Crusoe at 300: Adaptations, Afterlives & Futures

The Sixth Biennial Meeting of the Defoe Society

Plenary Speakers: Barbara M. Benedict, Charles A. Dana Professor of English at Trinity College; Nicholas Seager, Senior Lecturer, Keele University

Conference organizers: Chloe Wigston Smith, University of York and Gabriel Cervantes, University of Glasgow

The year 2019 marks the tercentenary of the publication of The Life and Surprising Adventures of Robinson Crusoe. The Defoe Society will mark this milestone by holding its sixth biennial conference in York, England, Crusoe’s birthplace.

The 2019 meeting will be held July 10-12 at the University of York and the Centre for Eighteenth Century Studies at the historic King’s Manor. York is 2 hours, by train, from London King’s Cross and 2.5 hours from Edinburgh. It’s about a 50-minute drive from Leeds Bradford airport and just under 1.5 hours, by train, from Manchester International Airport.

The conference will begin the afternoon of 10 July with an Open House at Thin Ice Press, followed by the keynote from Dr Nicholas Seager and conclude Friday evening on 12 July with the keynote from Professor Benedict, followed by the conference dinner.

Crusoe at 300 programme (PDF , 602kb)

This conference is sponsored by the Centre for Eighteenth Century Studies, University of York, the Department of English and Related Literature, University of York and the York Georgian Society. 

July is a very busy season in York and we recommend reserving accommodation as soon as possible. We have reserved a limited number of student rooms on the main university campus in Heslington for the nights of 10-12 July, which can be booked when registering for the conference.  

We have also a compiled a list of local accomodation in York.

Image: Robinson Crusoe, Bernard Picart (workshop of), after Bernard Picart, 1720. Rijksmuseum. 

Registration for this conference has now closed. 
 

Please get in touch with questions at crusoeat300@york.ac.uk.