In the spirit of scholarly discussion, the 19th Century Research Seminar is providing this space for all interested to share ideas, ask questions, and leave feedback on 19CRS presentations.

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Current Presentations:

Spring 2024

  • April 26: Outstanding Graduate Student Award Presentations
    Friday April 26th at 3:30 pm in the ABL Lecture Hall. We will celebrate our Outstanding Graduate Student Papers! Congratulations to Veronica Toth (English Department) for her paper “The Subsequent History of the Young (Wo)man”: Reading Maggie Tulliver as Prodigal Daughter in The Mill on the Floss,” and Hance McCain Winingham (political science) for his paper “Suspending the Writ –…
  • April 12: Browning Day
    This year’s Browning Day Celebration will feature a talk by author Laura McNeal and will be held Friday, April 12 at 3:00 pm in the Hankamer Treasure Room of the Armstrong Browning Library. McNeal will be discussing her new historical novel, The Swan’s Nest, about the courtship of Robert and Elizabeth Barrett Browning.  Laura McNeal is the author of Dark…
  • Feb 9: Dr. Nick Wolters on 19th-Century Iberian Masculinities
    Nick Wolters from Wake Forest will be sharing his research at Baylor on 19th-century Iberian masculinities. Contact Gabrielle Miller for further information and be on the lookout for a flier coming soon!
  • April 26: Outstanding Graduate Student Paper Awards 
    Paper presentations and reception in the ABL. Presenters and paper topics will be announced in March. Each year, the 19crs awards two Graduate students for their outstanding papers. We are excited to wrap up this academic year by celebrating the excellence of our graduate students!
  • Feb 16: Dr. Susan Egenolf presents "The Wedgwoods, their Laborers, Reciprocity and Subventions towards Romanticism"
    Friday February 16 3:30-5:00 pm "The Wedgwoods, their Laborers, Reciprocity and Subventions towards Romanticism" presented by Dr. Susan Egenolf Associate Professor of English Texas A&M University at the ABL In the later part of the 18th century, the progressive potter and entrepreneur Josiah Wedgwood constructed literal and figurative communities to bind his Etruria workers to…

Past Presentations

Fall 2024

Spring 2023

  • February 24th: Tyson Stolte on Dickens and Victorian Psychology
    Tyson Stolte, Associate Professor of English at New Mexico State University, will speak on Dickens and Victorian Psychology on Friday, February 24th at 3:30 PM in the Armstrong Browning Library Lecture Hall.
  • February 15: Reading Group, "Schopenhaur as Educator"
    Dr. Miner, professor of philosophy at Baylor University, will facilitate a discussion of an essay by Nietzsche called "Schopenhaur as Educator" from his collection Untimely Meditation. This book is available through the Baylor library in ebook form. If you are having trouble accessing it, please email 19crs@baylor.edu. The group will meet at 5:30PM, location TBD

Fall 2022

  • November 17: Benefactors Day celebration, Dr. Deborah Logan presents Harriet Martineau: Spirit of the Victorian Age
    Dr. Deborah Logan, Professor Emerita, Western Kentucky University, recently gave her personal Harriet Martineau collection to the ABL, and she will be presenting "Harriet Martineau: Spirit of the Victorian Age" for the Armstrong Browning Library's annual Benefactors Day celebration in the Armstrong Browning Library Hankamer Treasure Room Thursday, November 17 at 3:30. You can read more about her gift…
  • November 4: Dr. Samuel Baker "Walter Scott, The Stuarts, and Stewardship”
    Dr. Samuel Baker, Associate Professor of English, The University of Texas at Austin, will present on "Walter Scott, The Stuarts, and Stewardship" in the Armstrong Browning Library Lecture Hall on Friday, November 4 at 3:30. Dr. Baker’s research covers the diverse fields of British Romantic poetry; historical fiction, science fiction, and the gothic novel; media…

