April
Printing Colour 1700–1830 Conference (10-12)
Following from Printing Colour 1400-1700, this conference will be the first interdisciplinary assessment of Western colour printmaking in the long eighteenth century, 1700–1830. It will bring together researchers, curators, special collections librarians, printers, printmakers, cataloguers, conservators, art historians, book historians, digital humanities practitioners, scientists, and others who care for colour-printed material, seek to understand them, or use them in research. The discussion will encompass all media, techniques, and functions, from fashion to fine art, wallpaper to scientific communication. The programme includes papers, posters, private views of at eight collections, as well as a wine reception at Senate House, London.
Virginia Woolf Society Conference and AGM 2018 (14)
The Virginia Woolf Society of Great Britain is a non-profit organisation formed in August 1998 which aims to raise the profile of Virginia Woolf and promote the reading and discussion of her works. The Society produces the Virginia Woolf Bulletin three times a year (January, May and September), as well as a number of other publications. Woolf-related events and talks are held throughout the year. This year’s confirmed speakers are Dr Marion Dell, ‘Fabulous Forebears: Virginia Woolf’s ancestors’; Dr Philip Carter, IHR, ‘The Stephens in St Ives: Leslie and Virginia, at work and at play’; Professor Maggie Humm: ‘Relational aesthetics: Virginia Woolf’s artistic family and friends’.
May
Brits Abroad, Brits at Home: Travel Narratives from the Grand Tour to the End of Empire (9)
This symposium will focus on British travellers, but with the intention of broadening the definition of travel writing to include unpublished texts written, for example, by ordinary tourists, subjects of Empire, or travellers whose purpose was medical research or social reform. Conversely it will also examine ‘unreliable’ narratives – for example, by elite colonial travellers, political or military agents, and others whose accounts are potentially compromised by official censorship or self-censorship.
June
Corresponding with Beckett (1-2)
Corresponding with Beckett raises issues around the development of the “grey canon” (S.E. Gontarski), the use of digital resources, translation, visual metadata, and the role of corollary correspondence. Given Beckett’s hesitation to render the personal public, the conference will address how we negotiate issues of privacy, permissions, and copyright. The conference will generate new thinking on the letter as artefact, the textual and stylistic aspects of the epistolary, and will explore the legacy of a correspondence project and how the research that underpins it can be deployed for further research. Using literary correspondence and related materials raises older literary questions on authorial intention and reading methodologies that continue to inform literary analysis.
Heresy and Borders Conference (15-16)
Following two successful New York City conferences in 2014 and 2016, the International Society for Heresy Studies announces its third biennial conference to be hosted by the Institute of English Studies at Senate House in London. The conference theme will broadly focus on how borders between heresy and orthodoxy are created, maintained, and imagined. Although we interpret “heresy” primarily within a religious context, we also interpret it broadly enough to include the “heretical” in politics, art, philosophy, and literature. The study of borders—a popular theme in academic conferences in recent years—feels even more urgent in the current time of rising nationalism and political promises to ban immigration and erect walls based on imagined boundaries.
Writing Workshop: The Craft of Georgette Heyer (18)
Georgette Heyer is much loved by readers for her characterisation, her humour, and her rollicking good pace. What can writers learn from Heyer by analysing her creative choices? This workshop will cover structural issues such as plot, pacing, and subplot; and characterisation issues such as internalisation and supporting cast, to help participants develop their writing toolkits, no matter what genre they write in. Please read Venetia before attending, as it will serve as our guide book for examples. Led by Dr Kim Wilkins, Associate Professor at the School of Communication and Arts, University of Queensland. Kim is also the author of 30 novels, published in 20 languages.
The Nonesuch? Georgette Heyer and Her Historical Fiction Contemporaries (19)
This interdisciplinary conference is aimed primarily at exploring Heyer’s historical novels, but will also set her work in context with other contemporary female historical fiction writers, such as Norah Lofts, Margaret Irwin, Margaret Campbell Barnes, and Anya Seton, and with contemporary Regency romance. This conference will explore many aspects of Heyer’s historical works, including: sources and influences; critical and popular reception; class, gender and sexuality; and publishing and marketing histories. We hope that the day will be a combination of formal and informal sessions, and be a chance to meet other Heyer readers and discuss the impact of her work.
July
Victorian Popular Fiction Association Conference 2018 (3-7)
The Victorian Popular Fiction Association is dedicated to fostering interest in understudied popular writers, literary genres and other cultural forms, and to facilitating the production of publishable research and academic collaborations amongst scholars of the popular. Our annual conference is now in its tenth year and aims to celebrate with a five day extravaganza! Alongside the usual keynotes, special panels, reading group and exhibition, there will be trips out to different events around London. This year’s discussion will centre around ‘War and Peace’.