Department: Faculty of English Language and Literature
Talks:

Thursday 23 January 2025

American Fictions of Vulnerability
Date: 23 January 2025, 16:45 - 17:45
Speaker : Zalfa Feghali (University of Leicester)
Venue: Rothermere American Institute, 1A South Parks Road OX1 3UB
Venue Details: Large Seminar Room
Organisers: Dr Nicholas Gaskill (University of Oxford), Dr Nicole King (Exeter)
Hosts: TBA

Life Writing and the Southern Hemisphere: a book conversation
Date: 23 January 2025, 17:15 - 18:15
Speaker s: Professor Elleke Boehmer (University of Oxford), Dr Katherine Collins (University of Oxford), Dr Elizabeth Chant (Warwick), Dr Archie Davies (QMUL), Dr Emma Parker (Bristol), Dr Tinashe Mushakavanhu (St Anne’s College, Oxford)
Venue: Wadham College, Parks Road OX1 3PN
Venue Details: Okinaga Room
Organisers: Pablo Mukherjee, Ankhi Mukherjee, Elleke Boehmer
Hosts: TBA

Message and audience in Irish bardic poetry: the case of the Mac Sweenys
Date: 23 January 2025, 17:15 - 18:15
Speaker : Prof. Brendan Kane (University of Connecticut)
Venue Details: Oxford (online only)
Organisers: Prof. David Willis (University of Oxford), Jenyth Evans (University of Oxford)
Hosts: TBA

Friday 24 January 2025

‘Ethnography of the Oikos: Space-Making Trauma and Healing in Toni Morrison’
Date: 24 January 2025, 15:00 - 17:00
Speaker : Professor Ato Quayson (Stanford University)
Venue: New College, Holywell Street OX1 3BN
Venue Details: LR6
Organisers: Professor Peter Boxall (University of Oxford), Dr Elena Violaris (University of Oxford), Professor Santanu Das (University of Oxford)
Hosts: TBA

'Tolkien the Mythographer'
Date: 24 January 2025, 17:00 - 18:30
Speaker : Dimitra Fimi (University of Glasgow)
Venue: Corpus Christi College, Merton Street OX1 4JF
Venue Details: The Rainolds Room
Organiser: Professor Stuart Lee (University of Oxford)
Hosts: TBA

Monday 27 January 2025

Discussion Group: Contested Narratives: Translating La Araucana
Date: 27 January 2025, 12:45 - 14:00
Speaker : Mary Katherine Newman (University of Oxford)
Venue: St Anne's College, Woodstock Road OX2 6HS
Venue Details: Seminar Room 9
Organisers: Alyssa Ollivier-Tabukashvili, Georgina Fooks
Hosts: TBA

Presentism, Uncertainty, Disorientation
Date: 27 January 2025, 19:00 - 20:00
Speaker : François Hartog
Venue Details: via Zoom
Organiser: Professor Nicholas Halmi (University College)
Hosts: TBA

Wednesday 29 January 2025

On Fragments: The Material and Textual Value of Manuscript and Print Binding Waste
Date: 29 January 2025, 17:15 - 18:15
Speaker : Professor Tamara Atkin (University of Oxford)
Venue: St Cross Building, St Cross Road OX1 3UR
Venue Details: Lecture Theatre 2
Organisers: Professor Laura Ashe (University of Oxford), Prof. Francis Leneghan (University of Oxford)
Hosts: TBA

Thursday 30 January 2025

The story of Islam in Wales: Findings from the Islam in Wales History Project
Date: 30 January 2025, 17:00 - 18:00
Speaker : Dr Abdul-Azim Ahmed (Cardiff University)
Venue Details: Advanced Welsh and Celtic Studies (CAWCS) - via Zoom, and, for hybrid seminars, in person at the National Library of Wales
Organisers: Prof. David Willis (University of Oxford), Jenyth Evans (University of Oxford)
Hosts: TBA

Friday 31 January 2025

‘The Dwarves are a race apart’: Tolkien’s contribution to the specialisation of dwarves in popular fantasy’
Date: 31 January 2025, 17:00 - 18:30
Speaker : Kit Richards (University of Birmingham)
Venue: Corpus Christi College, Merton Street OX1 4JF
Venue Details: the Rainolds Room
Organiser: Professor Stuart Lee (University of Oxford)
Hosts: TBA

