Conference: Literary Culture, Meritocracy, and the Assessment of Intelligence in Britain and America, 1880-1920, University of Kent

17-18 July, 2018 – University of Kent
Keynote Speakers:
Professor Helen Small, Pembroke College, University of Oxford
Professor Priscilla Wald, Duke University

Literary Culture, Meritocracy and the Assessment of Intelligence in Britain and America, 1880-1920A student in a dunce cap and a man on the steps of the Tome Scientific Building at Dickinson College, Carlisle, Pennsylvania, circa 1890. Courtesy of Archives and Special Collections, Dickinson College.

This conference aims to stimulate a wide-ranging discussion about the interactions between British and American literature, education, and the sciences of the mind between 1850-1950. We welcome paper and panel proposals on any aspect of British or American literature, education and/or the sciences of the mind broadly construed.
This conference is part of Dr Sara Lyons’ (PI), Dr Michael Collins’ (Co-I) and Dr Fran Bigman’s (Research Associate) AHRC-funded project, Literary Culture, Meritocracy, and the Assessment of Intelligence in Britain and America, 1880-1920. The project is an investigation of how British and American novelists understood and represented intellectual ability in the period, with a particular focus on how they responded to the rise of intelligence testing and the associated concepts of I.Q. and meritocracy. For additional information, please visit our website: https://research.kent.ac.uk/literaryculture/​
Possible topics include literature and:
  • Teaching and Being Taught; pedagogical theory and practice
  • Representations of Places of Learning
  • Examinations, grades, scholarships, qualifications
  • Inequality, Discrimination, and Exclusion in Education
  • Academic Success and Failure
  • Literacy and Illiteracy
  • Intellectuals, Experts, Professionalism
  • Autodidacticism, Informal Education
  • Varieties of education: aesthetic, classical, moral, religious, scientific, technical
  • Learning Styles and Types of Intelligence
  • Intellectual ability and disability
As well as literature and:
  • Professionalisation/ Institutionalisation of Psychology
  • Social Psychology
  • Developmental Psychology
  • Psychometrics and personality testing
  • Physiology and psychology
  • Psychological Schools and Controversies
  • Psychology and Philosophy
  • Experimental Psychology
  • Psychiatry
  • Sexology
  • Parapsychology
  • Eugenics
  • Language and Cognition
Please submit an individual proposal of no more than 350 words or an outline for a 3 paper panel proposal to sciencesofthemindconference@gmail.com by the 1 March, 2018. Papers will be limited to 20 minutes. Please include your name, a short bio, and email address in your proposal.