World Congress of the Society for Global Nineteenth-Century Studies, Birmingham

The University of Birmingham will host the 2025 World Congress of the Society for Global Nineteenth-Century Studies. From the 17th to the 20th of July, delegates hosted by the College of Arts and Law will be able to experience the world-class facilities and research environment of the Edgbaston Campus as a backdrop to a series of stimulating events – papers, methodology and pedagogy round tables, ‘big ideas’ workshops – around the central theme of ‘Cultural Circulations, Global Mobilities, and Knowledge Translations: Turning Points in the Nineteenth Century’. As a leading UK research institution, and a member of the Russell Group Universities, the University of Birmingham and its scholars will offer a rich breeding ground for new ideas, projects and partnerships.
Breaks will offer delegates the opportunity to engage with each other, but also with two museums on campus – the Winterbourne House and botanic gardens, representative of the nineteenth-century British Arts and Craft movement, and the Lapworth Museum of Geology. The University also hosts the unique collections of the Cadbury Research Library, with documentary treasures ranging from the Church Mission Society archive to the personal papers of the Chamberlain family, the founder of sociology Harriet Martineau or former British Prime Minister Anthony Eden, offering many research opportunities in addition to the Congress.
We look forward to receiving paper proposals submitted through the CfP appended below.
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Cultural Circulations, Global Mobilities, and Knowledge Translations: Turning Points in the Nineteenth Century
The nineteenth century witnessed an unprecedented acceleration and densification of human movements that generated, perhaps for the first time, cultural circulations on a global scale. With the world more interconnected than it had ever been, the need to classify, translate and hierarchise knowledge became more pressing than ever.
For its 2025 world congress to be held at the University of Birmingham from 17 to 20 July 2025, the Society for Global Nineteenth-Century Studies places mobility centre-stage, exploring the means through which it was implemented: through travel, exploration and conquest, which in turn led to processes of translation, acculturation and superimposition that are closely associated with globalisation. Covering the period between 1750 through 1914, the congress reveals how travel and mobility structured the ‘Great Revolutions’ that marked the long nineteenth century and made it a watershed moment in human history.

Topics may include (but are not limited to): Turning points (linguistic, cultural, social, political, technological); Changes in modes of travel and transportation; Travelling ideas; Pilgrimage; Historical displacement of refugees; Circulations, transfers, and migrations; Nomadism; Problems in translation (e.g., political humour, the absurd, nonsense, etc.); Explorers and expeditions; Science fiction; Intermedial translation; Steamers and trains; Colonization; Translation and life writing; Transfer of knowledge; Cultural transposition; Adaptation across cultures; Transmediality and transnationalism; Transfer and transmission; Texts and their contexts; Transposition in music; Transposition and translation; Travel maps and cartographies of navigation; Books as travelling objects; Photography, painting, and travel; Tourism and visual culture; Nomadic narratives; Translation and the discovery of new cultures; The re/discovery of ancient civilizations/Egyptomania; Translation and the discovery of European modernity.

In addition to paper and panel proposals related to the conference theme, we also welcome proposals for prearranged special panels on topics in global nineteenth-century studies more broadly.
Deadline for proposals: 1 March
Individual paper proposals should consist of an abstract (200-250 words), brief biography (80- 100 words), and full contact information in a single pdf document or Word file. Panel proposals should include abstracts for 3-4 papers, a brief rationale that connects the papers (100-200 words), and biographies of each participant (80-100 words) in a single pdf or Word file. All proposals should include 3 to 5 keywords. Successful panel proposals will include participants from more than one institution, and, ideally, represent a mix of disciplines/fields and career stages. Panel proposals should also indicate the category for evaluation: general conference program or special session; Methodology or Pedagogy Roundtable; or Big Ideas.
Proposals (by 1 March) and questions should be directed to the Programme Committee. We encourage early submission.
To be listed in the programme, presenters, panel chairs, and workshop participants must be current members of the Society for Global Nineteenth-Century Studies. For more information on membership, visit our homepage. For more information about the congress, click here.