CFP: Ruling Visions: Citizens, Subjects, Sovereigns
Midwest Victorian Studies Association
Washburn University, Topeka, Kansas
Conference Dates: March 24-26, 2023
Until 2015, Queen Victoria was Britain’s longest-reigning monarch. The recent passing of Elizabeth II, whose reign outlasted her great-great-grandmother Victoria’s by close to a decade, has ignited public conversations about the costs and value of the monarchy, many of which are framed through attention to the spoils and legacies of Victoria’s empire.
MVSA invites papers, or proposals for complete panels or roundtables, for their upcoming annual conference, which will explore queens as idea and in practice, whether focused exclusively on Victorian Britain or framing that period through more presentist lenses. What were the motivating visions that shaped the rule of Queen Victoria or other global sovereigns in the period? How did citizens view their sovereigns? How did monarchs become colonial subjects?
MVSA particularly welcomes capacious interpretations of the theme, considering imperial visions and anti-imperial strategies; nineteenth-century literary, musical, or visual representations of actual, figurative, or imaginative queens; subjects either dutiful or resistant; ways a monarch’s rule filtered into popular culture; or even the conceptions of norms in the natural sciences.
Papers might take up issues including, but not limited to: