Victoria Research Web

Discussion Groups

At their best, electronic discussion groups, or "lists," function as informal, ongoing conferences, enabling scholars from around the world to exchange ideas and information about research, events, and teaching methods. Victorianists have a number of lists to choose among, from the largest and most general--VICTORIA--to smaller lists devoted to particular authors and topics.

VICTORIA: The Electronic Conference for Victorian Studies

Since 1993, VICTORIA has provided that beloved Victorian thing, a "cheap luxury," in the shape of a free electronic forum for the exchange of research ideas and queries, notices of recent books, conference listings, and lively discussion of a vast variety of issues, large and small, that bear on the study of "the long 19th century" (say, 1790 to 1914) in Britain. VICTORIA equally welcomes the contributions of students of literature, social history, politics, gender studies, publishing, art, and intellectual history.

Subscribing
If you already know how to use e-mail, you won't have any trouble participating in VICTORIA. To subscribe, simply send an e-mail message to LISTSERV@LISTSERV.INDIANA.EDU consisting of the line SUB VICTORIA, followed by your full name. That's all there is to it.

Frequently Asked Questions
Otherwise known as the VICTORIA User's Guide, this FAQ explains more about how the list works, including member protocol and etiquette, listserv commands, and how to retrieve postings.

Searching the VICTORIA Archives
Thanks to the efforts of Jian Liu of Indiana University Libraries, and subsequently to recent enhancements of the Listserv(tm) software, the enormous archives of VICTORIA postings from its beginnings in 1993 to date are now searchable online. Comprising as they do the informal daily give-and-take of hundreds of scholars from all over the world on a myriad of Victorian subjects, these archives represent a unique scholarly resource for Victorianists. Remember that the copyright of each message posted belongs to its author and is not, therefore, in the public domain. If you would like to quote from or reproduce a posting in an article or monograph or anywhere else, please request permission from its author. Guides to citation of electronic sources can help with the format of this essential scholarly courtesy.


Finding Other Lists of Interest

There are literally thousands of discussion lists on every conceivable topic. The list of lists below connects you to some of the most helpful forums available to scholars interested in the 19th century. To subscribe to any of the Listserv(tm) lists, click on the address, leave the Subject line blank, and send a message of the form SUB listname, followed by your name. (Majordomo lists, as noted below, do not require you to add your name to the subscription command.) If a list has a webpage, it's a good idea to visit that page before subscribing, to find out more about how the list works and what topics are considered appropriate to it.

A number of Victorian-related discussion groups have appeared more recently on the commercial Web-based service Yahoo! Groups (formerly known as "eGroups," before that as "OneList"...), including groups for George Eliot, the Brontes, Lewis Carroll, and Mary Elizabeth Braddon. To learn more about these, search at the site's homepage.

AUSTEN-L (Jane Austen)
listserv@vm1.mcgill.ca

C18-L (18th-century studies)
listserv@lists.psu.edu

DICKNS-L (Charles Dickens)
listserv@ucsbvm.ucsb.edu

ELCS-L (English Literature, Culture & Society, 1880-1920)

GASKELL-L
majordomo@creighton.edu [subscribe GASKELL-L]

H-ALBION (British history)
listserv@msu.edu

HOUNDS-L (Sherlock Holmes)
listserv@listserv.kent.edu

H-WOMEN (Women's History)
listserv@uicvm.uic.edu

MODBRITS (British literature since 1895)
listserv@kentvm.kent.edu

MUSIC-19thC-LIT (Music and 19th-c. Literature)

NASSR-L (North American Society for the Study of Romanticism)
listserv@wvnvm.wvnet.edu

NVSA-L (Northeast Victorian Studies Association)
listserv@ibm.utm.edu

SHARP-L (Society for the History of Authorship, Reading & Publishing)
listserv@listserv.indiana.edu

Society for the Study of Nineteenth-Century Ireland
majordomo@projects.qub.ac.uk ["subscribe SSNCI"]

TROLLOPE (unmoderated, with discussion and group reads of Trollope's fiction)

TROLLOPE-L (moderated, with group reads of Trollope's novels and general discussion)

VICTORIA (19th-century British history and culture)
listserv@listserv.indiana.edu

WMST-L (Women's Studies)
listserv@umdd.umd.edu

WWI-L (Great War)
listserv@ukanaix.cc.ukans.edu

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