Talks

“Was du nicht alles zu erzählen hast!

So klein du bist, so groß bist du Phantast.”

Mephistopheles, in Goethe’s Faust II

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1. Invited Talks:

2022:

• ‘A Matter of Life and Death: Victorian Childhoods, and What We Can Learn from them Today’, University of Oxford, Department for Continuing Education, 13  March.

2021: 

• ‘”Of Wasps in Wigs and Gnatter with Gnats: How Insects made Alice in Wonderland”‘, Cabinet of Natural History Seminar, Department for History and Philosophy of Science, University of Cambridge, 17 May [online]
• ‘Narratives of Covid-19 ‘, IRIHS Research Seminar, Nuffield Department for Primary Care, University of Oxford, 5 May [online].
• ‘Finding good Science Communication on God’s shore: Covid-19 through the lens of Victorian Natural History’, Exeter & Truro Diocesan Conference, 4 May [online].
• ‘Narratives of Conflict and Warfare’, York Festival of Ideas, 15 June [online].
• ‘Alice in Covid-Land: Narrative, Science and Fantasy, from the Victorians to Covid-19’, Birmingham City University Research Seminar, 12 April [online].
• ‘SciComm in Wonderland’, Interview at “Science Pub Quiz”, Heidelberg University [online]

2020:

• ‘Algorithms, Storytelling & Identity in Covid-19’, SATSU, University of York [online].
• ‘Finding effective science-religion narratives in the Covid-19 Pandemic and Beyond’, South-East Bishops’ Conference, Church of England, 27 July.
• ‘Human Flourishing in Times of Stress‘, York Festival of Ideas,  12 June. [online]
• ‘What would Lewis Carroll Do? Why we should all read Alice in Wonderland right now’, Alice’s Day, Bodleian Libraries, Oxford. [postponed]

2019

• ‘Elon Zuckermusk in Wonderland: AI, Humour & the Victorians’, ‘AI & Comedy’ (internal symposium for Comedians, Comedy Writers & Academics), St Peter’s College, Oxford, 7 December.
• “The Fairy-Land of Science: The Alice in Wonderland World of Artificial Intelligence”, Hol Lecture, Simon Langton Grammar School, Canterbury, 6th December.
• “How Victorian science books for children can still help us understand the world”, Worcester College, Oxford, 22 July.
• “‘Alice in Brexitland’: The ongoing political relevance of Lewis Carroll’s classic, for old and young”, Oxford Alumni Association, 20 July.
• ‘Timeless Alice: Alice’s Adventures in the modern world- from the fourth dimension to climate change’, Alice’s Day, Bodleian Library, 6 July.
• “Fables for Tomorrow: The child as interpreter of nature in times of environmental crisis”, Children’s Literature and Science Symposium, Edinburgh Napier University, 22 February.
• ‘Teraphs, Bee-Hives, Fairy-Folk: The Literature and Science of Victorian AI’, Mind and Automation Seminar Series, Queen’s College, Oxford [postponed].

2018

• Keynote Lecture: ‘A Common Denominator: Reassessing the Carroll-MacDonald friendship through their science’, Lewis Carroll and George MacDonald: An Influential Friendship, Sussex Centre for Folklore, Fairy Tales and Fantasy, 1 September.
• ‘The Art and Architecture of Alice in Wonderland’, Christ Church, Oxford, 5 July.
• ‘Lewis Carroll in Psychology-Land: Fantasy literature and its psychological journeys’, Bodleian Library Oxford, Alice’s Day & Tolkien: Maker of Middle-Earth Exhibition, 7 July.
• ‘A bug-hunt in Wonderland: the symbolism and science of Alice’s insects and their transformations’, with Christopher Jeffs, ‘Insects Through the Looking Glass‘ Exhibition & Alice’s Day, Story Museum, Oxford, 7 July.
• ‘A Machine as wonderful and complex as Man: Automata in Literature and Culture’, ‘Marvellous Mechanical Museum‘ Exhibition, Compton Verney,  27 September.
• ‘Alice’s Adventures in Oxfordshire: How the landscapes and environments of Oxford inspired Lewis Carroll’s Wonderlands’, Abingdon Arms, Beckley, 25 November.

