he Nineteenth-Century Studies Association (NCSA) invites proposals for 15-minute papers (300-word proposal) or complete panels of 3-4 papers (600-word proposal) that examine the shifting meanings and status of “the human” in the long nineteenth century—a period shaped by transformative scientific, social, and philosophical developments that continue to inform present-day thought. During this time, evolutionary theory and social Darwinism challenged the boundaries between humans and animals and raised new questions about human difference across race, class, and ethnicity. Theological and philosophical discourses reevaluated humanity’s relationship to the divine, while pseudosciences such as phrenology, physiognomy, and anthropometry sought to codify human variation through tools of measurement often aligned with colonial and racial hierarchies. Advances in the natural sciences speculated on human origins and extraterrestrial life, situating “the human” within a larger cosmic framework. Industrialization redefined labor and bodily limits, generating anxieties about overpopulation, and paradoxically, race suicide and population extinction. Amid these pressures, labor and voting rights movements gained momentum, as marginalized groups fought for full inclusion. We welcome proposals from a variety of disciplines that engage with these and other transformations that redefined what it meant to be human—and to belong to humanity—across the long nineteenth century.
Topics may include, but are not limited to:
- The influence of evolutionary theory on concepts of the human and the human/animal divide, including artistic and literary responses
- Scientific efforts to define human origins and difference through anthropology, racial theory, and other emerging disciplines
- Population anxieties related to degeneration, overpopulation, and demographic change
- Emancipated and enslaved bodies
- The effects of industrialization and technological advancement on understandings of the human body, labor, and automation
- The rise of the human sciences—psychology, physiology, and medicine—and new approaches to the mind and self
- Migration and the movement of people, and their impact on ideas of race, nation, and identity
- Secularization and shifting relationships between the human and the divine
- Changing human relationships to the environment and the nonhuman world
- Human rights, labor, and suffrage movements and the redefinition of personhood
- Transformations in education and access to knowledge
- The role of cultural institutions (museums, libraries, exhibitions) in shaping public and humanist discourse
Submission Deadline: October 31, 2026
Please submit proposals via this Google Form
Ask any questions to conference organizers at [email protected]
Created 7 October 2026 Last modified 12 October 2026