Vanessa Warne

• English 1200 - Representative Literary Works
• English 2140 - Literature of the Victorian Period
• English 3800 - Homemaking and Making Home
• English 4630/7980 - Literature and the Museum

For more than two decades, I've taught and researched nineteenth-century literature at the University of Manitoba. I specialize in: critical disability studies, including the literary depiction of blindness; the history of the book; and the literary depiction of material culture and of museums. My current research explores the history of reading by touch and the first raised-print books created by and for blind readers.

• PhD (English), Queen's University, 2001
• MA (English), Queen's University, 1996
• BA Honours (English), Queen's University, 1995

Research interests

• Nineteenth-century literature
• Disability studies, especially blindness studies
• The history of the book, including raised-print books
• Nineteenth-century material culture, including the history of handcrafted objects
• Museums in literature

Research affiliations/groups

• Co-organizer - Crafting Communities with Andrea Korda and Mary Elizabeth Leighton

• Warne, Vanessa. “Visual Disability in Morrison’s The Hole in the Wall.” Critical Essays on Arthur Morrison and the East End. Edited by Diana Maltz. Routledge, 2022, pp. 39-55.
• Bassett, Elizabeth, Heather Dean, Andrea Korda, Mary Elizabeth Leighton and Vanessa Warne. “Getting Scrappy in the Classroom during COVID-19: Collaboration, Open Educational Resources, and Hands-on Learning for Humanities Students.” KULA: Knowledge Creation, Dissemination, and Preservation Studies, vol 6, no. 1, 2022: pp. 1-18. 
• Korda, Andrea, Mary Elizabeth Leighton and Vanessa Warne. “Teaching with the Getty Museum Challenge in the Humanities Classroom.” Currents in Teaching and Learning, vol. 14, no. 1, 2022: pp. 19-38.
• Warne, Vanessa. “Poet and Beggar: Edmund White’s Blindness.” Routledge Companion to Literature and Disability. Edited by Alice Hall. Routledge, 2020, pp. 181-192. 
• Warne, Vanessa. “Blindness: Creating and Consuming a Non-Visual Culture.” A Cultural History of Disability in the Long Nineteenth Century. Edited by Martha Stoddard Holmes and Joyce Huff. Bloomsbury, 2019, pp. 79-95.
• Warne, Vanessa. “‘Blindness clears the way’: Edgar Robinson’s The True Sphere of the Blind (1896).” Untold Stories: Disability History in Canada. Edited by Roy Hanes, Diane Driedger and Nancy Hansen. Canadian Scholars, 2018, pp. 53-65.
• Warne, Vanessa. “‘Mountains might be marked by a drop of glue’: Blindness, Touch & Tactile Maps.” Victorian Environments. Edited by Michelle Smith and Grace Moore. Palgrave Macmillan, 2018, pp. 97-114. 
• Warne, Vanessa. “Blindness and Design: Kneass’ Philadelphia Magazine for the Blind (1899).” Cahiers Victoriens et Eduardiens 84 (2016): pp.1-12.
• Warne, Vanessa. “How a Blind Man Saw”: Exhibitions and Visually Disabled Visitors in Victorian Britain” / “Comment un aveugle a vu l’Exposition international”: Spectateurs malvoyants dans la Grande-Bretagne victorienne.” Corpus: Revue de Philosophie 67 (2014): pp. 109-132.
• Warne, Vanessa. “Between the Sheets: Contagion, Touch, and Text.” 19: Interdisciplinary Studies in the Long Nineteenth Century 19 (2014): pp. 1-9.

• 2018 - University of Manitoba, Student’s Teachers Recognition Award  
• 2015 - University of Manitoba, Dr. and Mrs. Ralph Campbell Outreach Award; “Award in recognition of outstanding outreach by a member of the University”
• 2008 - University of Manitoba, Olive Beatrice Stanton Award for Excellence in Teaching
• 2008 - University of Manitoba, Merit Award for Teaching
• 2007 - University of Manitoba, Graduate Students’ Association Award for Excellence in Graduate Teaching 

• Victorian Samplings, a podcast exploring nineteenth-century material culture. Podcast co-created with Andrea Korda and Mary Elizabeth Leighton and co-hosted with Jessie Krahn, Anne Hung and Natalie LoVetri. 2021- present. Currently in its third season, the podcast features interviews with more than 70 scholars, makers, artists, and curators connected by their fascination with Victorian things. Available on Spotify and Apple Podcasts.
• Victorian Things, a digital exhibition of nineteenth-century material culture. Exhibition co-curated with Andrea Korda and Mary Elizabeth Leighton; hosted by University of Victoria libraries and featuring 22 artifacts. 2021.
• Books Without Ink: Blindness, Reading and Writing, 1830-1930. Exhibition co-curated with Sabrina Mark; Sept 2015 to April 2016. Special Collections and Archives, University of Manitoba; featuring artifacts from the UK, US and Canada.
• Blind Creations: An Accessible Micro-Arts Festival. Exhibition co-curated with Hannah Thompson; June 28-30, 2015. Indoor and Outdoor installations, University of London, Royal Holloway; featuring 6 artists.