University of Liverpool's Online Romance Course

 

Dr Sam Hirst (who runs Romancing the Gothic) will be teaching "Falling in love with love: A History of Popular Romance", a course comprising 10 weekly sessions online (via Zoom), on Wednesdays at 6 - 7.30pm UK time, starting from Wednesday 21 January. 

There will be "online learning materials for you to engage with before and after each live session" and the course fee is £155 (concessions £80).

This module will explore the evolution of romance writing from the 18th century to the current day, looking not only at the novel but at the intertwined relationship between the romance novel and cinema. [...]

This course is aimed at romance readers and anyone who wants to explore the best-selling genre and most influential genre in publishing. Each week there will be a set text but extracts will also be provided as we are aware that participants will need to prioritise their reading.

Syllabus

1. Amatory Fiction: 18th-Century Women Writing Desire
   
   • Text: Eliza Haywood, Fantomina (1724)
2. The Society Romance: Austen and her Legacy
   • Text: Jane Austen, Pride and Prejudice (1813)
   • Pride and Prejudice (BBC, 1995, dir. Simon Langton)
3. The Rise of the Byronic Hero
   • Text: Charlotte Brontë, Jane Eyre (1847)
4. Orientalism and the Romance
   • Text: E. M. Hull, The Sheik (1919)
   • The Sheik (dir. Melford, US, 1921)
5. The Regency Romance
   • Text: Georgette Heyer, The Quiet Gentleman (1951)
   • The Reluctant Widow (Knowles, UK, 1950)
6. Mills and Boon, Category Romance and the 'Nursies'
   
   • Betty Neels, Tabitha in Moonlight (1972)
7. Race and Romance
   • Beverley Jenkins, Indigo (1996)
8. The Romantic Comedy and Second Chance Romance
   • Texts: The Philadelphia Story (dir. George Cukor, US, 1940)
   • The Lovebirds (dir. Michael Showalter, US, 2020)
9. Queering the Romance
   • Text: Olivia Waite, Hen Fever (2020)
10. Romantasy, Mixed Genres, and the future(s) of Romance
    
    • Text: Tasha Suri, The Isle of the Silver Sea (2025)

Full details can be found on the University of Liverpool's website.

What's On: Talks (on Industry Norms, Black Romance, Heyer)

Duke University's course on romance, UNSUITABLE (with an associated blog and events) has announced that its 2022 season begins

on Friday, January 21st [...] with author Deborah Fletcher Mello who will talk with us about What Characterizes a Romance Novel? Negotiating Industry Norms and Expectations.

All are welcome! Preregister here. UNSUITABLE events are free and open to the public.

That's via Zoom.

On February 26th, also online, there will be a

Black Romance Master Class. Sponsored by the Center for Black Diaspora.

"Those Purple Hands Really Intrigues Me:" Beverly Jenkins' Indigo 

The aim of this master class is to offer a pedagogical and scholarly approach to reading and teaching Black Romance fiction, specificially, historical Black romance novels. What this class will offer is a model, using Indigo as the class text, for teaching the literariness of novel, its continuity with the history of the romance genre, and the importance of reassessing the teaching of and writing about Black romance, and the romance genre in general. What the course will offer Black romance readers, scholars, and teachers is a critical approach easily adapted to anti-racist pedagogy and scholarly writing about romance.

The class is being led by Dr Margo Hendricks and you can register here.

On the topic of Black romance, I was interested to see that Harlequin have now produced a page to spotlight their romances by Black authors (most seem to be "Black romance," though some may not be, due to having one or more non-Black protagonist): https://www.harlequin.com/shop/pages/black-romance-stories.html They seem to be appearing in a wide range of lines: Special Edition, Presents, Desire, Intrigue, Romantic Suspense, Medical Romance, Romance, Heartwarming, Historical and ebook-only imprints.

