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Past Conferences
Beginning with the first meeting of the Society in
August 1983, biennial conferences have been held in
Belgium (Brussels and Ghent),
Cambridge,
Toronto,
Durham,
New York,
Oxford,
Stanford,
Palermo,
Notre Dame,
Helsinki,
and Arizona. (Descriptions of our Munich and London
conferences are forthcoming.)
The
Constitution of ISAS was approved by the Assembly at the Brussels meeting (the
Constitution was published in Anglo-Saxon England 13 [1984], 2-4). The text was drafted by Daniel
Calder of the University of California at Los Angeles, who also served as the
groups first Executive Director, elected to serve until 1989; Ren Derolez of
the University of Ghent, who served as the first President of the new organization;
Roberta Frank of the University of Toronto, who was elected to serve as First
Vice-President; and Stanley B. Greenfield of the University of Oregon, who was
elected as the groups Second Vice-President.
At the same meeting, Peter Clemoes was elected to
succeed Ren Derolez as the Societys new President from 1 January 1984 to 31
December 1985. At the meeting the membership approved also the names of the
officers and the Advisory Board. The officers and advisors began their duties
on 1 January 1984.
The second conference of ISAS took place in Cambridge
on 19-23 August 1985. The local arrangements committee, led by Peter Clemoes,
organized a program that features twenty-three papers, the first nine being on
the theme England South of the Humber during the Seventh, Eighth and Ninth
Centuries (H.R. Loyn, N. Brooks, S. Loyn, D.A. Hinton, M.G. Welch, H. Volrath,
M. Lapidge, M. Brown, J.M. Bately, W. Goffart, .. Carragain, M. Irvine, P.W.
Conner, T.D. Hill, W.P. Stoneman, R. Torkar, S. Keynes, D.W. Rollason, P.
Lendinara, R.E. Buckalew, J. McN. Dodgson, N. Lund, S.B. Greenfield). There was
also a panel discussion by D.G. Calder, R. Cramp, A.J. Frantzen, and P.
Wormald. This meeting was to establish the pattern for subsequent meetings (excepting
the meeting at Toronto) by distributing the program over a period from Monday
to Friday, and using Wednesday as a day for excursions. At Cambridge, the first
Honorary Members of the Society were named, the first panel discussion on
concerns relevant to the discipline was organized, and a schedule of reduced
dues for students was discussed. The last item was not finally authorized until
1991. Rosemary Cramp was elected First Vice-President, and Roberta Frank moved
to the Presidency, thus bringing the Society to North America for the first
time in 1987.
Simon
Keynes organized an exhibition of manuscripts and books in the Wren Library,
Trinity College, while the University Library turned its entrance hall into an
exhibition of its Latin and vernacular manuscript treasures. The University
Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology showed Anglo-Saxon material from the
Cambridge region, while the Fitzwilliam Museum offered an exhibition of
Anglo-Saxon coins. Heffers Bookshop printed a catalogue of publications in
Anglo-Saxon studies now in print, and hosted a wine reception among displayed
copies.
Special
features of the program included several receptions. The opening reception was
held in the Wren Library, at the invitation of the Master and Fellows of Trinity
College, the Master and Fellows of Emmanuel College, and the Cambridge
University Press. At the conferences special dinner in the Great Hall at
Trinity College, Robert W. Burchfield, Chief Editor of the Oxford Dictionaries,
gave a general address. There was also a recital of Anglo-Saxon words and
music.
The
participants made an excursion to Sutton Hoo, where Martin Carver, Director of
the Sutton Hoo Research Project, gave a brief report on the current work, and
Boydell and Brewer hosted a party. The second excursion was a full day to
Repton (speakers M. Biddle, B. Kjlbye-Biddle, and H. Taylor) and Brixworth
(speakers D. Parson and D. Sutherland).
About one half of the members of ISAS attended the
Third Meeting of the Society at the University of Toronto on 20-23 April 1987.
There were twenty-four papers and presentations, many of which pertained to the
general theme of the conference, word studies and lexicography (A Bammesberger,
R.H. Bremmer, Jr., J. Hill, E.G. Stanley, R.I. Page, R. Cramp, J.A.
Graham-Campbell, R.D. Stevick, M.A. DAronco, N. Porter, R. Derolez, M.
