June 2014

The Journal of Literature and Science (http://www.literatureandscience.org) is now looking for reviewers to review a wide range of articles in the field literature and science published in the last year to 18 months. The JLS is unique in reviewing journal articles rather than books in the fields of literature and science and the history and philosophy of science. As such, we believe our reviews offer scholars and students a truly valuable guide to some of the most recent and cutting edge research in the field.

Please find below are a number of articles that we would like to offer members the chance to review for the Journal’s autumn issue in 2014. Its largely first come, first served, so do get in touch with an offer to do a specific article (email m.geric@westminster.ac.uk). I’d also be very happy for BSLS members to suggest other relevant articles for review that they may have come across and that aren’t listed below. Do let me know. Many thanks and look forward to hearing from you,

Michelle Geric

Senior Lecturer in English Literature, University of Westminster

Reviews Editor for the Journal of Literature and Science

ARTICLES FOR REVIEW:

• John Savarese, “Ossian’s Folk Psychology.” ELH 80.3 (2013): 715-745.
• Cian Duffy, “My purpose was humbler, but also higher’: Thomas De Quincey’s ‘System of the Heavens’, Popular Science and the Sublime.” Romanticism 20. 1 (2014): 1-14.
• Mary Elizabeth Leighton and Lisa Surridge, “Evolutionary Discourse and the Credit Economy in Elizabeth Gaskell’s Wives and Daughters.” Victorian Literature and Culture 41. 3 (2013): 487-501.
• Jason M. Coats, “Unreliable Heterodiegesis and Scientific Racism in Conrad’s Secret Agent.” Modernism/Modernity 20. 4 (2013): 645-665.
• John Attridge, “Two Types of Secret Agency: Conrad, Causation, and Popular Spy Fiction.” Texas Studies in Literature and Language 55.2 (2013): 125-158.
• Allison Speicher, “A Space for Science: Science Education and the Domestic in Louisa May Alcott’s Little Men.” Partial Answers: Journal of Literature and the History of Ideas 12: 1 (2014): 63-85.
• Ruth Heholt, “Science, Ghosts and Vision: Catherine Crowe's Bodies of Evidence and the Critique of Masculinity.” Victoriographies 4 (2014): 46-61.
• Ian Burney, “Our Environment in Miniature: Dust and the Early Twentieth-Century Forensic Imagination.” Representations 121. 1 (Winter 2013): 31-59.
• Maria Cristina Iuli, “Joseph McElroy’s Plus: A Novel of Wonder.” Arizona Quarterly: A Journal of American Literature, Culture, and Theory 69.2 (2013): 103-129.
• Robert Nathan “Why It Matters: The Value of Literature as Object of Inquiry in Qualitative Research” University of Toronto Quarterly 82.1 (2013): 72-86.

Reviews should be 750 words long and should offer both a description of the article as well as an analysis of its achievements. For more details please follow the link http://www.literatureandscience.org or contact Michelle Geric m.geric@westminster.ac.uk to register your interest or if you would like to review a relevant article that does not appear in the list above. The JLS is happy to consider alternatives to those listed here.

'Science at the Seaside' is a collaborative project with Professor John Plunkett (Exeter University), Dr Kyriaki Hadjiafxendi (Bath Spa University) and Ilfracombe Museum. It is funded by North Devon Fisheries Local Action Group [FLAG] and will run from October 2013–October 2014.

'Science at the Seaside' seeks to engage local communities with a neglected aspect of their heritage; namely, the growth of seaside science and environmental tourism in North Devon during the Victorian and Edwardian periods. The North Devon coast attracted many literary and scientific visitors, local and distinguished, professional and amateur; these included well-known figures such as George Eliot, George Henry Lewes, George Tugwell and Philip Gosse, who explored, collected and displayed scientific specimens, as well as published accounts of their visits. There is a rich history of writing about the North Devon coast, which deserves to be better known as it played an important national role in the growth of Victorian popular science.

The key objectives of this collaborative project are:

• Increased public awareness of, and engagement in, of the rich history of literary and scientific writing about the North Devon coast and seascape;
• To improve the visitor experience at Ilfracombe Museum and to encourage increasing number of attendees from both the local community and tourists, resulting in both economic and cultural benefits;
• To create a legacy of web resources, learning ideas and physical resources that will continue to inspire curiosity and interest in the coastal and fishing heritage of North Devon.

The outputs of the project include a new permanent exhibition on 'Seaside Collecting' at Ilfracome Museum together with an accompanying booklet, digitisation of items from the museum collection and an ongoing range of family activities (including Victorian rockpool rambles and a writing competition).To see a brochure of planned activities in PDF format, click below:

Science at the Seaside Brochure

Institute of Modern Languages Research,
London, UK
27-28 June 2014
Fee: £10 / £5 (concs.)

Speakers to include:
Professor Barbara Gates (University of Delaware)
Professor Ann Shteir (York University, Ontario, Canada)

Scholars have long been familiar with the scientific endeavours of late 19th-century women travellers like Isabella Bird and Mary Kingsley, but these figures have generally been assumed to be pioneers, blazing a new path for scientifically inclined women. Recent research, however, has begun to uncover Bird and Kingsley’s many predecessors in the 18th- and early 19th-centuries – women such as Maria Riddell, Maria Graham and Sarah Bowdich, whose journeys to regions such as the West Indies, South America and West Africa were productive of scientific knowledge and debate across a range of disciplines. This two-day workshop, organised by Nottingham Trent University’s Centre for Travel Writing Studies and sponsored by the British Academy, will shed further light on women’s scientific travelling in the period before 1850, as well as exploring the wider intellectual and cultural networks which enabled and assisted women’s participation in contemporary science, and also women’s role as travellers between different scientific communities and audiences.

Spaces are limited, so early booking is advised. For more information, contact Dr Carl Thompson (carl.thompson@ntu.ac.uk).

Registration form and programme now available here.