“But words are things, and a small drop of ink
Falling like dew, upon a thought produces
That which makes thousands, perhaps millions, think.”

2024 marks the bicentenary of Lord Byron’s death. It is therefore fitting that the 2024 Newstead Abbey Byron Conference not only commemorates his death but also celebrates the life and works of both the multifaceted man and his dazzlingly diverse poetry. The theme for this year’s conference, Provocative and Provoking: Fifty Shades of Byron has been chosen to encourage papers exploring every aspect of Byron’s life, his poems, and his contemporary and current reception across the globe.

We could offer a lengthy list of potential topics, but it would be impossible to include them all.

So instead, we invite you to join us and discuss your Byrons – the poet and the playwright, the lover and the misanthrope, the pacifist and the warleader, the atheist and the spiritualist, the witty correspondent and the shrewd satirist. We also invite you to share your insights and observations regarding Byron’s poems, the profound fluctuations in his popularity over the last two hundred years, and the enduring significance of the poet and his poetry for so many cultures and communities today.

The conference will be held in Newstead Abbey, and delegates will have the opportunity to tour the house and gardens during the conference. In addition, to mark this special occasion, we will also be expanding the conference to include additional cultural events, both in the Abbey and at nearby locations connected with Lord Byron and his family. Details will be made available later in the year once the events are finalised.

26th April

COFFEE MORNING & POETRY READING AT BROMLEY HOUSE (9.45-11.15)
This is a special event to mark the bicentenary of Byron’s death, we will visit the beautiful Bromley House Library in Nottingham City, and enjoy a tour of their eighteenth-century collections, plus poetry readings and discussions on Byron and Newstead. This is an add-on item – and requires a separate booking.

For those wishing to attend, you can either meet us at the library or join us on the minibus leaving the Travel Lodge at 9.15am on Friday morning. The minibus will then take us on to Newstead Abbey, so if you wish to book a spot on this bus please let us know as soon as possible so we can ensure enough space.

NEWSTEAD ABBEY

12.00-1.00 Lunch

1.15-2.55 Panel 1: Philosophy And Religion

Chair: Marc Gotthardt

Mathelinda Nabugodi Diable and Diablesse: Byron, Disability, and Blackness

Bernard Beatty Callousness, Neo-Classicism, and Byron

Paul Whickman ‘That Son will be a Sacrifice’: Byron and Jesus

Will Edwards  Byron’s Mistrust of Description 

2.55-3.25 Coffee

3.25-5.05 Panel 2: Piracies And Plagiarism

Chair: Omar Miranda

Emily Paterson Morgan Byron, Southey and the ‘art of literary thieving’

Paul Hamann-Rose Remediating Byron: Early Illustrated Piracies of Don Juan

Marc Gotthardt ‘Even a rag like this’: The Afterlife of Byron’s Piracies

Shellie Hester Audsley Byron’s Hybrid Form: Poetic Portrait and Bell-Ringing in Marino Faliero

CONFERENCE DINNER

5.15 -6.00 Bus to Portland College

6.00-7 .00 Drinks

7.00-8.00  Keynote: Prof Andrew Stauffer

Chair: Kaila Rose

8.00-10.00 Conference Dinner

10.00 Bus to Hotel

27th April

NEWSTEAD ABBEY

9am Bus to Newstead

9.45-11.25 Panel 3 – Byron’s Afterlives

Chair: Jake Phipps

Rose Gant The invisible string between Byron, the Brontës and Caroline

Matteo Schiavone Coming to Light through the Shadow of the Byronic: L.E.L.’s Appropriation of Lord Byron’s Image

Małgorzata Nowak Faces of Satan – George Gordon Byron and Juliusz Słowacki

Luis Castellví and Prue Shaw The Byron-Shelley Friendship in Julian and Maddalo

11.25-11.45 Coffee

11.45-1.25 Panel 4 – Constructing And Hiding Byron’s Selves

Chair: Andrew Stauffer

Madeleine Callaghan ‘I was rather famous in my time’: Byron’s Celebrity Lyrics

Christine Kenyon Jones Austen and Byron: prose, poetry, private and public

Chiara Rolli “I am a very unlucky fellow”: Masks and Images of Teenage Byron (1803-1809)

Angela Esterhammer John Galt’s Byrons: Fact, Fiction, and the Formation of Character

1.30-2.30 Lunch

2.30-4.10 Panel 5 – Life And Letters

Chair: _________________

Simon Bainbridge ‘a challenge to Deliver’: Byron and duelling

Maria Schoina Confessions of an Ultramontane Lover: Byron’s Letters in Italian to Teresa Guiccioli

Li-Hui Tsai Byron and Romanticism Reconsidered: the Poem ‘Fare Thee Well’ as a Multifaceted Text

Leon Wang “Manners now make men”— Growing Old in Byron’s Don Juan

4.15-5pm Tour Of Newstead

DANGEROUS TO KNOW – (7.00-8.00)
We are sponsoring a special pre-review performance of a new play about Byron, Dangerous to Know, which we are thrilled to announce will take place in the gorgeous environs of Newstead Abbey itself (in the Orangery, with a drinks reception in the Cloisters).
This is a supplementary item, and full details will be available shortly – together with registration.
After the play, we will organise a bus to return delegates to the conference hotel.

28th April
There is the option for those that wish to visit St Marys Hucknall Church, where Byron is buried. We will not be providing transport for this, but it is a short taxi ride from the conference hotel.
The church has said that Visitors are welcome between 9am and 10.45am on Sunday 28th, and they will have Holy Communion services at 8am and 11am. If you would like to visit the church but not attend a service, let us know closer to the time as the church would like advance notice.