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Registration for this conference will close on the 29 June 2023.


The Eighth Conference of the International Piers Plowman Society welcomes scholars from around the world working on all aspects of William Langland’s Piers Plowman, its literary and historical contexts, its later reception and influence, and its textual, codicological and critical traditions. Our programme features plenary lectures from Professor Katharine Breen (Northwestern University) and Professor Emily Steiner (University of Pennsylvania), plenary panels on Langland’s London and in honour of Derek Pearsall, readings of new translations of Piers Plowman, and papers on a wide array of topics, presenting new scholarship on Langland and his contemporaries. Our conference theme, “Piers Plowman Today” invites contributions that think about why we read Piers Plowman now, and about the future directions that Langland scholarship might take. The conference offers opportunities to explore the history of Langland studies, the poem’s afterlives, approaches to pedagogy, issues of topicality and temporality, and Langlandian interventions in contemporary questions of social justice, post-pandemic recovery, and ecological concern. 


The full programme is available to download here. 

A map of the conference venue is available to download here.


Registration is available at a standard rate, a concession rate for graduate students, retired and non-affiliated scholars. Also available is a contributing rate, which helps to subsidise the concession rate through an additional contribution. Selected panels and plenary sessions (but not the whole programme) will also run in a hybrid format to enable online participation. To attend online, please register using the online only option; a standard rate and a concession rate are available for online attendance.

Fees

  • Contributing rate: £210
  • Standard rate: £ 180
  • Concession rate: £120
  • Online only standard rate: £80
  • Online only concession rate: £50

If you’re not already a member of the International Piers Plowman Society, then we hope you’ll consider joining. All members receive a subscription to the society’s journal, the Yearbook of Langland Studies. You can join and donate to the society here.


The conference will be held in Senate House in Bloomsbury, central London. You can find a list of accommodation options near to the conference venue on the Senate House website, here. Senate House is easily accessible from several stations on the London Underground, including Goodge Street on the Northern Line, Russell Square on the Piccadilly Line, and Tottenham Court Road, on the Northern, Central, and Elizabeth Lines. The Transport for London TFL Go app (available to download here) will help you to plan journeys on the tube and on bus services.


Conference dinner:

The conference dinner will be held at Côte, St Paul’s, from 7pm on Saturday 8th July. Dinner costs £46.20 per person for three courses, payable in advance, and drinks can be purchased at the venue. To sign up for the dinner, please contact Alastair Bennett, at alastair.bennett@rhul.ac.uk , before Friday 23rd June.


‘Piers Plowman at Senate House’ exhibition

This exhibition features both the Senate House Piers Plowman manuscripts, including the Ilchester; its Crowley; and unique materials from the archives. The exhibition is open during lunch on Thursday and Friday. Spaces are limited: you can sign up to view the exhibiton using this doodle poll. The exhibition has been curated for us by Tansy Barton, Academic Librarian: Manuscript and Book Studies at Senate House Library.

Things to do in London

For information about medieval sights you can visit in London, see our guide to London for medievalists, available to download here.

For information about restaurants and cafes near to Senate House and further afield, see our notes and suggestions on dining out in London, available to download here.

Programme Committee:
  • Chair: Rebecca Davis, University of California, Irvine 
  • Louise Bishop, University of Oregon
  • Tekla Bude, Oregon State University
  • Richard H. Godden, Louisiana State University
  • Curtis Gruenler, Hope College
  • Bernardo S. Hinojosa, St. Norbert College
  • Ellen Rentz, Claremont McKenna College 
  • Jamie K. Taylor, Bryn Mawr College 
  • Nicolette Zeeman, King’s College Cambridge 

Organizing Committee:
  • Alastair Bennett, Royal Holloway, University of London
  • Lawrence Warner, King’s College, London

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