Spring 2022

  • April 8: Dr. Mark Sandy "She hath a Beauty Beyond Her Name: Byron's Poetic Reflections on Venice, Subjectivity, and Temporality"
    Dr. Mark Sandy, Professor of English, Durham University, UK and Armstrong Browning Library Three-Month Research Fellow, will give a lecture titled "She hath a Beauty Beyond Her Name: Byron's Poetic Reflections on Venice, Subjectivity, and Temporality" in the ABL’s Hankamer Treasure Room and on Zoom Friday, April 8 at 3:00 pm. More information and a link to…
  • March 31: Alt-Ac Panel
    On March 31 at 2:00pm, 19CRS will host a Zoom panel about finding work outside of traditional professor roles. 19CRS welcomes you to a virtual panel discussion on alt-ac careers after the humanities. Whether you're anxious about academic job prospects or curious about opportunities outside the college classroom, hear from five 19th- and 20th-century scholars…
  • 18 March 2022: Dr. Anne Boyd Rioux
    On March 18, 2022, 19CRS will hear from Dr. Anne Boyd Rioux. This event was rescheduled from its Fall 2021 date. Her talk is entitled "Taking the Recovery of the 19th-Century American Women Writers Beyond the Academy." Dr Anne Boyd Rioux Event Flyer Dr. Anne Boyd Rioux began her career publishing with Johns Hopkins University…
  • Rescheduled for 11 February, 2022: Dr. Lisa Shaver
    Rescheduled for February 11 at 3:30. On February 4, 2022 at 3:30, Dr. Lisa Shaver (English, Baylor) will be presenting her research from her recent research leave. Her talk is entitled "Lucy Rider Meyer and the New Christian Woman." Lucy Rider Meyer and the New Christian Woman Flyer

 Fall 2021

  • 3 November, 2021, 7:00pm: 19CRS Reading Group
    On the evening of November 3, 2021, Dr. Jennifer Hargrave will be leading a discussion of Edward Said's Culture and Imperialism. Please come prepared to discuss the entire text and consider bringing a discussion question. Please RSVP to Kristen_Pond@baylor.edu by October 27, 2021. Molly Lewis helpfully created a Culture and Imperialism chapter list  and schedule for reading…
  • 15 October 2021, 3:30: Dr. Jennifer Hargrave
    On October 15th, at 3:30 p.m., in the ABL Lecture Hall, Dr. Jennifer Hargrave (English, Baylor) will be presenting the results of her research sabbatical in a talk entitled "Subversive Sketching: Intratextual Debate in Chinese Travel Narratives." Registration for this event can be found here. Outdoor reception to follow event. Jennifer L. Hargrave specializes in…
  • 21 September 2021, 11:15am-1:45pm: 19th Century Job Letter Workshop
    On September 21, 11:15am-1:45pm, 19CRS faculty will be hosting a job letter workshop for Baylor graduate students of 19th-Century studies applying to 19th century jobs in the fall and spring. Email Kristen_Pond@baylor.edu for details.
  • 10 September 2021, 3:30 p.m: Outstanding Graduate Student Paper Awards
    On September 10th, at 3:30 p.m. in the ABL Lecture Hall and over Zoom, 19CRS presented “At the Limits of Reason: Conversion and Obscenity,” honoring our Outstanding Graduate Student Paper Award winners. Harrison Otis and Justice Flint presented their papers, “'A little harmless debauching’: Mark Twain, 1601, and the Innocence of Obscenity,” and “Emotion, Intellect, and the Transformative Images…

