The Tennyson Society, in conjunction with Bishop Grosseteste University, will be holding an international conference in Lincoln from 14th to 17th July 2026. 

“Tennyson’s poetry was central in forming those Victorian responses to the natural world and to scientific advances which underpin today’s emerging new fields of environmental studies and plant humanities, as well as interdisciplinary studies of literature and science. His evocative landscapes inspired painters from the Pre-Raphaelites to Edward Lear, while his struggles with evolutionary theory engaged with a different vision of ‘Nature, red in tooth and claw’. Our conference will offer contributors the opportunity to range widely, from geology to garden design, from the celebration of landscape to warfare and the destruction of landscape, from the minutiae of the ‘Flower in the Crannied Wall’ to the ‘Vastness’ of Space, from the threat of industrialisation to the promise of a utopian future, from imperial land-grabbing to the preservation of local identities and dialects.

This will be a timely opportunity to explore the varied legacies left to us by the Victorians and their Poet Laureate, and to assess their relevance to the global climate crises of today.

— Valerie Purton”

Check the Tennyson Society website for updates: https://tennysonsociety.com/tennyson-2026-conference/