Monday 3 February 2025

“A life spent training for the sight!” Event and Experience between Carlyle and Pater
Date: 3 February 2025, 17:15 - 18:15
Speaker : : Jonah Siegel (Rutgers University)
Venue: St Cross Building, St Cross Road OX1 3UR
Venue Details: Seminar Room L
Organisers: Professor Helen Small (University of Oxford), Professor Sos Eltis (University of Oxford)
Hosts: TBA

Temporalities in Conflict
Date: 3 February 2025, 19:00 - 20:00
Speaker : Stefanos Geroulanos
Venue Details: via Zoom
Organiser: Professor Nicholas Halmi (University College)
Hosts: TBA

Tuesday 4 February 2025

AI, Decoloniality and Creative Poetry Translation: The Second Symposium
Date: 4 February 2025, 10:30 - 15:00
Speaker Various Speakers
Venue: St Anne's College, Woodstock Road OX2 6HS
Venue Details: Seminar Room 10
Organisers: TBA
Hosts: TBA

læ, lygð and slǿgð: Loki in Old Norse Literature
Date: 4 February 2025, 12:15 - 13:15
Speaker : Ela Sefcikova (Berlin)
Venue: St Cross Building, St Cross Road OX1 3UR
Venue Details: History of the Book
Organiser: Professor Gareth Evans (University of Oxford)
Hosts: TBA

‘Maplessness, encyclopaedism and the emotion of absolute uncertainty in early modern scientific poetry’
Date: 4 February 2025, 17:15 - 19:00
Speaker : Kevin Killeen (University of York)
Venue: Merton College, Merton Street OX1 4JD
Venue Details: TS Eliot Lecture Theatre
Organisers: Professor Joe Moshenska (University of Oxford), Professor Lorna Hutson (University of Oxford), Professor Bart Van Es (University of Oxford)
Hosts: TBA

Gothic Democracy
Date: 4 February 2025, 17:30 - 18:30
Speaker : Robert Miles (University of Victoria)
Venue: Balliol College, Broad Street OX1 3BJ
Venue Details: Massey Room
Organisers: Professor Fiona Stafford (University of Oxford), Professor Seamus Perry (University of Oxford)
Hosts: TBA

Wednesday 5 February 2025

Nineteenth-Century Graduate Forum
Date: 5 February 2025, 13:00 - 15:00
Speaker
Venue: St Cross Building, St Cross Road OX1 3UR
Venue Details: History of the Book Room
Organisers: Maria Gomez Ruiz, Leonor-Jo Barnard
Hosts: TBA

The 'windsele' in Christ and Satan: Demonic Winds in Medieval Literature
Date: 5 February 2025, 17:15 - 18:15
Speaker : Professor Marilina Cesario (Queen’s University, Belfast)
Venue: St Cross Building, St Cross Road OX1 3UR
Venue Details: Lecture Theatre 2
Organisers: Prof. Laura Ashe (University of Oxford), Prof. Francis Leneghan (University of Oxford)
Hosts: TBA

Roundtable on The British Novel of Ideas: George Eliot to Zadie Smith (Cambridge University Press, December 2024
Date: 5 February 2025, 17:15 - 19:00
Speaker s: Professor Rachel Potter (University of East Anglia), Professor Matthew Taunton (University of East Anglia)
Venue: All Souls College, High Street OX1 4AL
Venue Details: The Old Library
Organisers: Dr Elena Violaris (University of Oxford), Professor Peter Boxall (University of Sussex), Professor Santanu Das (University of Oxford)
Hosts: TBA

Thursday 6 February 2025

A World of Opodeldoc: Leigh Hunt, Edgar Allan Poe, and the Early Nineteenth-Century Periodical,
Date: 6 February 2025, 16:45 - 17:45
Speaker : Ross Wilson (University of Cambridge)
Venue: Rothermere American Institute, 1A South Parks Road OX1 3UB
Venue Details: Large Seminar Room
Organisers: Dr Nicholas Gaskill (University of Oxford), Dr Nicole King (Exeter)
Hosts: TBA

"Dw i YN!" Constructing a case for contact-induced change in contemporary Welsh yn
Date: 6 February 2025, 17:15 - 18:15
Speaker : Dr Laura Arman (Cardiff University)
Venue: Jesus College, Turl Street OX1 3DW
Venue Details: Oxford (hybrid)
Organisers: Prof. David Willis (University of Oxford), Jenyth Evans (University of Oxford)
Hosts: TBA

Friday 7 February 2025

‘Tolkien's Forms of Detachment’
Date: 7 February 2025, 17:00 - 18:30
Speaker : Rebekah Lamb (University of St Andrews)
Venue: Corpus Christi College, Merton Street OX1 4JF
Venue Details: The Rainolds Room
Organiser: Professor Stuart Lee (University of Oxford)
Hosts: TBA

Monday 10 February 2025

Ten Thousand Miles of Clouds and Moons: On the Multiplicity and Innovations of Contemporary Chinese Literature and Subverting Expectations
Date: 10 February 2025, 13:00 - 14:00
Speaker s: Xiao Yue Shan, Zuo Fei
Venue Details: Microsoft Teams
Organisers: Alyssa Ollivier-Tabukashvili, Georgina Fooks
Hosts: TBA

The End of History and the Loss of Temporal Resonance
Date: 10 February 2025, 19:00 - 20:00
Speaker : Hartmut Rosa
Venue Details: via Zoom
Organiser: Professor Nicholas Halmi (University College)
Hosts: TBA

Tuesday 11 February 2025

Susanna Centlivre ‘The Busy Body’ (1709) revived for the 21st century stage
Date: 11 February 2025, 17:30 - 19:00
Speaker : Professor David Taylor (University of Oxford, Creation Theatre and others)
Venue: Mansfield College, Mansfield Road OX1 3TF
Venue Details: Seminar Room East
Organisers: Dr Tess Somervell (University of Oxford), Professor David Taylor (University of Oxford), Dr Carly Watson (University of Oxford), Professor Nicole Pohl (University of Oxford), Professor Christine Gerrard (University of Oxford), Professor Abigail Williams (Faculty of English), Professor Ros Ballaster (University of Oxford)
Hosts: TBA

Wednesday 12 February 2025

On the Effects of Fiction on Social Cognition. Evidence from Human Experimentation, Natural Language Processing, and Artificial Intelligence
Date: 12 February 2025, 17:15 - 19:00
Speaker : Professor Emanuele Castano (University of Trento)
Venue: St Anne's College, Woodstock Road OX2 6HS
Venue Details: Seminar Room 10
Organisers: Dr Naomi Rokotnitz (University of Oxford), Professor Ben Morgan (University of Oxford)
Hosts: TBA

Reading Early Middle English Books
Date: 12 February 2025, 17:15 - 18:15
Speaker
Venue: St Cross Building, St Cross Road OX1 3UR
Venue Details: Lecture Theatre 2
Organisers: Prof. Laura Ashe (University of Oxford), Prof. Francis Leneghan (University of Oxford)
Hosts: TBA

Modern and Contemporary Graduate Forum
Date: 12 February 2025, 17:15 - 19:00
Speaker
Venue: St Cross Building, St Cross Road OX1 3UR
Venue Details: Seminar Room A
Organisers: Aryehi Bhushan (University of Oxford), Olivia Sutherland (University of Oxford)
Hosts: TBA

Thursday 13 February 2025

Llysieulyfr Salesbury ac enwau planhigion cysylltiedig 1400–1700
Date: 13 February 2025, 17:00 - 18:00
Speaker : Iwan Edgar
Venue Details: Centre for Advanced Welsh and Celtic Studies (CAWCS) - via Zoom, and, for hybrid seminars, in person at the National Library of Wales
Organiser: prof. David Willis (University of Oxford)
Hosts: TBA

Writing the Life of Author and Screenwriter Hanif Kureishi: Race, Class, and Multiculturalism
Date: 13 February 2025, 17:15 - 18:15
Speaker : Professor Ruvani Ranasinha (KCL)
Venue: Wadham College, Parks Road OX1 3PN
Venue Details: Okinaga Room
Organisers: Pablo Mukherjee, Ankhi Mukherjee, Elleke Boehmer
Hosts: TBA