Spring 2021

Fall 2020

Spring 2020

Fall 2019

  • Dr. Lesa Scholl's "Healthy Bodies, Healthy Souls: 19th-Century Medicine, Religion, and Literature"
    Dr. Lesa Scholl, the Armstrong Browning Library’s Three-Month Research Fellow from the University of Adelaide in Australia, will be presenting her research on "Healthy Bodies, Healthy Souls: 19th-Century Medicine, Religion, and Literature" in the Hankamer Treasure Room at the Armstrong Browning Library on November 15th, at 3:30 p.m. This interdisciplinary discussion will be of interest…
  • Dr. Lesa Scholl's "To Eat, or What to Eat—Is THAT the Question?"
    Dr. Lesa Scholl, the Armstrong Browning Library's Three-Month Research Fellow from the University of Adelaide in Australia, is offering a one-time workshop for undergraduates interested in issues of food insecurity, social justice, and British literature and history. "To Eat, or What to Eat — Is THAT the Question?" will examine food restrictions and fasting in Britain in…
  • Outstanding Graduate Student Paper Awards
    On Friday, October 4th, two graduate students will receive the 19th Century Research Seminar's Outstanding Graduate Student Paper Awards. Rachel Kilgore will present her paper "Understanding Fanny: A Comparison of the Psalms to Fanny Price of Austen’s Mansfield Park,” and LaJoie Lex will present her paper “Between Locke and a Hard Place: Charles Brockden Brown on Women as…
  • Ecology & Religion in 19th-Century Studies Conference
    Wednesday-Saturday, September 18-21  This flightless, multi-site, interdisciplinary conference explores the confluences between environmental and religious perspectives and practices in the long Anglophone nineteenth century (1780-1900). In response to the rapid acceleration of climate change since that century, this conference avoids air travel by digitally connecting events at several conference sites in the United States and…
  • Dr. Tara Foley: “Richard Watson Gilder: Poet, Editor, Urban Reformer”
    Friday, September 6 3:30-4:30pm ABL Lecture Hall Dr. Tara Foley (English, Baylor) will present her talk "Richard Watson Gilder: Poet, Editor, Urban Reformer": This presentation explores the work of Richard Watson Gilder, long-time editor of The Century Illustrated Monthly Magazine, who served as chairman of New York City’s first Tenement House Commission and raised a clarion call for…

Spring 2019

  • Dr. Jessica Enoch: Recalling Mother Exemplars: Public Memory and the DAR
    Friday, Feb. 22 3:30-4:30 Armstrong Browning Library Lecture Hall Dr. Jessica Enoch, Rhetoric and Composition, will present her talk "Recalling Mother Exemplars: Public Memory and the Daughters of the American Revolution:" This presentation addresses the ways nineteenth-century women sought to remember those who proceeded them, focusing on the work of the Daughters of the American Revolution…

Fall 2018

  • Professor Clare Simmons: "Christmas Ghosts"
    Friday, Nov. 16th 3:30-4:30 Armstrong Browning Library Lecture Hall Professor Clare Simmons (Ohio University) will present her talk, "Christmas Ghosts:" Writers of the earlier nineteenth century represented the traditional English Christmas as in decline, yet within a few decades Christmas celebration gained new life through the efforts of both antiquarians and booksellers. This presentation examines the…
  • Professor Devoney Looser: "The Making of Jane Austen"
    Friday, Nov. 9th 3:30-4:30 Armstrong Browning Library Lecture Hall Dr. Devoney Looser (Foundation Professor of English, Arizona State University) presented her talk, "The Making of Jane Austen:" How did Jane Austen (1775-1817), a moderately successful English novelist in her own lifetime, become an international literary icon? It started long before Colin Firth’s wet-white-shirted Mr. Darcy in…
  • Workshop by Prof. Clare Simmons: "Publishing your First Paper and Submitting for Conferences"
    Friday, Sept. 21 3:30-4:30 ABL Seminar Room Workshop led by Professor Clare Simmons, 2018 Three-month Research Fellow at the ABL: "Publishing your First Paper and Submitting for Conferences."
  • 2018 OGSPAs: Nicholas Krause and Nicole Bouchard
    Friday, September 14 3:45-4:45 ABL Lecture Hall  The 2018 Outstanding Graduate Student Paper Award (OGSPA) winners will present talks based on their papers. Nicholas Krause (Doctoral Student, Theology and Ethics) will present "Scarcity, Economy, and the Poetics of Creation: Chartist Reimaginings of Political-Economic Space," and Nicole Bouchard (Doctoral Candidate, English) will present "Agency in Illness: Elizabeth…
  • Reception for Prof. Clare Simmons and Sabbatical Talk by Dr. Kristen Pond:"'I Spy a Stranger!':Victorian Newspapers and the Stranger at the Great Exhibition of 1851"
    Friday, Sept. 7 2:45-3:30 ABL Cox Hall Reception for Professor Clare Simmons, 2018 Three-month Research Fellow at the ABL 3:30-4:30 ABL Lecture Hall  Dr. Kristen Pond (English, Baylor) will present her Sabbatical Talk titled, "'I Spy a Stranger!': Victorian Newspapers and the Stranger at the Great Exhibition of 1851." How do you define who is a stranger…