2017

• Keynote Lecture: ‘Alice is dead, long live Alice!’, “Say What you Mean, Mean what you Say” Lewis Carroll and Alice in Wonderland Conference, Université de Mons, Belgium, 19 April.
• ‘Staging Madness: Lewis Carroll, Victorian psychiatry, and the science of acting’, 4 May, University of York.
• ‘George MacDonald at the Archive: An Introduction to MacDonald Resources Available at Public Archives’, George MacDonald’s Scotland, University of Aberdeen, Jul 2017.
• ‘How Science Made Wonderland’, Mansfield College, Oxford, 27 July.
• ‘Visualising the Water-Babies’, Heath Robinson Museum, London, 2 November (watch here).

https://twitter.com/AWalker_92/status/887728976516349953

2016

• ‘Alice through the Ages: The not-so-secret history of a literary icon’, Leipzig University, 15 December.
• ‘Lewis Carroll and the Architecture of Wonderland’, Christ Church, Oxford, 8 July.
• ‘Lewis Carroll and Victorian Psychiatry‘, Lewis Carroll Society, Art Worker’s Guild, London, 8 April.

2015

• ‘Communicating Medicine in Graphic Novels: A Case Study from the Wellcome Collection’, Archives in the Age of Austerity, Sheffield Centre for Archival Practice, 18 November.
• ‘Death and Victorian Children’s Literature‘, DeadFriday (Halloween LiveFriday), Ashmolean Museum Oxford, 30 October (watch here).
• “Victorian Fantastic Literature and the Psychological Sciences: Lewis Carroll and George MacDonald”, Oxford Literature and Science Seminar, University of Oxford, English Faculty, 6 March.

‘”I cannot promise to take you home”: Death and Victorian Children’s Literature’, Ashmolean Museum, 2015.

Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland Sesquicentenary Talks:

• “Alice and the Victorians: Children’s Literature and Illustration in Victorian Britain”, Wonderday, Christ Church, Oxford, 13 November.
• “Lewis Carroll’s Alice & Victorian Children’s Literature”, Alice Study Day, Surrey History Centre, 7 November.
• “What has Alice in Wonderland has got to do with the Cognitive Sciences?”, ‘Blurbs’ Interdisciplinary Lecture Series, Brasenose College, Oxford, 28 October.
• “Alice Reloaded: Alice’s Afterlife in the Digital Age”, Alice150 Conference, New York, 11 October.
• ‘150 years of Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland’, Emory University/ Regent’s Park College, Oxford, 27 July.
• ‘Pictures and Conversations: Victorian Children’s Books and their Illustrations’, Alice’s Day Oxford, 4 July.
• ‘Lewis Carroll, Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland and Jewish Culture‘, University of Oxford Chabad Society, 3 July.
• ‘Alice and Fashion’, The Alice Look exhibition at Victoria & Albert Museum of Childhood, London, 9 May.

2014

• “The two go naturally together: Teaching Literature and Science at College and University level”, BSLS Teaching Symposium, University of Westminster, November.
• “Microscopes, Magic Mirrors and Holy Waters: Science, Religion and Fantastic Literature in Victorian Oxford”, Dinner Talk at Regent’s Park College, Oxford, July; invitation by Margaret Edson (Pullitzer Prize for Drama for her play W;t)
• “Down the Rabbit-Hole to the Centre of the Earth and Beyond: Magical Underground Journeys in Children’s Literature through the Ages.” Alice’s Day Oxford, July.

2013

• “‘Twas brillig and the slithy toves did gyre and gimble in the wabe:  Lewis Carroll – Master of Nonsense.”  Alice’s Day Oxford, July (more info).
• “Through the Glass Darkly: Victorian literary journeys to the Other Side of human consciousness” Arts and Humanities Discussion Group, St. Anne’s College, Oxford University, January.

2012

•  “Victorian Wonderlands Revisited”, The Lewis Carroll Society, March, London.

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2. Research Papers:

2021:

• “Science, scientism, and the hagiographic instinct of Covid-19”, Science & You Congress, Université de Lorraine, Metz, 16-19 November.
• “Be Bold, be brave, be true”- and why: The science of how Children’s Literature can really change the world’, CHS Biennial Conference with MCYS, “Children and Young People, Speaking Up and Speaking Out”, Manchester Metropolitan University, 18 June [Online].

