Institutions in the Nineteenth Century and Beyond

The nineteenth century saw the emergence and consolidation of institutions in many different areas, including art, education, law, medicine, politics, and more. These institutions not only informed the period’s socio-political landscape, but also left a legacy that still reverberates in the twenty-first century. In the current era filled with self-reflection and reassessment, a richer account of the historical past provides a better understanding of our contemporary situation. It is therefore timely to reconsider how long-standing institutions developed and their lasting implications for the present day.

Programme 

Download a full copy of the programme with abstracts here:  CNCS PG Conference programme 2025

10:30 Arrival/Registration

11:00 Art and the Working Class (Chair: Jasmine Margalit)

• James Inkster (Newcastle), “Trollope’s Alms-house. Or, Dickens’s Bioethics of Survival.”
• Alexander King (Leeds), “An Encyclopaedia for the Working Class? Politics, Cost and Audience in the 19th Century Publishing Industry.”
• Isabel Thomas (Newcastle), “Music in Working Men’s Clubs and Institutes as Institutionalisation of Working-Class Life.”

12:00 Lunch (Provided)

1:15 Northeast Institutions (Chair: Ben Thompson)

• Joy Brindle (Durham), “Sunderland Art Gallery as an Embodiment of Nineteenth-century Association.”
• Neil Harrison (Northumbria), “A New Institution: the Importance of Networks in the Creation of the Tyne Improvement Commission (TIC) in 1850 to own and manage the River Tyne.”

2:00 Break

2:30 Global Networks (Chair: Jamison Hankins)

• Megan Liao (Durham), “Marginalized Voices in Imperial Tourism.”
• Yevhen Yashchuk (Oxford), “Globalised Telegraph in Imperial Provinces: Hierarchies of Information Flows and the Appearance of International Crisis in Kyiv and Lviv, 1875-1878.”

3:15 Break

3:45 Keynote: Simona Valeriani (V&A) (Chair: Ardi Echevarria)

5:00 Close