Rissanen, J. Roberts, V. Strite, M. Lapidge, C. Fell, G.H. Brown, B. Green,
M.J. Toswell, D.N. Dumville, R. Poole, C. Berkhout, T.F. Hoad, F.C. Robinson).
In recognition of their distinguished service to the Society, D. Calder and
S.B. Greenfield were presented in abstentia with the St George Award.
Exhibitions
included a display in the Thomas Fischer Rare Book Library of medieval
manuscripts and early printed books from private and institutional collections
in Toronto, an exhibition entitled Canada Collects the Middle Ages at the
George R. Gardiner Museum, and, in the Rotunda, University College, a
collection of documents illustrating the history of Anglo-Saxon
studies.
The
Dictionary of Old English sponsored on Open House, which gave conferees an
opportunity to visit firsthand the premier research project in Old English
language study. Receptions were hosted by the University of Toronto Press, the
Lieutenant Governor of Ontario, and the Premier of Ontario. A dinner was held
in the Great Hall, Hart House, at which
the speaker was Milton McC. Gatch, The Blickling Homilies:
Post-Prandial Divagations. A special performance at ISAS 1987 was A Flaunting
of Falcons, at which four birds demonstrated their hunting and retrieving
skills indoors.
Rosemary Cramp became the new President, succeeding Roberta Frank; Paul Szarmach was elected First Vice-President, Patrizia Lendinara became the new Second Vice-President, and Mary Richards was named Executive Director of the Society.
The members if ISAS next met in 1989 at the University
of Durham in Durham, England. President Rosemary Cramp and her committee
scheduled thirty-five papers, many of which pertained to the general theme of
the conference, Cultural Interaction in Anglo-Saxon England (M. Carver, C.
Hills, H. Hamerow, K.L. Vaneman, G. Fellows-Jensen, P.R. Kitson, M.L. Cameron,
R.D. Fulk, D. Moffat, J.S. McKinnell, P.W. Conner, M.R. Godden, J.D. Pheifer,
T.A. Shippey, A. Smol, C.R. Davis, J. Hines, P. Wormald, T.W. Mackay, P.E.
Szarmach, H. Tristram, S.L. Keefer and D. Burrows, K. OBrien OKeeffe, I.
Henderson, R. McKitterick, G.R. Wieland, G. Beech, R. Gem, R. Gameson, M.
Clunies Ross, J.L. Singman, S.N. Tranter, R. Hasenfratz, R.E.
Deshman).
This
was the first ISAS meeting to feature several presentations in which computers
were used to analyze or present data pertinent to Anglo-Saxon studies.
Excursions were organized to Monkwearmouth, Jarrow, Hexham, Escomb, Ripon, and
Fountains Abbey on Wednesday. On Saturday, an excursion was planned to
Lindisfarne, calling at either Jarrow or Chester-Le-Street en route, viewing
Bamburgh, returning via Yeavering and Rothbury.
Receptions
during the conference were hosted by Durham University and by the Dean and
Chapter of Durham Cathedral. A dinner was held in the Great Hall, University
College, at which the speaker was R.N. Bailey.
There
were book displays and a special exhibition in Durham University Library on
Landmarks in Learning about the Anglo-Saxons, organized by A.I. Doyle. In the
Cathedral Treasury, Durham Cathedral, there was an exhibition on The
Anglo-Saxons: Anglo-Saxon Connections; the Museum of Archaeology featured The
Anglo-Saxons: an Anglo-Saxon Land.
Paul
Szarmach succeeded to the Presidency, and Malcolm Godden was elected First
Vice-President.
ISAS met at the State University of New York at Stony
Brook on 22-26 July 1991. The theme was The Preservation and Transmission of
Anglo-Saxon Culture. Thirty-six papers were presented (C.M. Sperberg-McQueen,
S. Megginson, M. Deegan, R. Cramp, R. Deshman, J. Nelson, G.H. Brown, D.
Pelteret, C.T. Berkhout, R. Fleming, H. Damico, J.R. Hall, U. Schaefer, R.
Huisman, F.C. Robinson, W.P. Stoneman, J. Wilcox, A. Fischer, P.J. Lucas, J.
Hill, R. McC. Gatch and A. Nicholls, C. Karkov, M. Kenney, H.R. Broderick, D.F.
