Past events
Selected seminars, conferences, lectures, film screenings, exhibitions, and workshops in English and Scottish Literature (2015 -).
English Literature Seminar Series
Each semester, English and Scottish Literature welcomes a fantastic range of guest speakers and colleagues to present a seminar on their research.
Please note that speaker titles and universities, as listed, date from the time of the event and may have changed.
Please note that speaker titles and universities, as listed, date from the time of the event and may have changed.
| Date | Title | Speaker(s) |
|---|---|---|
| 20 November 2020 | Asignifying Desire: on Dennis Cooper's GIF novels | Dr Diarmuid Hester (University of Cambridge) |
| 5 March 2020 | Recent Irish Poetry and Slightly Magical Liquids | Professor Lucy McDiarmid (Montclair State University) |
| 19 February 2020 | Research Group in Life-Writing Event | Professor Alison Light; Alan Goodson; Nicole Chen; Dr Simon Cooke; Dr Allyson Stack (University of Edinburgh) |
| 24 January 2020 | (Un)Romantic Metropolitanism: Scales, Selves and the Creation of Literary Distinction | Dr Matthew Sangster (University of Glasgow) |
| 17 January 2020 | Seas of Desire and Disgust: Border-Crossing in Helena María Viramontes’ 'Their Dogs Came with Them’. | Dr Linda Margarita Greenberg (California State University) |
| 20 November 2019 | Evaluating Machine Learning Approaches to Literary Studies: The Case of Spatial Imaginaries’ | Dr Anouk Lang (University of Edinburgh) |
| 13 November 2019 | The Good Man on Trial, or, Male Virginity and the Politics of Misogyny | Rebecca Barr (University of Cambridge) |
| 23 October 2019 | Make It Old: A Reconsideration of the Role of Decadence in Modernism | Kirsten MacLeod (Newcastle University) |
| 2 October 2019 | Unpopular Culture: Beyond the Populism of High and Pop Culture | Sascha Pöhlmann (University of Konstanz) |
| 25 September 2019 | Enlightenment and National Identity in Defoe’s The True-Born Englishman | Dr Robert Irvine (University of Edinburgh) |
| 29 March 2019 | Intersectionality in Crisis: Discourses of Resistance, Strategies of Representation | Anna Carastathis (Panteion University) |
| 22 March 2019 | Fantasy and the Anthropocene | Professor Brian Attebery (Idaho State University) |
| 15 March 2019 | Aditi Nafde (Newcastle University) | |
| 8 March 2019 | The Doctor that Blushed: Mental ferriarism in the early industrial revolution, 1780-1820 | Jon Mee (University of York) |
| 1 March 2019 | Living Dangerously in the Age of Resilience: A Literary and Cultural Perspective’ | Michael Basseler (Justus Liebig University Giessen) |
| 15 February 2019 | Resurgent Forms: Contemporary Indigenous Life Writing and U.S. Settler Colonialism' | René Dietrich (Johannes Gutenberg-Universität Mainz) |
| 8 February 2019 | Growing Up Too Quickly: The Cultural Construction of Children in Lyndsay Faye’s Gods of Gotham Trilogy | James Peacock (Keele University) |
| 1 February 2019 | Avian, Anal, Outlaw: E.M. Forster’s Queer Ecology | Benjamin Bateman (University of Edinburgh) |
| 25 January 2019 | States of Emergency / States of Emergence: Reading Claudia Rankine | Dr Lee Spinks (University of Edinburgh) |
| 18 January 2019 | Frozen in the Glassy, Bluestreaked Air: John Dos Passos’s Photographic Metropolis | Alix Beeston (Cardiff University) |
| 30 November 2018 | ‘Space Unattached’: Imagining Scotland from the Pacific with Robert Louis Stevenson | Dr Lesley Graham (University of Bordeaux) |
| 23 November 2018 | Edgelands Without a Centre: Industrial Decline and Rurality in Norman Nicholson’s Poetry | Dr Andrew Frayn (Edinburgh Napier University) |
| 16 November 2018 | Dr George Lipsitz (University of California) | |
| 9 November 2018 | Hatred of Sex: Reflections on the Contemporary Governance of Sex | Dr Oliver Davis (University of Warwick) |
| 2 November 2018 | Facing Reality with John Ruskin | Dr David Russell (University of Oxford) |
| 26 October 2018 | What Was ‘Black Nostalgia’ | Dr Jonathan Schroeder (University of Warwick) |
| 19 October 2018 | Theatre &… the People Formerly Known as the Audience | Dr Helen Freshwater (Newcastle University) |
| 12 October 2018 | The Professor in Children’s Literature: A Corpus Based Analysis of Expertise in Books Marketed to a Young Audience | Dr Melissa Terras (University of Edinburgh) |
| 5 October 2018 | Autobiography, Identity, and Memory | Dr Laura Fish (Northumbria University) |
| 28 September 2018 | Towards an Autobiography of a Race Woman: The Afromodernist Practice of Eslands Goode Robeson | D. Fionnghuala Sweeney (Newcastle University) |
| 21 September 2018 | George Orwell in Russia | Masha Karp |
| 9 March 2018 | Residential School Gothic: Genre and Public Memory in 21st Century Canada | Dr Jennifer Henderson (Carleton University) |
| 16 February 2018 | Modernist Belatedness in Contemporary Slow Cinema | Dr Angelos Koutsourakis (University of Leeds) |
| 9 February 2018 | The 1820s: Speculation, Improvisation, Identity-Formation | Professor Angela Esterhammer (University of Toronto) |
| 2 February 2018 | Walk in Progress: Keeping Pace with Ambulatory Art | Professor William Sharp (Colombia University) |
| 26 January 2018 | Dr Rebecca Tierney-Hynes (University of Edinburgh) | |
| 1 December 2017 | Edward FitzGerald and the Grammar of Ornament | Dr James Williams (University of York) |
| 17 November 2017 | Literature, Medicine and Malawian Writing: A reflection on medical humanities and the literary response the AIDS epidemic | Dr Chisomo Kalinga (University of Edinburgh) |
| 10 November 2017 | 'Inside the Invisible: Black Atlantic Art and Activism’: a Roundtable Discussion | Lubaina Himid (University of Central Lancashire); Alan Rice (University of Central Lancashire); Hannah Durkin (University of Newcastle Upon Tyne); Professor Celeste-Marie Bernier (University of Edinburgh) |