Tuesday 18 February 2025

Reading Group: Samuel Daniel’s Musophilus with Ted Tregear
Date: 18 February 2025, 12:30 - 13:30
Speaker
Venue: Merton College, Merton Street OX1 4JD
Venue Details: Mure Room
Organisers: Professor Joe Moshenska (University of Oxford), Professor Bart Van Es (University of Oxford), Professor Lorna Hutson (University of Oxfordhttps://www.english.ox.ac.uk/people/professor-lorna-hutson)
Hosts: TBA

William Blake and the Cartographic Imagination
Date: 18 February 2025, 17:30 - 18:30
Speaker s: Caroline Ritchie (Exeter College), Luisa Cale (Birkbeck College, University of London)
Venue: Balliol College, Broad Street OX1 3BJ
Venue Details: Massey Room
Organisers: Professor Fiona Stafford (University of Oxford), Professor Seamus Perry (University of Oxford)
Hosts: TBA

Wednesday 19 February 2025

Expecting the Worst: Beowulf and the End Times
Date: 19 February 2025, 17:15 - 18:15
Speaker : Dr Amy Faulkner (UCL)
Venue: St Cross Building, St Cross Road OX1 3UR
Venue Details: Lecture Theatre 2
Organisers: Prof. Laura Ashe (University of Oxford), Prof. Francis Leneghan (University of Oxford)
Hosts: TBA

Thursday 20 February 2025

Toni Morrison’s Black Anthropocenes
Date: 20 February 2025, 16:45 - 17:45
Speaker : Jenny Terry (Durham University)
Venue: Rothermere American Institute, 1A South Parks Road OX1 3UB
Venue Details: Large Seminar Room
Organisers: Dr Nicholas Gaskill (University of Oxford), Dr Nicole King (Exeter)
Hosts: TBA

Merlin, Gwenddydd, and the End of our Age
Date: 20 February 2025, 17:15 - 18:15
Speaker : Dr David Callander (Cardiff University)
Venue: Jesus College, Turl Street OX1 3DW
Venue Details: Oxford (hybrid)
Organisers: prof. David Willis (University of Oxford), Prof. Laura Ashe (University of Oxford)
Hosts: TBA

Friday 21 February 2025

‘Tolkien and old English prosody’
Date: 21 February 2025, 17:00 - 18:30
Speaker : Rafael Pascual (University of Granada)
Venue: Corpus Christi College, Merton Street OX1 4JF
Venue Details: the Rainolds Room
Organiser: Professor Stuart Lee (University of Oxford)
Hosts: TBA

Tuesday 25 February 2025

Tangible Pasts: Antiquarian Culture and the Novel in the Eighteenth Century
Date: 25 February 2025, 17:30 - 19:00
Speaker : Prof. Katharina Boehm (University of Passau, Germany)
Venue: Mansfield College, Mansfield Road OX1 3TF
Venue Details: Seminar Room East
Organisers: Dr Tess Somervell (University of Oxford), Professor Nicole Pohl (University of Oxford), Professor Christine Gerrard (University of Oxford), Dr David Taylor (University of Oxford), Professor Abigail Williams (Faculty of English), Professor Ros Ballaster (University of Oxford), Dr. Carly Watson (English Faculty)
Hosts: TBA

Wednesday 26 February 2025

'Biblical poetry and its place in medieval English culture
Date: 26 February 2025, 17:15 - 18:15
Speaker : Dr Cathy Hume (University of Bristol)
Venue: St Cross Building, St Cross Road OX1 3UR
Venue Details: Lecture Theatre 2
Organisers: Prof. Laura Ashe (University of Oxford), Prof. Francis Leneghan (University of Oxford)
Hosts: TBA

'World Literature and the Work of Revolution: Towards a Radical History of the Bildungsroman' / 'The Novel, the Epic and the Collective’
Date: 26 February 2025, 17:15 - 18:15
Speaker s: Professor Benjamin Kohlmann (University of Regensburg/Clare Hall, Cambridge), Professor David Cunningham (University of Westminster)
Venue: All Souls College, High Street OX1 4AL
Venue Details: The Old Library
Organisers: Professor Helen Small (University of Oxford), Professor Sos Eltis (University of Oxford)
Hosts: TBA

