Held in Somerville College (Oxford)
15th & 16th July 2022

This international hybrid conference is the first academic event to focus solely on Julian’s writing, life, contexts, and influence long after her death. Offering thought-provoking panels and roundtables on a range of topics, from anchoritic trans-formations of the mundane to Critical Race Studies, it maps out new and emerging dimensions in Julian scholarship (see programme). The Somerville College choir will perform anthems based on Julian’s writing; a new play by writer-director Cindy, examining Julian’s enclosed life into old age, will premiere at the conference. The opening lecture will be given by Professor Nicholas Watson (Harvard) with responses from Professor Laura Saetveit Miles (Bergen) and Professor Barry Windeatt (Cam-bridge). Professor Liz Herbert McAvoy (Swansea) will close the conference.

Programme :

NVofJN – Programme

Thursday 14 July 18:00-19:00 BST: In-Person Welcoming Performance

New Music for a New Vision

by Dr. Alison Daniell (University of Southampton), Louise Stewart (Multitude of Voyces), and members of Somerville College Choir, dir. Will Dawes

Friday 15 July 08:30-09:15 BST: In-Person Registration

09:15-09:25 BST: Opening Remarks and Welcome

11:00-11:30 BST: Tea and Coffee Break
11:30-13:00 BST – Panel One: Transfiguring the Mundane

Chair: Elizabeth Robertson
Julian of Norwich and Medieval Traversals of Time

Gillian Adler

Julian of Norwich on Love and Nothingness

Raphaela Rohrhofer

Producing Passioun: Reading Pain Generatively in the Revelations of Love Laura Kalas

The Custom of Our Prayer: Establishing the Context of Julian’s Anchoritic Discourse

Jo Koster

13:00-14:00 BST: Lunch Break
14:00-15:30 BST – Panel Two: Material and Immaterial

Chair: Annie Sutherland ‘But I saw not synne’

Fred Morgan

‘Dereworthy blod’, Meditation and Performance in Julian of Norwich’s Revelations of Divine Love and British Library, MS Egerton 1821
Anna-Nadine Pike

‘These words seyd our Lord’: Virtual Voices in Julian’s Text

Melissa Tu

Julian of Norwich’s Cell: The Role Archaeology Plays in Strengthening Authenticity and Impact
Victoria Yuskaitis

09:15-11:00 BST: Keynote Address

Julian of Norwich: Witness and Recension

Professor Nicholas Watson (Harvard)

Respondents

Professor Laura Saetveit Miles (Bergen), Professor Barry Windeatt (Cambridge)

15:30-16:00 BST: Tea and Coffee Break & Change of Venue to Pusey House 16:00-17:00 BST – Roundtable 1a: Creative Engagements with Julian

Moderator: Antje Elisa Chan
‘Visions of Divine Love’: A Poetic and Visual Response to Julian’s Revelations

Max Brumberg-Kraus and Jennifer Awes-Freeman

Creative Engagement with Revelations of Divine Love as Transcendental Cinema Caroline Golum

Voices in Dialogue: Meeting Julian through Margery in Contemporary Creative Adaptations
Laura Varnam

16:00-17:00 BST – Roundtable 1b: Julian in the Covid Era Moderator: Hannah Lucas

An Icon for Such a Time as This: A Pre-UK First Lockdown Anticipatory Consideration of Julian of Norwich and Pandemic Themes
Gill Butterworth

Reading Julian for Resilience

Margaret Healy-Varley

Julian of Norwich, the Church and Covid-19: A Scholarly and Pastoral Response

Richard Norton

17:00-17:30 BST: Refreshments
17:30-18:30 BST – Roundtable 2a: Premodern Critical Race Studies and

Julian of Norwich

Moderator: Mishtooni Bose

A Conversation between:

Michelle M. Sauer Dorothy Kim Bailey Ludwig Kyle Moore

17:30-18:30 BST – Roundtable 2b: Julian in Modern Contemplative Practices Moderator: Godelinde Gertrude Perk

When a Woman Sits Alone: A Creative Project Inspired by Julian of Norwich

Carla MacKinnon

Doorway to Silence: An Analysis of the Use of Julian’s Text by Contemplative Prayer Groups Today
Emma Pennington

Contemplating Cancer Cells: A Personal Account of Julian’s Companionship, Enduring and Writing about Two and a Half Years of Treatment for Myeloma Claire Foster-Gilbert

Saturday 16 July 09:00-10:30 BST – Panel Three: Modern Responses to Julian

Chair: Alicia Smith
Divine Motherhood in Julian of Norwich and Spiritual Maternity in Edith Stein

Laura De Gaspari

Beholding as Interpretive Strategy: Julian of Norwich’s Revelations of Divine Love and Christina Rosetti’s The Face of the Deep
Heather Glover

‘A Dangerous Book’: C.S. Lewis on the Revelations of Julian of Norwich Simon Horobin

Julian of Norwich: New Visions of Her Lives and Afterlives

Nancy Bradley Warren

10:30-11:00 BST: Tea and Coffee Break
11:00-12:30 BST – Panel Four: Textual Interventions

Chair: Laura Saetveit Miles
Towards a Grammar of Revelation: Editing and Translating Julian’s Revelations

Samira Lindstedt

What Do Scribal Corrections Show in Paris, BNF, fonds anglais MS 40?

Fumiko Yoshikawa

Editing Community in the Works of Julian of Norwich

Brenna Duperron

12:30-13:30 BST: Lunch Break
13:30-15:00 BST – Panel Five: Beyond the Anchorhold

Chair: Nicholas Watson Behovely Work

Alexis Becker

‘With alle the faith of haly kyrke’: Social Meaning and Dissent in the Writings of Julian of Norwich
Laurence Bond

Moving Beyond Economics with Julian of Norwich

David Palko

Julian and the Politics of Norwich

Chase Padusniak

15:00-15:30 BST: Tea and Coffee Break
15:30-17:00 BST – Panel Six: Working on/with Julian

Chair: Ayoush Lazikani
Julian of Norwich’s Shewings: A Medieval Failure, An Early Modern Success

Juliana Dresvina

The Weakness of A Revelation: Julian of Norwich, John Caputo, and the Questioning Event of Theology
Daniel Fishley

The Good Enough Mystic: Toward a Practical Theory of Julian Scholarship

Hannah Lucas

How We Got ‘Saint Julian’: A Short History in Images

Melaney Poli

17:00-17:15 BST: Break

17:45-18:15 BST: Refreshments 18:15-19:30 BST: Play

Cell

a darkly humorous play written and performed by Cindy Oswin

‘Cell’ examines the enclosed life of Julian of Norwich into old age

20:00-21:30 BST: Gala Dinner and Closing of the Conference