Teaching Resources

Syllabi

• Nineteenth-Century History
• Victorian Literature Surveys
• The Victorian Novel
• Victorian Poetry
• Special Topics in Victorian Culture

Few things are more helpful in planning a course than seeing how others have laid out similar courses. Sharing syllabi is one of the most fruitful uses of the Web, and a number of Victorianists have made course plans available online for the benefit of both students and colleagues. If you would like to contribute a syllabus for posting here, either as a link to a website or as a text file, please contact the .

A variety of additional materials, many of which are especially suited for use by primary and secondary school teachers, can be found below under Other Teaching Resources. Again, if you'd like to contribute additional materials like these we'd be glad to have them. A handy place to search the Web for syllabi on particular topics is the Syllabus Finder at the Center for History and New Media.

History

• Victorian Britain (Alan Heesom, University of Durham)
• Victorian Britain (Jamie Bronstein, New Mexico State University)
• Histories of the British Empire; (James Vernon, U. C. Berkeley)
• Imperial Britain: Maker of the Modern World? (James Vernon, U. C. Berkeley)
• Britain since 1688 (R. Adelson, Arizona State University)

Literature Surveys

• "Victorian Literature" (Robert Fletcher, West Chester University)

• "The Victorian Period" (Jennifer Shaddock, University of Wisconsin)
• "Literature of the Victorian Period" (Diane C. Archibald, U. Mass at Lowell)
• "Readings in 19th-c. British Literature" (Jonathan Mulrooney, College of the Holy Cross)
• "Nineteenth Century British Literature" (Priscilla Glanville, University of South Florida)
• "Victorian Literature and Culture" (Chris Vanden Bossche, Notre Dame)

• "The Victorian Period" (Rebecca Lee, University of Hawaii)
• "Victorian Literature" (Elisabeth Gruner, University of Richmond)
• "Victorian Literature" (Karen Droisen, University of Nevada, Las Vegas)

• "Victorian Poetry and Prose" (Margaret Belcher, University of Canterbury)
• "Survey of Victorian Literature" (Jonathan Smith, University of Michigan, Dearborn)

• "Victorian Literature" (Patricia Craddock, University of Florida, Gainesville)
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• "Victorian Poetry and Prose" (Tamara Ketabgian, Beloit College)
• "Literature and Society in Victorian England" (Tod E. Jones, U. of Maryland)
• "Literature of the Victorian Age" (Natalie Houston, University of Houston)
• "Early Victorian Poetry and Prose" (Jill Galvin, UCLA)
• "British Texts: 19th Century" (Joe Law, Wright State)

The Novel

• The Nineteenth-Century Novel" (Helen Debenham and Garteh Cordery, University of Canterbury)
• "Fiction of the Romantic Period" (Stephen Behrendt, University of Nebraska)
• "The English Novel: 1700-1900" (Stephen Behrendt, University of Nebraska)
• The Nineteenth-Century Novel" (Chris Vanden Bossche, University of Notre Dame)
• "The Nineteenth-Century English Novel" (Jonathan Smith, University of Michigan
• "The Nineteenth-Century British Novel" (Patricia Craddock, University of Florida, Gainesville)

• "The Nineteenth-Century English Novel" (Jay Clayton, Vanderbilt University)
• "The Nineteenth-Century British Novel" (David Latane, VCU)
• "Rethinking the Victorian Novel" (Erin O'Connor, Univ. of Pennsylvania)
• "The Victorian Novel" (Diana C. Archibald, University of Massacusetts, Lowell)
• "Victorian Novels" (Wendy Kolmar, Drew University)
• "Victorian's Secrets: The 19th-c. English Novel" (Christine Roth, University of Wisconsin)
• "The Victorian Novel: Angels, Odd, and Other Women" (Leila May, North Carolina State University)

• "The Victorian Novel 1851-1867: From Exhibitionism to Reform" (Jay Clayton, Vanderbilt University)
• "Dickens" (Erin O'Connor, University of Pennsylvania)
• "Novel Time Machines" (Erin O'Connor, University of Pennsylvania)

• "The 19th-century British Novel from Dickens to Hardy" (Rohan Maitzen, Dalhousie University)
• "The Idea of the Child in 19th-Century English and American Novels" (Elisabeth Gruner, U. of Richmond)
• "George Eliot and Elizabeth Gaskell" (Elisabeth Gruner, U. of Richmond)
• "History and the Novel" (Michael Galchinsky, Georgia State University)
• "The Life and Work of George Eliot" (Michael Galchinsky, Georgia State University)

Poetry

• "Victorian Poetry" (David Latan�, Virginia Commonwealth University)
• Poetry in an Age of Prose" (Dino Felluga, Purdue University)
• "Victorian Poetry" (Karen Droisen, University of Nevada, Las Vegas)
• "Poetry and Criticism 1830-1890" (Open University)

