SYMPOSIUM 2025

https://research.reading.ac.uk/evaristo-symposium-2025/

International Symposium: Bernardine Evaristo

University of Reading, UK • Thursday 6 November 2025.

This international symposium, the first academic conference dedicated to Evaristo, is part of
the Routledge ‘Contemporary Writers: Critical Essays’ series, edited by Professor Sarah Dillon,
University of Cambridge. The event brings scholars together to focus on Evaristo’s diverse
writings and find new ways of reading her varied body of work.
The conference will also feature:

• Keynote speaker: Professor Suzanne Scafe (University of Brighton, UK)

• An interview and Q&A with Evaristo (open to the public)

Papers are invited on any aspect of Evaristo’s writing and work. Potential topics might include:

• The African diaspora and/or AfroEurope

• Black British culture, history, and literature

• Legacies of empire

• History and historiography

• Space and place

• Gender and/or sexuality

• Family, filial relations, kinship and/or community

• Intersectional feminism

• (Auto)biography and memoir

• Formal experimentation (polyvocality, non-linear chronology, genre)

• Language use (non-standard English, code-switching, neologisms, idiostyle)

• Humour (irony, satire)

• Intertextuality and/or intermediality (verse fiction; essay and visual art)

• Adaptations between forms (radio, novel, television, poetry, theatre)

• Lesser-known writings, such as poetry, short fiction, and essays

• Influences (such as Ntozake Shange, Michelle Cliff, Derek Walcott)

• Translations and/or reception in different contexts

• Relation to literary awards and prizes

• Publishing, publishers, and marketing (including cover design)

• Literary activism (e.g. ‘Black Britain: Writing Back’ series; The Complete Works mentoring

scheme; Brunel International African Poetry Prize)

• The teaching of Evaristo’s writing in secondary and/or tertiary education

Paper proposals are invited from all scholarly disciplines, methodological approaches, and
theoretical perspectives, and presenters of all career stages are welcome – especially Early
Career Researchers. Proposals for poster presentations are also encouraged.
Please send a title and abstract (300 words for a 20 minute paper; 150 words for a poster) along
with your name, any institutional affiliation(s), and a short biography (100 words) to: Dr Nicola
Abram (University of Reading) at by 16 April 2025.
Decisions will be communicated by mid May 2025.
Selected papers from the symposium will be published as Bernardine Evaristo: Critical Essays,
with a foreword by Evaristo, as part of the Routledge ‘Contemporary Writers: Critical Essays’
book series (General Editor: Sarah Dillon).

For full event information, please visit www.research.reading.ac.uk/evaristo-symposium-2025