Dr Sam Hirst has released a round-table conversation with KJ Charles,  Rose Lerner, Cat Sebastian and Olivia Waite which was part of a recent conference on Heyer:

CFP: Conference on Georgette Heyer’s The Black Moth at 100

Dr. Sam Hirst, of Romancing the Gothic, is organising a conference and looking for submissions:

Cover of The Black Moth

1921 saw the publication of a 19-year-old Georgette Heyer’s first novel The Black Moth. This tale of romantic highwayman, demonic rakes, abduction, ravishing beauties, betrayal and deceit set in the 18^th century began a career which spanned over 50 years. [...] Her legacy is not, of course, without its problems – the world she created has its limitations, its prejudices and its biases. This one-day online conference on 20^th November 2021, will seek to explore Heyer’s work and her legacy with a spirit both of celebration and of critical enquiry.

We will be joined on the day by Keynote Speaker Jennifer Kloester, author of Georgette Heyer: Biography of a Best-Seller (2011) and Georgette Heyer’s Regency World (2010). We will also be joined by a panel of authors for a roundtable on ‘Queer Reimaginings of Georgette Heyer’. We will be joined for this panel by Rose Lerner, Zen Cho, Cat Sebastian, K J Charles and Olivia Waite all of whom write within a Regency setting including communities largely absent or vilified in Heyer’s work, including queer communities, people of colour, the working class and Jewish people. This roundtable will look at both the influence of Heyer and at the idea of moving beyond the ‘Heyer World’ to explore different aspects of Regency England through more or less fantastical settings!

We are looking for papers to be included on 3-person panels throughout the day. We accept panel submissions or individual papers. We strongly encourage work which engages in interdisciplinary study. The aim of the conference is to explore aspects of Heyer’s work encapsulated in or hinted at by her first novel The Black Moth.

There are two types of paper that we are looking for.

1. There will be regular panels of 3 x 20-minute papers.
2. There will also be a session of ‘Lightening talks’ lasting ten minutes. Lightening talks allow for a shorter exploration of a limited aspect of the novels, a more personal enquiry or the presentation of an experimental idea!

The closing date for submissions is 31st May 2021. More details here (and also here).

Sam has added on Twitter that "Everyone is welcome to participate - academics and non-academics alike. [...] We want to create a diverse and welcoming space for everyone. We are queer friendly and want to include perspectives from all over the world. [...]

Regency spaces can sometimes be unfriendly to people of colour, queer people and people of different faiths. We are dedicated to making sure that that's not the case. Welcome one, welcome all."

Romancing the Gothic has a code of conduct and "there is a small honorarium for each speaker because we believe in valuing people's work and time in concrete ways."

Forthcoming Online Romance Talks: Horror, Serial Killers and Race

Sunday 14th February - 10 am and 7 pm UK time

Romancing the Gothic

Dr Sam Hirst and Tanagra on "Horror, Race and Romance: Love Doesn't Conquer All."

We'll be talking Black British and US history and looking at fictional representations in romance and horror. We'll be looking at love in horror, love as horror and horror in love! Discussing Bridgerton, Candyman and Get Out.

Sign up form here.

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Thursday 25th February - 17:30 – 19:00 UK time

The University of Birmingham (UK)'s Romance Reading Group 

Katrina Jan "brings you 'Fifty Shades of the Ripper' & why the 19th-century serial killer is being reimagined as ‘sexy’ in the 21st-century contemporary novel."

 

More details here. 

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Thursday 25th February - 4 to 5.30 pm Eastern US time

Professor Jayashree Kamblé on "Whose London? Migration and Multiple Identities in K.J. Charles’s Queer Historical Romance Novels." This is

about London's racial geography in romance novels (focusing on @kj_charles An Unseen Attraction) on Feb. 25 (4:00 p.m. ET). Seems timely in light of conversations on race in the genre & #Bridgerton in particular

Andrea at ShelfLove says:

I had the pleasure of enjoying a version of this talk and it’s VERY relevant to contextualizing POC in London in the 19th century, from a geographical and social perspective. For anyone interested in actual recorded history of POC at the time (even if not dukes or rich).

More details and link to sign up here.