Conference dates
Thursday 29 October to Sunday 1 November 2015
Gregynog Hall, Tregynon, Nr Newtown, Powys. SY16 3PW
Welcome to the Marcher Metaphysicals Conference site
About the conference
Welcome to the ‘The Marcher Metaphysicals’ 2015, a conference to explore the relationship of the seventeenth-century metaphysical poets to liminal spaces, particularly the border country known as the Welsh Marches.
This realm of geographical and political boundaries was significant to several of the leading early modern devotional poets – Herbert, Vaughan, Traherne, Donne – as they themselves negotiated the borderlands between God and humankind, language and silence, earth and heaven. Their symbolic border-crossings have also been significant to many modern poets from Wales and England who have followed in their tradition. This is a conference about the poetic exploration of borders in the early modern and more recent periods: borders as varied as aesthetic, linguistic, geographical, political, ecclesiastical and, of course, metaphysical.
Co-operative venture
The event is a co-operative venture between the Vaughan Association and the George Herbert Society, organised primarily by Dr Joe Sterrett of Aarhus University, Denmark, and Prof Helen Wilcox of Bangor University, Wales, with the support of Dr Chloe Preedy (Exeter University, England), Dr Erik Ankerberg (Milwaukee Lutheran College, U.S.A.) and Dr Elizabeth Ford (Open University, Cardiff, Wales).
On this website
On the following pages you will find the Call for Papers (deadline, 28 February 2015) and the contact details of the organisers. In due course, you will also be able to access the draft programme, the conference registration form, and details of bursaries for participants, particularly postgraduate students, as well as travel advice and other practical tips for delegates.