| 3 November 2017 | Why Fiction Matters in A Post-Truth Age | Dr Tabish Khair (Aarhus University) |
| 27 October 2017 | The Geometry of Invention: Diagrams in the Middle Ages | Professor Mary Carruthers (University of New York) |
| 20 October 2017 | ‘Weak and Strong Modernism’: a Roundtable Discussion | Tim Armstrong (University of London); Alex Goody (Oxford Brookes University); Daniel Moore (University of Birmingham); Helen Saunders (Kings College London); Jeff Wallace (Cardiff Metropolitan University); Claire Warden (De Montfort University) |
| 13 October 2017 | Memories, Histories, Selves: On Writing a Memoir | Professor Alison Light (University of Edinburgh) |
| 6 October 2017 | Octavia Butler and the Impossibility of Slavery | Rob Maslen (University of Glasgow) |
| 7 April 2017 | The poetics and politics of female elegy in Wales and Scotland, 1400-1800 | Dr Catherine Charnell-White (Aberystwyth University); Dr Sarah Dunnigan (University of Edinburgh); Dr Kate Mathis (University of Edinburgh); Professor Sarah Prescott (University College Dublin) |
| 31 March 2017 | "Planets turn to ashes": Byron, Climate Change, and Extinction | Dr David Higgins (University of Leeds) |
| 17 March 2017 | "Saving grace" in literary modernism and dance | Professor Susan Jones (University of Oxford) |
| 10 March 2017 | Mysteries, Markets, Maps: Gothic Fiction and the Romantic Book Trade | Dr Anthony Mandal (University of Cardiff) |
| 3 March 2017 | I see you have a feeling for symbols of power”: Robert Lowell’s Benito Cereno and American Civil Rights in the 1960s | Dr Keith Hughes (University of Edinburgh) |
| 17 February 2017 | "Life As Story": new writing and drama as a tool for change | Nicola McCartney (University of Edinburgh) |
| 10 February 2017 | Literature and the Public Good | Professor Rick Rylance (University of London) |
| 3 February 2017 | Charms and the Nerd: Victorian Dark Arts as High Tech | Professor Herbert F. Tucker (University of Virginia) |
| 27 January 2017 | Sentimental Politics in Goldsmith and Burns | Dr Bob Irvine (University of Edinburgh) |
| 20 January 2017 | Suffering and Sunset: World War I in the Art and Life of Horace Pippin | Professor Celeste-Marie Bernier (University of Edinburgh) |
| 2 December 2016 | Who Was Listening to Modernism? BBC Radio Features and Audience Response | Alex Lawrie (University of Edinburgh) |
| 25 November 2016 | The Uncertain Contexts of Elizabethan Court Love Poetry | Jonathan Gibson (The Open University) |
| 18 November 2016 | "The Last American": Plague Narratives in American Literature and Popular Culture | Dr Bernice M. Murphy (Trinity College Dublin) |
| 11 November 2016 | My world has Become Smaller and Smaller’ – Postfeminist Confinement in Louise O’Neill’s Asking For It | Fiona McCulloch (independent scholar) |
| 4 November 2016 | Palestine in the Popular Imagination: From Refugees to Negotiators | Dr Anastassia Valassopoulos |
| 28 October 2016 | On Writing Neo-Victorian Fiction | Patricia Duncker (University of Manchester) |
| 21 October 2016 | Perfectly Disgraceful: Frank O’Hara and the Various New York Schools of Art | Sam Ladkin (University of Sheffield) |
| 14 October 2016 | ‘The Poetry of Motion’: The emergence of the motorcar in Edwardian Literature | Jonathan Wild (University of Edinburgh) |
| 7 October 2016 | Romancing Difference: Gender, Ethnicity, and Religion in Medieval and Modern Orientalist Romance | Dr Amy Burge |
| 30 September 2016 | How does the Syrian Crisis Speak Via Shakespeare? | Dr Preti Taneja (University of Warwick) |
| 1 April 2016 | "When Men and Mountains Meet" (Blake): An Emotional History | Dr Abbie Garrington (Durham University) |
| 25 March 2016 | Failures of Political Imagination?: Literary Fiction and the Welfare State in Scotland, 1945-2014 | Dr Alex Thomson |
| 11 March 2016 | Bad Parents, Anxious Children: Attachment, Security and Self from D.W. Winnicott to Alison Bechdel | Dr Chiara Alfano (Kingston University) |
| 4 March 2016 | Mystical Nationalists: Yeats, Pessoa, and MacDiarmid | Dr Scott Lyall (Edinburgh Napier University) |
| 26 February 2016 | Impiisima Conjuratrix: Representing the Countess of Buchan in the Fourteenth Century | Dr Kate Ash-Irisarri (University of Manchester) |
| 12 February 2016 | "Pineapple for the Million": Periodical Genres and the Politics of Affect | Dr Fionnuala Dillane (University College Dublin) |
| 5 February 2016 | Performing the ‘soul of Russia’: incarnations of the Moscow Art Theatre in London | Dr Claire Warden (De Montfort University) |
| 29 January 2016 | Poetry, Anatomy, Presence | Dr Katharine Craik (Oxford Brookes University) |
| 22 January 2016 | Oceanic Shakespeare | Professor Peter Womack (University of East Anglia) |
| 4 December 2015 |
Geoffrey Hill and Intrinsic Value |
Dr Lee Spinks (University of Edinburgh) |
| 27 November 2015 |
Space, Class and the Politics of Free Speech |
Dr Rehana Ahmed (Queen Mary University of London) |
| 20 November 2015 |
Spies! From invasion narratives to the Cold War |
Professor Penny Fielding; Dr Simon Cooke; Dr Anna Vaninskaya; Dr Jonathan Wilde (University of Edinburgh) |
| 13 November 2015 |
God Outside the Machine: melodrama, masculinity and the cosmological imagination |
Dr Brian Baker (Lancaster University) |
| 6 November 2015 |
Picturing Frederick Douglass: The Most Photographed American of the 19th Century |
Professor Zoe Trodd (University of Nottingham) |
| 30 October 2015 |
Reading the Materiality of the Future |
Dr Christina Lupton (University of Warwick) |
| 23 October 2015 |
A Home in the Highlands? Occupying the Estate in Scott and Susan Ferrier |
Professor Caroline McCracken-Flesher (University of Wyoming) |
| 16 October 2015 | Converting Shelley | Dr Tom Mole (University of Edinburgh) |
| 9 October 2015 |
Austen's Wit-Craft: Traversing the Fantasy of Aristocratic Privilege |
Professor Molly Rothenberg (Tulane University) |
| 2 October 2015 |
The Stevensons and stylometry: from the digital humanities classroom to the scholarly edition |
Professor Penny Fielding; Dr Anouk Lang; Robyn Pritzker (University of Edinburgh) |
| 3 April 2015 | What is the Economic Humanities? | Andrew Lawson (Leeds Beckett University); Nicky Marsh (University of Southampton) |
| 27 March 2015 | Experiment and the World-Historical Imagination in Rana Dasgupta’s Solo | Dr Sharae Deckard (University College Dublin) |
| 20 March 2015 | Indian Ocean Journeys | Professor Abdulrazak Gurnah (University of Kent) |
| 13 March 2015 | The Politics of Simplicity: The example of George Eliot | Dr Jo Carruthers (Lancaster University) |
| 6 March 2015 | Shar[ing] the Good of our Returned Fortune | Pip Willcox (University of Oxford) |
| 27 February 2015 | Naturalist Theatre and the Problem of Homosexuality | Professor Dan Rebellato (University of London). |
| 13 February 2015 | Cinema and the Philosophy of Iris Murdoch: Building a Moral Vision | Dr Lucy Bolton (University of London) |
| 6 February 2015 | Geographies of the self | Professor Glenda Norquay (Liverpool John Moores University) |
| 30 January 2015 | Perspectives on Edward Thomas | Dr David Farrier; Professor Randall Stevenson; Dr Jonathan Wild (University of Edinburgh) |
| 23 January 2015 | The Ballooning Tradition of Whimsy | Dr Will May (University of Southampton) |
| 16 January 2015 | 'A course of steady reading': | Dr Rebecca Davies (University of Edinburgh) |
Author Conversations
This event series is programmed by the University's current Writer in Residence Ryan Van Winkle and features readings, Q&As and conversations with the best and brightest writers around.
Previous guests include Alycia Pirmohamed, Lauren Pope, Fiona Mozley and J O Morgan.
The Visiting Writers Series was organised by previous Writers in Residence at University of Edinburgh, Claire Askew (September 2017 to August 2019) and Tracey S. Rosenberg (September 2019 to August 2021).
The events took the form of readings, Q&As, workshops and panels with published writers and writing industry professionals designed to help students improve their writing, ask for advice, and access opportunities for publication.
|
Date |
Venue | Guest(s) |
|---|---|---|
| 20 February 2020 | 50 George Square | Ajay Close |
| 21 November 2019 | 50 George Square | Elizabeth Wein |
| 6 May 2019 | 50 George Square | Dr Alice Tarbuck (University of Dundee) |
| 19 March 2019 | Golden Hare Books | Esa Aldegheri; Nadine Aisha Jassat; Dean Rhetoric |
| 28 February 2019 | Lighthouse Books | Juno Dawson |
| 6 December 2018 | 50 George Square | Jay Stringer |
| 20 November 2018 | 50 George Square | Holly Ringland |
| 2 October 2018 | Golden Hare Books | Mary Paulson Ellis |
| 11 May 2018 | 7 George Square | Jane Claire Bradley |
| 27 February 2018 | 50 George Square | Chris McQueer; Laura Jones (404 Ink); Heather McDaid (404 Ink) |
| 5 December 2017 | 50 George Square | Graeme Macrae Burnet |
| 14 November 2017 | Golden Hare Books | Heled Sedgwick; Jane Alexander; Natalie Fergie; Theresa Munoz |
| 28 September 2017 | 50 George Square | Terese Svoboda |
The Guthrie Drama Seminar Series is organised by Nicola McCartney (FRSA, University of Edinburgh) and takes the form of seminars, workshops and lectures.
The series aims to bring theatre professionals and lovers together to share their passion for the dramatic arts, with a particular focus on teaching practical skills.
|
Date |
Venue | Theme | Guests(s) |
|---|---|---|---|
| 29 March 2023 | Lister Learning and Teaching Centre | Recovering Women’s Voices, 800-1500 | Professor Elaine Treharne (Stanford); Professor Greg Walker (Chair) |
| 28 March 2023 | 50 George Square | Workshop on the basics of devising physical theatre | Neil Bettles (Artistic Director, ThickSkin) |
| 28 March 2023 | 50 George Square | Panel discussion on the ethics and the process around staging asylum stories | Nicola McCartney; Dritan Kastrati; Professor Sharon Cowan; Laura Mallows |
| 23 March 2023 | 40 George Square | Lecture: Zinnie Harris: Disrupting the Inevitable Flow of Time | Professor Trish Reid (University of Reading) |
| 24 November 2021 | Online (Zoom) | A creative conversation on Gupta's 'Lions and Tigers' (Sam Wannaker Playhouse, Shakespeare’s Globe, 2017) | Tanika Gupta; Pooja Ghai |
| 29 October 2021 | Institut français d’Ecosse | Workshop: Writing for a Theatre Magazine |
Dr Dana Rufolo (editor-in-chief, Plays International & Europe) |
| 24 November 2020 | Online (Zoom) | Master class on approach to directing a play for performance with professional theatre director Chris White | Chris White |
| 11 March 2019 | 50 George Square | Discussion exploring 'The Tempest', and themes around colonization and empire | Theatre Director Pooja Ghai (Live Theatre, Theatre Royal Stratford East) |
Digestive Modernisms is an informal interdisciplinary research network based in Edinburgh, bringing together researchers, artists, and writers interested in the gastronomics of modern literature and life.
The network is interested in food, diet, and gut health in modernist literature, art, culture, and philosophy, taking an approach that is informed by the medical humanities, food studies, animal studies, the environmental humanities, and posthumanism, among other critical contexts.
Lectures and talks
The Susan Manning Memorial Lecture
Professor Susan Manning was Grierson Professor of English Literature and Director of the Institute for Advanced Studies in the Humanities (IASH) at the University of Edinburgh until her unexpected death in 2013.
This annual lecture commemorates Susan as an internationally renowned academic with wide interests, particularly in Transatlanticism, and as an inspiring influence for an international coterie of scholars in the humanities.
Occasionally, the Lecture has been held as part of a wider event, such as Edinburgh Spy Week in 2019 and Muriel Spark 100 in 2018.
| Speaker | Date | Venue | Theme |
|---|---|---|---|
| Professor Anahid Nersessian (University of California) | 24 March 2023 | 50 George Square |
House on Fire: On the Unfinished Business of Romanticism |
| Professor Caroline Levine (Cornell University) | 6 May 2022 |
50 George Square |
Plots of Precarity and Sustainable Endings |
| Professor Laura Marcus (New College, University of Oxford) | 21 May 2021 | Online (Zoom) | 'The Noise of Time': Autobiography and History in the 1930s |
| Professor Adam Piette (University of Sheffield) | 5 April 2019 | 50 George Square | The Revolutionary Double Agent and Cold War Citizenship |
|
Janice Galloway |
6 April 2018 |
50 George Square | 'There’s something a bit harsh about you, Fleur’: Muriel Spark and her voices |
| Professor Caryl Phillips (Yale University) | 24 March 2017 | 50 George Square | A Sense of Home |
|
Professor David Bromwich (Yale University) |
18 March 2016 | 50 George Square |
‘The Single State of Man’ and Killing Caesar and Duncan |
| Professor Hermione Lee (University of Oxford) | 20 February 2015 | 50 George Square | Character in Biography: “The Most Really Interesting Problem” |
Inaugural Lectures
Inaugural Lectures are free public talks by recently-appointed Professors and Chairs at the University of Edinburgh where they share their work with a wide audience, inviting reflection and discussion on its broader implications.
| Speaker | Date | Venue | Theme |
|---|---|---|---|
| Professor Michelle Keown (Professor of Pacific and Postcolonial Literature) | 26 April 2023 | Lecture Theatre G.03, 50 George Square | ‘A Story of a People On Fire’: exploring the legacies of US nuclear testing in the Marshall Islands through literature and visual culture |
| Professor David Farrier (Professor of Literature and the Environment) | 29 March 2023 | Gordon Aikman Lecture Theatre | Nabokov’s Butterfly, Kafka’s Leopards: what nature can teach us about life on a human planet |
| Professor Celeste-Marie Bernier (Personal Chair in United States and Atlantic Studies) | 5 October 2018 | Playfair Library | Suffering, Struggle, Survival: 200 Years of African Atlantic Art and Authorship (1818-2018) |
More lectures and talks
Date: 31 May 2023
Venue: Edinburgh Climate Change Institute, University of Edinburgh
Speakers: Alec Finlay (poet and artist), Yulia Kovanova (artist and filmmaker), Patrick James Errington (poet, translator, and researcher), Jessica Gaitán Johannesson (writer and climate justice activist) and Martin Schauss (University of Edinburgh)
In brief: Part of the Green Tease programme, this event invited a discussion on the importance of innovative and experimental environmental storytelling. It explored how we might use ecopoetics to cultivate everyday resilience in the face of climate crisis.
It was created in collaboration between Martin Schauss, a researcher in literature and ecology at the University of Edinburgh and Creative Carbon Scotland, and was a part of the Green Tease programme that promoted how the arts and culture can transform society in response to climate change.
Date: 23 May 2023
Venue: Usha Kasera Lecture Theatre, Old College
Research strand: The British empire, colonialism, and cultural responses to famine and food crisis
Guest speaker: Sir Tom Devine, Professor Emeritus of Scottish History and Palaeography
In brief: This lecture considered the impact of the 1840s European potato blight on Scotland. It focused especially on the Highlands, where over-dependency on the crop for subsistence exposed the people of the region to acute life-threatening crisis.
Date: 13 November 2022
Venue: Online (Zoom)
Guest speakers: Professor Michelle Keown (University of Edinburgh), Dr Shari Sabeti (University of Edinburgh) and Dr Simon Grennan (University of Chester)
In brief: An online lecture organised by Museums and Galleries Edinburgh and marking Robert Louis Stevenson Day 2022. We heard from the research team behind a major research project, funded by the Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC), decolonising Robert Louis Stevenson's Pacific fiction through graphic adaptation, arts education and community engagement.
Date: 16 November 2021
Venue: Online (Zoom)
In brief: An online conversation between First Nations activist Delee Nikal and Rebecca Macklin (University of Edinburgh), introduced by Dr Julie Gibbins (University of Edinburgh), on colonial resource extraction, gender violence and COP26. In this special event, they shared their reflections on why global climate action must account for the ongoing role of colonialism and the devastating impact this has for Indigenous women across Canada. Supported by The Institute for Advanced Studies in the Humanities (IASH), the Centre for Modern and Contemporary History and the School of Languages, Literatures, and Cultures.
Watch the conversation between Delee and Rebecca on the IASH website
Date: 4 March 2021
Venue: Online (Zoom)
Speaker: Paul Karasik
In brief: An illustrated lecture on the challenges of adapting literary texts into comics and graphic novels.
Date: 25 March 2019
Venue: 50 George Square, University of Edinburgh
Speaker: Paul Karasik
In brief: An illustrated lecture and Q&A revealing the secret language of comics by renowned New Yorker cartoonist, editor, memoirist and scholar Paul Karasik.
Date: 5 December 2018
Venue: 7 George Square, University of Edinburgh
Speakers: Dr Paul Crosthwaite (University of Edinburgh); Professor Peter Knight (University of Manchester); Professor Nicky Marsh (University of Southampton)
In brief: A event showcasing research from the Arts and Humanities Research Council-funded 'History of Financial Advice' project tracing the investment advice genre from its origins in the print culture of eighteenth-century London to its explosion across multiple platforms in the present. The project team also outlined the project’s work with schools and universities to develop new financial literacy curricula as well as its collaboration with the Edinburgh-based Library of Mistakes to build an annotated collection of investment advice literature.
Find out more about the project on the History of Financial Advice website
Date: 16 February 2018
Venue: 50 George Square, University of Edinburgh
Events series: Edinburgh Film Seminar
Speakers: Dr Angelos Koutsourakis (University of Leeds)
In brief: A joint seminar between English Literature and Film Studies exploring the reanimation of modernist tropes in contemporary slow cinema with reference to two case studies: Pedro Costa’s Ossos (Bones, 1996) and Angela Schanelec’s Marseille (2004).
Date: 25 January 2018
Venue: IASH, University of Edinburgh
Events series: Scotland and Russia
Speaker: Natalia Kaloh Vid
In brief: A talk on the history of Robert Burns translation in Russia, beginning with the nineteenth century, but focusing on the extraordinary cultural dominance Burns achieved in the Soviet Union in translations by Marshak.
Date: 14 July 2017
Speaker: Professor Susan Stewart (Princeton University)
In brief: Held as part of the Ian Hamilton Finlay: Little Fields, Long Horizons conference, this public lecture looked closely at Ian Hamilton Finlay's place in the art history of his time by considering his most fundamental departure from prevailing avant-garde practice: that is, his immersion in history.
Conferences and symposia
Dates: 26 to 27 July 2023
Venue: Royal Botanic Gardens Edinburgh
Organisers: British Academy and Wellcome Trust Conferences
In brief: A two-day, in-person conference that brought together scholars and practitioners working across disciplines and employing creative and/or critical modes of enquiry to explore questions of gender, colonialism and environment.
The conference featured a series of original artworks by Natasha Thembiso Ruwona and Caitlin Stobie, produced in response to the themes and setting of the event, as well as a tour of the exhibition Shipping Roots by Keg De Sousa, which was led by the exhibition curator Emma Nicolson.
Date: 28 June 2023
Venue: Institute for Advanced Studies in the Humanities, University of Edinburgh
Organisers: Dr Arka Chattopadhyay (IIT Gandhinagar) and Dr Sourit Bhattacharya (University of Edinburgh)
In brief: A one-day hybrid symposium on decolonising modernism(s) by approaching it afresh from the perspective of world literature(s), while looking at the diversity of identity categories like race, class, caste, gender, ethnicity, nationality and diaspora. In addition, it focused on the ‘webzine’ as an alternative publishing platform for creating a transnational modernist network. The symposium consisted of three panels and an online digital exhibition.
Dates: 27 June to 30 June 2023
Venue: 50 George Square
Organiser: The Ezra Pound Society
In brief: A three-day conference on the legacy, impact, reception and influence of the cantos poem. It considered the impact of the poem on poetry and politics today; questions of publication history and new editions; reception and influence; media and digitalisation; poetics; globalism, geopolitics, regionalism. It also explored Pound’s connections to Scotland, and featured a number of panels, plenary talks, sessions, walking tours and open-air poetry readings.
Date: 15 June to 16 June 2023
Venue: 50 George Square
Organisers: Amanda Blake Davis (University of Derby), Cleo O’Callaghan Yeoman (Universities of Glasgow, Stirling, and Edinburgh), and Yu-Hung Tien (University of Edinburgh)
In brief: A two-day conference which explored the concept of 'boundaries' within Romantic literature and culture. It consisted of two keynote speeches and six parallel panels.
Date: 9 May 2023
Venue: Project Room 1.06, 50 George Square
Organiser: Ryan Van Winkle (Writer in Residence, University of Edinburgh)
In brief: A one-day conference that consisted of of two panel discussions, one-to-one meetings, networking time and author readings. The event also included readings from the winners of the University of Edinburgh Writing Prizes, a selection of authors From Arthur's Seat, an anthology of new writing from the Creative Writing Masters programme, and Booker Prize-nominated author Graeme Macrae Burnet.
Date: 19 May 2022
Venue: 50 George Square, University of Edinburgh
Organisers: Céleste Callen and Emily Vault (PhD students in English Literature, University of Edinburgh)
In brief: A one-day conference exploring the changing perspectives on individual identities and the construction of the self in nineteenth-century fiction. The conference comprised four themed panel sessions and a round-table discussion with Dr Jonathan Wild (University of Edinburgh).
Date: 10 May 2022
Venue: 50 George Square, University of Edinburgh
Organiser: Ryan Van Winkle (Writer in Residence, University of Edinburgh)
In brief: A one-day conference of panel discussions, one-to-one meetings and networking activities, highlighting a range of publishing opportunities and support available to emerging writers. The event also included readings from Nick Holdstock, the University of Edinburgh Writing Prizes 2022 winners and 'From Arthur's Seat' contributors, the annual anthology by the MSc Creative Writing cohort.
Dates: 6 to 8 July 2021
Venue: Online (Microsoft Teams; Media Hopper)
Keynote speakers: Professor Deidre Lynch (Harvard University); Professor Alison Lumsden (University of Aberdeen)
In brief: A three day online conference celebrating the 250th anniversary of Walter Scott. The conference comprised two live plenary lectures as well as 20 panel sessions of lectures recorded in advance and made available on Media Hopper.
Date: 27 and 28 March 2021
Venue: Online
Keynote speakers: Professor Jyotsna Singh (Michigan State University); Dr Helmer Helmers (Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences); Professor Diane Purkiss (Keble College, University of Oxford); Professor Adrian Streete (Glasgow University); Professor Ania Loomba (University of Pennsylvania)
Organiser: Thom Pritchard (Edinburgh Early Modern Network)
In brief: A two-day virtual conference exploring the construction of 'the enemy' and the consequences of this process, such as war and persecution, in the Early Modern World. The conference comprised both keynote and plenary lectures.
Date: 26 and 27 November 2020
Venue: Online (Blackboard Collaborate)
Keynote speakers: Michael Ohajuru (University of London); Professor Helen Smith (University of York)
Organisers: Thom Pritchard and Julia Smith (Edinburgh Early Modern Network)
In brief: A two-day virtual conference comprising two keynote lectures and five panel sessions. The conference launched the Northern Early Modern Network, a peer network for early modern scholars in Scotland and the North of England.
Dates: 28 to 29 May 2019
Venue: Old Medical School, University of Edinburgh
Keynote speaker(s): Renata Carvalho
In brief: A two-day multidisciplinary conference on the transgender and non-binary experience in social policy, health and wellbeing, law, the arts, digital humanities, and media, co-organised by researchers of transgender identity and experience in Scottish universities. The conference comprised a film screening and discussion (Call Her Ganda), a keynote presentation, and eight panel sessions.
Date: 23 November 2018
Venue: Teviot Row House, University of Edinburgh
In brief: A one-day symposium exploring children’s books in museum and library archives in children’s oral and literary cultures (including Gaelic in Scotland and Ireland) and the role of children as readers and producers of literature. Part of a year-long programme during Scotland’s Year of Young People (2018) and linked to a collaborative project between SELCIE and Edinburgh’s Museum of Childhood.
Dates: 16 and 17 November 2018
Venue: National Gallery of Scotland
Keynote speaker: Professor George Lipsitz (University of California, Santa Barbara)
In brief: A two-day conference comprising panel sessions and a plenary lecture. Part of the Our Bondage and Our Freedom project, funded by the UK Arts and Humanities Research Council, celebrating the 200-year anniversary of the birth of African American activist and author, Frederick Douglass (1818-1895).
Date: 10 May 2018
Venue: Pleasance Cabaret Bar, University of Edinburgh
Organiser: Claire Askew (Writer in Residence, University of Edinburgh)
In brief: A one-day conference on all things creative writing and publishing consisting of four panels, readings by the MSc Creative Writing students and a networking lunch. Participants included published writers, professional editors, agents, publishers, literary events organisers, bloggers, podcasters and other members of the writing community in Scotland.
Dates: 13 to 15 July 2017
Venue: 50 George Square, University of Edinburgh
Keynote speaker(s): Susan Stewart (Princeton University); Stephen Bann (University of Bristol); Drew Milne (University of Cambridge)
In brief: A three-day symposium exploring new critical and interdisciplinary perspectives on the Scottish poet, artist and avant-gardener Ian Hamilton Finlay (1925-2006). The symposium was supported by supported by the British Academy and comprised three keynote presentations (including one public lecture), eight panel sessions and a field trip to Little Sparta.
Date: 11 May 2017
Venue: Teviot Row House, University of Edinburgh; The Rowantree
Organiser: Sam Riviere (Writer in Residence, University of Edinburgh)
In brief: A one-day conference chaired by Writer in Residence Sam Riviere on all aspects of the publishing world, with a wealth of insights from industry insiders – publishers, editors, novelists, poets, reviewers, and translators. The conference comprised three themed panel sessions with a total of 12 speakers. The day concluded with author readings at the launch of the second edition of From Arthur's Seat, an anthology created by the MSc Creative Writing 2016/17 cohort.
Date: 12 November 2016
Venue: Scottish Poetry Library
In brief: A one-day symposium bringing together new and established voices from academia, poetry, publishing, and other creative areas to debate the diverse energies, directions, and innovations in contemporary Scottish women’s poetry post-2000. The symposium comprised two panel sessions, two round-table discussions and poetry readings.
Date: 20 June 2016
Venue: University of Dundee
Events series: Scotland and Russia
Keynote speaker(s): Dmitry Fedosov; Billy Kay
In brief: A one-day symposium comprising two keynote lectures and three panel sessions exploring the history of Scottish-Russian cultural exchange and influence, including the nineteenth-century roots of twentieth-century perceptions across literature, translation, performance and revolutionary politics.
Date: 11 May 2017
Venue: Pleasance Cabaret Bar, University of Edinburgh
Organiser: Sam Riviere (Writer in Residence, University of Edinburgh)
In brief: A one-day conference chaired by Writer in Residence Sam Riviere on all aspects of the publishing world, with a wealth of insights from industry insiders – including publishers, editors, novelists, poets, reviewers, and translators from Penguin Random House, Melville House, Freight Books, Granta, and Scottish Review of Books. The conference comprised three themed panel sessions with a total of 12 speakers and an evening event hosted by MSc Creative Writing students, featuring performances from a variety of writers and musicians.
Date: 10 September 2015
Venue: 40 George Square, University of Edinburgh
In brief: A one-day symposium of fiction readings and four panel sessions seeking to tap the wayward energies of Scottish women's fiction in the twenty-first century and study the challenges presented by new and established writers to the new Scotland and beyond.
Date: 18 June 2015
Venue: Evolution House, Edinburgh College of Art
In brief: A one-day conference comprising five panel sessions with a total of 16 speakers, bringing together national and international theatre artists and scholars from different disciplines.
Related research: The Bacchae Project
Film screenings and festivals
Spy Week
A public series of events, including talks, discussion panels, film screenings, author Q&As and workshops, focusing on espionage fiction and film and the ways in which secrecy and spying run through our history and culture. First held in 2014, Spy Week aims to bring together creative practitioners and academic researchers to talk about books and ideas in public and accessible ways.
The Spy Week team is based in English Literature in the School of Literatures, Languages and Cultures (LLC) at the University of Edinburgh and works with other Schools and cultural bodies in Edinburgh to bring the very best contemporary spy writers to Edinburgh.
Please note that speaker titles and universities, as listed, date from the time of the event and may have changed.
| Dates | Venue(s) | Speakers and discussants |
|---|---|---|
| 5 to 12 April 2019 | 50 George Square; Edinburgh Filmhouse; National Library of Scotland; St Cecilia's Hall | Professor Adam Piette (University of Sheffield); Adam Roberts; John Plotz; Anthony Horowitz; Dr Jonny Murray (University of Edinburgh); Dr Natalie Ferris (University of Edinburgh); Val McDermid; Adam Brookes; Nadine Akkerman (Leiden University) |
| 16 to 20 April 2018 | 50 George Square; National Library of Scotland; Filmhouse Cinema; Blackwell's Bookshop; St Cecilia's Hall |
August Thomas; Jeremy Duns; Aly Monroe; Stephen Dorril; Andrew Lowni; Mick Herron; Denise Mina; Mark Laity (SHAPE, NATO); Professor Patricia Waugh (Durham University); Dr Simon Cooke (University of Edinburgh); Victoria Stewart (University of Leicester) |
| 17 to 22 April 2017 | 50 George Square; National Library of Scotland; Blackwell's Bookshop; Edinburgh Filmhouse | Niall Whelehan (University of Strathclyde); Professor Penny Fielding (University of Edinburgh); Aly Monroe; Rhodri Jeffreys-Jones (University of Edinburgh); Henry Hemming; Annie Machon |
| 10 to 15 April 2016 | 50 George Square; National Library of Scotland; Edinburgh Filmhouse | Dame Stella Rimington; Professor Penny Fielding (University of Edinburgh); Dr Christopher Moran (University of Warwick); Dr Malcolm Craig (University of Edinburgh); Richard J. Aldrich (University of Warwick); Rhodri Jefferys-Jones (University of Edinburgh); Jeremy Duns; Ben Macintyre |
| 18 to 23 May 2015 | National Library of Scotland; Edinburgh Filmhouse; Informatics Forum; 50 George Square | Graham Greene; James Robertson; Tim Stevens; Kieron O' Hara (University of Southampton); Charles Cumming; Daniel Pembrey |
| 6 to 12 April 2014 | Edinburgh Filmhouse; Blackwell's Bookshop; Playfair Library; Teviot Row House |
Dame Stella Rimington; Charles Cumming; Jeremy Duns; Tim Stevens; Professor Penny Fielding (University of Edinburgh); Dr Simon Cooke (University of Edinburgh); Dr Anna Vaninskaya (University of Edinburgh); Dr Jonathan Wild (University of Edinburgh) |
Browse the full events archive on the Spy Week website
English Literature at the summer festivals
In 2023, a number of English Literature staff and alumni were involved in events across the summer festivals in Edinburgh. These events were open to the public, and many featured themes of social equity, the climate crisis, and identity.
Please note that this is as close to a complete list as possible, and that speaker titles and institutions may have changed from time of the event.
| Date | Festival | Venue | Title | English Literature rep |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 28 August 2023 | Edinburgh International Book Festival |
Spark Theatre |
The Idea of Home | Marjorie Lofti (MSc in Creative Writing) |
| 25 August 2023 | Edinburgh International Book Festival | Baillie Gifford West Court | Living in Colour | Michael Pedersen (upcoming Writer in Residence) |
| 22 August 2023 | Book Fringe | Typewronger Books | Interpret Magazine |
Gabrielle Tse (currently completing an MSc in Comparative Literature); Alyson Kissner (MSc in Creative Writing); Medha Singh (MSc in Creative Writing) |
| 21 August 2023 | Book Fringe | Typewronger Books | An evening with Jane McKie, Lauren Pope, Allie Kerper & Anne-Laure Coxam | Jane McKie (Lecturer in Creative Writing); Lauren Pope (MSc and PhD in Creative Writing, SUISS Summer School Administrative Manager); Allie Kerper (MSc in Creative Writing) |
| 21 August 2023 | Edinburgh International Book Festival | Baillie Gifford Sculpture Court | Creature Future | David Farrier (Professor of Literature and the Environment) |
| 19 August 2023 | Edinburgh International Book Festival | Baillie Gifford Storytime Yurt |
Our City, Our Stories |
Jane McKie (Lecturer in Creative Writing) |
| 18 August 2023 | Edinburgh International Book Festival | Wee Red Bar |
Damian Barr Literary Salon |
Michael Pedersen (upcoming Writer in Residence) |
| 18 August 2023 | Edinburgh International Book Festival | Baillie Gifford West Court |
The Million Year View |
David Farrier (Professor of Literature and the Environment) |
| 16 August 2023 | Edinburgh International Book Festival | Baillie Gifford West Court |
Being and Otherness |
Marjorie Lotfi (MSc in Creative Writing) |
| 16 August 2023 | Edinburgh International Book Festival | Spark Theatre |
Jokha Alharthi: The James Tait Black Event |
Jokha Alharthi (PhD graduate in Islamic and Middle Eastern Studies); Marilyn Booth (former Iraq Professor of Arabic and Islamic Studies); and Benjamin Bateman (Senior Lecturer in Post-1900 British Literature and Director of Learning and Teaching) |
| 14 August 2023 | Edinburgh International Book Festival | Baillie Gifford West Court |
Women in Writing |
Kim Sherwood (Lecturer in Creative Writing) |
| 14 August 2023 | Edinburgh International Book Festival | Baillie Gifford Sculpture Court |
Different Futures are Possible |
David Farrier (Professor of Literature and the Environment) |
| 13 August 2023 | Book Fringe | Typewronger Books |
Hillfire Press at the Book Fringe |
LLC students and Creative Writing MSc graduates from 2019-20 |
| 12 August 2023 | Edinburgh International Book Festival | Wee Red Bar |
'Just' Friends |
Anahit Behrooz (PhD in English Literature) |
| 5 to 6, 8 to 13, 15 to 20 August 2023 | Edinburgh Festival Fringe | Traverse Theatre |
Sean and Daro Flake It 'Til They Make It |
Laurie Motherwell (MSc in Playwriting) |
More film screenings and festivals
Dates: 5 to 12 August 2019
Venue: Traverse Theatre
In brief: Showcases of original works by MSc Playwriting students, performed as script-in-hand readings by an ensemble of leading Scottish actors as part of the Edinburgh Festival Fringe 2019. Students: Francisca da Silveira; Ansley Echols; Joanna Glum; Davey Goodwin; Amy Rhianne Milton; Ahmad Musta’ain Bin Khamis; Karolina Oleskiewicz; Morgan Powell.
Dates: 10 and 17 August 2015
Venue: Traverse Theatre
In brief: Showcases of four original works by MSc Playwriting students, performed as script-in-hand readings by an ensemble of Scottish actors as part of the Edinburgh Festival Fringe 2015.
Exhibitions, workshops, readings and performances
The English Literature Play
Each year, the department of English Literature awards up to £1,000 to a literature student staging a live performance of a play of literary interest featuring our students in its cast and crew.
| Date(s) | Title | Venue |
|---|---|---|
| 1 to 4 March 2023 | Translations | Bedlam Theatre |
| 15 and 16 March 2022 | Boys | Assembly Roxy |
| 26 February to 3 March 2018 | Our Country’s Good | Bedlam Theatre |
|
19 to 22 January 2011 |
Gaslight | The Caves |
| 16 and 20 March 2010 | Grimm Tales | McEwan Hall |
| 24 to 28 February 2009 | City of Glass | Bedlam Theatre |
| 26 February to 1 March 2008 | Humble Boy | Bedlam Theatre |
| 27 February to 3 March 2007 |
The Cosmonaut's Last Message To The Woman He Once Loved In The Former Soviet Union |
Bedlam Theatre |
More exhibitions, workshops, readings and performances
Date: 15 May 2023
Venue: Project Room 1.06, 50 George Square
Readers: Ryan van Winkle (Writer in Residence, University of Edinburgh), Jane McKie ('Carnation Lily Lily Rose'), Patrick Errington ('The Swailing')
In brief: A launch event for Jane McKie’s collection Carnation Lily Lily Rose and also for Patrick James Errington’s new collection the swailing, along with a final 'farewell' event for LLC's Writer in Residence Ryan Van Winkle. There were readings from all three poets, books for signing, wine and nibbles, and a chance to catch up with many familiar faces.
