Elma Dangerfield Prize Winner: Jerome McGann

Elma Dangerfield Prize Winner: Jerome McGann

Prof. Jerome McGann, John Stewart Bryan Professor of English, has won the Elma Dangerfield award for 2023 for Byron and the Poetics of Adversity (Cambridge University Press, 2022).

The aim of the prize is to identify and reward new and original work related to the life and works of the poet Lord Byron. It is awarded to the best book (or, exceptionally, books) on Byron or a Byron-related topic published in any given year, according to the judgement of an Evaluation Committee appointed by the Joint Presidents of the IABS.

The Elma Dangerfield Prize committee in 2023 faced an enjoyably challenging and almost impossible task. Three outstanding books formed the shortlist:

– Jerome McGann, Byron and the Poetics of Adversity (Cambridge University Press, 2022)

– Bernard Beatty, Reading Byron: Poems-Life-Politics (Liverpool University Press, 2022)

– John Owen Havard, Late Romanticism and the End of Politics: Byron, Mary Shelley and the Last Men (Cambridge University Press, 2023).

However,Jerome McGann’s Byron and the Poetics of Adversity was awarded the prize on account of its dazzling originality, intellectual and historical breadth: ‘the gold standard of Byron scholarship’ as one judge expressed it. Concise, lucid and subtle, Byron and the Poetics of Adversity makes a compelling case for the political agency of Byronic poetic language. Revisiting his own earlier investigations into the relationship between the poetry of the years of fame and the ottava rima verse, McGann presents anew Byron’s perverse and adversarial encounters with artistic form, philosophy and system throughout his writing life.

Byron and the Poetics of Adversity is rigorous, stylish and occasionally polemical: it will transform our thinking about Byron’s rhetorical art.

John Galt Society Research Grant

The John Galt Society welcomes applications for a grant (of up to ₤300) to defray expenses incurred in connection with research into the works, life or influence of John Galt. Eligible expenses might include transportation to libraries or archives, lodging near libraries or archives (if distant from the researcher’s home), fees or technology costs involved in on-site or on-line access (such as copying or scanning, permissions or equipment requirements). Research projects should have the goal of shedding new light on Galt’s significance in literature, history, socio-political thought or economics. Projects that situate Galt in other fields are also welcome.

Eligible applicants are advanced graduate students (students enrolled in PhD programs at universities around the world); early career scholars (scholars whose doctoral degrees date no more than three years before the application and who have held a permanent or secure academic position for no more than three years), contingent faculty (scholars with PhD degrees who hold part-time or temporary academic positions) or independent scholars (scholars with PhD degrees who do not hold academic positions). 

The Grant will be awarded annually. Previous recipients may apply for a second time, but preference will be given to first-time applicants. Applications should be emailed to the Administrator of the John Galt Society Research Grant (Dr. Craig Lamont, University of Glasgow, secjgs@gmail.com). Applications must include all of the following:

►Applicant’s name, address, email address.

►Applicant’s degree and employment status (date of PhD received or expected, institutional affiliation [or statement that the applicant is not affiliated], length of affiliation and whether the position is full-time or part-time, permanent or temporary.

►Applicant’s cv.

►Description (approximately 1,000 words) of Applicant’s project, specifying what portion or aspect of it is to aided by the Grant and what specific use of the Grant money will be made. The timetable for carrying out the research should also be indicated.

►The name, address, email address and affiliation of a scholar whom the Applicant has asked to recommend the project. Applicants should make this request of a scholar familiar with the Applicant’s work and ask the scholar to send the recommendation directly to the Administrator of the John Galt Research Grant. 

The deadline for applications is 31 January 2024. Complete applications must be received by the deadline in order to be considered. The recipient will be announced at the time (usually in March) of the Annual General Meeting of the John Galt Society. It is expected that the research will be carried out and a report submitted within a year of the receipt of the Grant. It is expected that the recipient will join the John Galt Society (if not already a member) before making use of the Grant.

Inquiries may be directed to Dr. Craig Lamont, Secretary-Treasurer of the John Galt Society and Administrator of the John Galt Society Research Grant (secjgs@gmail.com) or to Dr. Regina Hewitt, Chair of the John Galt Society (hwt87@earthlink.net)

Byron Society (London) PhD Bursary

The Byron Society invites applications for a PhD bursary of up to £5,000 per year.

Applications are open to new and existing full-time PhD students enrolled at a UK university and working on a thesis addressing any aspect of the life, work and /or influence of the poet Lord Byron. Applications are also welcomed from those studying multiple poets or authors, including Byron.

Each bursary covers just one year, however multiple applications can be made and postgraduates whose research focuses solely on Byron can receive up to three annual bursaries. (Those who study Byron alongside other poets and authors can only be awarded one bursary).

Applications can be made by students with additional sources of funding, but please list these in your application. The applications should also include a summary of the applicant’s academic record, an outline of his / her proposed research and the names of two referees who may be contacted. Please also state what year of study you are in.

Please download and fill out the Application Form at the bottom of this page, and notify your chosen referee that we will be in touch to request a reference. In addition to the questions below, please state what other funding you have been awarded (if any).

Applications should be sent by email to Dr Emily Paterson-Morgan, Director of the Byron Society, at contact@thebyronsociety.com. 

The application form can be found here: http://www.thebyronsociety.com/phd-bursary (Scroll to bottom of page)

The application process for 2023/2024 is now open. It will close on 31st May 2023. 

“The Vision of Judgment” reading, Zoom, 22 January 2023

You are invited to attend a reading on Zoom by 53 readers of Byron’s The Vision of Judgment. It will take place on Sunday, January 22nd (Byron’s 235th birthday!), at 2:00 p.m. Eastern Standard Time. If you would like to get on the attendance list, please contact Alice Levine (alice.levine@hofstra.edu) or Susan Wolfson (wolfson@princeton.edu). The link will be sent to you the day before the event.

