University of Oxford – 30 March 2026
L1 Lecture Theatre 10.300 Stephen A. Schwarzman Centre for the Humanities, Radcliffe Observatory Quarter, Woodstock Road, Oxford, OX2 6GG, Faculty of English Language and Literature, University of Oxford
Registration is now closed for this event, which is sold out.
Day 1: 30th March 2026
08.30–9.00: Welcome and Registration
09.00–10.30: Session 1: Early Prose (chair: Tom Revell)
Samuel Cardwell (University of Nottingham), ‘The Earliest English Sentence? Old Northumbrian psalm glosses in MS Pal. Lat. 68‘
Maura McKeown (University of Oxford), ‘The Four Senses of Scripture and the Vespasian Psalter Glosses‘
Emily Kesling (University of Bergen), ‘The Old English Exhortation to Prayer and the “Mercian Prefacing Tradition”‘
10.30–11.00: Tea and coffee break
11.00–12.00: Session 2: Putting Prose in its Place (chair: Helen Appleton)
Christine Rauer (University of St Andrews), ‘Assigning Mercian Texts to Places and Individuals‘
Tristan Major (Pontifical Institute of Mediaeval Studies), ‘Old English Prose at Winchester, c. 940–c. 1100‘
12.00–12.15: Comfort break
12.15–13.00: Keynote 1 (chair: Francis Leneghan):
John Hines (University of Cardiff), ‘Syntax, Style and Semiotics: How Anglo-Saxon Inscriptions help to frame and define Old English Prose‘
13.00–14.00: Lunch break [sandwich lunch provided]
14.00–15.30: Session 3: New Contexts for Alfredian Prose (chair: Amy Faulkner)
Nagore Palomares (University of the Basque Country), ‘Weaving the Vernacular: Tracing Frankish Influences in Old English Texts‘
Alice Jorgensen (Trinity College Dublin), ‘Gesceadwisnes in the Alfredian Prose Translations‘
Eleni Ponirakis (University of Nottingham/UCL/University of Oxford), ‘Swa swa leof on treowum: Eriugena and the Alfredian Solioquies‘
15.30–16.00: Tea and coffee break
16.00–17.30: Session 4: Repurposing Prose (chair: Jasmine Jones)
Courtnay Konshuh (University of Calgary), ‘Missing Ealdormen: Editing Chronicle Prose‘
Claudio Cataldi (University of Palermo), ‘Rewriting Christianisation in King Edgar’s Establishment of the Monasteries‘
Gabriele Cocco (University of Bergamo), ‘From Cloak to Allegory: Christian Adaptations in the Old English Apollonius of Tyre‘
17.30–17.45: Comfort break
17.45–18.30: Keynote 2 (chair: Niamh Kehoe):
Luisa Ostacchini (University of Oxford), ‘Thinking Global, Acting Local: The Old English Martyrology’s Worldview and Mercian Prose Composition‘
18.30: Drinks Reception and Book Celebration
20.00: Conference Dinner
Day 2: 31st March
09.00–10.30: Session 5: Prose beyond the Pulpit (chair: Francis Leneghan)
Stefan Jurasinski (SUNY Brockport), ‘Beyond Wulfstan: The Homiletic Element in Old English Legislation‘
Anine Englund (University of Oxford), ‘Revisiting the Old English Soul-and-Body Homilies‘
Elaine Treharne (Stanford University), ‘Women Readers (and Writers?) of Old English Prose‘
10.30–11.00: Tea and coffee break
11.00–12.00: Session 6: Inclusion and Exclusion, Then and Now (chair: Hannah Bailey)
Juliet Mullins (University College Dublin), ‘Ignored and Obscured: “Behind the Scenes” of Ælfric´s Lives of Saints‘
Rebecca Stephenson (University College Dublin), ‘Weeding out the Danes: An examination of gardening metaphors in Latin and Old English prose texts describing Viking attacks and/or religious conversions‘
12.00–12.15: Comfort break
12.15–13.00: Keynote 3 (chair: Amy Faulkner):
Daniel Anlezark (University of Sydney), ‘West Saxon Prose from Alfred to Ælfric‘
13.00–14.00: Lunch break [sandwich lunch provided]
14.00–15.30: Session 7: Wulfstan’s Style (chair: Rachel A. Burns)
Winfried Rudolf (University of Göttingen), ‘Wulfstan’s Autograph Homily on Baptism and Its Echoes‘
James Titterington (University of Oxford), ‘Prose in Progress: Tracing Wulfstan’s Intellectual Development through Autograph Evidence‘
Thomas A. Bredehoft (Chancery Hill Books), ‘Wulfstan’s Prose‘
15.30–16.00: Tea and coffee break
16.00–17.30: Session 8: Saints and Sinners (chair: Niamh Kehoe)
Claudia Di Sciacca (University of Udine), ‘Gūþ-Lāc vs Se Ealda Fēond? New Directions in the Demonology and Angelology of Gulthlac’s Old English Prose Tradition‘
Susan Irvine (University College London), ‘The Bridge as a Penitential Motif in Old English Prose‘
Corinne Clark (University of Oxford), ‘Fashioning fragmentation in the Corpus Christi MS 303 Life of St. Margaret‘
17.30: Close
Organising committee: Helen Appleton (Oxford), Rachel A. Burns (Oxford), Amy Faulkner (UCL), Niamh Kehoe (Oxford), Francis Leneghan (Oxford)
Contact: Francis Leneghan
Header image: Peterborough Chronicle