UPCOMING EVENTS
As for Mr. Joyce , I can’t see what he’s after, though having spent 5/- on him, I did my level best, and was only beaten by the unutterable — then as you don’t waste your time on reviews, but sit in a farmhouse [Garsington] , and occasionally turn over a vegetable marrow — why don’t you try a few experiments– our press you know, is to give birth to every monster in the vicinity.
Virginia Woolf to Clive Bell, “July 1917,” Letters II, 167.
This talk traces Virginia Woolf’s evolving relationship to book production at the Hogarth Press, from the handmade aesthetics of its early small-press publications to its later commercial identity. Beginning with Kew Gardens (1919) and Hope Mirrlees’s Paris: A Poem (1920), it considers how these works were made by hand, how their artistic features shaped their meaning, and how they entered the literary marketplace. It then turns to Orlando and Flush to examine Woolf’s later involvement in questions of production, circulation, sales, and reception. Across these examples, the talk explores how the Hogarth Press changed over time, and how Woolf’s practical engagement with books helped shape the Press’s public identity.
“‘Oning’ with Julian of Norwich: Meditations on the Rhetorical, the Visual, and the Temporal” with Madeline Fox
May 11, 2026
10.00AM in Pacific Time
Our Assistant Director, Madeline Fox, will give the Enclosure Group’s Spring Talk on Monday, May 11 at 10.00AM PST/1.00PM EST. In her lecture, Madeline will introduce a method for reading Julian of Norwich’s Revelations through an attention to “oning.” Please email Madeline at madfox@umich.edu or Stacie at stacie.vos@aya.yale.edu to register!
While Enclosure Group events like this one remain free and open to the public, we welcome donations to Enclosure Academy ($10 suggested, but more or less depending on your ability).
PAST EVENTS
“Caring for Women in Late Medival Hospitals” with Nicole R. Rice
November 20, 2025
11.00AM in Pacific Time
We are delighted to invite everyone to a discussion with Nicole R. Rice, author of The Medieval Hospital: Literary Culture and Community in England, 1350-1550 and Lay Piety and Religious Discipline in Middle English Literature. She will give a talk based on her new project, “Caring for Women in Late Medieval Hospitals.” If you have a chance, please read the Introduction and Chapter Two of her recient monograph to prepare!
How to Meditate on Everday Objects in Seventeenth-Century England?
February 21, 2023
10.30AM in Pacific Time
This talk involves a brief introduction to the practice of occasional meditation in the seventeenth century – its method, objects and spaces. Then we will attempt to make our own seventeenth century meditations as a creative writing/artistic project to see if this practice still has currency today and how we can reshape it to fit our own everyday lives. Will our modern objects resist contemplation? Will we resort to more emblematic objects which are less rooted in our present? Only the spontaneous bending of the mind to the object in question will tell us. Perhaps like so many believers of the period, we too will fail and curse our ‘wandering’ or ‘disordered’ minds.
Penelope’s Odyssey, Sappho’s Tale: Studying Women’s Songs from Ancient to Modern Greece with Andromache Karanika
21.Apr.2021 12:00 PM in Pacific Time
This talk will take us on a journey of the tradition of folk songs and poetry from antiquity to contemporary examples while also discussing the experience of a Greek classicist working on oral tradition. With a methodology of “excavating under the words” it argues that the women’s song and poetry tradition and also lived experienced shaped much of the ancient poetry. With examples from Homer, the Homeric Hymn to Demeter, Sappho, and ballads and folk songs from contemporary Greece we will seek to uncover women’s voices and experiences. Special emphasis will be given to the theme of “NOSTOS,” leaving one’s homeland, constructions of desire for one’s former space, returning or not, and more.
March 11th, 17:30EST, Prof. Martha Rust, “Out of Eden and Back Again”
(Feb 18) Edith Hall: Negotiating Class and Gender in Classics and in the Real World with Edith Hall
In order to listen to Edith Hall’s talk titled: “Negotiating Class and Gender in Classics and in the Real World with Edith Hall”, you have to register here In this talk Edith Hall will explore the interactions between her extra-curricular life since her schooldays, including her political activism, and the topics she has chosen to …
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Wed., Feb 10th 4PM GMT, Beginningless Remaking in Julian of Norwich’s Vernacular Theology
Beginningless remaking in Julian of Norwich’s vernacular theology
Vernacular theologian Julian of Norwich, (c. 1343 – c. 1416) devoted much of her adult life to revising the account of her visionary experience; the earlier, shorter Vision Showed to a Devout Woman and the later, longer Revelation of Love both bear witness to incessant reviewing of form and content. Reading these revisions alongside anchoritic liturgy, I argue that both how Julian’s text and thought evolve, and that they evolve constitute “dissimilar similarities”. These are similitudes like and unlike the celestial glory they image — a paradox earlier theorized by the Pseudo-Dionysius — of the beginningless, maternal remaking Julian ascribes to Christ.
(Feb 1) A book celebration. Prof. Jacqueline Jung (Yale Univ.) in conversation with Prof. Gregory Bryda (Barnard College)
(Feb 4) Hope: An Artist’s Journey Through the Landscapes of Faith by Laura Lasworth
We are excited to announce that Laura Lasworth is giving a talk titled “Hope: An Artist’s Journey Through the Landscapes of Faith on Feb 4th, 7-8pm PST. Please note, that you have to register on evenbrite in advance. You can do this by clicking here We are looking forward to listening to this interesting talk!
February Reading
Georgia Ronan Crampton (ed.) Julian (a reminder) Douglas Sugano (ed.): The N-Town Plays Clifford Davidson (ed.): The York Corpus Christi Plays Theresa Coletti (ed.): The Digby Mary Magdalene Play Clifford Davidson (ed.): Mary Magdalene within the York Corpus Christi Plays
Call for Abstracts: Women on Medieval Philosophy
Women On Medieval Philosophy 8–10 July 2021: International Online Conference, Hosted by the University of Leuven (Belgium)
Call for Abstracts
We invite submissions to our upcoming conference from women scholars
working on any aspect of medieval philosophy, broadly construed. The
conference aims to provide an opportunity for women in all stages of their
academic careers to present their current research, and in doing so
showcase women’s contributions to the field, as well as to help foster
networking opportunities between participants. We especially encourage
submissions from underrepresented groups and from scholars working on
underrepresented topics in medieval philosophy.