The Research Society for Victorian Periodicals has just announced the next Gale Fellowship competition. I was fortunate enough to win the inaugural competition. The prize money and the archive access were great, but more importantly it drew me into the RSVP community and helped me to meet some brilliant scholars and make many new friends. Any PhD students working with nineteenth-century periodicals should take a look. Details of the competition are listed below. Please re-circulate. The Research Society for Victorian Periodicals (RSVP) is pleased to announce the fifth annual Gale Dissertation Research Fellowship, made possible by the generosity of publisher Gale, part of Cengage Learning, in support of dissertation research that makes substantial use of full-text digitized collections of 19th-century British magazines and newspapers. A prize of $1500 will be awarded, together with one year's passworded subscription to selected digital collections from Gale, including 19th Century UK Periodicals and 19th Century British Library Newspapers. Purpose: The purpose of the Gale Dissertation Research Fellowship is two-fold: (1) to support historical and literary research that deepens our understanding of the 19th-century British press in all its rich variety, and (2) to encourage the scholarly use of collections of full-text digital facsimiles of [...]

We've just announced some exciting new PhD studentships at Edge Hill University. Each award includes a full waiver of postgraduate tuition fees as well as free  accommodation on campus (or a cash equivalent in lieu). Winners will be expected to teach for up to six hours per week. An annual stipend in the region of £7,380 will be paid at monthly intervals. Research proposals are invited in the areas below: African American History Crime and punishment history in modern Britain The portrayal of slavery/the slave trade in museums and the heritage industry with particular reference to Britain and the United States. The Digital Humanities: Nineteenth-Century Journalism History or Nineteenth-Century Transatlantic Cultural History If you'd like to work with me then the fourth bullet point is the one to aim for. The deadline is Monday 18 March. The History team at Edge Hill is a highly rated and dynamic group. Our research and teaching are focused on Modern History, from the end of the 18th to the end of the 20th centuries, in Britain, Europe, North America and the Middle East. All full-time members of staff were entered for the Research Assessment Exercise (RAE) in 2008 and 30% of their published research was [...]

If you'd like to see what a Digital Victorianist looks like in the flesh (hint: pasty and out of shape) then you might like to come and see one of my forthcoming talks. Over the next 6 months I'll be giving at least four conference papers: 17th March 2012 - "Goodbye, old fellow, I must skedaddle!": Reading the American Voice in the Late-Victorian Press London Nineteenth-Century Studies Seminar, Institute of English Studies, 11:00-17:00. Free entry [details available here]   16th -17th April 2012 - Imagining America: W. T. Stead's Vision of the New World W. T. Stead: Centenary Conference for a Newspaper Revolutionary, British Library. Registration (until 31 January 2012): £70 (£60 postgraduates / over 65s); Day rate: £45 (no concessions). [details available here]   21st - 23rd June - "Goodbye, old fellow, I must skedaddle!": American Slang and the Victorian Popular Press 5th Annual British Scholar Conference, University of Edinburgh. [details available here]   5th July- 7th July - The Laughter of Good Fellowship? Negotiating the past, present, and future in Anglo-American humour, 1870-1900 History and Humour - 1800 to Present, Freiburg University. [details available soon]   As of next week I'll also be leaving Manchester to take up a temporary lecturing [...]