Conferences, Workshops and Research Symposia

Both the staff and the graduate students of the Department of English are committed to sharing and furthering their research through activities such as conferences, symposia and workshops.  Staff regularly organise conferences which reflect their ongoing research interests, and the Department's graduate students are also active in organising events, including the Annual Bookends Postgraduate Conference.

CONFERENCES 2026

USES OF ROMANTICISM

School of English and Digital Humanities, University College Cork, Ireland

18-19 February 2026

As a convenient way to organise knowledge — to describe a historical period, to address questions of cultural style, to open up comparative debates —  romanticism remains a useful term. But what does it mean to think about romanticism as useful? What kinds of knowledge, in which languages and from what places, does the term collect and organise? What work does romanticism do in the present and can its critical utility outlast our growing understanding of its alliance with historical injustices? The symposium will consider the relevance of romanticism for a discussion of literature created in a range of British, Irish and imperial locations and consider the extent to which use itself is a concept that is imprinted by colonialism.

Among the topics to be discussed will be:

• Geographies of romanticism
• Comparative romanticisms
• Romanticism across media
• Decolonising romanticism: colonial and imperial histories
• Use, usefulness and utility as critical categories
• The present uses of literary history
• Romanticism and its relation to political activism: sedative or spur?

Contributions from: Prof Mary-Ann Constantine (University of Wales Trinity St David), Dr Elisa Cozzi (University of Notre Dame), Prof Porscha Fermanis (University College Dublin), Prof Penny Fielding  (University of Edinburgh), Prof Nigel Leask (Glasgow University), Prof Omar Miranda (University of San Francisco), Dr Jane Moore (Cardiff University), Prof Tina Morin (University of Limerick), Prof Tríona Ní Shíocháin (University of Galway), Dr Peadar Ó Muircheartaigh (University of Edinburgh), Prof Diego Saglia (Università degli studi di Parma), Dr Brandon Yen (Independent Scholar).

Reading by: Maureen McLane (New York University)

Conference Programme:                Uses of Romanticism. Programme.

Conference Abstracts and Bios:    Uses of Romanticism. Abstracts and Bios.