Special Events
Please scroll down to learn more about special events at this year’s NAVSA: Sunday morning workshops; Georgetown University Special Collections exhibit; Caucus Lunches; Peripatetic Seminar; and the Theater Caucus’ performance of Lady Audley’s Secret.
Sunday Morning Workshops
On the Sunday morning of the conference (November 16), we are planning to host two 1.5 hour-long sessions devoted to workshops. We envision these as hands-on, tactically-focused sessions that examine specific structural and/or institutional aspects of the profession in light of the contemporary moment. Topics addressed in workshops organized by the host committee will not be specific to nineteenth-century studies but call out for the particular expertise and historical perspective offered by scholars of the Victorian period and its aftermaths. (Labor organizing in Higher Ed, for instance, or teaching in the [post?] DEI regime.) These optional sessions will be facilitated by select scholars who have worked in that area; we anticipate 15-20 spots for each seminar, to be assigned on a first-come, first-served basis during the conference registration process; an optional boxed breakfast can be purchased for during the registration process. Topics and leaders for these workshops will be posted below, once confirmed. An asterisk indicates a workshop organized by the conference committee.
Sunday Workshops Session 1 / Sunday, November 16, 9:00 AM-10:15 AM
* Asterisk denotes workshop organized by NAVSA 2025 conference planners.
Organizing the Academic Workplace I*
Facilitated by Dennis Hogan (Brown University), Emily Steinlight (University of Pennsylvania), Zach Samalin (New York University), Tanya Agathocleous (CUNY Graduate Center)
Completing and Publishing the First Book*
Facilitated by Jennifer MacLure (Kent State University), Renée Fox (University of California, Santa Cruz), Mahinder Kingra (Cornell University Press)
Undisciplining Today and the Future of Pedagogy
Facilitated by Sophia Hsu (Lehman College), Cherrie Kwok (University of Iowa), Adrian Wisnicki (University of Nebraska-Lincoln)
Administration as Advocacy*
Facilitated by Carolyn Dever (Dartmouth College), Rachel Ablow (State University of New York, Buffalo)
Victorian Art History Caucus Site Visit to the National Gallery of Art
Organized by the Victorian Art History Caucus. Note that due to the nature of this event, the Art History site visit occupies both workshop session blocks and takes place off-site.
Sunday Workshops Session 2 / Sunday, November 16, 10:30 AM-11:45 AM
* Asterisk denotes workshop organized by NAVSA 2025 conference planners.
Academic Life in Fascist States*
Facilitated by Devin Garofalo (University of California, San Diego), Pamela Gilbert (University of Florida), Ayelet Ben-Yishai (University of Haifa)
Organizing the Academic Workplace II*
Facilitated by Dennis Hogan (Brown University), Emily Steinlight (University of Pennsylvania), Zach Samalin (New York University), Tanya Agathocleous (CUNY Graduate Center)
Victorianist Work After the University As We Knew It
Facilitated by Kyoko Takanashi (Indiana University), Sarah Allison (Loyola University New Orleans), and Doreen Thierauf (North Carolina Wesleyan)
Climate Activism Inside and Outside the Contemporary University
Organized by the Vcologies Caucus
Caucus Lunches
We have carved out space during the noon hour on the Thursday and Friday of the conference (November 13 & 14) for NAVSA’s caucuses to organize lunchtime meetings. Optional boxed lunches will be available for purchase during the conference registration process. You do not need to purchase a lunch to attend a caucus meeting. Please note that boxed lunches will not be available for purchase unless they are ordered in advance.
Thursday Lunchtime Caucus Meetings / Thursday, November 13, 12:00 PM-1:30 PM
Victorian Poetry Caucus
Teaching Universities Caucus/Gender and Sexuality Caucus (meeting together)
Data Caucus
Aestheticism and Decadence Caucus
Friday Lunchtime Caucus Meetings / Friday, November 14, 12:00 PM-1:30 PM
Empire and Colonialism Caucus
Religion and Spiritualities Caucus
Victorian Art History Caucus
Nineteenth-Century Theatre Caucus
Peripatetic Seminar, led by John Plotz / Saturday, November 15, 4 pm, meet at Omni Shoreham main lobby
Because some of us have our best ideas walking, please join the first annual NAVSA peripatetic seminar, Saturday November 15th at 4:00pm (meeting in the Omni Shoreham main Lobby). We will exchange ideas or the beginnings of ideas (barrier of entry set deliberately low!) about Victorian comedy, satire, parody and humor as we perambulate. Please register here , and let us know accessibility constraints so we can design walk details accordingly. We will finish up around 5:30 at the Open City Diner (2331 Calvert St. NW, quite close to the Omni).
NAVSA Theater Caucus Performance: Lady Audley’s Secret (C.H. Hazlewood, 1863) / Saturday, November 15, 8 pm, Hampton Ballroom
The Theater Caucus offers a free performance of Hazlewood’s long-running 1863 adaptation of Mary Elizabeth Braddon’s bestselling sensation novel. 8 pm Saturday, in the Hampton Ballroom.