Literature Matters Conference, 4-6 November 2024 (online)

Registration is now open!

Keynote Speakers:

Guy Cook (Kings College London)

Beth Driscoll (University of Melbourne, Australia)

Hannah Lowe (Brunel University)

Dates: 4-6 November 2024 (online conference)

Deadline for registration: 1 November 2024- (registration links here)

Full conference programme available here

Why does reading and writing imaginative literature matter? We live in an era when the value of the Arts (economic, social, cultural, personal, spiritual, metaphysical, human development etc) is under renewed scrutiny and the benefits of literature – both reading and writing – are being appreciated from a range of perspectives, from medical humanities to psychology. There is increasing evidence that reading and writing imaginative literature can improve personal well-being, generate cultural understanding and empathy, combat prejudice, help us come to terms with past trauma, promote a deeper understanding of the past, and foster renewed engagement with the natural environment. Creating (writing) and consuming (reading) imaginative literature generates a huge amount of income in the cultural industries, from book production to cultural heritage, and from screenplays to digital media.

However, despite the all-pervasiveness of literature in shared culture and individual consciousness, the ways in which literature matters in both a personal and collective sense is still underappreciated and under scrutinised. This FREE 3-day online international conference encourages participants to interrogate the importance (or not) of literature and writing in the 21^st century. See the full conference programme for further details. The conference will be FREE to attend, but registration in advance will be required, find details below and also in the registration document which you can download here. Please register by 1 November 2024. The conference will be FREE.

‘Literature Matters’ Conference: how to register?
Find below the registration links for the 8 sessions for the ‘Literature Matters’ online conference (4-6 November 2024), which will be hosted online only, as a Microsoft Teams webinar event. Please note that you will need to register for each of the 8 sessions and there will be a unique link for each session. The lobby will open 15 minutes before each of the sessions. Your link will be good for the entire session (which might include a number of panels, round table discussion sessions, or a keynote talk). Please consult the conference programme for the full information about presentations in each session.Speakers and Panel Chairs: you will already have received an email with an invitation link to the session(s) you are speaking in or chairing. Please note that you will need to register for any of the other sessions you wish to attend, and you will receive a separate (session specific) link for each one.General attendees: please register for the sessions you wish to attend below, and you will receive a session specific link for each one.

Monday 4 November, Session 1 (10.00-14.30 GMT/11.00-15.30 CET) 

Monday 4 November, Session 2 (17.00-18.30 GMT/18.00-19.30 CET) 

Tuesday 5 November, Session 3 (09.30-13.00 GMT/10.30-14.00 CET) 

Tuesday 5 November, Session 4 (14.00-15.00 GMT/15.00-16.00 CET) 

Tuesday 5 November, Session 5 (17.30-20.00 GMT/18.30-21.00 CET)

Wednesday 6 November, Session 6 (09.30-13.00 GMT/10.30-14.00 CET)

Wednesday 6 November, Session 7 (14.00-15.00 GMT/15.00-16.00 CET) 

Wednesday 6 November, Session 8 (17.00-20.15 GMT/18.00-21.15 CET) 

This conference is organised by colleagues in the Department of English and Creative Writing (Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences) together with colleagues in Languages and Applied Linguistics (Faculty of Wellbeing, Education and Language Studies) at The Open University. The conference is supported by OpenARC, The Open University’s Arts Research Centre in the School of Arts and Humanities.

Conference Lead Organiser: Shafquat Towheed

Conference Assistant: Eleanor Dodd

Programme Committee members: Delia da Sousa Correa; Edmund King; Jonathan Gibson; Sara Haslam; Peg Katritzky; Joanne Reardon; Philip Seargeant; Jennifer Shepherd; Emma Sweeney; Alex Tickell; Nicola Watson; Molly Ziegler.