Johnson, C. Neuman de Vegvar, E. Anderson, M.R. Godden, C.R.E. Cubitt, R.W.
Pfaff, M. Bridges, D. Hinton, N.P. Brooks, T.D. Hill, C.D. Wright, T.
Hall).
The
conferences included a day-long trip a Day in Medieval New York to see
medieval antiquities at the Cloisters and the Metropolitan Museum of Art and
dine at the Union Theological Seminary, where nearly all of the Anglo-Saxon
manuscripts
and fragments resident in North American had been gathered by William Stoneman
and Milton McC. Gatch.
A
dinner, in the form of an indoor clambake, was held at Stony Brook campus on
the last night of the conference.
Changes
were made in how the Society does business in 1991. The Society was directed to
open a visa account to facilitate
the payment of dues, and dues were increased from $10.00 to the present $15.00
(of 10.00 sterling) with a reduced rate of $10.00 (or 7.00 sterling) for
students. Malcolm Godden succeeded to the Presidency, and George H. Brown
became the First Vice-President. New duties elsewhere obliged Mary Richards and
Patrizia Lendinara to vacate their positions of Executive Director and Second
Vice-President, respectively.
Patrick
Conner was elected the new Executive Director and Phillip Pulsiano became the
new Second Vice-President.
It
was reported at this meeting that the membership had exceeded five hundred
members.
The Sixth ISAS conference was held at Wadham College,
in the University of Oxford, on 1-7 August 1993. This meeting was the first to
establish explicitly a theme, Culture and Social Context. Thirty-eight papers
were presented on the general theme of the conference (J. Campbell, H. Hamerow,
C.R. Hart, E. Okasha, S. Foot, W. Filmer-Sankey, B. Whitwell, A. Meaney, J.
Blair, J. Wilcox, C. David, J. Niles, A Orchard, A. Rossi-Reder, F. Bancila, J.
Cermk, P. Lozowski, J. Loszlovsky and J. Halcsy Scholz, N. Howe, A. Hagen, E.
Treharne, M. Biddle, E.B. Irving, P. Lendinara, L. Abrams, A. Corra, J.
Gerritsen, E. Dahl, D.N. Dumville, D. Donoghue, M. Irvine, D. Pelteret, S.
Hollis, J. McNamara, C. Ireland, M. Ogura, C. Biggam, R. Liuzza, J. Toswell).
Reports were given by D. Scragg and M. Lapidge, R. Pfaff, A. diPaolo Healey, C.
Hough, P. Pulsiano. There were two panel discussions, one on Anglo-Saxon
Bibliography: Making It Better (P. Szarmach, P.W. Conner, S. Keynes and P.
Pulsiano substituting for Carl Berkhout and one on The Historical
Thesaurus of Old English (C. Kay, J. Roberts and L. Grundy).
The
Oxford meeting also represents the point at which the Society had become
sufficiently secure financially that it could help support projects in which it
had a direct interest. To that end 1000.00 sterling were donated to the
Dictionary of Old English fundraising program, and a scheme to support the dues
of Anglo-Saxonists in Eastern Europe was put forward by Terry Hoad and
accepted.
An
after-dinner paper was presented by Daniel Donoghue, The Reception of Lady
Godiva.
There
was an exhibition of Anglo-Saxon manuscripts at the Bodleian Library and an
exhibition of Anglo-Saxon coins at the Ashmolean Museum.
The
conference included a day-long excursion to Winchester, with a tour of medieval
sites conducted by Martin Biddle, and an excursion led by John Blair at Lew,
Bampton, Langfor, Gloucester and Deerhurst.
George R. Brown rose to the Presidency, and Patrizia Lendinara was elected to the position of First Vice-President.
The Seventh Meeting of ISAS convened at Stanford
university on 6-12 August 1995. Organized around the conference theme Old and
New Ways in the Study of Anglo-Saxon Culture, the schedule of the meeting
featured thirty-five papers (S. Irvine, I.B. Milfull, P.P. ONeill, G. Clark,
C. Jacobs, A. Orchard, C.E. Karkov, B.C. Withers, R. Barnhouse, M. Blockley, P.
Lozowski, J.R. Schwyter, J. Graham-Campbell, L. Webster, E. Tyler, A.J.