Spring 2018

Fall 2017

Spring 2017

Fall 2016

Spring 2015

Fall 2015

  • Dr. Kacy Tillman: "History's Ellipses and the Diary of Deborah Norris Logan"
    Nov. 13 Dr. Kacy Tillman (English, University of Tampa) will present "History's Ellipses and the Diary of Deborah Norris Logan." The talk traces silence as an absent presence in loyalist diaries-turned-biographies after the American Revolution in order to understand how and why people attempted to cover up civil dissent in the years that followed the war.
  • Nicholas Basbanes: "The History of Paper"
    Oct. 15 Nicholas Basbanes, a former investigative journalist, is the author of nine works of cultural history, with a particular emphasis on various aspects of books, book history, and book culture. His most recent book, and the topic of this talk, is On Paper: The Everything of Its Two Thousand Year History. On Paper was…
  • Drs. David Sorenson and Brent Kinser "The Victorian Lives and Letters Consortium; or, Growth of a Digital Humanities Project"
    Oct. 1 David Sorenson and Brent Kinser came to Baylor in the fall of 2011 to introduce their plans to build a new platform for interconnected scholarly editions.  They called it the Victorian Lives and Letters Consortium, and their intention was to assemble a group of "teachers, scholars, programmers, librarians, students, and enthusiasts devoted to…
  • Dr. Colin Jager: "The Romantic Critique of Life: Wordsworth, Byron, Taylor"
    Sept. 25 Dr. Colin Jager (English, Rutgers) will present "The Romantic Critique of Life: Wordsworth, Byron, Taylor." This talk discusses how “life” has increasingly become a topic of intense interest in the humanities. In partial reaction to an earlier emphasis on how power and discourse determined life, scholars as various as Hardt and Negri (“biopolitics,”),…
  • Outstanding Graduate Students Papers Fall 2015: David Smith and Lynneth Stingley
    Sept. 4 Baylor Doctoral students David Smith (English) and Lynneth Stingley (History) will present in this semester's Outstanding Graduate Student Papers in Nineteenth-Century Studies. David Smith will present "The Gothic Temple: Epistemology and Revolution in Charles Brockden Brown's Wieland," and Lynneth Stingley will present "'The Most Bohemian Priest in the History of the Church of England': Stewart Headlam, the Stage,…

Spring 2015

  • Michael DePalma "Religious Rhetoric as a Course of Study: Twenty-first Century Prospects for Austin Phelps's Rhetorical Pedagogy"
    May 1 Dr. Michael DePalma (Professional Writing, Baylor University) will present "Religious Rhetoric as a Course of Study: Twenty-first Century Prospects for Austin Phelps's Rhetorical Pedagogy." This talk draws on the final chapter of Austin Phelps and the Shaping of Sacred Rhetorical Education of Andover Theological Seminary, 1848-1879. It outlines Phelps's notion of epideictic rhetoric and considers the…
  • Dr. Rae Greiner "Stupidity After Enlightenment"
    April 10th Dr. Rae Greiner  (English, Indiana University) will present "Stupidity After Enlightenment." Stupidity at the fin de siecle was fast becoming purely a matter of I.Q. Prior to this, eighteenth-century writers developed notions of dullness and of dunces, Romantic writers the figure of the (sometimes blessed) idiot. Centering on the period in between, this…
  • Dr. Hester Blum "Polar Ecomedia: Print Culture in the Arctic and Antarctica"
    April 24th Dr. Hester Blum (English, Pennsylvania University) will present "Polar Ecomedia: Print Culture in the Arctic and Antarctica." What happens to messages left in bottles? Or in cairns, or in copper cylinders, or with passing ships? Blum's paper discusses the history of Anglo-American polar exploration--as well as the literature produced by the expedition members--by considering…

