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Public Lectures - £5 each - (click 'Book Now' above)
- Tuesday: Christine Charlesworth, ‘Making the Canterbury Statue of Aphra Behn’
- Wednesday: Mel Evans, ‘Aphra Behn’s Spying Letters’
- Thursday: Charlotte Cornell, ‘Rooting Aphra: Behn's Kentish Beginnings’
Westminster Abbey trip - (click 'Book Now' above to register your interest)
The day after the conference closes, we have arranged a day trip by train from Canterbury to London, to visit Westminster Abbey. The trip will include entrance to the Abbey, flower-laying at Behn's grave and entrance to the Queen's Diamond Jubilee Galleries
Please note that prices for both the train and the trip itself are approximate, and will be confirmed in April 2024 (2023 prices were approximately £50)
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Aphra Behn & her Restoration
Aphra Behn (Europe) Society
From 2–4 July 2024, the Aphra Behn (Europe) Society will meet for its 8th international in-person conference, Aphra Behn & her Restoration, at the University of Kent. This sits perfectly between the village of Harbledown, Aphra Behn’s birthplace, and the city of Canterbury where she grew up.
Topics for papers and pre-formed panels might include, but are not limited to:
- Aphra Behn’s writings, and those of her key and/or neglected contemporaries
- Translating and translation
- Aphra Behn today internationally
- The art and/or music of the Restoration
- Civil War and Restoration Canterbury (and wider Kent)
- Creative responses to Behn and the Restoration period
- Behn’s dedicatees, printers and booksellers
- Restoration Drama in performance
- Teaching Behn and her contemporaries: Restoration writings in the classroom today.
Interwoven with the conference, and available as add-ons to the basic registration, will be an Aphra Behn Festival, featuring (amongst a host of other activities) a celebration of a new life-size bronze statue of Behn in her birthplace, a performance of Behn’s The Amorous Prince, and an Aphra Behn Walk, visiting the church where she was baptised and Canterbury city landmarks with Behn associations. And, of course, a trip to Westminster Abbey to lay flowers on Behn’s grave.
The full conference fee will be £200 for three days’ attendance. A single B&B room on campus for two nights will be £104.
Accommodation will also be available at the University of Kent, and delegates who wish to take the opportunity of being in Canterbury to explore the city’s rich heritage, will be able to book to arrive before the conference and/or to stay on after it.
Location of accommodation and conference venue can be seen here: Campus Map Accommodation is in Keynes College (close to the middle of the map, labelled N6). The conference is being held in the Templeman Building, which is about 3-4 minutes’ walk (on the flat) from the accommodation (marked J11 on the map).