Date: 4 May 2023
Venue: Project Room 1.06, 50 George Square
Organiser: MSc Creative Writing students of 2022-23
In brief: The in-person launch of Volume Eight of the annual anthology of new poetry and prose by students from the MSc Creative Writing programme.
Date: 21 April 2023
Venue: Project Room 1.06, 50 George Square
Organiser: Scottish Writing in the Nineteeth Century (SWINC)
In brief: A round-table discussion chaired by Bob Irvine (University of Edinburgh), which focused on antiquarianism, material texts and historicism, particularly manuscripts, digital texts and textual editing in the present moment.
The discussion was followed by a lecture by Professor Deidre Lynch (Harvard University), one of the world’s foremost scholars of eighteenth-, nineteenth- and twentieth-century British literature, entitled ‘Walter Scott’s Typographical Antiquities’.
Date: 5 February 2022
Venue: 50 George Square, University of Edinburgh
Organiser: Dr Anna Pilz (University of Edinburgh)
In brief: A one-day workshop bringing together investigations of today's coastal romanticisms on Scotland’s shores, hosted jointly by Scottish Writing in the Nineteeth Century (SWINC) and Institute for Advanced Studies in the Humanities (IASH). The workshop comprised three panels of seven speakers and an artist talk with Christina Riley. Contributions focused on the material reality and ecologies of coasts in cultural productions from domestic travellers to transnational visitors and explorers, from writers and artists to natural historians and geologists and all those drawn to the coast in order to highlight the richness of R/romanticisms, past, present and future.
Browse the full programme on the SWINC website
Related research: Travel, Environment, Sustainability
Find out more about research in English Literature Travel, Environment, Sustainability: A literary and cultural history of Irish and Scottish coastal routesTravel, Environment, Sustainability: A literary and cultural history of Irish and Scottish coastal routesTravel, Environment, Sustainability: A literary and cultural history of Irish and Scottish coastal routes
Date: 23 January 2020
Venue: Scottish Poetry Library
Event series: The Cantos Readings
Performers: Paul Cunningham (reading); Professor Peter Liebregts (moderator)
In brief: A free event showcasing Ezra Pound's monumental poem and modernist classic 'The Cantos'. Sponsored by The Cantos Project at the University of Edinburgh and the Leverhulme Trust, the event was the fourth in an ongoing series and focused on the poems written between 1934 and 1936.
Date: 19 August 2019
Venue: Traverse Theatre
Host: Shereen Nanjiani
In brief: The James Tait Black (JTB) Prize for Drama 2019 ceremony, held during the Edinburgh Festival Fringe 2019. The accolade celebrates innovation in playwriting and is awarded annually by the University of Edinburgh in association with Playwrights’ Studio, Scotland and the Traverse Theatre. The ceremony featured discussions with the playwrights about their work and extracts from the shortlisted plays.
The shortlisted plays were:
- Dance Nation by Clare Barron (Almeida Theatre) - WINNER
- Richard III Redux [or] Sara Beer [is/not] Richard III by Kaite O’Reilly with Phillip B Zarrilli (The Llanarth Group)
- Slave Play by Jeremy O. Harris (New York Theatre Workshop)
Date: 28 February 2019
Venue: Scottish Poetry Library
Event series: The Cantos Readings
Performers: Paul Cunningham (reading); Leslee Smucker (violin); Roxana Preda (moderator)
In brief: A free event showcasing Ezra Pound's monumental poem and modernist classic 'The Cantos'. Sponsored by The Cantos Project at the University of Edinburgh and the Leverhulme Trust, the event was the third in an ongoing series and focused on the poems written between 1930 and 1934.
Dates: 4 October 2018 to 16 February 2019
Venue: National Gallery of Scotland
In brief: The display opened during Black History Month UK in 2018 and ran until February 2019. Part of the international Our Bondage and Our Freedom project, funded by the UK Arts and Humanities Research Council, celebrating the 200-year anniversary of the birth of African American activist and author, Frederick Douglass (1818-1895). Situating Douglass and his family in relation to transatlantic abolitionism and black radical reform movements, it is the first display of its kind to show the family's manuscripts, letters and photographs, as held in the Walter O. Evans Collection. It remains on permanent display in the Maryland State House in Annapolis, MD, USA.
Find out more about the exhibition on the National Library of Scotland website
Related research: Our Bondage and Our Freedom
Dates: 1 June to 8 December 2018
Venue: Museum of Childhood, Edinburgh
In brief: A free exhibition developed in partnership with Scotland’s Early Literature for Children Initiative (SELCIE) exploring the history of children’s literature as glimpsed through the collections of the Museum of Childhood, with books dating from the 1700s through to the mid-20th century.
Date: 5 October 2017
Venue: 50 George Square, University of Edinburgh
Event series: The Cantos Readings
Performers: Paul Cunningham (reading); A. David Moody (introduction); Kamil Tchalaev (violin)
In brief: A free event showcasing Ezra Pound's monumental poem and modernist classic 'The Cantos'. Sponsored by The Cantos Project at the University of Edinburgh and the Leverhulme Trust, the event was the second in an ongoing series and focused on the poems written between 1923 and 1930.
Date: 24 March 2016
Venue: MHSES, University of Edinburgh
Events series: Scotland and Russia
In brief: A two-hour workshop led by freelance theatre director Robert Leach on applying the Michael Chekhov acting technique to a scene from Ena Lamont Stewart's well-known Scottish play, Men Should Weep.
Date: 9 October 2015
Venue: ECA, University of Edinburgh
Events series: Scotland and Russia
Keynote speaker(s): Dr Dmitry Fedosov; Billy Kay
In brief: A four-part performance of songs translated from (Scots-) English to Russian, and vice versa, between 2008 and 2015 by translator/bard Thomas Beavitt.
Dates: 16 to 20 February 2015
In brief: An exhibition of a series of drawings by Claudia Nocentini, which she created during a workshop on movement by Dr Lloyd Llewellyn-Jones (University of Edinburgh) Dr Wendy Timmons (University of Edinburgh) in May 2014.
Related research: The Bacchae Project