Dicembre 2022

Two-day workshop on: Using corpus & discourse methods to study nostalgia May 4-5 2023, Bertinoro, Italy The purpose of the workshop is to develop a systematic methodology for identifying nostalgic discourses. We aim to bring together expertise in nostalgia, (critical) discourse analysis and corpus linguistics to break new ground in this area. The residential programme will consist of hands-on activities with corpora (including a corpus of transcripts of BBC Desert Island Discs) to identify markers of nostalgic discourse. Combining corpus linguistics and discourse analysis as well as input from other linguistic and non-linguistic disciplines, it will provide a forum to exchange ideas, best practices and foster collaboration on the multifaceted topic of nostalgia which seems to have recently gained amplified attention across disciplines. This hackathon-type approach to the thorny issue of identifying nostalgia was sparked by discussions in the nostalgia discourses reading group led by Anna Marchi and Charlotte Taylor (see collaborative bibliography). The workshop is limited to 20 participants to facilitate group discussions and we hope to recruit colleagues at all career stages (including doctoral researchers) with an interest in the topic of nostalgia in discourse. We assume that all participants will have some background in discourse studies, corpus linguistics, or linguistics more broadly. The event is organized by the Corpora Linguistics and Technology (CoLiTec) research centre (Department of Interpreting and Translation, University of Bologna in Forlì) and will be hosted at Bologna University’s residential centre (CEUB), in the medieval hilltop town of Bertinoro (FC). Accommodation and meals will be provided by the organisers, participants will need to arrange and pay for their own travel. Preliminary programme: – May 3rd.: Arrival and welcome buffet for informal networking. – May 4th: AM: Presentation of research interests and/or potential methodological contributions. PM: Exploratory work in small groups followed by round-up sharing findings and reflections. – May 5th: AM: Small groupwork followed by collaborative compilation of list of markers. PM: Panel on future directions and outputs. We expect the workshop to lead to a publication on the methodological aspects of systematically identifying nostalgia in discourse. The collaboration may also result in the enrichment of an open access corpus made available through the DIT Department NoSketchengine platform. If you would like to participate in the workshop, please send an expression of interest to anna.marchi@unibo.it and Charlotte.Taylor@sussex.ac.uk by 16 January 2023. This should include a) description of how your existing research interests relate to the theme and how you can contribute to the aims of the workshop (max.300 words), b) a short bio-note (max. 100 words). Scientific and organizing committee: Anna Marchi, Charlotte Taylor, Silvia Bernardini, Cinzia Bevitori, Adriano Ferraresi and Alan Partington

Hidden Histories / Recovered Stories Victorian Popular Fiction Association 15th Annual Conference 12–14 July 2023 Bishop Grosseteste University, Lincoln, UK Keynote Speakers Professor Patricia Pulham (University of Surrey, UK) Dr Adrian S. Wisnicki (University of Nebraska-Lincoln, US) Professor Nathalie Vanfasse (Aix-Marseille Université, FR) Call for Papers The Victorian Popular Fiction Association is dedicated to fostering interest in understudied popular writers, literary genres and other cultural forms, and to facilitating the production of publishable research and academic collaborations amongst scholars of the popular. This conference celebrates the ways in which Victorian popular culture, fictions and artistic productions addressed topics and subjects, and experimented with stories and genres, that went unacknowledged, were repressed or censored by the mainstream. We are interested in, on the one hand, the hidden, lost, forgotten, and on the other hand the recovered, reclaimed, remembered. The conference seeks to re-centre the popular, from gruesome murder stories to sensational tales of sexual violence and adultery, discussions of pseudo-sciences like spiritualism, to addressing miscegenation, and Victorian historical fiction that reimagines the lives of marginalised figures. It wants to also highlight the ways in which current scholarship is rediscovering hidden aspects, characters and narratives of the Victorian period. We also invite papers exploring the relevance of forbidden or unspeakable themes in neo-Victorianism. Silenced by Victorian mainstream culture but obliquely voiced in such popular genres as the sensation novel, the penny dreadful and the bodice- ripper, these themes have taken centre stage in today’s fictionalisation of a past that tends to be reimagined in all its deviant, arousing and disquieting aspects. Possible topics include: – Forgotten and/or ignored global Victorians – The ‘lost world’: nature, animals and the environment – Challenges to the myth of progress, the monstrosity of science – Rediscoveries in Victorian and Neo-Victorian writing – Historical fiction (both Victorian and neo-Victorian) – Disability, diversity, and inclusivity – Decolonising and undisciplining – Forgotten aspects of Empire – Ethnical encounters, rehumanising the Other – Hidden genders and illicit sexuality – Translation and the transnational – Hidden, secret, forbidden spaces – The unspeakable, violence, and taboos – Fears of national and imperial weakness – Theorising the margins, the unspoken and affect – Censorship, targets of political repression and the spectre of social upheaval – Life writing, travel writing and the epistolary – Experimentation with forms and genres Please send proposals of 250–300 words, a 50-word biography, twitter handle (if you have one) to Dr Claudia Capancioni, Prof. Mariaconcetta Costantini and Dr Laura Gill at: vpfaconference@gmail.com. The conference will take place at Bishop Grosseteste University, Lincoln as an in-person event, but online participation will be possible for accessibility. Please indicate in your abstract if you anticipate being unable to attend in person. Proposals for roundtables and reading group meetings responding to the conference theme are also welcome. Deadline for proposals: Wednesday 8 th February 2023. Membership of the VPFA is necessary to attend the conference. To find out more, please visit the VPFA website: http://victorianpopularfiction.org/vpfa-annual- conference/. For up-to-date information, please check the conference page on the VPFA website: https://victorianpopularfiction.org/vpfa-annual-conference/.