[NIS_GS:] UPDATE: Science in 19th-Century Britain (grad) (1/6/06; 4/7/06)
UPDATE: New Proposal Deadline: January 6, 2006
CFP: Science in Nineteenth-Century Britain
An Interdisciplinary Graduate Student Conference at the University of Chicago
April 7, 2006
Keynote speaker: George Levine, Rutgers

In the early 1800тАЩs William Blake issued his declaration of intent тАЬTo cast off Bacon, Locke & Newton,тАЭ a post-Enlightenment voice of indignation against the permeation of scientific rationality into British religious, political, economic, and social life. Subsequent nineteenth-century British Romantics, Pre-Raphaelites, and Gothic Revivalists engaged in a new quest for the тАЬnaturalтАЭ and interest in the mysterious. The conflict between empiricism and faith continued as science (and pseudo-science) progressed, and the latter half of the century might be described simply as the aftermath of the publication of DarwinтАЩs theory of evolution. The Victorians grappled with both the empowering and dehumanizing effects of scientific progress, and capitalism and empire, products of scientific development, created a nation which was ostensibly the тАШfittestтАЩ but fundamentally in crisis.

A question this interdisciplinary conference will engage is:
how did nineteenth-century British men and women gain or lose тАШmasteryтАЩтАФin terms of both possession of knowledge and dominion or superiorityтАФthrough science? Submissions for papers should discuss science in the Romantic and Victorian eras throughout the British Empire, especially relating to the theories, practices, and effects of evolution, medicine, and science of the mind. Papers from all relevant disciplines are encouraged, including the arts, literature, religion, history, philosophy, and race, gender, and sexuality studies.

Please submit an abstract of 400 words or less by January 6, 2006 to Erin Evans at ele@uchicago.edu. Please include your name, institution and program, and any A/V needs.

This event is co-sponsored by the Nicholson Center for British Studies and the Department of English at the University of Chicago.
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