We are glad to announce that the annual doctoral and postdoctoral research conference ‘Dante Futures 2024: New Voices in the UK and Ireland’ will take place in person at the University of Cambridge, King’s College, on 15-16 November 2024.
‘Dante Futures 2024’ will be the third edition of the event, previously held at University College Cork (2022) and the University of Leeds (2023). The aim of the conference is to create a space for emerging researchers in the field of Dante Studies in Ireland and the UK to present their work in progress, engage in meaningful discussions with peers, and receive valuable feedback from experienced researchers and postdoctoral fellows. ‘Dante Futures’ also intends to foster collaboration between the major institutions engaged in Dante Studies at PhD and postdoctoral level in Ireland and the UK.
We are delighted to welcome as our keynote speaker this year Prof. Catherine Keen (University College London) with the lecture: ‘Banished Voice: Positioning Dante’s Exile from Florence in Lyric Verse’.
Other highlights of the conference will include:
- Dante-themed poetry reading
- Multimedia performance ‘Dante Dreaming’
- Exhibition of library holdings related to Dante at King’s College, Cambridge
Conference Programme
Friday 15 November 2024
11.00-12.00 Library visit (King’s College Library – meet outside)
12.00-13.00 Lunch (King’s catering)
13.00-14.00 Panel 1 – Chairs: Dr Katherine Travers, Dr George Rayson (Audit Room)
Becky Reilly (Cambridge), Bodies without Souls: Zombification and Queer Liminality from Cavalcanti to Dante
Ruoci Song (Cambridge), The Freeze Response in Dante’s Inferno: Gesture as Psychological Paralysis
14.00-15.15 Keynote: Prof Catherine Keen (UCL), ‘Banished Voice: Positioning Dante’s Exile from Florence in Lyric Verse’ (Audit Room)
15.15-15.30 Break
15.30-16:30 Panel 2 – Chairs: Dr Giulia Boitani, Dr Ryan Pepin (Audit Room)
Bruna Lorenzin (Torino/UCC), Chivalric Watermarks of the Spiritual Battle: Dante and the Dominican Preachers
Gianluca Caccialupi (Tours), ‘E come i gru van cantando lor lai’: Inferno V and the Tristan en prose
16:30-17.00 Coffee Break
17.00-18.00 Panel 3 – Chairs: Dr Scott Annett, Dr Valentina Mele (Audit Room)
Chiara Valcelli (UCC), Polyphonic Bodies: Bakhtinian Perspectives on Corporeality in Dante’s Commedia and Joyce’s Ulysses
Katherine McKee (Oxford), ‘Inebrïate da li odori’: Dante and Medieval Olfactory Theories
18.00-20.00 ‘Dante Dreaming’ (Keynes Hall)
A programme of music and readings inspired by Dante, with Lorenzo Bastida, Stephane Crayton, and Rachel Hodgson
20.00 Dinner (The Eagle, Bene’t St, Cambridge CB2 3QN): partially subsidized, pre-registered participants only
Saturday 16 November 2024
9.30-10.30 Panel 4 – Chairs: Dr Alessia Carrai, Dr Lorenzo Dell’Oso (Audit Room)
Elisa Rosati (UCC), ‘Visum principium’ and ‘figura Ecclesiae’: Rachel’s presence in Dante’s Commedia
Elsina Caponetti (UCC), Bodies’ Testimonial Role in Visionary Narratives and Dante’s Commedia
10.30-10.45 Break
10.45-12.00 Panel 5 – Chairs: Dr Katherine Powlesland, Dr Helena Phillips-Robins, Dr Aistė Kiltinavičiūtė (Audit Room)
Enrica Leydi (Warwick), Resurrecting Dante in Vincenzo Monti’s I Poeti dei primi secoli della lingua italiana
Gennaro Ambrosino (Warwick), Between Scientific Exploration and Introspection: the Climb of Vesuvius as a Purgatorial Journey in the 18th and 19th Centuries
Frey Kalus (Cambridge/Freie Universität Berlin), Dante’s Natural Disasters
12.00-12.15 Break
12.15-13.15 Panel 6 – Chairs: Dr Rebecca Bowen, Dr Serena Vandi, Dr Federica Coluzzi (Audit Room)
Francesca Sartori (Bristol), Stories from Dante: Adaptation, Rewriting and Gender Dimension in Three Retellings of Dante’s Commedia
Clara Santarelli (Genova), «“Inevitable” dantismo»? The case of Amelia Rosselli’s Dantism
13.15-14.30 Lunch (King’s catering)
14.30-15.30 Panel 7 – Chairs: Dr Serena Vandi, Dr Lachlan Hughes (Audit Room)
Jonny Wiles (Cambridge), ‘We Know Not Where’: Staging Afterlives Between Dante and Shakespeare
Sean Wyer (Oxford), Jhumpa Lahiri’s ‘Dante Alighieri’
15.30-16.00 Coffee Break
16.00-16.50 Special Issue Launch: ‘Cavalcanti dopo Cavalcanti. The Reception of Guido Cavalcanti in Italy,’ Italianistica 2024/2 (Dr Valentina Mele) (Audit Room)
Valentina Mele and Daragh O’Connell: presentation of the project
Valentina Mele, Catherine Keen, and Aistė Kiltinavičiūtė: overview of the issue
Publishing a special issue: some reflections
Q&A
16.50-17.00 Final remarks
17.00-18.30 Poetry reading and reception (Audit Room)
Participants will read their own creative responses to Dante or recent short poems and prose by young writers engaging with Dante’s oeuvre in Italian and English
20.00 Dinner (Millworks, Newnham Rd, Cambridge CB3 9EY): pay-for-yourself, pre-registered participants only
