2020 Conference — "Victorian Truth, Investigation, & Mystery" Loyola University, Chicago, April 24-25
In an age when the mystery novel was invented and popularized, Charles Darwin propounded the theory of evolution, and police investigations were covered extensively in the popular press, did Victorians develop a distinctive attitude towards revealing the truth? Were nineteenth-century Britons convinced that they possessed the means to find answers to long-standing questions both practical and theoretical? Did some Victorians feel that casting a light on mysteries both religious and secular risked exposing dangerous answers to the public view?
The Program Committee for the 2020 MVSA conference invites proposals for papers and panels on the subject of Victorian inquiry broadly defined. Submissions are welcome from scholars working in art history, musicology, history, science, philosophy, theater, theology, literature, and other fields of scholarly endeavor. We encourage proposals that will contribute to cross-disciplinary discussion, which is a special feature of MVSA conferences. Topics might include: