ALS Second Meeting, 2023
PLEASE JOIN US FOR THE SECOND ANNE LISTER SOCIETY MEETING in spring 2023!
Following on our inaugural sessions in April 2022, the Anne Lister Society will reconvene for its second conference, 31 Mar -- 1 Apr 2023, in Halifax, U.K. For details about registration, please email Prof. Laurie Shannon.
Launched in the summer of 2020, the Society aims to foster knowledge of Lister’s extraordinary life and writings and to interpret her legacy. It seeks to nourish conversation among scholars and to build conversations between scholars and Lister’s wider readership and expanding network of invested enthusiasts. By encouraging research and greater understanding of her way of inhabiting the world, the Society aims to establish and sustain Anne Lister’s place — both in the cultural tradition and for the future.
CONFERENCE PROGRAM, 2023
* PLEASE NOTE: Our meeting is planned to take place in person in Halifax -- “Providence willing.” We recognize uncertainties remain about travel and other circumstances, but we adopt Anne Lister’s advice to “bel[ieve] all th[in]gs n[o]t unreasonab[le] + hope all th[in]gs n[o]t imposs[ible]” (2 August 1833).
Please note that some details of the schedule could change.
FRIDAY, 31 MARCH
Welcome (9:00-9:10)
LAURIE SHANNON, coordinator of the Anne Lister Society
Panel One (9:15-10:35): Crafting a Style; Fashioning an Estate
Panel chair: ALISON ORAM, Institute of Historical Research, University of London, UK
TRISH BREDAR, Northwestern University, US
“Strong Shoes and Iron Heels: Anne Lister’s Pragmatic Fashion”
ALICE BURNS, University of Liverpool, UK
“‘Thinking, as I often do in travelling, of Shibden & alterations there’: Anne Lister and the Labouring Hands of Shibden Hall”
ANGELA CLARE, Shibden Hall and Calderdale Museums Service, UK
“Anne Lister’s Home”
Panel Two (10:50-12:10): Acts of Will: Lives, Agency, and Legacies
Panel chair: TRISH BREDAR, Northwestern University, US
JOAN BURDA, Attorney and WYAS transcriber, US
“The Wills of Anne Lister and Ann Walker: Estate Planning in 19th Century England”
CHLOE ATKINSON, University of Edinburgh, UK
“‘A gradual tendency to mental derangement’: Patient-hood, Perspective, and the Retrieval of Medical Agency in Ann Walker’s Diary”
KRISTYN GORTON and BETH JOHNSON, Leeds University, UK
“Feminist Inheritance: Anne Lister, Sally Wainwright and Gentleman Jack”
World premiere reading (by video) (2:00-2:10)
Session chair: LAURIE SHANNON, Northwestern University, US
EMMA DONOGHUE, novelist, screenwriter, and literary historian, IE and CA
Reading from Learned by Heart, her forthcoming historical novel on Anne Lister and Eliza Raine
Panel Three (2:15-3:35): Anne Lister’s Landmark Others
Panel chair: AMY SOLOMONS, University of Liverpool, UK
CHRIS ROULSTON, University of Western Ontario, CA
“When Fred Met Frank: Anne Lister’s Encounters with Frances Pickford”
CAROLINE GONDA, University of Cambridge, UK
“Anne Lister, Sibbella Maclean and the Ladies of Llangollen”
LAURIE SHANNON, Northwestern University, US
“Cheer up, Mary! Stoic Optimism and Anne Lister’s Consolatory Letters to M–”
Friday KEYNOTE lecture (3:50-4:50):
Session chair: MARY FAIRCLOUGH, University of York, UK
ROS BALLASTER, Oxford University, UK
“Adapting Anne: History on Screen and the Representation of Writing Women”
Anne Lister Society RECEPTION (5:30-7pm at the Calderdale Industrial Museum)
SATURDAY, 1 APRIL
Panel Four (9:00-10:00): Re-imagining History in Graphic Arts and Sound
Panel chair: DIANE LAWRENSON, sculptor of “Contemplation, Anne Lister,” UK
CAROL ADLAM, writer, artist, graphic novelist, UK
“Gap, Edges, Sites of Creativity? Writing – and Illustrating – a Biography of Eliza Raine”
REBEKAH OKPOTI, Liverpool Hope University, UK
“Soundscapes of Halifax Minster and Performing the Anne Lister Organ Sonata”
Panel Five (10:10-11:30): Queer Texts, Queer Subtexts, Queered Sex
Panel chair: STEPHEN TURTON, University of Cambridge, UK
METTE HILDEMAN SJÖLIN, Lund University, SE
“Confessions of a Grubbler: Language, Queer Theory, and Anne Lister's Hand”
MARC SCHACHTER, Durham University, UK
“Lust for Knowledge: More on the Erotics of Anne Lister’s Readings in the Classics”
ANNA HAWTHORNE, University of Sheffield, UK
“Bad, or Mediocre, Sex: Anne Lister and Isabella Norcliffe, 1819-22”
Saturday KEYNOTE lecture (11:45-12:45)
Session chair: CHRIS ROULSTON, University of Western Ontario, CA
ANNA CLARK, University of Minnesota, US
“Anatomies of Pleasure: Anne Lister’s Search for the Clitoris”