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Loco/Motion
34th Annual Conference of the Nineteenth Century Studies
Association
Fresno, California, March 7-9, 2013
The long nineteenth century set the world on the move.
Travel became increasingly important for business and pleasure, for war and peace.
At the same time, new forms of moving people arose: the balloon, ships,
undergrounds, funiculars, the railroads. Each carried riders to great
distances, different locales, and novel pursuits. But motion wasn’t purely
spatial; new movements arose as well, sweeping the inhabitants of the period
into fresh vistas of thought and endeavor. We seek papers and panels that
capture the sense of movement at work and at play during the long nineteenth
century (1789-1914). Papers may address the intersections of movement/s, focus
on technologies of motion in isolation, or reveal the desires—for gain, glory,
greed—that set the world on its feet.
Some suggested topics:
- Gold Rushes (Mineral Manias and Speculative Destinations)
- Literature of the Sea
- Maps and Cartography
- The Science of Exploration (Darwin’s Voyages)
- Narratives of Time Travel, Travel into Space (Jules Verne, Arthur Conan Doyle)
- The West as Destination and Concept
- Celebrity Performance Tours
- Movement of Goods and Ideas
- Migration and Relocation
- Expeditions
- Concepts of Motion and Stasis
- New Forms of Creative Motion and Locomotion (Moving Pictures, Photography, Dance, Music)
The campus of California State University, Fresno, will host
us in 2013. Its setting makes it the perfect place to explore the conference
theme, since Fresno is ringed by the original Gold Rush towns and three superb
national parks (Yosemite, Sequoia, and Kings Canyon), two of which are
nineteenth-century creations. As a result, Fresno still bears evidence of the
vast changes caused by the movements of the nineteenth century. The library of
CSU Fresno houses the Donald G. Larson Collection on International Expositions
and Fairs; material from this archive will be featured in a special exhibition
for the conference. Please note: submission of a proposal indicates
intent to present.
Please e-mail abstracts (250 words) for 20-minute papers that
provide the author’s name and paper title in the heading, as well as a one-page
cv, to Prof. Toni Wein at NCSA-2013@sbcglobal.net by September 30, 2012.
Please note that submission of a proposal indicates intent to present. Presenters
will be notified in November 2012. Graduate students whose proposals are
accepted may, at that point, submit complete papers in competition for a travel
grant to help cover transportation and lodging expenses.
