The University of Iowa
and the Dickens Project

The Dickens Project is a scholarly consortium devoted to the study of the life, times, and works of Charles Dickens and, more broadly, of nineteenth-century literature and culture. Founded in 1981 and headquartered at the University of California at Santa Cruz, the consortium includes among its institutional members, in addition to the University of Iowa, the City University of New York, MIT, Princeton University, Rice University, Rutgers University, Stanford University, Tulane University, the University of Texas at Austin, the University of California-Berkeley, University of California-Davis, University of California-Irvine, University of California-Riverside, University of California-Santa Barbara, University of Oregon, the University of South Carolina, Vanderbilt University, the University of Exeter, and the Hebrew University of Jerusalem.

Contacts

University of Iowa Graduate Student Opportunities:
The Dickens Universe

As a member institution, the University of Iowa sends two graduate students and a faculty member to the annual “Dickens Universe.” Convened at the UC Santa Cruz Campus the first week of August, the Dickens Universe brings together scholars, graduate students, high school teachers, and members of the general public for a week of study and Dickensian conviviality. Each summer, the Universe focuses on a single Dickens novel, sometimes in combination with a second novel by another nineteenth-century writer. The program includes formal lectures by internationally distinguished scholars, seminars, small discussion groups, films, performances, exhibits, and a variety of informal social activities. Graduate students who attend the Universe participate in a weeklong graduate seminar with two distinguished nineteenth-century scholars. Students also participate in the formal activities as instructors of courses for non-graduate student participants or by enrolling in a selection of professional workshops.

The Universe concludes each year with a scholarly conference on a topic related to issues raised by the novel or novels under discussion through the week. The conference brings renowned scholars of various disciplines to Santa Cruz for an intense, intimate culminating weekend conference.

University of Iowa Graduate Student Opportunities:
The Dickens Project Spring Graduate Conference

Following the Universe, participating graduate students are also invited to submit paper proposals for the Dickens Project Spring Conference. Assigned to a mentor from the Dickens Project faculty, each student will work with her or his mentor by email in the months before the conference to strengthen the paper and to discuss presentation techniques. Many of the papers delivered at this conference by Iowa graduate students have formed the basis for dissertation chapters and have been developed into published articles.

For details about the upcoming Dickens Universe, please follow this link to the Dickens Project Website:
http://humwww.ucsc.edu/dickens/universe/universe.html

Dickens Project Graduate Students from the University of Iowa

Summer 2007
Joanne Janssen
Laura Cap

Summer 2006
Jessica DeSpain
Joshua Raulerson

Summer 2005
Kate Henderson
Sucheta Mallick

Summer 2004
Nicki Buscemi

Summer 2003
Melissa Donegan
Robin Barrow (Graduated 2003), Visiting Assistant Professor at the University of Tennessee-Knoxville

Summer 2002
Marty Gould (Graduated 2005), Assistant Professor, University of South Florida
Jean Fernandez (Graduated 2004), Assistant Professor, University of Maryland-Baltimore County

Summer 2001
Marty Gould
Thomas McLean (Graduated 2004), Assistant Professor, University of Otago, New Zealand

Summer 2000
Mary Moran (Graduated 2006), Assistant Professor, College of Staten Island, CUNY
Damon Franke (Graduated 2003), Assistant Professor, University of Southern Mississippi-Hattiesburg

Summer 1999
Deidre McMahon (Graduated 2004)
Megan Early Alter (Graduated 2004), Visiting Assistant Professor, University of Iowa

Summer 1998
Anne Stapleton (Graduated 2001), Lecturer, University of Iowa
Margaret Loose (Graduate 2005) Assistant Professor, University of California, San Diego

Summer 1997
Liz Corsun (Graduated 2005), Transylvania University, Lexington, KY
Kristin Brandser (Graduated 2001), Associate Professor, College of Law, University of Cincinnati

Summer 1996
Patricia Murphy (Graduated in 1997), Associate Professor, Missouri Southern State University
Heidi (Johnson) Carrier (Graduated 2001)