Author Archives: hopkinssocietyuk

Call for Papers

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Collecting, Collected, Collective:

Working With Hopkins

June 10 to 12, 2027

Proposals due: 26 October 2026

By 2027, all nine volumes of The Collected Works of Gerard Manley Hopkins will be published, including the much-anticipated final volume in the series, Poetry. The 2027 international Hopkins conference will focus on the new research possibilities and provocations afforded by the texts. Hopkins 2027 will be held at Università degli Studi “G. d’Annunzio” Chieti-Pescara, Italy. Chieti-Pescara is on the Adriatic coast of Italy, about a two-hour drive through the Apennines from Rome.

Topics could include:

  • How to reassess Hopkins’ texts because of newly available materials.
  • Hopkins the collector (of inscapes; of sensations; the writings of others).
  • Collecting in Victorian poetry and fiction (Hopkins and other authors)
  • How to rethink Hopkins’s position in the “collectivity” of Victorian writers.
  • Working across genres in Hopkins’s canon: the interdisciplinary possibilities (for example, classical studies; diaries and autobiografiction; philosophy; music; poetry; spiritual writings; sermons; theology; visual art).
  • How can we locate Hopkins in the Victorian practice of keeping commonplace books, albums, and the collection of ephemera? 
  • Revisiting his sketches: was he really a Pre-Raphaelite artist?
  • “To collect” also means to form a conclusion, draw an inference, or conclude. What new inferences emerge in your Hopkins work based on new research priorities, or changes in the field of Victorian studies?
  • Changing research directions in the study of Victorian poets (Hopkins and others)
  • Archiving Hopkins.

(While we would prefer some engagement with the new volumes, you are not obliged to do so.)

We welcome proposals from faculty, independent scholars, and doctoral candidates for 20-minute presentations. 

☙ Proposal details

Submit an abstract (300 words) and a brief biographical note (100 words) to Lesley Higgins (19higgins55@gmail.com) no later than 26 October 2026. For those who submitted an abstract earlier, please email us to say whether you’d like the same abstract considered for this new date and location.

☙ Final notes

We are planning to pursue publication of the proceedings in at least three possible journals.

More information will be forthcoming on the conference website.

Please e-mail us if you have any questions.

☙ Organizers:

Mariaconcetta Costantini, Jude V. Nixon, Lesley Higgins, Amanda Paxton

Saturday 4 October 2025 – Study Day at Malling Abbey, Kent

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Malling Abbey/St Benedict’s Centre,
52 Swan Street, West Malling, Kent, ME19 6JX

10:00am – 4:00pm

Programme of events

10:00am:  Arrival and tea/coffee in the St Eanswythe Room, Malling Abbey

10:30am: Welcome by Michael Burgess, President of the Hopkins Society UK

10:40am:  Grace in the works of Christina Rossetti and Gerard Manley Hopkins
Professor Emma Mason (Warwick University)

11:40am: Tea/coffee break

12:00pm: Milicent Hopkins and Anglican Sisterhoods
Michael Burgess (Hopkins Society UK)

1:00pm:    Lunch

2:00pm:    Tour of Malling Abbey and grounds (a community of Anglican Benedictine Nuns)

3:00pm:    Hopkins: Medieval Architecture and Monasticism
Jill Robson (Hopkins Society UK)

4:00pm:    Tea/coffee and departure

COST: £40 per person inclusive of lunch and tea/coffee, and £20 for students (full-time education or theological training).

CLOSING DATE FOR REGISTRATION: 25 September 2025. 

REGISTRATION AND PAYMENT: Please complete the booking form here Booking Form and return to Philip Healy, Treasurer: hopsoctreasurer@gmail.com

Saturday 31 May 2025 Day visit to Barmouth, Gwynedd

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We are pleased to announce the details of the Society’s day visit to Barmouth on the 150th anniversary of Hopkins’ visit, with the unveiling of a commemorative plaque.

Penmaenpool, Gwynedd

Gerard Manley Hopkins Day in Barmouth 31 May 2025

In commemoration of the 150th Anniversary of Hopkins’ first visit

All the landscape under survey,
At tranquil turns, by nature’s rule,
Rides repeated topsyturvy,
In frank, in fairy Penmaen Pool.

Hopkins ‘Penmaen Pool’

Programme of Events

10:30am:  Arrival and tea/coffee in the Arts Room, The Dragon Theatre, Jubilee Road, Barmouth LL42 1EF.

11:00am:  Lecture by the poet Hilary Davies: ‘Spring in place, spring in time, spring in eternity’: Language, Poetry and God

12:15pm: Coach to the historic George III Inn on the banks of the Mawddach Estuary, Penmaenpool.

12:45pm: Lunch at the George III Inn, where Hopkins wrote his poem ‘Penmaen Pool’ with the inscription: ‘For the Visitors’ Book at the Inn’.

You may bring a packed lunch or purchase food at the inn.

2:00pm: A reading and discussion of Penmaen Pool by the Hopkins Society.

3:30pm: Coach back to Aber House, formerly the Jesuit Villa, where Hopkins stayed in 1875 and 1876

4:15pm:  Unveiling of a Blue Plaque on the wall of Aber House. Ceremony attended by local dignitaries, including the Mayor of Barmouth, the Lord Lieutenant of Gwynedd, and the Jesuit Provincial.

4:30pm: Tea/coffee in the garden of Aber House.

7:30pm: Concert at the Dragon Theatre, with music, poetry, and raffle of No 1. of 150 bottles of a special Hopkins Ale brewed by Myrddin’s Brewery and Distillery in Barmouth.

