The literature and history of Anglo-Dutch relations, medieval to early modern

British Academy Conferences bring together scholars and specialists from around the world to consider and evaluate new research in the humanities and social sciences.

Contacts between English and Dutch speakers had a profound impact on the literary landscape and book culture of England and the Low Countries. This conference crosses conventional chronological, linguistic, geographical and disciplinary boundaries to explore the cultural history of relations between English and Dutch speakers, from the Norman Conquest through to the Reformation. Bringing together literary scholars and historians, it aims to join up evidence of literary exchange with new insights into the experiences of migration, conflict, political alliances, and trade that made this literary exchange possible. The conference will reinvigorate traditional approaches to literary influence by contextualising it in the historical conditions that brought speakers of Dutch and English into contact with each other and by taking into account the range of languages (Dutch, English, French, and Latin) in which their communications and literary production in manuscript and early print took shape over this period.

Conference convenors:

Professor Ad Putter FBA, University of Oxford
Dr Moreed Arbabzadah, University of Cambridge
Dr Sjoerd Levelt, University of Bristol
Professor Elisabeth van Houts, University of Cambridge

Speakers across the three-day conference include:

Professor Anna Sapir Abulafia, University of Oxford
Dr Moreed Arbabzadah, University of Cambridge
Professor Bart Besamusca, University of Utrecht
Assistant Professor Katie Bugyis, University of Notre Dame
Dr Piet Franssen, University of Applied Science
Dr Jeroen de Gussem, University of Ghent
Dr Elizabeth Evenden-Kenyon, University of Durham
Professor Kathleen Kennedy, University of Bristol
Professor Henrike Lähnemann, University of Oxford
Dr Sjoerd Levelt, University of Bristol
Professor Shannon McSheffrey, Concordia University
Professor Ad Putter, University of Bristol
Dr Esther van Raamsdonk, University of Warwick
Assistant Professor Steven Rozenski, University of Rochester
Professor Remco Sleiderink, University of Antwerp
Dr Charlotte Steenbrugge, University of Sheffield
Professor Elizabeth Tyler, University of York
Professor Steven Vanderputten, University of Ghent
Professor Bart van Es, University of Oxford
Professor Elisabeth van Houts, University of Cambridge
Janet van der Meulen, Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam

The three-day conference programme is available via the University of Bristol website. For any enquiries about this conference please email [email protected]

This conference is preceded by a public lecture entitled "The Masters of the Dark Eyes in England" on Thursday 6 January, 17:15. Tickets for the lecture need to be booked separately. Further details and booking options for this lecture are available.

Booking deadline: 31 December 2021

Funded by the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS)

Image: North Sea Crossing (c) Bodleian Library, The University of Oxford, 2021