Frantzen, A. Cox, J.W. Earl, J. Hill, H. Magennis, R. Marsden, G. Wieland, T.W.
Mackay, M.P. Brown, P. Acker, C. Hough, B. Yorke, U. Schaefer, C. Ehler, M.
Drout, W. Goffart, T.A. Bredehoft, M. Clunies Ross, C. Neuman de Vegvar, C.
Farr). Three sessions of reports were given by T. Leinbaugh, J.H. Brinegar,
D.E. Best, J.R. Black, D. Scragg, E. Coatsworth and G. Owen-Crocker, R. Cramp,
A. Bravo, M.J. Mora; and four sessions of media presentations were given by K.
Kiernan, K. Powell and D. Coombs, A. Prescott, M. Irvine and D. Evehart, C.
Branham, R. Altman, P. Pulsiano and W. Schipper.
An
after-dinner address was given by F.C. Robinson, Recalling Herbert Dean
Meritt, the Man and the Scholar.
The
conference included two day-long excursions, the first to the Napa Valley wine
region, the second to Monterey, Carmel, and San Juan Bautista. The Executive
Committee of the group granted 1000 sterling to the Bede Foundation to help
develop Bedes World, and it also subvened Anglo-Saxon Manuscripts in
Microfiche Facsimile with a grant of $500.00.
Katherine
OBrien OKeeffe was elected First Vice-President at Stanford. Patrizia
Lendinara succeeded to the Presidency. By 1995, our membership had exceeded 600
persons, and we began the option of offering lifetime memberships (at $200.00)
in order to build an endowment for the Society which will generate an income
sufficient to support the groups operating expenses.
The Eighth ISAS meeting took place at the Universit
di Palermo (Scienze della Formazione) on 7-12 July 1997. The theme of the
conference was Anglo-Saxon Studies in the Twentieth Century: Retrospect and
Prospect, and included thirty-five papers (C. Cubitt, K. Dekker, A.N. Doane,
M.D.C. Drout, D. Faraci, M. Godden, J. Gray, S. Gwara, J.R. Hall, T.N. Hall, J.
Hill, C. Hills, J. Hines, S. Hollis, C. Hough, S. Irvine, D.F. Johnson, C.A. Jones,
C.E. Karkov, U. Lenker, A. Lutz, , T. Malim, H. Momma, K. OBrien OKeeffe,
.. Carragain, D.P. ODonnell, A. Orchard, J. Roberts, M.T. Swan, P. Szarmach,
G. Whalen, J. Wilcox, P. Wormald, K. Yamanouchi). An electronic media
presentation was given by M. Foys.
Reports were given by P. Conner, J. Hill and N. Howe, P. Pulsiano, and
P. Szarmach. A round-table discussion on
Anglo-Saxon Studies in the Twenty-First Century was offered by W.G.
Busse, J. Hill, N. Howe, K. OBrien OKeeffe and U. Schaefer.
The
conference included two day-long excursions, the first to Palermo, Monreale and
Cefal, the second to Morgantina and Piazza Armerina.
Katherine
OBrien OKeeffe succeeded to the Presidency. Matti Kilpi assumes the post of
First-Vice President, and Joyce Hill enters as Second Vice-President. Phillip Pulsiano takes over from
Patrick Conner as Executive Director. Hugh Magennis, Michiko Ogura, Katalin
Halacsy Scholz and Elaine M. Treharne were elected to the Advisory Board,
replacing Michelle Brown, Mary Clayton, Matti Kilpi, and Tadao
Kubouchi.
At
the business meeting, the membership approved a proposal to examine the
possibility of publishing a volume of selected papers from future
conferences.
The Ninth ISAS meeting took place at the University of
Notre Dame, 8-14 August 1999 The theme of the conference was Imagined Endings:
Borders, Reigns, Millennia, and included 40 papers (A. Lutz, E. Treharne, T.
A. Bredehoft, C. Karkov, C. Jones, P. Lendinara, A. Orchard, S. Rowley, N. Thompson,
K. Jolly, J. Hines, A. Scharer, A. P. Scheil, A. J. Kabir, J. D. Niles, K. H.
Scholz, C. Neuman de Vegvar, H. Estes, A. L. Meaney, T. Kalmar, S. Keynes, T.