2023 IABS Conference in San Francisco: “New Worlds”

https://www.iabsconference2023.org

The International Association of Byron Societies

Annual Conference

August 7th – 11th 2023

University of San Francisco, California

Hosted by The Byron Society of America

Co-Sponsored by The Keats-Shelley Association of America

Call for Papers

In the early 1820s, after having joined the Carbonari movement to aid Italian national freedom, Lord Byron contemplated moving to South America to help the revolutionary campaigns against Spain’s imperialist forces. Byron even named his yacht the Bolívar after the famous Venezuelan liberator himself, outraging the Austrian governors who were tightening their grip on occupied Italy. When the Carbonari movement collapsed in Italy, he shifted his attention towards Greece, ultimately traveling there in 1823 to support the revolution against the Ottoman Turks. As the Austrian outrage at the Bolívar shows, the South American, Italian, and Greek revolutions were all part of a global cause of liberal resistance. In both his poetry and his life, Byron championed counter-colonial resistance movements from within and without Europe, while his legacy helped to shape emergent nations and the culture of Romantic-era authors and writings around the globe.

In bicentenary tribute, the IABS 2023 conference will gather work on Byron and Romantic-era resistance while seeking to honor the global diversity of the Romantic age. Our gathering’s theme is “New Worlds,” and we invite papers both on and beyond Byron and his circle. We welcome scholars to contribute papers and convene panels and roundtables related, but not necessarily limited, to the following subjects:

  • New Worlds for Byron and Romantic Studies
  • Byron and #Bigger6 Possibilities
  • Byron and the Americas
  • Reworlding: Utopian and Dystopian Horizons
  • New Worlds of Science in the Romantic Age
  • Revolution and Resistance
  • Migration, Diaspora, Exile, Ex-Patriotism
  • Black Studies, Race, and Byron
  • Indigeneity and Settler Colonialism
  • The Black Atlantic, Slavery, and the Slave Trade
  • Romantic Land- and Bodyscaping
  • Cosmopolitanism and New Worlds
  • Queer, Genderqueer, and Trans Romanticisms
  • Byron, Disability, and Identity
  • Worlds of Materiality in Visual Culture
  • The Poetics and Politics of Space and Climate Change

“Keats and Shelley on the Move”: 2022 Romantic Bicentennials Curran Symposium

2022 Romantic Bicentennials Curran Symposium

 “Keats and Shelley on the Move

co-sponsored by the Byron Society of America and the Keats-Shelley Association of America.

The event will take place on Friday, October 28, 2022 at the Grolier Club in NYC. More information is available here, along with link to register:
https://www.k-saa.org/events/keats-and-shelley-on-the-move-a-romantic-bicentennials-curran-symposium

BSA at MLA 2023 (San Francisco)

MLA 2023: San Francisco, CA

Session 563: Uncommon Wants, Common Things, Undercommons: Byron in 2023

Saturday, 7 January 3:30 PM-4:45 PM, Sierra Suite J (Marriott Marquis)  

  Presiding: Celeste G.Langan (U of California, Berkeley)

1. Commonplaces in Uncommon Places, Mai-LinCheng (U of Oregon)

2. Orientalizing the Commons: Between Arab Subsistence and Greek Democracy, Lenora Hanson (New York U)

3. Common Disaster, Manu Samriti Chander (Rutgers U, Newark)

4. More Anon (Gratis Maureen McLane), Marjorie Levinson (U of Michigan, Ann Arbor)

John Murray Archive: free trial access via Adam Matthew Digital

 Adam Matthew Digital has published a large selection of materials from The John Murray Publishing Archive at the National Library of Scotland:

Nineteenth Century Literary Society

The John Murray Publishing Archive

This resource makes available the most complete archival collection of Byron’s manuscripts and personal papers in a digital, full-text searchable format. Highlights include annotated drafts of Don Juan or letters around Byron’s affair with Lady Caroline Lamb. You can find out more via the brochure available here.

Given the importance of these materials for many any of you, even more so in light of the current limitations on international travel, I’m very excited to announce that Adam Matthew Digital is offering a free 30-day trial for all members until the end of the year. I’d encourage you to make use of this offer and to spread the word about this important collection among your fellow Byronists.

If you’re interested in the trial, please contact us. We will forward on your contact information to Adam Matthew Digital, and they will set you up with a username/password for the trial.

Postponed: 2020 International Byron Conference (Thessaloniki)

From the organizers of the 2020 IABS Conference at Aristotle University of Thessaloniki:

We re regret to announce that it has been necessary to postpone the International Byron Conference in Thessaloniki scheduled for 29 June-5 July 2020 as part of measures related to COVID-19. We hope that it will be possible to run the conference in late June/early July 2021.The new dates will be announced in due course.

CFP: BSA at MLA 2020 (Seattle)

Byron’s Complete Poetical Works at 40

Next year’s MLA (2020 in Seattle) will mark the 40th anniversary of the release of the first volumes of Jerome McGann’s Lord Byron: The Complete Poetical Works. This panel invites presentations on the legacy of McGann’s scholarly edition, asking participants to consider the impact of Complete Poetical Works on the modern reception of Byron’s poetry, on practices of textual editing, and on material and bibliographical approaches to Byron more generally.

Please send proposals of no more than 300 words, plus a short, one-page c.v., to Michelle Levy (mnl@sfu.ca) by March 15, 2019. To encourage a diversity of voices and perspectives, this session is being planned as a roundtable, with 5-6 presentations of 8-10 minutes.