Fall 2014

  • Jeff Cowton: "Learning from the Wordsworth Trust's Collections"
    October 31st Jeff Cowton (Curator of the Wordsworth Trust) will present "Learning from the Wordsworth Trust's Collections." Dove Cottage, at the heart of the English Lake District National Park, was the home of William Wordsworth (foremost poet of the Romantic age) during his most creative years. Here he wrote his autobiographical masterpiece "The Prelude"; it…
  • Dr. Alexander Regier: "Looking at Blake"
    October 10th Dr. Alexander Regier (English, Rice University) will present "Looking at Blake." This talk discusses how William Blake's work raises a number of questions and problems about the relation between the visual and the verbal. It suggests a set of principles that govern this relation in Blake's work and illustrate why conflict (rather than resolution)…
  • Outstanding Graduate Student Papers Fall 2014: Daniel Benyousky and Heidi Seward
    September 5th Baylor English Doctoral students Daniel Benyousky and Heidi Seward will present in this semester's Outstanding Graduate Student Papers. Daniel Benyousky will present "Blurred by the “old moonlight of romance”: The Critique of Sublimated Love in Keats and Auden’s Poetry." This talk argues that both Auden and Keats proffer compelling critiques of sublimated, solipsistic…
  • Dr. Jason Payton: "Piracy, Islam, and Nation-Building in Royall Tyler's Algerine Captive"
    November 7th Dr. Jason Payton (English, Sam Houston State) will present "Piracy, Islam, and Nation-Building in Royall Tyler's Algerine Captive." This talk will explore the entangled histories of the Turkish Empire and the fledging United States, and consider the role of piracy and Islam in the United States' self-understanding.

Spring 2014

  • Dr. Melissa Bailes "The Psychologization of Geological Catastrophe in Mary Shelley's The Last Man"
    April 4th Dr. Melissa Bailes (English, Tulane University) will present "The Psychologization of Geological Catastrophe in Mary Shelley's The Last Man." In this talk she explores the connection between science and Romantic writers, focusing specifically on Mary Shelley. Rather than looking at Shelley's well-known novel Frankenstein, Dr. Bailes argues that this novel critiques scientific generalizations, such as the homogenizing…
  • Dr. Sarah Walden: "Tasteful Domesticity: Women's Rhetoric and the American Cookbook"
    February 21st Dr. Sarah Walden  (Baylor University Interdisciplinary Core) will present "Tasteful Domesticity: Women's Rhetoric and the American Cookbook." This talk discusses the role of cookbooks in the lives of American woman and American culture. In the 19th century women used cookbooks to publicly fulfill their domestic duties to teach and safeguard American character and…
  • Outstanding Graduate Student Papers Spring 2014: Courtney Bailey Parker and Elise Leal
    May 9th Baylor Doctoral students Courtney Bailey Parker (English) and Elise Leal (History) will present in this semester's Outstanding Graduate Student Papers in Nineteenth-Century Studies. Courtney Bailey Parker will present "Byron's Inversion of Spenserian Archetypes in Childe Harold's Pilgrimage: A Romaunt," and Elise Leal will present "'Our Society Cannot Meddle': The American Sunday School Union and the…

Fall 2013

Spring 2013

Fall 2012

  • Dr. Natalie Houston: "The Visual Page: Digital Reading and Victorian Poetry's Cultural Codes"
    October 12th Dr. Natalie Houston (English, University of Houston), Project Director for the Visual Page, an NEH-funded project to develop a software application to identify and analyze visual features in digitized printed books and Co-Director and Technical Director for the Periodical Poetry Index, will discuss the work and challenges of bringing 19th century primary source…
  • Dr. Catherine Hobbs: “American Women Learn to Speak”
    Dr. Catherine Hobbs, professor of English at the University of Oklahoma, is discussing her forthcoming book Sisters of the South: Reading, Writing, Speaking, and Citizenship at Public Women's Colleges.  We invite you to join us as we welcome Dr. Hobbs. Below is a brief description of Dr. Hobbs’s presentation in her own words. “Historians of…
  • Dr. Lisa Shaver "Thou Shalt Not: Forging a Women's Rhetoric"
    Dr. Lisa Shaver (English, Baylor) will present "Thou Shalt Not: Forging a Women's Rhetoric." This talk examines the rhetorical tactics used by the antebellum American Female Reform Society. Established in 1834 in New York to combat prostitution and other licentious behavior, the American Female Reform Society was the first national reform movement organized, led, and comprised…

Spring 2012

Fall 2011

Spring 2011