“Esther Inglis in Contexts and Culture” will be held at the University of Edinburgh on the 19th and 20th October 2024. The aim of this colloquium is to bring together scholars, researchers and artists to celebrate the life, work, and manuscripts of Esther Inglis (c.1570-1624) in the 400th anniversary of her death. Esther Inglis was the daughter of Huguenot refugees, who lived in Edinburgh and became a remarkable calligrapher associated with the court of James VI/I; over 60 of her manuscripts survive today. Papers are invited on any aspect of Esther Inglis’ life and work, or on the contexts which surrounded her in early-modern Edinburgh and London. By facilitating new conversations, this colloquium seeks to return Esther Inglis to contexts and narratives within which her work is often overlooked, and so we would encourage those working in any of the following areas to submit an abstract or an expression of interest for consideration:

Scribal culture and manuscript production in an age of print

The practice of book making

Art and the making and giving of gifts

Craft skills and cultural production

Religious and/or cultural politics in early modern Scotland, France, and England

Women’s writing and women’s authorship

Translation and transmediation

Transnationality and the culture and politics of refuge

The full call for papers can be found at: Call for papers: Esther Inglis in contexts and culture, 19th-20th October 2024 – Esther Inglis 2024 (ed.ac.uk)

Please send abstracts (max 200 words) or expressions of interest to inglis400@ed.ac.uk by Sunday 30th June 2024.

This colloquium is part of a project that has received funding from the European Research Council (ERC) under the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme (Grant agreement No. 864635, FEATHERS).