On 20-21st September 2018, Dr Emma Williams hosted a colloquium on ’Writers and their Education’ at Oriel College, Oxford. Emma led the colloquium with Dr Liam Gearon (Oxford). The event was fully funded by a grant from the Society for Education Studies.

’Writers and their Education’ provided the platform for examinations of the rich and often un-mined possibilities in literature for thinking about education. Presentations and representations of education are often found in writings across all literary genres. The colloquium asked the question: how do these extend and open new pathways of knowledge in education? It also provided the occasion to for critical examinations of the style, form and language of educational research, and the integral role of writers and writing in the intellectual life of the academic. It addressed the wider question: why does anyone write?

The colloquium had an international and interdisciplinary theme. Over 90 delegates attended, with over 25 parallel papers delivered from scholars in leading UK and international institutions, including former Children’s Laureate, Michael Rosen. Keynote lectures were delivered by Professor Homi Bhabha (Head of Humanities at Harvard University); Professor Tony Cascardi (Dean of Arts and Humanities at University of California Berkeley); Professor Noel Carroll (City University New York); Professor Ivor Goodson (University of Brighton); Associate Professor Eileen John (University of Warwick) and Professor Zachary Leader (University of Roehampton). Also in attendance were literary and cultural professionals including representatives of bookshops, museums, and the British Council.

A Special Issue of the British Journal of Educational Studies on ’Writers and their Education, co-guest edited by Emma Williams and Liam Gearon, will be out in November 2019.