DECADES OF DICKENS: John Jordan and the Dickens Project
The Dickens Project is a Multi-campus Research Unit (MRU) of the University of California, devoted to creating opportunities for collaborative research on Dickens and the Victorian age. The Project disseminates research findings through annual conferences, institutes, and publications. It supports the professional development of graduate students and produces curricular materials for teaching Victorian literature at both secondary and postsecondary levels. Founded in 1981, the Project consists of faculty and graduate students from over 40 major American and international universities. Its major event is the annual “Dickens Universe” gathering, held every summer on the Santa Cruz campus and focused each year on a single Dickens novel. The week-long Universe program includes formal lectures by internationally distinguished scholars, seminars, small discussion groups, films, performances, Victorian dancing, and a variety of informal events. The Universe is open to members of the general public and provides a relaxed and supportive environment in which to pursue serious intellectual inquiry. The Project’s Founding Director Murray Baumgarten was succeeded in 1986 by John Jordan (see the accompanying photograph, which captures the precise moment of this transition in leadership). Since then the Project has grown steadily in size and scope. Its member institutions include universities in Israel, Britain, Canada, and Australia. The Project is financially self-supporting. In addition to extramural grants from the National Endowment for the Humanities, the U.S. Department of Education, the California Council for the Humanities, the California Arts Council, and the Exxon Education Foundation, Project activities are supported by Dickens Universe registrations, dues from member institutions, and private gifts to the Friends of the Dickens Project, a support group composed of loyal Universe attendees.
1986
Graduate Center, City University of New York, becomes the first non-UC university to join the consortium.
ray Baumgarten Jordan.
1991
1993
Dickens Project becomes a Multi-campus Research Unit
Project co-sponsors international Dickens conferences in France and South Africa.
2013
Jordan retires from UCSC, but continues to direct the Project. Announces plan to grow Friends endowment to $1,000,000.
2012
Bicentenary of Dickens’s birth. Jordan gives keynote address at international conference in London. Record enrollment, over 300 people, at Dickens Universe.
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