Conference: New Directions in Old English Prose
University of Oxford – 30 March 2026
Conference Programme
New Directions in Old English Prose
30–31 March 2026
Faculty of English
University of Oxford
Day 1: 30th March 2026
08.30–9.00: Welcome and Registration
09.00–10.30: Session 1: Early Prose
Samuel Cardwell (University of Nottingham), ‘The Earliest English Sentence? Old Northumbrian psalm glosses in MS Pal. Lat. 68'
Maura McKeown (University of Oxford), ‘The Four Senses of Scripture and the Vespasian Psalter Glosses'
Emily Kesling (University of Bergen), ‘The Old English Exhortation to Prayer and the “Mercian Prefacing Tradition”'
10.30–11.00: Tea and coffee break
11.00–12.00: Session 2: Putting Prose in its Place
Christine Rauer (University of St Andrews), ‘Assigning Mercian Texts to Places and Individuals'
Tristan Major (Pontifical Institute of Mediaeval Studies), ‘Old English Prose at Winchester, c. 940–c. 1100'
12.00–12.15: Comfort break
12.15–13.00: Keynote 1:
John Hines (University of Cardiff), ‘Syntax, Style and Semiotics: How Anglo-Saxon Inscriptions help to frame and define Old English Prose'
13.00–14.00: Lunch break
14.00–15.30: Session 3: New Contexts for Alfredian Prose
Nagore Palomares (University of the Basque Country), ‘Weaving the Vernacular: Tracing Frankish Influences in Old English Texts'
Alice Jorgensen (Trinity College Dublin), ‘Gesceadwisnes in the Alfredian Prose Translations'
Eleni Ponirakis (University of Nottingham/UCL/University of Oxford), ‘Swa swa leof on treowum: Eriugena and the Alfredian Solioquies'
15.30–16.00: Tea and coffee break
16.00–17.30: Session 4: Repurposing Prose
Courtnay Konshuh (University of Calgary), ‘Missing Ealdormen: Editing Chronicle Prose'
Claudio Cataldi (University of Palermo), ‘Rewriting Christianisation in King Edgar's Establishment of the Monasteries'
Gabriele Cocco (University of Bergamo), ‘From Cloak to Allegory: Christian Adaptations in the Old English Apollonius of Tyre'
17.30–17.45: Comfort break
17.45–18.30: Keynote 2:
Luisa Ostacchini (University of Oxford), ‘Thinking Global, Acting Local: The Old English Martyrology's Worldview and Mercian Prose Composition'
18.30: Drinks Reception and Book Celebration
20.00: Conference Dinner
Day 2: 31st March
09.00–10.30: Session 5: Prose beyond the Pulpit
Stefan Jurasinski (SUNY Brockport), ‘Beyond Wulfstan: The Homiletic Element in Old English Legislation'
Anine Englund (University of Oxford), ‘Revisiting the Old English Soul-and-Body Homilies'
Elaine Treharne (Stanford University), ‘Women Readers (and Writers?) of Old English Prose'
10.30–11.00: Tea and coffee break
11.00–12.00: Session 6: Inclusion and Exclusion, Then and Now
Juliet Mullins (University College Dublin), ‘Ignored and Obscured: “Behind the Scenes” of Ælfric´s Lives of Saints'
Rebecca Stephenson (University College Dublin), ‘Weeding out the Danes: An examination of gardening metaphors in Latin and Old English prose texts describing Viking attacks and/or religious conversions'
12.00–12.15: Comfort break
12.15–13.00: Keynote 3:
Daniel Anlezark (University of Sydney), ‘West Saxon Prose from Alfred to Ælfric'
13.00–14.00: Lunch break
14.00–15.30: Session 7: Wulfstan's Style
Winfried Rudolf (University of Göttingen), ‘Wulfstan's Autograph Homily on Baptism and Its Echoes'
James Titterington (University of Oxford), ‘Prose in Progress: Tracing Wulfstan's Intellectual Development through Autograph Evidence'
Thomas A. Bredehoft (Chancery Hill Books), ‘Wulfstan's Prose'
15.30–16.00: Tea and coffee break
16.00–17.30: Session 8: Saints and Sinners
Claudia Di Sciacca (University of Udine), ‘Gūþ-Lāc vs Se Ealda Fēond? New Directions in the Demonology and Angelology of Gulthlac's Old English Prose Tradition'
Susan Irvine (University College London), ‘The Bridge as a Penitential Motif in Old English Prose'
Corinne Clark (University of Oxford), ‘Fashioning fragmentation in the Corpus Christi MS 303 Life of St. Margaret'
17.30: Close
Organising committee: Helen Appleton (Oxford), Rachel A. Burns (Oxford), Amy Faulkner (UCL), Niamh Kehoe (Oxford), Francis Leneghan (Oxford)
Registration is now open! Please click here for details:
Contact: francis.leneghan@ell.ox.ac.uk