Join Literature Cambridge for its fifth Woolf Season of lectures and seminars, all live online with leading Woolf scholars. The next session in the current “Woolf and Politics” season is Saturday, Dec. 7. The season includes one session per month until June 2025.
Here’s the schedule
Saturday, 7 Dec. 2024, Ellie Mitchell on Woolf’s War Diary
Saturday, 11 Jan. 2025, Danell Jones on A Room of One’s Own (1929) and Black Britain
Saturday, 8 Feb. 2025, Natasha Periyan on Education in The Years (1937
Saturday, 8 March 2025, Trudi Tate on Mrs Dalloway (1925) and the Vote
Saturday, 12 April 2025, Varsha Panjwani on The Politics of Orlando (1928)
Saturday 10 May 2025, Angela Harris on The Politics of Jacob’s Room (1922).
Saturday 14 June 2025, Claire Davison on Body Politics and Clothing in Three Guineas (1938)
All sessions are at 6 p.m. British Time and last a maximum of two hours.
Woolf and Childhood is the theme for Literature Cambridge’s 2024 summer course, which runs twice: once live online and once in person at Cambridge University.
The course will explore the theme of childhood in Woolf’s fiction, and her own experience of childhood. How do her memories of childhood inform her fiction; and how does she think about children and childhood in her novels? Participants will study one work per day:
A Sketch of the Past (1939)
Godrevy Lighthouse, St. Ives, Cornwall
Jacob’s Room (1922)
To the Lighthouse (1927)
The Waves (1931)
The Years (1937)
Live online and in person
Live online: The live online course runs 8-12 July for five days of intensive lectures, tutorials, talks, and more.
In person: The in person course will take place 4-9 August, with five days’ intensive study in person in Cambridge. There will be lectures, tutorials, talks, plus visits to places of interest in Cambridge, such as the Wren Library at Trinity College. As a sidenote, Woolf’s brothers studied at Trinity and she visited the college many times as a teenager and young adult.
The in person course will include a special performance of the play Vita and Virginia, a talk and recital of the music Woolf loved as a child and young adult, and more.
Accommodation is booked separately from the course. Literature Cambridge has reserved rooms at Robinson College, next to Clare Hall, the teaching venue. Bookings for Robinson are open. See details on Terms and Conditions for the link to Robinson and the code you need to use.
Attendees can also book a hotel, Air BNB or other accommodation. Please note that accommodation fills very quickly in Cambridge; do book as early as you can.
The in person course is filling up, so those interested are urged to sign up soon.
For more information
Contact info@literaturecambridge.co.uk with any questions.
If you have ever wanted to study all of Virginia Woolf’s major works in consecutive order, now is your chance — no matter where you live.
Literature Cambridge has planned a “Virginia Woolf Season” that will run from Oct. 24 of this year through June 5, 2021 — and each of 18 study sessions will be available online via Zoom.
This unique eight-month season of Woolf study will cover her 12 major books in order of publication, from The Voyage Out (1915) to Between the Acts (1941). Each session includes a live, newly commissioned online lecture and seminar via Zoom. A few topics are repeated to accommodate different schedules.
Tickets per session
£26 full price
£22 students and CAMcard holders Book them online.
