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Artwork by A. T. Kabe Wilson
This year’s conference explores the theme of ‘Virginia Woolf and Dissidence’ and will be held at the University of Sussex and Kings College London between 4-8 July 2025. Timings of the day and locations TBA.
Virginia Woolf practised a politics of dissent. From her pacifism, deeply held through two World Wars, to her feminism, Woolf continually wrote back to power. She urged transgression and trespass and ‘thinking against the current’ (‘Thoughts on Peace in an Air Raid’). Dissent takes many forms in her oeuvre from the overt politics of her major essays to her novelistic defamiliarising of patriarchal, capitalist, imperialist society. Narratologically, too, her writing swerves and undercuts: its experimentation a form of dissident aesthetics.
The pre-conference events will be held at King’s College London on Friday 4 July: a visit to the King’s Archives and a panel discussion on ‘Virginia Woolf: Creative Engagements’ with contemporary writers and artists speaking about their multi-media engagements with Woolf’s writing. On Saturday 5 July, the conference proper will open for registration at the University of Sussex.
Please see our Woolf 2025 website for more details about keynote speakers, performances, workshops and other featured events, including our conference dinner and house tour at Charleston.
This event is organised by Helen Tyson (University of Sussex), Clara Jones (King’s College London) and Anna Snaith (King’s College London).