Twenty-First Warwick Symposium on Parish Research
Parish and Performance
A hybrid day conference on Saturday 13 May 2023
at the Institute of Advanced Studies on the University of Warwick's central campus co-organized by
Beat Kümin (Warwick History / My-Parish) & John Craig (Simon Fraser / Records of Early English Drama)
with Daniel Gettings and Maria Tauber (Warwick History)
Report by Daria Akhapkina (CSR Warwick) for H/SOZ/KULT [pdf Version]
‘The Thames at Richmond, with the Old Royal Palace’
(unknown Flemish school, early 17thC). © The Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge.
Keynote Address
'a strange perswasion': English parish performances and the Records of Early English Drama
Peter Greenfield (Professor Emeritus of English, University of Puget Sound, Washington)
Peter Greenfield has edited Gloucestershire and (with Jane Cowling) Hampshire for Records of Early English Drama and is currently part of the team editing the records of Norwich. He has also published on local dramatic activity outside London and on traveling performers.
Parishes were and are performative spaces. From the staging of plays and games to the conduct of ceremonies, parish culture has always included elements of oral, musical, mimetic and other types of public display. The twenty-first Parish Symposium, co-sponsored by My-Parish and Records of Early English Drama (with its REED Online platform), focused on the participants, occasions, evolutions and meanings of such activities, showcasing papers from an international set of speakers ranging across a wide geographical and chronological spectrum.
As detailed in the full programme, we were pleased to offer sessions on music / dance, drama and processions alongside contributions consisting / inclusive of elements of performance. In-person and virtual participants included PGR students, independent scholars and senior academics from a range of disciplinary backgrounds and countries.
In-person delegates discussing the opening keynote by Peter Greenfield. Pic: BK.
Full Symposium Programme & Poster
Revisit the Day's Proceeding via #PaSymp23
Symposium Report by Daria Akhapkina (CSR Warwick) for H/SOZ/KULT [pdf Version]
Co-organizers and online participants of the 21st Parish Symposium on 13 May 2023. Pics: P. Marshall & BK.
! We look forward to seeing you again at the 22nd Symposium:
'Parish Memory' on 4 May 2023 (tbc) !
Keynote, speakers, chairs & organizers perform sociability at the Varsity pub. Pic: BK.
We are grateful for the continued support of Warwick's Humanities Research Centre
Performative elements in our papers on homilies & parochial tyranny. Pics: BK.
RELATED RESOURCES
Michael Heaney is cited in 'Morris is a creature of its own' (Guardian) & has just published The Ancient English Morris Dance.
Klaas van Gelder explores local lordship & joyous entries in more detail in the Low Countries Historical Review
Dress rehearsal video of 'Heaven and Earth in a Little Space', a performance in All Saints North St York (April 2022, as discussed in Tom Straszewski's paper)