2020:

• ‘Science, Church and Community in Times of Covid-19’, AHRC “Place & Community” conference, University of York [Online], 15 September.
• ‘‘Saints informed by science’: Identifying productive science-religion narratives in times of Covid-19‘, Christian Theology in the Midst of COVID-19, University of Winchester [Online], 17 June.
• ‘Marmite Fiction?: A historical perspective on environmental science, children’s literature and population health’, British Society for Literature and Science Annual Conference, University of Sheffield, 15-17 April [Postponed].

2019:

• ‘Of Moths, Chimney Sweepers, and Silent Springs: Storytelling Environmental Crisis and in the Victorian age and today’, ‘Extinctions and Rebellions’ BSLS Symposium, University of Liverpool, 14 November.
• Conversations with beetles: The struggle against Nature’s silence in Victorian and contemporary Cli-Fi for children, IRSCL Congress ‘Silence and Silencing in Children’s Literature’, Stockholm University, 14-18 August.

2018:

• “‘More than a figment of scientific fancy’: Redefining the Victorian fantastic through the history of science”, Scholars’ Forum on Literature and the History of Science, Max Planck Institute for the History of Science, Berlin, July.
• ‘Pattern, Ecology and the Fantastic Imagination of George MacDonald and William Morris’, British Association for Victorian Studies Conference, University of Exeter, 29-31st August.

2017:

• “From Scotland to Utopia (via Hammersmith): William Morris, George MacDonald and the Utopian Aesthetic”, George MacDonald’s Scotland, University of Aberdeen, July.

2016:

• “‘Dreams, that elude the Maker’s frenzied grasp’: The scientific search for identity in the visions of Victorian fantastic literature”, (Dis)Connected Forms: Narratives on the Fractured Self, University of Hull, 8-9 September, 2016.
• “Entropy of Mind: Psychology and the realistic wonderlands of the fin-de-siècle fantasies of George MacDonald and Lewis Carroll”, BAVS conference, Cardiff University, 31 August-2 September.
• “George MacDonald and his ‘Realistic Wonderlands’ of Science”, George MacDonald and the Cambridge Apostles, Trinity Hall, Cambridge, 20-22nd July.
• “People call me by dreadful names”: Children’s Literature, Psychology and the Subject of Death, Horrible Histories, SHCY conference, King’s College, London, 16-18 June.
• “’I hope you understand all the big words’: Striking the balance between science and narrative through fantasy in 19th century children’s literature”, British Society for Literature and Science, Annual Conference, Birmingham Univeristy, 7-9 April.
• “Shifting Identities: Visual and Literary Incarnations of Victorian Psychiatric Thought in adaptations of Lewis Carroll’s Alice”, Asylums, Pathologies and the Themes of Madness: Patrick McGrath and his Gothic Contemporaries’, University of Stirling, 16 January.

     2015:

• “Illustrating Alice, Then and Now: Victorian Visual Culture and the Politics of Modern Children’s Book Illustration & Adaptation”, NCRCL MA/IBBY UK Conference, University of Roehampton, 14 November (read write-up here).
• “Alice through the Magnifying-Glass: Lewis Carroll and the Victorian Sciences of the Mind”, Alice Through the Ages Conference, Homerton College, University  of Cambridge, 15-17 September.
• “’We’re all mad here’: Lunacy, Lewis Carroll and Victorian Psychiatry”, British Society for Literature and Science Annual Conference, University of Liverpool, April 2015.
• “What Alice in Wonderland has got to do with Cognitive Sciences: Interdisciplinary approaches to Fantastic Literature”, Literature and Science Early Career Researchers’ Forum, TORCH, University of Oxford, 3 February.

      2014:

• “‘My heart was sore, and in my brain was neither quest nor purpose’: Physiological illness and fantastic visions in the fin-de-siècle novels of George MacDonald & Lewis Carroll”, The Victorian Roots of Modern Fantasy, The George MacDonald Society, Magdalen College, Oxford, August 2014.
• “‘How slight the line, if line there be’: Visual perception and (un-)reality in Victorian psychology and literature. ” British Society for Literature and Science Annual Conference, University of Surrey, Guildford, April 2014.

