Dear BARS members,
We received no firm responses to our initial call for Expressions of Interest in hosting the 2028 BARS conference, and after exploring possibilities with a number of institutions, we have several potential venues for a 2030 conference, but as yet nowhere for 2028. We’re therefore reopening the call for Expressions of Interest until June 19th (see text below). We’re aware that the sector in the UK at the moment is under intense pressure (which has been brought home further to us through hearing about the experiences of colleagues we’ve approached regarding the 2028 conference), so it may be that at this point it’s not viable to schedule a big event two years in advance. Ideally, though, we would like to get back to a situation where we can announce the next BARS at the end of the international conference so that people can plan. If you might be able and willing to host BARS 2028, therefore, it would be brilliant to hear from you – please feel free to get in touch with questions and queries.
With best wishes,
Matthew Sangster (for the BARS Exec)
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BARS International Conference 2028: Call for Expressions of Interest
The British Association for Romantic Studies is pleased to invite Expressions of Interest in hosting its 2028 International Biennial Conference. This conference will follow the upcoming ‘Romantic Retrospection’ conference at the University of Birmingham (29-31 July 2026), which builds on successful BARS conferences in Glasgow (2024), at Edge Hill (with the North American Society for the Study of Romanticism; 2022), online (2021), in Nottingham (2019), in York (2017) and in Cardiff (2015). BARS membership and conference attendance have grown and diversified over the past decade, and delegate feedback from recent events has been very positive.
Drawing on this momentum, we are very much looking forward to working with institutions to build on and further diversify the successful BARS model.
To make BARS accessible, we generally run the conference across three full days during the working week, usually in late July or early August. Further details about the usual shape of conference are given below, and a full set of programmes for past conferences can be seen here.
Expressions of Interest should include a description of the host institution (or institutions – we’re open to partnerships), including the proposed venue(s); details of a potential conference theme; and an outline budget to give a sense of the likely cost for delegates (an example budget template can be provided on request). Expressions of Interest should be sent to the BARS Secretary, Andrew McInnes (bars.secretary@gmail.com), by Friday 19th June 2026.
We are happy to answer questions from potential conference hosts; these can be addressed to Andrew McInnes and the BARS President, Matthew Sangster (bars.secretary@gmail.com and matthew.sangster@glasgow.ac.uk).