Schedule of all-new lectures from leading scholars
Saturday, 24 October 2020, 6 p.m. The Voyage Out (1915), with Alison Hennegan
Karina Jacubowicz
Saturday, 21 November 2020, 6 p.m. Night and Day (1919), with Ellie Mitchell
Saturday, 12 December 2020, 10 a.m. Jacob’s Room (1922), with Alison Hennegan
Saturday, 9 January 2021, 6 p.m. Mrs. Dalloway (1925) 1: Women in Mrs. Dalloway, with Trudi Tate
Sunday, 10 January 2021, 10 a.m. Mrs. Dalloway (1925) 1: Women in Mrs. Dalloway, with Trudi Tate
Saturday, 30 January 2021, 6 p.m. Mrs. Dalloway (1925) 2: Dressing Mrs. Dalloway, with Claire Nicholson
Saturday, 13 February 2021, 6 p.m. To the Lighthouse (1927) 1: Art, with Claudia Tobin
Sunday, 14 February 2021, 10 a.m. To the Lighthouse (1927) 2: Gardens, with Trudi Tate
Sunday, 21 February 2021, 6 p.m. To the Lighthouse (1927) 2: Gardens, with Trudi Tate
Saturday, 27 February 2021, 6 p.m. Orlando (1928): Writing Vita, Writing Life, with Karina Jakubowicz
Saturday, 6 March 2021, 6 p.m. A Room of One’s Own (1929) 1: Androgyny, with Alison Hennegan
Sunday, 14 March 2021, 10 a.m. A Room of One’s Own (1929) 2: Women
Saturday, 3 April 2021, 6 p.m. The Waves (1931) 1: with Ellie Mitchell
Sunday, 4 April 2021, 10 a.m. The Waves (1931) 2: Friendship with Trudi Tate
Saturday, 10 April 2021 6 p.m. Flush: A Biography (1933), with Alison Hennegan
Sunday, 2 May 2021, 6 p.m. The Years (1937), with Anna Snaith
Saturday, 8 May 2021, 6 p.m. Three Guineas (1938) and Music, with Claire Davison
Saturday, 5 June 2021, 10 a.m. Between the Acts (1941): Dispersed are We, with Karina Jakubowicz
Trudi Tate (center) welcomes students to the Virginia Woolf’s Gardens course at Wolfson College at the University of Cambridge in July 2019.
So I, along with dozens of scholars and common readers from around the world, am studying Woolf remotely as part of Literature Cambridge’s sessions on Woolf through its reasonably priced Online Study Sessions. Once held in person at the University of Cambridge, they are now held online via Zoom. And I am enjoying every minute of the delightful, informative lectures, as well as the accompanying question and answer sessions.
Dadie Ryland’s room behind the second floor window shown here inspired the first chapter of Woolf’s A Room of One’s Own.
I miss those field trips but I appreciate reuniting with the lecturers and students I met at Literature Cambridge and other Woolf encounters.
So far this year, I have attended lectures by Trudi Tate and Karina Jacubowicz on A Room of One’s Own and the Great War, Mrs. Dalloway, and A Room of Own and Space. I have several more on my calendar.
Upcoming study sessions and the Virginia Woolf Season
Online Study Sessions on Woolf and other writers continue through the summer. Here is just part of the upcoming schedule, with all times in British Summer Time:
25 July, 6 p.m. Between the Acts and Gardens
1 August, 6 p.m. Orlando 1 : Property
2 August, 10 a.m. Orlando 1: Property
8 August, 6 p.m. Night and Day
15 August, 6 pm. The Voyage Out
Literature Cambridge will kick off its Virginia Woolf Season in October in which students will discuss 12 major Woolf books in order of publication. Follow its Facebook page for updates.
The Newnham College dining hall where Virginia Woolf gave her famous talk on women and fiction in 1928.
What: Study Day on Reading The Waves When: Saturday 21 September 2019 Where: Stapleford Granary Cost: £90/£80 students and Virginia Woolf Society of Great Britain members.
What: Ellie Mitchell, Talk on Reading Ritual in The Waves When: Tuesday 15 October 2019 Where: Lucy Cavendish College, Cambridge Cost: Free talks for Town and Gown
What: All-day reading of The Waves When: Sun. 27 October 2019 Where: Cambridge Cost: Free but places are limited. Email info@literaturecambridge.co.uk if you would like to attend.
Summer 2020 Courses
Virginia Woolf’s Women, 19-24 July 2020. An intensive week of lectures, seminars, tutorials, walks, talks, and visits to places of interest in Cambridge.
Reading the 1920s, 26-31 July 2020. An intensive study week on literature from the decade following the First World War. Authors include T.S. Eliot, E.M. Forster, Lawrence, Woolf, Radclyffe Hall, Helen Zenna Smith, Edmund Blunden.
Discount for early bookings. Members of the VWSGB can book at the student rate, subject to availability.
