Academic Programme
ATHENS
MONDAY 1 JULY
The Great Hall, Central Building, National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, 30 Panepistimiou Av.
19:30 – 21:00 Official Opening Ceremony in the Great Hall with speeches of welcome:
- Professor Gerasimos Siasos, Rector, National and Kapodistrian University of Athens
- HE Mr. Matthew Lodge, Ambassador of the United Kingdom to the Hellenic Republic
- Dr. Olympia Vikatou, Director General of Antiquities and Culture Heritage, Hellenic Ministry of Culture
- Mr. Spiridon Diamantopoulos, Mayor of the Sacred Town of Messolonghi
- Mrs. Rodanthi-Rosa Florou, Chair of the Organizing Committee.
KEYNOTE ADDRESS (1)
Dr. Fani-Maria Tsigakou, Art Historian
“Ut Pictura Poesis: Byron’s Poetry vs. Byronic Iconography”
Evening concludes with the song “Long live Messolonghi” performed by Ada Athanasopoulou (soprano).
ATHENS
TUESDAY 2 JULY
National Historical Museum of Athens, Old Parliament Building, 13 Stadiou Street 10561
10:00-10:10 Welcome by the President of the Historical and Ethnological Society of Greece / National Historical Museum, Dr. Marietta Minotou
10:10-10:50 A conversation between John Earl of Lytton and Robin Lord Byron.
Moderator: Peter Graham
10:50-11:10 Break
11:10-11:50 Poetry reading by A. E. Stallings and Peter Graham
Moderator: Roderick Beaton
11:50-13:15 PANEL A – Byron’s Pilgrimages
Chair: Roderick Beaton
Aristides N. Hatzis, National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, Greece
“Byron on Liberalism”
James Chandler, University of Chicago, USA
“Byron and Plato”
Elias Kolovos, University of Crete, Greece, and Anne McCabe, University of Oxford , UK
“Passport to Immortality: Lord Byron’s Firman from Sultan Mahmud II for a Grand Tour/Seyâhat in the Ottoman Empire (1810-11)”
MESSOLONGHI
WEDNESDAY 3 JULY
Aitoloakarnania Regional Government Building, Amphitheatre (Room A), Kyprou Str.
16.30-17.45 PANEL B – Poetic Responses
Chair: Naji Oueijan
Christine Kenyon Jones, King’s College London, UK
“‘The Pilgrim of Eternity’: A Temporary Response”
Panos Karagiorgos, Ionian University, Corfu, Greece
“Greek Poems Inspired by Byron’s Death”
David Woodhouse, The Byron Society, UK
“‘The realms of rhyme’: Byron in 8 Couplets”
17.45-18.00 COFFEE BREAK
18.00-19.00 KEYNOTE ADDRESS (2)
Chair: Maria Schoina
Professor Jane Stabler, University of St Andrews, UK
“‘Time is—Time was—Time’s past’: Moments with the Pilgrim of Eternity”
MESSOLONGHI
THURSDAY 4 JULY
Aitoloakarnania Regional Government Building, Kyprou Str.
For the ensuing parallel sessions, those labeled A will be in the Amphitheatre (Room A) and those labeled B in the Council Chamber (Room B).
9.30-10.45 PANEL 1 – ROOM A – Byronic Heroism
Chair: Peter Myrian
William Davis, Colorado College, USA
“Byron as War Hero”
Michelle Taylor, University of South Florida, USA
“The New Byronic Hero: Teaching Byron at the Bicentennial”
Sean Jones, University of South Florida, USA
“The Byronic Hero from Childe Harold to Contemporary Literature”
9.30-10.45 PANEL 1 – ROOM B – Byron’s Printed Legacy
Chair: Catherine Addison
Monika Coghen, Jagiellonian University, Kraków, Poland
“Publishing Byron in Communist Poland: Juliusz Żuławski’s Editions of Byron’s Works”
Giorgos Giannikos, University of the Peloponnese, Greece
“The Death of Lord Byron in the English-Language Press of Canada in 1824”
Marc Gotthardt, University of Cambridge, UK
“Bound to Last? Byronic Piracies”
10.45-11.00 COFFEE BREAK
11.00-12.15 PANEL 2 – ROOM A – Byron and Pop Culture
Chair: Omar Miranda
Auricélio Soares Fernandes, State University of Paraíba, Brazil
“New Byronic Heroes in TV Shows: Comparing Male Characters in Taboo and Bridgerton”
Kaila Rose (International Association of Byron Societies)
“‘Between two worlds life hovers like a star’: A Byronic Exploration of our Alien World and the Social Responsibility of Pop Art’s Influence”
Flora Mak, Chinese University of Hong Kong
“‘Fiery Dust’ Reprised: The Contemporary Relevance of Byronic Heroism”
11.00-12.15 PANEL 2 – ROOM B – Byron’s Death
Chair: Drew Hubbell
Guðni Elísson, University of Iceland
“Byron and the Art of Dying”
Jonathan Gross, DePaul University, Chicago, USA
“Choosing the Moment of One’s Death: Byron, Pushkin, Mickiewicz”
Maria Kalinowska, University of Warsaw, Poland
“The Image of Byron’s Death in Polish Literature”
12.15-12.45 COFFEE BREAK
12.45-14.00 PANEL 3 – ROOM A – Byron’s Modern Inheritors
Chair: Piya Pal Lapinski
Amal Bou Sleiman, Saint Joseph University, Beirut, Lebanon
“When Nietzsche Speaks Byron’s Language: The Eternal Recurrence in
Byron’s Poetry”
Tim Wandling, Sonoma State University, USA
“The Ends of Eternity: Byron, Auden and ‘gay and witty muses’”
