text by Lucyna Krawczyk-Żywko, photos by Dorota Babilas, Anna Krawczyk-Łaskarzewska, Paweł Rutkowski
Last month, we were hosting another From Queen Anne to Queen Victoria conference. The theme of QAQV9 was the past which, according to the well-known line by William Faulkner, “is never dead” and is “not even past”. It was the second conference organised around a specific theme, chosen already in preparation for the jubilee QAQV10 that will mark 20 years since the first From Queen Anne o Queen Victoria in 2007 and as such will invite many a look into the past.
As always, the participants delivered perceptive papers and engaging discussions followed, both during Q&A sessions and coffee breaks. Our keynote speakers – Prof. Jerome De Groot, Prof. Valerie Purton, and Prof. Mina Gorji – gave us plenty of food for thought and rumour has it that some of their astute insights have already been applied while working with students! As you can see, Prof. De Groot made a nod to our city in his plenary lecture.
The panels were varied, though day 2 was largely split between 18th-century and Dickens afficionados. Somewhat surprisingly, this year one of my personal highlights was a Dickensian paper: thanks to Sophia C. Jochem, I will keep looking for various coded messages whenever I see a Beecham’s advertisement.
As I mentioned during the closing referencing the last keynote lecture: I hope that the QAQV9 excellent talks, insightful questions and comments will keep echoing in our research and teaching and that we will meet old friends and new at the 2027 conference! In the meantime, we will be working on volume 9 in our series so that in the nearest future you may also partake in our perspectives on the past that is still present.
