News & Opportunities

Byron’s own character diagnosis, reported by Lady Blessington, suggests his oft-remarked protean nature. But was this an accurate assessment of Byron and the Byronic? How changeable was Byron? How did he approach movement and change, and adapt to new circumstances? What features remain constants in his life and work? 

The conference organisers invite papers that explore any aspect of Byron’s engagement with themes of change and constancy, transience and permanence. Topics that might be considered include:

• Travel, Place and Environment Time and Memory

• Novelty, Trends and Fashions Contrariety

• Identity and Belonging National, Political and Cultural

• Affiliations

• Love, Friendship and Sexuality Ages and Stages

• Birth and Death Literary Forms and Traditions

• Spontaneity and Mobility Constancy and Faithfulness

• Betrayal Poetic Experimentation

• Moods and Emotions Appearance and Self-Image

• Reading Habits and Preferences New Science and Technology

The deadline for proposals is 22 JANUARY 2026.

You can contact the Organizing Committee at conferencebyron2026@keele.ac.uk

Yet, Freedom! yet thy Banner, torn, but flying,

           Streams like the Thunder-storm against the Wind ... (CHP IV)

In April 2026 the town of Missolonghi commemorates 200 years since the doomea

'Exodus' of its defenders at the climax of a year-long siege that quickly became an emblem, for the rest of the world, of the Greek struggle for freedom during the Revolution that began in 1821. Two years earlier, almost to the day, Lord Byron had died there of fever; the violent recapture of Missolonghi by the Ottomans marked a turning point in the conflict, and brought foreign governments, for the first time, to take a hand. Byron's death in April 1824 and the destruction of the town where he had lived for the last 3 months of his life have left a double legacy: to Greece as the first new nation state to be created in 19'h-century Europe and to the fortunes of the Romantic movement in the arts.

This conference will focus on the many meanings and contexts of the word freedom in Byron's work and life, in the history of the 'Romantic Revolution, in the shaping of modern Greek history, culture and literature, and on the legacy of each of these to later times.

Proposals are invited for scholarly contributions addressing any one or more of these themes. Among other topics, presentations might focus on such matters as

• Byron's influence on international philhellenism and on the Greek Revolution

• Byron and 'freedom's battle back in England

• Byron and the Carbonari

• Byron, censorship, and freedom of the press

• Literary and political heirs to Byron's libertarian legacy

• Visual, musical, and dramatic representations of Byron's theme of freedom 

Please send proposals by 22 January 2026 to Professor Roderick Beaton (rod.beaton@kcl.ac.uk), Professor Peter Graham (peterwgraham@gmail.com) and Professor Andrew Stauffer (amstauff@gmail.com) with a copy to Mrs. Rodanthi-Rosa Florou (byronlib@gmail.com). Detailed descriptions of the previous International Student Byron Conferences can be found on the Messolonghi Byron Society's website, www.messolonghibyronsociety.gr