Mirka Horova, Charles University, Prague, Czech Republic
“The Game of Life: Byron and Burgess’s Byrne”
12.45-14.00 PANEL 3 – ROOM B – Byron’s Legacy towards the East
Chair: Jonathan Gross
Małgorzata Nowak, Adam Mickiewicz University, Poznań, Poland
“In the Quest of God and Eternity: Juliusz Slowacki on Byronic Roads”
Małgorzata Wichowska, Adam Mickiewicz Museum, Warsaw, Poland
“Byron in the Adam Mickiewicz Museum of Literature”
Innes Merabishvili, Tbilisi State University, Georgia
“‘Maid of Athens’ and Studies on Byron and Georgia”
14.00-14.45 LUNCH
14.45-16.00 PANEL 4 – ROOM A – Byron and his Contemporaries
Chair: David Woodhouse
Ludmilla Kostova, “St. Cyril and St. Methodius” University of Veliko Tarnovo, Bulgaria
“‘A depth of feeling and a vigour of imagination, which Lord Byron could not
excel’: Thomas Hope’s Anastasius and Byron’s Public Image in the Early Nineteenth Century”
Greg Kucich, University of Notre Dame, USA
“Byron and Leigh Hunt: Unlikely Co-Pilgrims of Eternity”
John Owen Havard, State University of New York at Binghamton, USA
“Byron the American”
14.45-16.00 PANEL 4 – ROOM B – Eternity, Infinity, Christianity
Chair: Mirka Horova
Young-ok An, University of St. Thomas, Minnesota, USA
“‘Why, when all perish, why must I remain?’: Dark Eternity in Heaven and Earth”
David Radcliffe, Virginia Tech, USA
“Byron among the Christians”
Marcin Leszczyński, University of Warsaw, Poland
“Cain: The Pilgrim of Eternity and Infinity. Astronomical Deep Space and Geological Deep Time in Byron’s Drama”
16.00-16.15 COFFEE BREAK
16.15-17.30 KEYNOTE ADDRESS (3) – ROOM A
Chair: Stephen Minta
Professor Andrew Stauffer, University of Virginia, USA
“Byron in Messolonghi, 1824-2024”
MESSOLONGHI
FRIDAY 5 JULY
Aitoloakarnania Regional Government Building
9.30-10.45 PANEL 5 – ROOM A – Form / Genre / Fragments
Chair: Jane Stabler
Catherine Addison, University of Zululand, South Africa
“Generic Pilgrimages: Byron’s Verse-Novel and Its Posterity”
Flora Lisica, Northeastern University, London, UK
“Fragmentation and Closure in Byron’s The Giaour (1813)”
Samantha Crain, Independent scholar, USA
“Fragmentation in Childe Harold”
9.30-10.45 PANEL 5 – ROOM B – Investigations, Discoveries, and Legacies
Chair: David McClay
Fernando Valverde, University of Virginia, USA
“Allegra in Bagnacavallo: New Documents and Unpublished Discoveries”
Alexander Grammatikos, Langara College, Vancouver, Canada
“Marketing Byron’s Hellenic Legacy: Greek and British-Greek Advertisements in The Byron Journal”
Marsha Manns Evans, Byron Society of America and Byron Society Collection, USA
“‘No, I am not through with Byron’: Leslie Marchand on the Significance of the International Byron Society”
10.45-11.00 COFFEE BREAK
11.00-12.30 PANEL 6 – ROOM A – Byron’s Reception and Influence
Chair: David Radcliffe
Jeffery Vail, Boston University, USA
“‘Bright, ruin’d spirit’: Thomas Moore and the Byron Legend”
Pedro Augusto Pinto, University of Sao Paolo, Brazil
“Byron and Russian Literature: Considerations on His Literary Influence”
Maria Gabriella Tigani Sava, University of Malta
“Tributes to Byron in Romantic Italy”
Miltiadis Michalakakis, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, Greece
“Byron’s Literary Pilgrimage to Rome: The Reception of Horace in Childe Harold’s Pilgrimage”
11.00-12.30 PANEL 6 –ROOM B – Byron and the Natural World
Chair: Christine Kenyon Jones
John Gatton, Bellarmine University, Kentucky, USA
“Byron, Pilgrim Among the Shades”
Matthew Ward, University of Birmingham, UK
“Byron and the ‘sea-born city’ of Allusion”
Tala El Halabi, Beirut Arab University, Lebanon
“The Dichotomy of the Nightingale and the Rose: Eastern Influence on
Selected Works of Lord Byron”
Drew Hubbell, Susquehanna University, Pennsylvania, USA
“‘When cash rules the grove’: Romantic Literature and the Hegemonic Alliance of Science, Capitalism, Empire”
12.30-13.30 ANNUAL GENERAL MEETING
13.30-14.45 LUNCH
14.45-16.00 PANEL 7 – ROOM A – Celebrity and Performance
Chair: John Gatton
Omar F. Miranda, University of San Francisco, USA
“Understanding Lord Byron’s Celebrity through Don Juan”
Valerie Doulton, Live Literature Company, UK
“Staging Byron”
David Roessel, Stockton University, New Jersey, USA
“From the Oak to the Olive: Julia Ward Howe’s Greek Journey”
16.00-16.15 COFFEE BREAK
16.15-17.30 CLOSING ROUNDTABLE – ROOM A – “Byron Here, Byron Now
Moderator: Andrew Stauffer
Roderick Beaton, King’s College London, UK and British School at Athens
Peter Graham, Virginia Tech, USA
Stephen Minta, University of York, UK
Naji Oueijan, Notre Dame University, Lebanon
Maria Schoina, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, Greece