. A third option is to fly into Kansas City (MCI) and take the MO-X Shuttle from there, which is about a 3-hour ride.

To reach the University of Missouri by car, turn left on Elm Street, drive past Peace Park, and cross 9th Street. The Hitt Street Garage, which you can enter from Elm Street (turn right), has visitor parking and is most convenient for the Friday sessions. For the Saturday sessions, the Turner Avenue Garage would be more convenient: take Elm Street to 9th Street, turn right on 9th, and follow the road around, past Jesse Hall. The garage will be on your left. A campus map is available here.