"World Literature and the Work of Revolution: Towards a Radical History of the Bildungsroman" / ‘The Novel, the Epic and the Collective’
Date: 26 February 2025, 17:15 - 19:00
Speaker s: Professor David Cunningham (University of Westminster), Professor Benjamin Kohlmann (University of Regensburg/Clare Hall, Cambridge)
Venue: All Souls College, High Street OX1 4AL
Venue Details: The Old Library
Organisers: Professor Peter Boxall (University of Oxford), Dr Elena Violaris (University of Oxford), Professor Santanu Das (University of Oxford)
Hosts: TBA

Friday 28 February 2025

‘Themes in The Lord of the Rings: A Defence and an Exploration'
Date: 28 February 2025, 17:00 - 18:30
Speaker : Patrick Curry (University of Wales Trinity St David)
Venue: Corpus Christi College, Merton Street OX1 4JF
Venue Details: the Rainolds Room
Organiser: Professor Stuart Lee (University of Oxford)
Hosts: TBA

Monday 3 March 2025

Spectacle, Sensation, and Co-Creation: Delaroche and Dumas
Date: 3 March 2025, 17:15 - 18:15
Speaker : Patricia Smyth (University of Warwick)
Venue: St Cross Building, St Cross Road OX1 3UR
Venue Details: Seminar Room L
Organisers: Professor Helen Small (University of Oxford), Professor Sos Eltis (University of Oxford)
Hosts: TBA

Tuesday 4 March 2025

Nineteenth-Century Graduate Forum
Date: 4 March 2025, 13:00 - 15:00
Speaker
Venue Details: History of the Book Room
Organisers: Maria Gomez Ruiz, Leonor-Jo Barnard
Hosts: TBA

‘Dumb Action’
Date: 4 March 2025, 17:15 - 19:00
Speaker : Gill Woods (University of Oxford)
Venue: Merton College, Merton Street OX1 4JD
Venue Details: TS Eliot Lecture Theatre
Organisers: Professor Joe Moshenska (University of Oxford), Professor Bart Van Es (University of Oxford), Professor Lorna Hutson (University of Oxfordhttps://www.english.ox.ac.uk/people/professor-lorna-hutson)
Hosts: TBA

Hester Thrale Piozzi’s Minced Meat for Pyes: Scrapbook Composition as Life Writing
Date: 4 March 2025, 17:30 - 18:30
Speaker : Prof. Julie Park (PPennsylvania State University)
Venue: Balliol College, Broad Street OX1 3BJ
Venue Details: Massey Room
Organisers: Professor David Taylor (University of Oxford), Dr Tess Somervell (University of Oxford), Professor Nicole Pohl (University of Oxford), Professor Christine Gerrard (University of Oxford), Professor Abigail Williams (Faculty of English), Professor Ros Ballaster (University of Oxford), Dr. Carly Watson (English Faculty)
Hosts: TBA

Hester Thrale Piozzi’s Minced Meat for Pyes: Scrapbook Composition as Life Writing
Date: 4 March 2025, 17:30 - 18:30
Speaker : Julie Park (Pennsylvania State University)
Venue: Balliol College, Broad Street OX1 3BJ
Venue Details: Massey Room
Organisers: Professor Fiona Stafford (University of Oxford), Professor Seamus Perry (University of Oxford)
Hosts: TBA

Wednesday 5 March 2025

Modern and Contemporary Graduate Forum
Date: 5 March 2025, 17:15 - 19:00
Speaker
Venue: St Cross Building, St Cross Road OX1 3UR
Venue Details: Seminar Room A
Organisers: Aryehi Bhushan (University of Oxford), Olivia Sutherland (University of Oxford)
Hosts: TBA

Thursday 6 March 2025

Deliberate Strangers: Transatlantic Homecomings in Henry James, James Baldwin and Stuart Hall
Date: 6 March 2025, 13:00 - 14:00
Speaker : Dr Christy Wensley (University of Oxford)
Venue: Cohen Quadrangle, Walton Street OX1 2HD
Venue Details: Kloppenburg Room
Organisers: Dr Nicholas Gaskill (University of Oxford), Dr Nicole King (Exeter)
Hosts: TBA

