2020-2021 News Archive

  • Race, Violence, and Form in Nineteenth-Century Ireland

    December 18, 2023

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    'Partial Answers': Review of 'The Oxford Handbook of Charles Dickens'

    June 11, 2021

    Iain Crawford, Professor of English at the University of Delaware, reviews 'The Oxford Handbook of Charles Dickens' edited by Robert L. Patten, John O. Jordan, and Catherine Waters.

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    Deciphering Dickens with the V&A and the Morgan Library & Museum

    June 10, 2021

    Universe participants are invited to help decipher much of Dickens’s deleted and revised manuscript material as possible to produce a powerful and lasting resource for readers, scholars, and editors of his work.

  • Photo of JoAnna Rottke

    New Beginnings for the Friends of the Dickens Project Board

    June 4, 2021

    The Friends of the Dickens Project Board has recently elected a new President, who will begin his term at this year's Dickens Universe in July. Meet both the current President, JoAnna Rottke, as well as the incoming President, Mike Stern, in this article.

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    Goblins, Ghosts, & Martians: History of A Christmas Carol

    June 1, 2021

    Join us at 2:00 p.m. (ET) on Wednesday, June 16, for a one-hour lecture and Q&A to learn about the history of Charles Dickens’s classic, 'A Christmas Carol.'

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    Decoding Dickens: Contexts, Approaches, Inspirations

    May 3, 2021

    An online networking symposium introduces the ‘savage stenographic mystery of Dickens’s shorthand and the challenges of deciphering unusual scripts. July 23, 2021, 2:00-6:40 PM (BST)

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    Review of 'The Oxford Handbook of Charles Dickens'

    April 16, 2021

    Joseph McLaughlin, Associate Professor of English at Ohio University and coeditor of the 'Ohio Series in Victorian Studies' at Ohio's university press, reviews 'The Oxford Handbook of Charles Dickens' edited by Robert L. Patten, John O. Jordan, and Catherine Waters.

  • Dear Iola, Love South L.A. banner

    Dear Iola, Love South LA: A Film Festival

    February 8, 2021

    You are cordially invited to join us for the premiere screening of Dear Iola, Love South LA, a film festival produced by South L.A. teens, all inspired by their journey with the 19th-century novel 'Iola Leroy' by Frances E. W. Harper, one of the most influential African American woman activists of her period. Celebrate these powerful and poignant 21st translations of Harper's 19th century anti-racist book.

  • Charles Dickens in his Study by William Powell Frith (1859)

    Dickens in the Digital Age

    February 5, 2021

    Join the Deciphering Dickens team on Thursday, February 18, 2021, from 1:00-6:00 PM (GMT) to explore the V&A’s Dickens collections and discuss exciting new approaches to how we might read, edit, and share historical materials in the digital age, both in Dickens’s case and beyond.

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    Quarantine, Bureaucracy, and More: The Relevance of Charles Dickens’s 'Little Dorrit' Today

    January 7, 2021

    If you want a grasp of why and how the nineteenth-century novel matters now, indulge yourself in four brilliant essays on Charles Dickens’s 'Little Dorrit,' brought to you by 'Nineteenth-Century Literature.' The mix of essays reminds us that sometimes we do our best and most ambitious theoretical work by eyeing sharply a novel that can still astonish us.

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    Friends Christmas Auction

    November 22, 2020

    The Friends of the Dickens Project's fundraising auction is a community-building event to celebrate the work of the Dickens Project. All proceeds will support the activities of the Dickens Project, including high school and community college scholarships and travel grants.

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    Christmas with Dickens

    November 17, 2020

    Charles Dickens just wants to talk about his book, A Christmas Carol, but what happens when spirits begin to show up? Is Dickens being guilt-tripped by his estranged wife, Catherine; haunted by the Ghost of Christmas Present; regretting his portrayal of Ebenezer Scrooge? And what is Queen Victoria doing there?

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    Reading Dickens Today

    November 16, 2020

    Join us on Monday, December 14 for a lecture with Professor John Jordan in which he speculates about the reasons for Dickens’s enduring afterlife and explores some of the ways in which Dickens remains important and relevant for 21st-century audiences.

  • Painting of Mr. Micawber serving punch by Edward Sherard Kennedy (1873)

    Victorian Kitchens & Cocktails Workshop

    November 2, 2020

    Dust off your copies of What Shall We Have for Dinner? by Lady Clutterbuck and Mrs. Beeton's Book of Household Management and join us for three interactive sessions exploring Victorian kitchens and cocktails.

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    Uplifted Pages: Finishing 'Iola Leroy' Together in a South LA Reading Marathon

    October 20, 2020

    In a little more than 24 hours, the 57 students of Ms. Barrios's AP English Literature class finished reading Iola Leroy, the 1892 novel by Frances E. W. Harper, one of the most prominent African-American women writers of the 19th century.  The reading marathon began at 3 PM on Saturday, October 17, with a three-hour synchronous portion, when guest readers from scholars of early African-American literature joined forces with staff and teachers from USC Neighborhood Academic Initiative and Foshay Learning Center to read the first eight chapters aloud in relay!

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    'Iola Leroy' in South LA: Call for Reading Buddies

    October 4, 2020

    We are seeking volunteers to create Reading Buddy "commercials" for sections of Iola Leroy. The commercials can take various forms: videos (filmed with your computer or phone), audio clips, or even text. The USC Neighborhood Academic Initiative's high school students will use these segments to investigate the novel further.

  • Dickens Project Co-Founders John O. Jordan, Murray Baumgarten, and Ed Eigner

    Remembering Ed Eigner

    August 29, 2020

    It brings us great sadness to announce the death of Ed Eigner, professor emeritus at UC Riverside and Dickens Project co-founder.

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    Virtual Dickens Universe to spotlight link between Victorian and African American studies

    July 20, 2020

    For nearly four decades, the Dickens Project at UC Santa Cruz—the largest multi-campus consortium on Victorian studies in the world—has presented the Dickens Universe, a week of intense study and festivities among the redwoods. But this year, due to the pandemic, it will instead be hosting a weeklong "Virtual Dickens Universe."