Please see below for a Call for Papers for a nautically-focused conference happening in Malta this March. The deadline for submissions is a couple of weeks away (January 22nd).
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Encountering Malta III
Literature and the Sea 1750-1850
An International Conference
hosted by the Department of English, University of Malta,
and the School of English, University of St Andrews
Valletta, Malta, Saturday 12 to Sunday 13 March 2016
Call for Papers
Located at the centre of the Mediterranean, Malta has been a destination for writers and travellers since ancient times and particularly so during the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. Count Cagliostro visited Malta in 1762 and 1766, and, twenty years later, Goethe planned a visit. Sir Richard Colt Hoare, antiquarian and collector, was in Malta in 1790-1, Thorvaldsen, Danish sculptor, in 1796, and Napoleon arrived for a few days in 1798. Samuel Taylor Coleridge made Malta his home in 1804-6, Lord Byron called during 1809, followed by Lady Hester Stanhope in 1812. Gabriele Rossetti stayed for three years from 1821. John Hookham Frere, diplomat and author, settled in Malta in 1828 and was visited by Sir Walter Scott. Disraeli arrived in 1830, John Davy (brother of the famous chemist) followed, as did Lamartine in 1832, Newman in 1832-3, and Prosper Mérimée and Hans Christian Andersen in 1841.
Focusing on the period 1750-1850, Literature and the Sea will be held in the elegant buildings of the Old University in Valletta. Twenty-minute papers on any aspects of the conference theme will be welcome. Papers on writers who actually visited Malta are welcome, but this is not an exclusive requirement. Please e-mail a 200-word paper proposal to Dr Maria Frendo and Professor Nicholas Roe at encounteringmalta@gmail.com. Your paper proposal should be in the form of a Word file attached to an e-mail message. Please ensure that you include your name, professional affiliation and e-mail contact. Deadline for paper proposals is 22 January 2016; acceptances will be confirmed by 31 January at the latest.
Papers on literatures other than English are welcome, but must be delivered in English. It is hoped that some of the papers may be published.
Confirmed speakers to date include Ivan Callus, Maria Frendo, Michael Raiger, Nicholas Roe, Matthew Scott, Peter Vassallo.
The ‘early bird’ Conference registration fee is set at 115 euros until Monday 8 February 2016, payable in advance to the University of Malta. After 8 February 2016 the rate for registration will rise to 135 euros (registration closes on the 26 February). Accommodation has been arranged at local hotels, at special conference rates. For all conference information, including registration and accommodation, please go to our website at http://www.um.edu.mt/events/sea2016.
Travel: Air Malta, British Airways, Ryanair and Easy Jet fly to Malta all year round from various European locations. Lufthansa, Alitalia and KLM also route to Malta, and Emirates has a direct flight from Dubai.
Enquiries may be e-mailed to Dr Maria Frendo at the University of Malta at maria.frendo@um.edu.mt or to Professor Nicholas Roe, School of English, University of St Andrews at nhr@st-and.ac.uk. Paper proposals should be sent to encounteringmalta@gmail.com.
Conference coordinators are:
Professor Ivan Callus (University of Malta), Dr. James Corby (University of Malta), Dr. Maria Frendo (University of Malta), Professor Nicholas Roe (University of St Andrews), Professor Peter Vassallo (University of Malta).
—But the sea, Jack, the sea—
John Keats