      2013:

• “’It simply upsets the nerves’: Dreams, Spectres, Visions and the ‘English Connection’ in the Works of Ivan Turgenev and Fyodor Dostoevsky”. Cultural Cross-Currents, Birmingham City University, July 2013.
•  “Dreaming Wonderland: The Construction of Imaginary Space in Victorian Children’s Literature.” Childhood and Space: Biennial Conference of the Society for the History of Children and Youth, University of Nottingham, June 2013.
• “Horrid King besmear’d with blood of human sacrifice: Man-consuming Machinery and Moloch as Dystopic Metaphor”, Cannibals, Cannibalism and Culture, University of Manchester, April 2013, Manchester.
• “Two worlds, so strangely one, yet so measurelessly wide apart: H.G. Wells’ and George MacDonald’s neurological adventures in wonderland.“ British Society for Literature and Science Conference, Cardiff University, April 2013, Cardiff .

      2012:

• “Back to the Future: The traumatic Jet-lag of the Time-Traveller in Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol.” Dickens on the Move, Leipzig University, November 2012, Leipzig.
• “Upward and yet not Northward: Dream, Death and the Fourth Dimension in the Short Stories of H.G. Wells”. BOUNDARIES: University of Sheffield, School of English Postgraduate Colloquium, May 2012, Sheffield.

      2011

• “Into the XBOX and what Alice found there: American McGee’s Alice Madness Returns”. The Afterlife of Alice, Anthony Burgess Foundation, December 2011, Manchester.

Conference Panel Proposals:

• Round Table ‘Children’s Literature and Science’ (Presenters: Prof Laurence Talairach-Vielmas, Dr Melanie Keene, Dr Will Tattersdill, Dr Emily Alder, Kanta Dihal, Franziska Kohlt; Chair: Prof Martin Willis), British Society for Literature and Science Annual Conference, University of Bristol, 2017.
• “Fractured identities, fractured visions: Dreams of literary modernities” (Panellists: Dr Kirsty Mills, Franziska E Kohlt, Dr Adam Fergus), (Dis)Connected Forms: Narratives on the Fractured Self, University of Hull, 8-9 September, 2016.
• “Consuming Fantasy: Science, Psychology and the Supernatural in George MacDonald and Victorian Fantastic Literature” (Panellists: Rebecca Langworthy, Dr Kirsty Mills, Franziska E. Kohlt; Chair: Mark Richards), BAVS Conference 2016, Cardiff University.
• “Explaining the World: Science, Children’s Writing and the (In-)Explicable” (Panellists: Dr Melanie Keene, Franziska E. Kohlt, Kanta Dihal), Horrible Histories, Children’s History Society Inaugural Conference, King’s College London, 2016.
• “Alice, Science and Narrative” (Panellists: Dr Melanie Keene, Franziska E Kohlt, Joshua Phillips, Chair: Prof Farah Mendlesohn), Alice Through the Ages Conference, Homerton College, University of Cambridge, 15-17 September.
• “(Dis)Placing Madness: Negotiating the Boundaries in Nineteenth-Century Mental Sciences and Literature” (Panellists: Kalika Sands, Erin Lafford, Franziska E Kohlt, Chair: Dr Jane Darcy),  10th Annual Conference of the British Society of Literature and Science, University of Liverpool, April 2015.
• “Seeing Things: Aspects of Perception in Science and Literature” (Panelists: Dr Will Abberley, Franziska E Kohlt, Laura E Ludtke; Chair: Dr Rachel Crossland), 9th Annual Conference of the British Society of Literature and Science, University of Surrey, Guildford, April 2014.

Panel Discussions:

• “Alice and Fashion Conference“, Victoria & Albert Museum of Childhood, Bethnal Green, London, 9 May 2015 (Panelists include Prof Will Brooker, Dr Kiera Vaclavic and Mark Richards).
• “Thinking Ahead: 150 Years of Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland” – Alice’s Day 2014, The Story Museum, Oxford; Chair: Mari Prichard; Panelists: Tish Francis (Director Story Museum Oxford), Sarah Stanfield (Chairwoman of the Lewis Carroll Society), Franziska Kohlt (Lewis Carroll Society, University of Oxford).