Project Website http://lit.mit.edu/portfolio/the-dickens-project-2/
A multi-university consortium with numerous member institutions in the US and several foreign countries. It promotes the study and appreciation not only of the work of Charles Dickens but, more broadly, of the literature and culture of nineteenth-century Britain and other industrializing nations. It also seeks to bring together a unique collection of communities – professors, graduate students, undergraduates, high school teachers and students, and lay readers.
Every year, this diverse community of 250-300 people comes together at the “Dickens Universe” in Santa Cruz, California, for an intense week of lectures, seminars, and conversation about all matters Dickensian, Victorian, and modern. Professor of Literature James Buzard has represented MIT at the Dickens Universe for over a decade. He is a member of the Executive Committee of the Dickens Project and co-director of the Dickens Universe.
The Project creates opportunities for collaborative research on Dickens and the Victorian age, and disseminates research findings through annual conferences, institutes, and publications. It supports the professional development of graduate students and produces curricular material for teaching Victorian literature at both secondary and post-secondary levels.
The Dickens Project is a Multi-campus Research Unit (MRU) of the University of California. Its research activities have been supported by extra-mural grants from the National Endowment for the Humanities, the U.S. Department of Education, the California Council for the Humanities, the California Arts Council, the Exxon Education Foundation, dues from member schools, and private gifts. Activities for the general public are supported in part by contributions to a private, non-profit organization, The Friends of the Dickens Project.