Schedule

SUNDAY, JULY 26 | 10-11AM PDT

Reading Together: David Copperfield and Iola Leroy

Participants: Jacqueline Barrios (NAI and UCLA), Ryan Fong (Kalamazoo College), Tricia Lootens (University of Georgia), and Jason Rudy (University of Maryland)

This recorded conversation will talk about the context for pairing these two novels and the ways in which we’re preparing to read and engage with them during the next year.

MONDAY, JULY 27 | 10-11AM PDT

Foundations in Black Victorian Studies

Participants: Jennifer DeVere Brody (Stanford University) and Gretchen Holbrook Gerzina (University of Massachusetts Amherst)

A conversation that will bring together two scholars whose research has profoundly shaped the study of Blackness in the Victorian period and the contributions of Black Victorian writers. They will discuss the legacy of this work over the last two decades and possible directions for the future.

TUESDAY, JULY 28 | 10-11AM PDT

Toppling Statues: Teaching Victorian Literature in 2020

Participants: Ronjaunee Chatterjee (Concordia University), Alicia Mireles Christoff (Amherst College), Sophia Hsu (CUNY), and Alisha Walters (Penn State Abington), with Ryan Fong (Kalamazoo College) as moderator.

A conversation among early-career scholars of color in Victorian studies about teaching Victorian literature in our present moment. In addition to offering practical classroom strategies and approaches, the session will think about what relevance Victorian literature has for current conversations around race, memory and memorialization, and the legacies of the nineteenth-century past.

WEDNESDAY, JULY 29 | 10-11AM PDT

Harper Studies in 2020

Participants: Brigitte Fielder (University of Wisconsin Madison), Koritha Mitchell (Ohio State University), Derrick Spires (Cornell University) and Nazera Sadiq Wright (University of Kentucky)

A live conversation among leading scholars of Frances E. W. Harper about her wide-ranging body of work and current directions in research about it. The discussion will highlight how Iola Leroy fits in with Harper’s other fiction, poetry, oratory, and prose, as well as her significant involvement in the nineteenth-century African American press.

THURSDAY, JULY 30 | 11:30-12:30PM PDT

Harper in the Transatlantic Context

Participants: Daniel Hack (University of Michigan), Meredith McGill (Rutgers University), and Carla Peterson (University of Maryland)

A conversation about Harper’s central place in the literary and cultural exchanges that were taking place between the United States and Britain during the nineteenth-century. The session will offer insight into the ways that any discussion of the “Victorian” on both sides of the Atlantic must include Harper.

THURSDAY, JULY 30 | 7:00PM PDT

Virtual Grand Party

We're having a party! Join us for the Virtual Grand Party, a beloved Dickens Universe tradition.

To prepare for the festivities, we recommend you bake your favorite treat and prepare a bowl of your favorite punch. We'll be sharing more Universe recipes throughout the week on Twitter and Facebook.

FRIDAY, JULY 31 | 10-11:30AM PDT

LA Copperfield

A screening of a performance by the USC Neighborhood Academic Initiative Program followed by a Q&A session with the teacher and director, Jacqueline Barrios, and her students.

SATURDAY, AUGUST 1 | 10-11AM PDT

Baby Grand Auction fundraiser

The Friends of the Dickens Project's annual 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.