In 2024, leading Victorian organizations around the world will be conducting an experiment in “flightless” conference-going organized by the North American Victorian Studies Association (NAVSA). Instead of flying in from around the world, attendees will choose the hub city closest to their home, reducing travel costs and their carbon footprint.

The Victorians Institute will be pairing with NAVSA to be the Atlanta hub of this in-person event, which will take place Friday-Sunday, Sept. 20-22, 2024.

The essential character of the Victorians Institute will not change; this will still be the small and collegial conference we love so well. But there will be benefits of pairing with NAVSA: monthly Zoom panels on topics of scholarly interest (Climate, Poetry, Activism, Theater, etc.); a final Zoom event featuring selected talks from each hub; and the opportunity to use COVE Studio to share papers with participants across the globe, as well as to make and receive comments on them.

The one significant change that VI members need to be aware of: earlier deadlines than you’re accustomed to. Because the Zoom events begin early next year, the deadline for submissions is February 1, 2024.

Here is the Call for Papers and a form for submitting your proposal for a panel or an individual paper. Proposals should include a 300 word description and a <150 word bio: https://www.event2024.org/call-for-papers/

For more information about the “flightless” conference:

a detailed overview: https://www.event2024.org/conference-overview/

a list of confirmed participants: https://www.event2024.org/participants/

Why the organizers have planned this experiment: traditional academic conferences incur a massive carbon footprint and they make it difficult for contingent and non-tenure-track faculty to participate. Some organizers have attempted to run conferences online; however, most people cannot sit through more than one panel before they need a break from the screen.

One solutionmight bea hybrid approach: monthly Zoom panels starting January 2024 followed by a series of face-to-face hub events across the world in September 2024. Pick the hub closest to you! To facilitate substantive interaction across time zones, we will use a new password-protected platform on COVE to share and discuss papers delivered at the Zoom and hub events. This platform will facilitate asynchronous networking in a format that does not require a strong Internet connection, unlike Zoom. You can participate in the conference in any way you wish: just the Zoom panels, just the hubs, just COVE, or any combination—whatever works best for you.

Our climate and humanities crises compel us to seek out more equitable, sustainable ways of conferencing. We hope you’ll join us in this experiment. We can learn what is possible only by doing, and by working together.

Atlanta VI2024 organizers

Richard Menke: rmenke@uga.edu
LeeAnne Richardson: lmrichardson@gsu.edu

Cross-hub organizers

Dino Franco Felluga: felluga@purdue.edu

Chris Adamson: chris.adamson@dsu.edu

Joshua King: Joshua_King@baylor.edu

Hubs:

Canada:

Montréal, QC

Europe:

Konstanz, Germany

Frankfurt, Germany

Australasia:

Melbourne, Australia

Seoul, South Korea

UK:

Belfast, Northern Ireland

Cardiff, Wales

Hawarden, Wales

Lancaster, England

Stirling, Scotland

USA:

Atlanta, GA

Boston, MA

Boulder, CO

Davis, CA

Seattle, WA

West Lafayette, IN

Waco, TX