Dickens Universe 2013

Two lucky MA students from the Department of English, along with Professor Lorraine Janzen Kooistra, spent an inspiring week this summer at Dickens Universe 2013 at the University of California, Santa Cruz. In existence for 33 years, this extraordinary event brings together faculty, graduate students, and others from around the world to participate in an intellectual hub of Dickens-related ideas, theoretical engagements, and critical explorations. Fouad Oveisy and Jacklyn Guay participated in a variety of research-and-teaching related activities with some 200 other attendees. Fouad co-taught a seminar on the novels chosen as the focus of this year’s Universe, The Mystery of Edwin Droodand Wilkie Collins’s The Moonstone. Jacklyn co-taught a pedagogy workshop, while Prof. Janzen co-lead the nineteenth-century seminar, an intense incubator for cutting-edge research in Victorian studies.

It was thanks to the vision of Dr. Isbister that we were able to participate in this amazing annual exploration of historic and modern issues generated from the study of the work of Charles Dickens. As interim Provost last year, Dr. Isbister initiated Ryerson University's membership in the consortium of sponsoring institutions from major American and international universities. Ryerson is currently the only Canadian member. To our delight, our graduate students were excellent ambassadors for Ryerson and the MA in Literatures of Modernity.

We look forward to extending the opportunity again, to students and faculty in the department of English, in the summer of 2014.