Klein, C. LeCluyse, S. Ai-Low, M. Lapidge, G. Whatley, J. Damon, H. Magennis,
G. Owen-Crocker, E. Coatsworth, J. Hawkes, D. Donoghue, N. Discenza, M.
Salvador, S. L. Keefer, S. Gwara, J. T. Lionarons, A. Sheppard, J. Hill, J. E.
Story). Electronic media
demonstrations were made by A. Orchard, L. Teresi, J. Gray, M.
Drout.
The
conference included an excusion to Chicago, with lunch and an exhibition at the
Newberry Library.
Matti
Kilp succeeded to the presidency, replacing Katherine OBrien OKeeffe. Robert
Bjork assumes the position as First Vice-President. Lesley Abrams, Mechthild
Gretsch, Nicholas Howe, Catherine Karkov, Simon Keynes, John Niles, and were elected as new members of the
Advisory Board, replacing Peter Baker, Kevin Kiernan, Michiko Ogura, Andy
Orchard, David Pelteret, and Ursula Schaefer.
The Tenth ISAS meeting took place at the University of
Helsinki, 6-11 August 2001. The theme of the conference was Anglo-Saxons and
the North. There were 39 papers given (Carole Hough, Mary P. Richards,
Margaret Clunies Ross, Peter J. Lucas, Barbara Yorke, Robert E. Bjork, Patricia
Poussa, Janne Skaffari, Kathrin Thier, Richard Marsden, Katherine OBrien
OKeeffe, Christine Rauer, Lesley Abrams, Debby Banham, Nicholas Howe, Seppo
Heikkinen, George H. Brown, Christopher Abram, Matthew Townend, Patrick W.
Conner, Michael D. C. Drout, Jonathan Roper, Geoffrey Russom, Pivi Kilpinen,
Lucia Kornexl, Michiko Ogura, Frank Battaglia, Lilla Kopr, Richard North, Mary
Clayton, Paul E. Szarmach, Pauline A. Thompson, Allen J. Frantzen, Stacy S.
Klein, Dora Faraci, Roy M. Liuzza, Karl Reichl, Susan Irvine, Malcolm Godden)
and three poster-presentations (Anne L. Klinck, Kristin Lynn Cole and Aideen
OLeary). Three special lectures
were delivered (Joseph Harris, Roberta Frank and Martin Carver). Five project
reports were also delivered (Antonette diPaolo Healey Rohini Jayatilaka, Martin
K. Foys, Simon Keynes, David Pelteret and
Francesca Tinti, Matti Rissanen). One interdisciplinary panel session was held
(Catherine Karkov, Karen Jolly, Sarah Larratt Keefer).
The
conference included receptions hosted by the University, and by the City of
Helsinki, which was held in the City Hall, and a conference dinner in the crypt
of the Cathedral. The conference marked the formal opening of the Ex Lux
Insula exhibition of manuscripts in
the University Library (jointly arranged and exhibited with St Petersburg), and
there was an exhibition of Anglo-Saxon Coins in the National Museum of Finland.
The excursion was to Hmeenlina Castle, the Church of the Holy Cross at Hattula
and the Riihimki Glass Museum.
The
conference was followed by a one-day symposium on August 13 at St Petersburg
State University, hosted by the Department of English Philology and
Translation, where eight papers were delivered (Igor K. Arkhipov, Marina Ye.
Tsvinariya, Yuri A. Kleiner, Gleb S. Lebedev, Andrei M. Tyun, Elena V. Mukha, Irina B. Rubert, Svetlana V.
Visharenko.
The
symposium marked the formal opening of the Ex Lux Insula exhibition of manuscripts in the National
Library of Russia (jointly arranged and exhibited with Helsinki). On August 12
there was either a city tour of St Petersburg and a visit to The Hermitage
Museum, or an excursion to Novgorod, followed by a dinner in one of the
eighteenth century aristocratic residences in the centre of St
Petersburg.
In
accordance with the Societys constitution, Matti Kilpi completed his term as
President on 31 December 2001. Robert Bjork assumed the post of President on
that date. Hans Sauer assumed the post of First Vice-President. Joyce Hill
completed her term of office as Second Vice-President on 31 December 2001 and
was succeeded by Elaine Treharne.
