BAVS Liverpool 2026
27 – 29 July 2026
Keynote Speakers:
Dr Alison Chapman (University of Victoria, BC)
Dr Amy Matthewson (University of Birmingham)
Professors Joe Kember and John Plunkett (University of Exeter)
Image: John Ingle Lee. 1860. Sweethearts and Wives. Courtesy of National Museums Liverpool/Walker Art Gallery
The Centre for Modern and Contemporary History (CMCH) at Liverpool John Moores invites you to Liverpool for BAVS 2026. Founded in 2000, the British Association for Victorian Studies supports and promotes research in Britain and beyond. This year’s conference Planning Team represent the richness of Victorian history and research in the City, with colleagues from LJMU, University of Liverpool, Liverpool Hope University and National Museums Liverpool.
There will be no specific theme for the conference. Papers on any aspect of long-nineteenth-century studies from across Art History, Music, Maritime History, Theatre History, the History of Science, Literature and History, to name a few, are welcome.
Liverpool is a cultural port city with a rich, if at times contentious, heritage, providing a framework for discussion of Victorian Studies in the twenty first century. The City mirrors many of the exciting social, cultural and economic innovations of the period, from the Philharmonic Hall and its Orchestra to the many theatres. We would particularly like to attract papers that engage with this myriad of narratives, reaching across disciplines. Victorian Liverpool encapsulates the diversity of Victorian studies, broadening out to the provinces, bringing migrants from Scotland, Ireland and Wales to the City, extending the reach of Britain into the Empire and beyond; both who went out from Liverpool and who settled here. Here ‘Victorian’ is not a static concept, but transcends the immediate locale while still being shaped by it. We welcome papers that examine the rich cultural tapestry the city stimulates, whilst continuing to address the broader controversies of the period.
The Liverpool Planning Team welcome proposals for 20 minute papers, but proposals for creative, non-traditional, craft approaches to presentation will be welcome. We would particularly like to attract proposals for Roundtable sessions on areas like Pedagogy, Research Methods, Theatre and Music History. If people would like to organise shorter lightening papers and panels then please contact the Planning Team to discuss this.
You can visit the BAVS 2026 website here: www.ljmu.ac.uk/bavs2026
Please submit proposals to: bavs2026liverpool@gmail.com by no later than December 12th 2025.
Registration is now open.
Click here to register: Annual Conference British Association for Victorian Studies | Liverpool John Moores University
There are a number of options to choose from for your BAVS registration, especially as we now have a Mid-Career Professionalisation morning, as well as one for PGR/ECR delegates on Monday 27 July. Delegates will have the option to choose individual lunch options from a variety of tasty tiffin boxes, so be sure to enter these on your registration. NOTE if you choose Registration for Monday PM, then lunch will not be included, this will only be included as part of the Professionalisation (Monday AM) package. The LJMU shop is a little awkward to use so if you are selecting more than one option, say, adding the Conference Dinner, then when you click on “Continue Shopping” this will take you back to the main shop. You will need to click “Conferences and Events” on the left-hand tabs in order to select the BAVS page and continue with your registration. Apologies, I have been advised there is nothing we can do about this. If you have any problems then do reach out to the Conference Lead, Dr Clare Horrocks at C.L.Horrocks@ljmu.ac.uk.
Note for Postgraduates
Postgraduate Bursaries have now been selected and notified. Please select the option for Postgraduate Bursaries on the Registration page. This will register as £0 but will enable you to make your lunch selections for the event.
There is also the option for Postgraduates to be entered for the Rosemary Mitchell Prize for Best PhD Student’s Paper Presentation. Please indicate if you would like to be entered for this on your Registration form. Observers will then attend each of the papers entered and provide feedback according to a set criteria which was piloted at BAVS Oxford in 2025. The winners will then be chosen and announced. For BAVS Liverpool, there is the additional opportunity for the top three papers selected to be invited to publish in a Special Issue of the Journal of Victorian Culture.
