I am happily plugging away at a couple big projects, one of which involves the Norfolk Chat, an illustrated society weekly published in Norfolk, VA from 1890-1893. This weekly is heavily composed of local gossip, advertisements, and boiler plate (questionably) humorous bits like this one:
WOOL: When your wife goes home to her mother, how do you induce her to come back?
VAN PELT: That’s too easy; insert an ad for a typewriter!
I will be presenting my analysis of the Courtship and Marriage content in the periodical at the Popular Culture Association conference in Philadelphia in April.
I’m also co-editing a special issue of Nineteenth-Century Gender Studies on “Victorian Studies in the Age of #MeToo” to go live sometime in summer 2020.
These projects, plus a lot of ambitious plans to sew, bake, and go for longer runs, should keep me busy until August.