Special Topics

• "Reforming Victorian Literature" (Chris Vanden Bossche, Notre Dame)
• "The Political Economy of Nineteenth-Century Print" (Mary Poovey, NYU)
• >"London and Literature in the 19th Century," (David Skilton, Cardiff University)
• "Victorian London in Life and Literature" (Susan Horton, University of Massachusetts)
• "Victorian Sensations" (Rohan Maitzen, Dalhousie University)
• "Victorian Institutions: The Culture of Victorian London" (Heather de Silva, Birkbeck College)

• The Evolution of Darwin" (Kerry S. Kilburn, Old Dominion University)
• "Irish Literature of the 19th Century (Erin O'Connor, University of Pennsylvania)
• >"Charles Darwin and His World" (Marsha Driscoll, Elizabeth Dunn, and Dann Siems, Bemidgi State University)
• "Victorian Garbage" (Tamara Ketabgian, Beloit College)
• "Victorians, Machines, and Modernity" (Tamara Ketabgian, Beloit College)
• >"Representing the Child: Studies in 19th-c. Literature and Culture" (Danielle E. Price, College of the Holy Cross)
• "Sex and Gender in Late Victorian Britain" (Michael Wilson, University of Texas)
• "Lewis Carroll -- Author and Photographer" (Lynn Vallone, Texas A&M University)[Word document]
• "Victorian Interpretations of History" (Eleanor J. McNees, University of Denver)
• "19th-c. British art and Literature: An Italian Odyssey" (Eleanor J. McNees, University of Denver)
• "Mid- Victorian Women Writers" (Helen Debenham, University of Canterbury)
• "19th Century British Literature: Gothic Feminism" (Nina Auerbach, Univ. of Pennsylvania)
• "Victorian Masculinites" (Dan Bivona, Arizona State University)
• "Victorian Character" (Dan Bivona and Cajsa Baldini, Arizona State University)
• "Victorian Sexuality" (Dan Bivona, Arizona State University)
• "Romantic Women, Victorian Men" (Ashton Nichols, Dickinson College)
• "Deviance in Victorian Fiction" (Erin O'Connor, University of Pennsylvania)
• "Death and the 19th Century" (Dino Felluga, Purdue Univ.)
• "19th-Century Medievalism" (Dino Felluga, Purdue Univ.)
• "Nineteenth Century Theatre" (Miriam Handley, Universiyt of Sheffield)

• "Romanticism to Victorianism: Culture and Conformity" (S. Brown, University of Guelph)
• "The Impersonating I: Self and Narrative in Victorian Literature" (Elisabeth Gruner, University of Richmond)
• "Colonial Themes and Victorian Literature" (Kenneth McNeil, Eastern Connecticut State)
• "Imagining Empire" (Pat O'Neill, Hamilton College)
• "Literature of the 19th-Century British Empire" (Robert Brinlee, Virginia Tech)
• Literature and Empire: The English Victorian Period" (Richard Moye, Lyndon State College)
• "Victorian Gothic" (Cyndy Hendershot, Arkansas State)

• "Victorian Sexualities" (James Diedrick, Albion College)
• "Dickens and London" (James Diedrick, Albion College)
• "Visual Culture in Victorian England" (Ruth Ann McNamara, Villanova University)
• "Victorian Studies: Illustrated Periodicals" (Michael Hancher, University of Minnesota)
• "The Victorian Illustrated Book: A Marriage of Image and Word" (Catherine Golden, Skidmore College)
• "Functions of Victorian Culture at the Present Time" (Christine Kreuger, UCLA)

Other Teaching Resources

• Undergraduate Victorian Studies Online Teaching Anthology (Laura Dale Bischof, University of Minnesota)
• A Study Guide to Charles Dickens's Hard Times

• "Is There a Hypertext in this Class? Teaching Victorian Literature in the Electronic Age" (Jonathan Smith, U. Michigan, 1997)
• Romantic Circles High School
• Teaching Alice in Wonderland to 4th Graders (Monica Edinger, The Dalton School)
• Queen Victoria's Empire (middle school and high school lesson plans from PBS)
• The Industrial Revolution, (Grade 10 course models, California)
• History Trail: Victorian Britain (BBC)
• Victorian Women's Rights (online learning game from BBC)
• UK National Archive "snapshots" for primary and secondary school classes:
  • "How do we find out about 19th century people?"
  • "How did the Victorians have fun?"
  • "Was there much difference between the homes of the Victorian rich and poor"What did people think about the New Poor Law?"
  • "The 1833 Factory Act: A problem solved?"
  • "Disaster at Trimdon Grange. What happened?"
• History in Focus: The Victorian Era, an online introductory survey, with links to other resources, from the Institute of Historical Research, London.
• Prisoner 4099, a joint exploration of Victorian life by the teachers and students of RNIB New College Worcester and the staff of the National Archives
• "Virtual Victorians," an interactive site of the National Grid for Learning
• What the Victorians Did For Us (BBC)
• Middle school and high school lesson plans about Victorian England, covering such topics as inventions, politics, and empire (PBS)

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