The Centre for Victorian Literature and Culture was officially launched at a festive event on October 16, attended by over sixty people. Staff (past and present) and postgraduate students from the School of English were joined by international scholars (from the USA, Sweden, Lithuania, Romania) and members of local groups with a Dickens connection (such as the Canterbury Dickens Fellowship branch and the Dickens Museum in Broadstairs) to celebrate the new Centre.
The event also provided the opportunity to launch two recent books by scholars associated with the Centre: Wendy Parkins’s Jane Morris: The Burden of History, launched by Holly Furneaux (University of Leicester) and Michael Hollington’s two-volume edited collection, The Reception of Dickens in Europe, launched by John Drew (University of Buckingham).
In her speech to launch the Centre, Hilary Fraser (Executive Dean of Humanities, Birkbeck College, London), recalled the long and distinguished record of scholarship in Victorian literature in the School of English that provided a strong foundation for future research in the Centre. Hilary also noted the importance of Kent and the southeast in Victorian literature and culture, as the region so closely associated not only with Charles Dickens but with many other Victorian luminaries, from Darwin to Turner.
The Centre Director, Wendy Parkins, announced the future plans for the Centre, including two conferences over the next two years in association with the British Association for Victorian Studies and the Dickens Project. Wendy hopes that the new Centre will become a vibrant hub attracting researchers and postgraduate students with a passion for Victorian literature and culture in the coming years.