University Events

John Coffin Memorial Annual Palaeography Lecture
Time: 18:00 - 19:00

'Inscribed images and inspired scribes' by Dr Jennifer O'Reilly, FSA (University College Cork)

Dr. Jennifer O'Reilly is a member of the Royal Irish Academy.  Her research interests include:  1. The transformation of the inheritance of Late Antiquity in the early medieval West, particularly in Irish and Anglo-Saxon monastic culture, including: ideas of Rome and Jerusalem, the centre and the periphery; the literature of conversion and pilgrimage; patristic and Insular biblical exegesis and hagiography; the work of Adomnán and Bede; the Book of Kells and the art of the Insular Gospel-books.  2. Issues of text and image and various iconographic themes in Early Christian, medieval and Renaissance art, including: aspects of the Incarnation and Passion; the Tree of Life; Virtues and Vices; symbolic architecture, maps, diagrams and images of divine order and inner journeys; scribal, author and donor portraits.

Recent Publications include: ‘Bede on seeing the God of gods in Zion ’, in Alastair Minnis and Jane Roberts (ed), Text, image and interpretation. Studies in Anglo-Saxon liturature and its Insular context in honour of Éamonn ÓCarragáin (Brepols, Turnhout 2007) .  ‘Two pages from the Book of Kells’, in James Elkins (ed), Visual practices across the University (Munich 2007).  ‘Signs of the Cross. Medieval religious images and the interpretation of Scripture’, chapter commissioned for T.Ayers (ed),  The History of British art, 600-1600  (Tate Britain and the Yale Center for British Art 2008) .  ‘“All that Peter stands for”. The romanitas of the Codex Amiatinus reconsidered’, in James Graham-Campbell and Michael Ryan (ed), Anglo-Saxon/Irish relations before the Vikings, Proceedings of the British Academy157 (Oxford 2009).

Free and open to the public, and followed by a wine reception. If you would like to attend please contact Jon Millington, Institute of English Studies: jon.millington@sas.ac.uk ; tel +44 (0)207 664 4859.

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Hilda Hulme Memorial Lecture 2011-2012
Time: 18:00 - 19:00

James Shapiro (Columbia University): 'Unravelling Shakespeare's Life'

Cradle-to-grave biographies of Shakespeare in the twenty-first century have steadily drifted toward fiction and toward reading the life out of the works.  James Shapiro unravels the writing of Shakespeare’s life over the past two centuries in an effort to understand when and why these trends have occurred, what price we pay for this biographical tradition, and what alternative approaches might offer.

James Shapiro is Professor of English and Comparative Literature at Columbia University, where he has taught since 1985.  He the author of Rival Playwrights: Marlowe, Jonson, Shakespeare (1991), Shakespeare and the Jews (1996), Oberammergau: The Troubling Story of the World’s Most Famous Passion Play (2000), 1599: A Year in the Life of William Shakespeare (2005), which was awarded the Samuel Johnson Prize for the best non-fiction book published in Britain, and Contested Will (2010), which was awarded the Theater Library Association's George Freedley Memorial Award. He also works with a number of theater companies, including Theatre for a New Audience and the Royal Shakespeare Company. 

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John Coffin Memorial Irish Studies Lecture
Time: 18:00 - 19:00

'Samuel Beckett: Mystic' by Professor Declan Kiberd (University College Dublin)

Declan Kiberd joined UCD as lecturer in Anglo-Irish literature in 1979, having taught English previously in the University of Kent at Canterbury (1976-7), and Irish in Trinity College Dublin (1977-9). He was appointed Chair of Anglo-Irish Literature and Drama at UCD in 1997. He has also been Director of the Yeats International Summer School (1985-7), Patron of the Dublin Shaw Society (1995-2000), a columnist with the Irish Times (1985-7) and the Irish Press (1987-93), the presenter of the RTE Arts programme, Exhibit A (1984-6), and a regular essayist and reviewer in the Irish Times, TLS, London Review of Books and the New York Times.

Free and open to the public, and followed by a wine reception. If you would like to attend please contact Jon Millington, Institute of English Studies: jon.millington@sas.ac.uk ; tel +44 (0)207 664 4859.