The term of office expired on 31 December
2001 for the following members: Katalin Halacsy Scholz, Hugh Magennis, and
Elaine Treharne. The following have been appointed as members of the Advisory
Board from 1 January 2002 to 31 December 2005 Leena Kahlas-Tarkka, Roy Liuzza,
Eamonn OCarragain.
Arizona
2003
Pictures can be seen
here.
The
Eleventh ISAS meeting was hosted by the Arizona Center for Medieval and
Renaissance Studies of Arizona State University and took place 4-9 August, 2003
at the Chaparral Suites Resort, Scottsdale, Arizona. Some fifty-one speakers
presented their work in twenty-four sessions, including 39 papers, several
project reports and three plenary speakers. The following members presented
papers: Adrian Papahagi, Daniel C. Anlezark, Elaine M. Treharne, Jacqueline
Stodnick, Mercedes Salvador, Heide R. Estes, Philip G. Rusche, Christina Lee,
Lisi Oliver, Thomas D. Hill, John Hines, Kathryn Powell, Sara L. Higley,
Nicholas Brooks, Carol Braun Pasternack, Kanerva T. Heikkinen, Thomas A.
Bredehoft, Christopher A. Jones, Andy Orchard, Matthew A. E. Hussey, Glenn M.
Davis, Robin Norris, Craig R. Davis, Robert D. Fulk, Joyce Hill, Mary Swan,
Karolyn A. Kinane, Hugh Magennis, Mechthild Gretsch, Damian Fleming,
Christopher LeCluyse, Joshua A. Westgard, Joanna E. Story, Samantha Zacher,
Anthony J. Adams, Nicole Guenther Discenza, Kathleen Davis, Guillaume Schiltz,
and Carol L. Neuman de Vegvar.
Many
of the papers dealt with the conference theme of Conversion and
Colonization, as did
the keynote lectures: Leslie Webster on Appropriating the Cultural Landscape:
Mind, Body, and Space in the Conversion Period, Allen J. Frantzen on Drama,
Confession, and Conversion in Juliana and John Blair on
How Christian was early Christian England? Reports were given on the
following projects: Klaeber's Beowulf (John D. Niles),
The Dictionary of Old English: A to F on CD-ROM (Antonette diPaolo
Healey), The Prosopography of Anglo-Saxon England Project: A Progress Report
(David A. E. Pelteret), Santa Crux Halig Rod Project Report (Catherine E.
Karkov and Karen Jolly), The Alfredian Boethius (Malcolm R. Godden), Alfred the
Great's Boethius: An Image-Based Electronic Edition (Kevin Kiernan) and The
Anglo-Saxon Formulary Project (Andy Orchard).
A
mid-week excursion to Sedona, the Grand Canyon, and the Painted Desert was
organized, during which several conferees chose to view the Canyon from the
sky, while others tested their endurance in the blazing sun by hiking down
trails better suited to more sure-footed four-legged species. Receptions were
hosted by Professor and Mrs Robert Bjork at their home, and by the Richard
Rawlinson Center for Anglo-Saxon Studies and Medieval Institute Publications.
The conference dinner, generously sponsored by the ASU
Vice Provost for Research and the Dean of the College of
Letters and Sciences, was held at Rawhide Western Town,
where conference members were entertained by some Wild West justice meted out
to their officers (see photos).
The
Advisory Board met several times to select new officers, implement the new
election procedures for the Advisory Board elections, and to consider the
business of the society. George Hardin Brown, Matti Kilpi and Donald G. Scragg
were accorded honorary memberships. Elaine Treharne was elected to a second and
final two-term as Second Vice-President. As per the newly adopted guidelines
(see our Constitution, in the Directory), the membership had been solicited for
nominations previous to the conference. The Advisory board then deliberated and
produced twelve further nominations, two for each soon-to-be vacant seat, and
the outgoing members of the Board arranged the resulting candidates on a
ballot. This ballot was subsequently distributed by mail and e-mail to all members
of the society. Two bids to organize the Biennial Conference in 2007 were
scrutinized, and upon considerable deliberation, London was chosen as the venue
for the 2007 conference, to be organized by a consortium headed by Jane Roberts
and Warwick Gould.