At this year's convention, Keynote Speaker Dr Vic Clarke will discuss her research into the Chartist newspaper, the Northern Star. Vic is currently Lecturer in Modern British Social History at Durham University, where she teaches on the Chartists and other aspects of Victorian social history. She is currently working towards her first academic monograph, which will explore the Northern Star and its role in the development of the Chartist movement and the periodical press in Britain.
Her PhD, entitled ‘Reading and Writing the Northern Star, 1837-1847’ was co-supervised by Professor Richard Salmon (School of English) and the late Professor Malcolm Chase (School of History) at the University of Leeds. Vic’s doctoral research offered the first long-term study of the leading newspaper of the Chartist movement in Britain, the Northern Star. This project combined literary and digital humanities methodology to offer new insights within this neglected area of Chartist history. Her research was funded by the White Rose College of Arts and Humanities DTC of the Arts & Humanities Research Council.
Vic’s other research has been published in Victorian Periodicals Review, Print, Politics, and the Provincial Press in Modern Britain (ed. Ian Cawood, 2019); as well as The Victorianist (2018) and History Workshop Online (2020). She has also contributed to public engagement work as one of the resident historians for the Kennington Chartist Project (2018); and conducted audience analysis research for the East End Women’s Museum (2020).
Vic is currently developing a postdoctoral research project on the history of ethical fashion campaigns in the north of England, and their use of abolitionist language. This research draws upon her experience of Victorian periodical studies, paying particular attention to the representation of labour issues and exploitation within protest writing. This project will highlight how the rhetoric of Victorian labour activism is mirrored today within environmental sustainability and climate-conscious fashion campaigns.
