Every summer a group of Rutgers English faculty and graduate students travel to Santa Cruz, California, to be a part of the Dickens Universe, an annual conference dedicated to the work of Charles Dickens, sponsored by University of California and now in its twenty-seventh year. Each summer, the Dickens Universe focuses on one Dickens novel, bringing together more than 200 scholars, graduate and undergraduate students, high school teachers, and members of the general public for an intensive week of study. In 2006, the novel was Nicholas Nickleby, and this summer, it will be The Pickwick Papers, with our very own Meredith L. McGill as one of the featured speakers.

Earlier this year, Rutgers English hosted the Dickens Project spring conference. Traveling outside California for the first time, it was held at the Plangere Writing Center the first weekend of April 2006 and showcased the work of graduate students who had attended the Nicholas Nickleby Universe in Santa Cruz.