The cost of the day, inclusive of tea and coffee, is £40 per person, and £20 for students (full time education or theological training). The closing date for registration is 16 May 2025.

To register, please download and fill out the booking form attached, then return it to The Treasurer: hopsoctreasurer@gmail.com

Barmouth Day Booking FormDownload

Visit to Farm Street Church

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On Saturday (27 April), the Society held its first event of 2024, a visit to the London Jesuit Centre, Mount Street, and Farm Street Church, Mayfair. Hopkins was curate and Select Preacher at the church in July – November 1878. It was a very enjoyable occasion; some thirty people attended, our largest turn-out for a long time. We are grateful to Elaine Marshall and Michael Burgess for arranging the day.

Elaine set the scene with a talk on Hopkins’ time at Farm Street. We were then taken to the Jesuit Archives (Archivum Britannicum Societatis Iesu), where the archivists had put out a fascinating display of documents about Hopkins from the collection assembled by Fr Alfred Thomas, SJ when writing his major work, Hopkins the Jesuit: the years of training (Oxford University Press, 1969). It was a real pleasure to see examples of Hopkins’ beautiful handwriting, with its clarity and ease of movement. Robert Bridges’ wife, Monica, had included a specimen of it in her book, A New Handwriting for Teachers (Oxford, 1907).

Fr Brendan Staunton, SJ (St Francis Xavier Church, Dublin) then gave an insightful talk on Hopkins’ inner life as a Jesuit. After lunch, we went across to the church where Fr Michael Holman, SJ, (Superior of the London Jesuits) gave us a guided tour of the beautiful building. The church is celebrating its 175thanniversary this year. The building and its decoration and furnishing have been an ongoing work throughout the whole of that period. In fact, Hopkins would probably not recognize much of what is there today! Canon Michael Burgess, (Hopkins Society President) concluded the day with an interesting account of the sermons Hopkins preached at Farm Street. We are very grateful to the four speakers and the two archivists for making the day such a stimulating event.

Saturday, 27 April 2024 Farm Street Church and London Jesuit Centre, 114 Mount St, Mayfair, London W1K 3AH

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Hopkins was a curate and Select Preacher at Farm Street from July – November 1878

Farm Street Church

Programme

10:00am       Arrival and tea/coffee in the Loyola Room, Mount Street Jesuit Centre

10:30am       ‘Hopkins and his time at Farm Street: July – November 1878’ – Elaine Marshall (Hopkins Society UK)

11:00am       Visit to the British Jesuit Archives

12:00pm      ‘Hopkins and the Ignatian Way: “Being indoors”’ – Fr Brendan Staunton SJ (Saint Francis Xavier Church, Dublin)

1:00pm         Lunch

2:00pm         Guided tour of Farm Street Church by Fr Michael Holman SJ

3:00pm         ‘Hopkins and his Sermons at Farm Street’ – Michael Burgess (Hopkins Society UK)

4:00pm         Tea/coffee and departure

The cost for the day, inclusive of lunch and tea/coffee is £40 per person, and £20 for students (full time education or theological training). Please note, the closing date for registration is 18 April 2024. To register, please complete the booking form attached and return to Claire Hutt, membership secretary: hopsoc.membershipsecretary@gmail.com

APPLICATION FORM FOR THE HOPKINS SOCIETY DAYDownload
Jesuit Archives at London Jesuit Centre, Mount St
Farm St High Altar, with Fr Holman and Elaine Marshall
Farm St Church
Farm St Church garden
London Jesuit Centre, Mount St, with Fr Holman and Elaine Marshall

25 – 27 October 2024 Stonyhurst

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The Hopkins Society Weekend Conference

Theodore House on the Stonyhurst Estate, Clitheroe, Lancashire, BB7 9PZ

Friday 25 October

2:00pm:     Arrival/check in at Theodore House, adjacent to Stonyhurst College

6:30pm:     Evening Meal

8:00pm:     ‘The Peacock’s Eye’: Vision and Perception in Gerard Manley Hopkins – Katarzyna Stefanowicz (Hopkins Society UK; Birmingham University)

Saturday 26 October

8 – 9:00am: Breakfast

9:30am:      ‘A Ploughed Field Glazed with Crimson Ice’: Hopkins’ Letters to Nature and the Krakatoa Sunsets of 1883/84 – Dr Jill Robson (Hopkins Society UK)

10:45am:   Tea/coffee

11:30am:   Visit to All Hallows Church, Great Mitton

1:00pm:     Lunch

2:00pm:     Guided tour of Stonyhurst Museum

4:30pm:     Tea/coffee

5:00pm:     Hopkins Studies Now – Dr Martin Dubois (Durham University)

6:30pm:     Evening Meal

8:00pm:     ‘The carol, the creation’: Hopkins – Poetry and Music – Michael Burgess and Irene Kyffin (Hopkins Society UK)

Sunday 27 October

8 – 9:00am:  Breakfast

9:30 am:     Eucharist

10:30 am:  Tea/coffee

11:00 am:  Hopkins incurvatus: the poetics of strain – Michael Rizq (Cambridge University)

12:30pm:   Lunch and departure

Click here to download booking form.

Stonyhurst Oct 2024 Booking FormDownload
Lecture by Katarzyna Stefanowicz
Lecture by Dr Jill Robson
Tour of All Hallows’, Gt Mitton, led by Jill Robson
Visit to the Stonyhurst Museum

Lecture by Dr Martin Dubois
Lecture by Irene Kyffin
Lecture by Dr Michael Rizq