ennyson's poetry was central in forming Victorian responses to the natural world and to scientific advances which underpin today's emerging fields of environmental studies and plant humanities, as well as interdisciplinary studies of literature and science, literary geographies, literature and the arts, and literature and print culture. His evocative idyllic settings inspired painters from the Pre-Raphaelites to Edward Lear, while his struggles with evolutionary theory engaged with a different vision of 'Nature, red in tooth and claw'. His poetic sonorities inspired new soundscapes in music and even later film adaptations. This will be a timely opportunity to explore the varied legacies left to us by the Victorians and their Poet Laureate, and to assess their relevance to the global climate and social justice crises of today.
Our conference welcomes proposals that range widely, from geology to garden design, from the celebration of landscape to warfare and the destruction of landscape, from the minutiae of the "Flower in the Crannied Wall" to the 'Vastness' of Space, from the threat of industrialisation and global capitalism to the promise of a utopian future, from imperial land-grabbing to the preservation of local identities and dialects.
Possible topics (among others):
- Science and evolution
- Neo-Victorian Afterlives
- Industrialization, Pollution, Extractive Capitalism
- Landscape and Gender, Sexuality
- Sites of Devastation, War, Warfare
- Environmental and Psychology
- Dialect, Regionalism, and the sense of Place
- Poetry's Periodical and Print Ecologies
- Walking, Walking Tours, and Poetry
- The Lives of Flora and/or Fauna
- Ecologies, Landscapes, and Race
- Class hierarchies, Law, and Land Inheritance
- Tennyson and 'Nature Poets'
- Tennyson and the Arts, Sculpture, Architecture
- Tennyson and Ruskin, Morris, Meredith, Hardy
- Tennyson and Music, and Soundscapes
- Tennyson and L.E.L., E. Brontë, C. Rossetti
- Tennyson's Personal and Literary Networks
- Tennyson and Horticulture, Gardens, Farming
- Tennyson and the Sea
- Tennyson, Imperialism, and Foreign Lands
- Cemeteries, Waste, Dust
- Poetry and the Cosmos
- Plant Humanities
Abstracts (300 words) and bios (150 words) are due 31 January 2026. Please address any inquiries and submit proposals as attachments to tennyson2026@bishopg.ac.uk
.This conference is sponsored by the Tennyson Society and Lincoln Bishop University, this interdisciplinary conference will convene in Lincolnshire, the landscape into which Tennyson was born (see https://tennysonsociety.com/tennyson-2026-conference/2026-tennyson-conference/).
Created September 6, 2025
Last modified September 6, 2025