Hybrid Symposium: New Directions in the Materiality of Letter-Writing: From Antiquity to the Present Day

A hybrid symposium at University College Dublin, Ireland

29 and 30 May 2024
Organisers: Dr Helen Newsome-Chandler and Professor Danielle Clarke

KEYNOTE SPEAKER:

Dr Alison Wiggins, University of Glasgow

DRAFT PROGRAMME (2/4/24) All times are Irish Standard Time (GMT +1)

WEDNESDAY 29th MAY 2024

12-12.45pm LUNCH AND REGISTRATION

12.45-1pm – Welcome

1-2pm Opening Keynote: ‘What is a digitised letter?’ Dr Alison Wiggins, University of Glasgow

2-3pm: Panel 1: Epistolary Materiality: Transmission and Enclosures

‘Hiding the Materiality of Letters: The Carriage and Concealment of Secret Correspondence in Sixteenth-Century France’, Penny Roberts, University of Warwick (Online)

‘Katharine Basset: Letter-Writing and Gift-Giving’, Valerie Schutte, Independent (Online)

3-3.30pm COFFEE BREAK

3.30-5pm Panel 2: Gender and the Materiality of Letter-Writing

‘“ready folded vp” Locking the Queen’s Letters in the Royal Secretariat, 1581-90’, Clodagh Murphy, Leiden University

‘Attending and Reading Deliberate and Accidental Materiality in the Boyle Women’s Letters’, Ann-Maria Walsh, University College Dublin

‘A Gendered Material Feature? The Spiral Lock in Early Modern Scottish Women’s Letters’, Jade Scott, Independent

5-6pm – DRINKS RECEPTION

End of Day 1

THURSDAY 30^th MAY 2024

9.30-10am WELCOME COFFEE

10-11.30am Panel 3: Social Variation and Epistolary Materiality

‘Social Variation in Letterlocking Practices in 17^th-century England’, Samuli Kaislaniemi, University of Eastern Finland (Online)

‘Salvage, Ingenuity and Right: The Materiality of English and Welsh Pauper Letter Writing 1830 to 1900s’, Steve King, Nottingham Trent University, Natalie Carter, Surrey Library Service, and Paul Carter, The National Archives

‘Navigating the Materiality of Embossed Letters in the British blind Community, 1840-1890′, Tilly Guthrie, University of Sheffield

11.30am-12pm – COFFEE BREAK

12-1pm Roundtable – The Unique Materiality of Letters in the Prize Papers
Marina Casagrande (Conservator), Maria Cardamone (Photographer), and Lucas Haasis (Historian), University of Oldenburg and The National Archives

1-2pm LUNCH

2-3.30pm Panel 6: Preserving and Editing Epistolary Materiality

‘Materiality and Accidental Preservation of the Correspondence in Thomas Plume’s Manuscript Collection’, Helen Kemp, Thomas Plume’s Library and The University of Essex

‘The Materiality of Early Modern Business Letters’, Siobhan Talbott, Keele University

‘A Bit One-Sided: Piecing Together a Story from Letters Received’, Elaine Treharne, Stanford University (Online)

3.30-4pm COFFEE BREAK

4-5pm Practical Workshop – Unlocking the Materiality of Early Tudor Queens’ Correspondence
Helen Newsome-Chandler, University College Dublin

5-5.15pm – Closing Remarks

Carole Levin at the National University of Ireland – “Raise up the Dead: Queen Elizabeth’s Ghost and the Stuart Monarchs”

On Thursday next, Prof. Carole Levin will deliver a talk entitled “Raise up the Dead: Queen Elizabeth’s Ghost and the Stuart Monarchs” at the National University of Ireland (49 Merrion Square, Dublin).

Prof. Levin is the author of Dreaming the English Renaissance: Politics and Desire in Court and Culture (Palgrave Macmillan, 2008); The Reign of Elizabeth I (Palgrave Macmillan, 2002); and The Heart and Stomach of a King: Elizabeth I and the Politics of Sex and Power (University of Pennsylvania Press, 1994).

The event takes place at 4pm on Thursday 14th May 2015 in the National University of Ireland  (49 Merrion Square, Dublin). Admission is free but booking is required. Please contact UCD’s Dr Derval Conroy (derval.conroy@ucd.ie). This event is supported by the Society for Renaissance Studies.