In search of the nineteenth-century Gaelic Caribbean
Date: 6 March 2025, 17:15 - 18:15
Speaker : Dr Peadar Ó Muircheartaigh (University of Edinburgh)
Venue: Jesus College, Turl Street OX1 3DW
Venue Details: Oxford (hybrid)
Organisers: Prof. David Willis (University of Oxford), Jenyth Evans (University of Oxford)
Hosts: TBA

Fanon Questions
Date: 6 March 2025, 17:15 - 18:15
Speaker : Robert Young (New York University)
Venue: Wadham College, Parks Road OX1 3PN
Venue Details: Okinaga Room
Organisers: Pablo Mukherjee, Ankhi Mukherjee, Elleke Boehmer
Hosts: TBA

Friday 7 March 2025

‘'Alight Here for Middle-earth!': Tolkien, Place, and the Past’
Date: 7 March 2025, 17:00 - 18:00
Speaker : Carl Phelpstead ((University of Cardiff)
Venue: Corpus Christi College, Merton Street OX1 4JF
Venue Details: the Rainolds Room
Organiser: Professor Stuart Lee (University of Oxford)
Hosts: TBA

Monday 10 March 2025

Discussion Group: Thinking Translation and Resistance: Making and Refusing Meaning
Date: 10 March 2025, 12:45 - 14:00
Speaker Various Speakers
Venue: St Anne's College, Woodstock Road OX2 6HS
Venue Details: Seminar Room 10
Organisers: Alyssa Ollivier-Tabukashvili, Georgina Fooks
Hosts: TBA

Tuesday 11 March 2025

“The capital pen of a sister author”: Reading Frances Burney with Jane Austen
Date: 11 March 2025, 12:30 - 13:40
Speaker : Peter Sabor (McGill)
Venue: Mansfield College, Mansfield Road OX1 3TF
Venue Details: Seminar Room East
Organisers: Dr Tess Somervell (University of Oxford), Professor David Taylor (University of Oxford), Professor Christine Gerrard (University of Oxford), Professor Ros Ballaster (University of Oxford), Dr. Carly Watson (English Faculty), Prof Nicole Horwood (University of oxford)
Hosts: TBA

Early Modern Graduate Forum
Date: 11 March 2025, 17:15 - 18:15
Speaker s: Jane Cooper (All Souls), Kathryn Hempstead (Merton)
Venue: St Cross Building, St Cross Road OX1 3UR
Venue Details: Seminar Room B
Organiser: Paul Norris (Brasenose)
Hosts: TBA

Thursday 13 March 2025

Modern and Contemporary Literature Research Seminars
Date: 13 March 2025, 12:00 - 14:00
Speaker : Professor Simon Gikandi (Princeton University)
Venue: All Souls College, High Street OX1 4AL
Venue Details: The Old Library
Organisers: Professor Peter Boxall (University of Oxford), Dr Elena Violaris (University of Oxford), Professor Santanu Das (University of Oxford)
Hosts: TBA

Celtic Research Seminar
Date: 13 March 2025, 17:00 - 18:00
Speaker : Dr Kathryn Jones (Cardiff University)
Venue Details: Centre for Advanced Welsh and Celtic Studies (CAWCS) - via Zoom, and, for hybrid seminars, in person at the National Library of Wales
Organisers: Prof. David Willis (University of Oxford), Jenyth Evans (University of Oxford)
Hosts: TBA

Friday 14 March 2025

‘Languages on the Move: Tolkien's Invented Languages and Their Use in Adaptations’
Date: 14 March 2025, 17:00 - 18:30
Speaker : Mareike Huber (University of Freiburg)
Venue: Corpus Christi College, Merton Street OX1 4JF
Venue Details: the Rainolds Room
Organiser: Professor Stuart Lee (University of Oxford)
Hosts: TBA

Thursday 27 March 2025

Language dynamics in society: A new analytical framework for ethnolinguistic vitality
Date: 27 March 2025, 17:00 - 18:00
Speaker : Prof. Conchúr Ó Giollagáin (University of the Highlands and Islands)
Venue Details: Centre for Advanced Welsh and Celtic Studies (CAWCS) - via Zoom, and, for hybrid seminars, in person at the National Library of Wales
Organiser: Prof. David Willis (University of Oxford)
Hosts: TBA