Eighth Münster Symposium on Jonathan Swift

Name: Eighth Münster Symposium on Jonathan Swift
Start: 2026-10-26T09:00:00+01:00
End: 2026-10-27T17:00:00+01:00
Location: Schloss Münster

26.10.2026, 09:00 → 27.10.2026, 17:00 Europe/Berlin

Schloss Münster

Hermann J. Real, Janika Bischof, Kirsten Juhas, Klaus Stierstorfer

Beschreibung

Celebrating 300 Years of Gulliver's Travels

We are delighted to announce that the Chair of British Studies and the Ehrenpreis Centre for Swift Studies will be hosting the forthcoming international conference "Celebrating 300 Years of Gulliver’s Travels: Eighth Münster Symposium on Jonathan Swift” on 26 and 27 October at Schloss Münster.

This in-person event brings together scholars and researchers from all over the world to explore the text, contexts, and afterlives of Jonathan Swift’s timeless satirical masterpiece Gulliver’s Travels, published in October 1726.

The Symposium is open to all interested students, scholars, and members of the public, but registration via Indico is required.

Registration closes on 18 October 2026.

Please note that virtual attendance is unfortunately not possible.

Mo., 26. Oktober
- Mo., 26. Okt.
- Di., 27. Okt.
- 09:15 → 09:30
  
  Welcome Addresses 15m
  
  Sprecher: Prof. Klaus Stierstorfer (Dean of Research, FB 09: Philology)
- 09:30 → 10:45
  Afterlives: Afterlives I
  
  Sitzungsleiter: Janika Bischof (University of Münster)
  - 09:30
    
    “Men not afraid of God”: *Gulliver’s Travels* Now 30m
    
    Sprecher: Brean Hammond (University of Nottingham)
  - 10:00
    
    Jonathan Swift's Modelling in *Gulliver's Travels* 30m
    
    Sprecher: Klaus Stierstorfer (University of Münster)
  - 10:30
    
    Discussion 15m
- 11:00 → 12:45
  Afterlives: Afterlives II
  
  Sitzungsleiter: Ashley Marshall (University of Nevada)
  - 11:00
    
    Gulliver the Ghostwriter 30m
    
    Sprecher: Daniel Cook (University of Dundee)
  - 11:30
    
    The Debts of Private Satire: Henrietta Howard and *Gulliver’s Travels* 30m
    
    Sprecher: David M. Palumbo (Emmanuel College, Boston)
  - 12:00
    
    Swift’s Descriptive Regime and the First Illustrations to *Gulliver’s Travels* 30m
    
    Sprecher: Andrew Bricker (Ghent University)
  - 12:30
    
    Discussion 15m
- 13:45 → 15:00
  Readings: Books One and Two
  
  Sitzungsleiter: Barbara Schmidt-Haberkamp (University of Bonn)
  - 13:45
    
    *Gulliver* and International Relations: Then and Now 30m
    
    Sprecher: Matthew Gertken (Leawood, Kansas)
  - 14:15
    
    The Brobdingnagian Maids of Honour and Ideas of Female Community 30m
    
    Sprecher: Moyra Haslett (Queen’s University Belfast)
  - 14:45
    
    Discussion 15m
- 15:15 → 17:00
  Readings: Book Three
  
  Sitzungsleiter: J. A. Downie (Goldsmith's College, London)
  - 15:15
    
    Lemuel Gulliver, the “perfect stranger” 30m
    
    Sprecher: Gregory Lynall (University of Liverpool)
  - 15:45
    
    Gulliver and Japan, Swift and the Dutch 30m
    
    Sprecher: Clement Hawes (University of Michigan)
  - 16:15
    
    From Microscopes to Macrochips: Lemuel Gulliver and the Hook in Swift’s Character 30m
    
    Sprecher: Hans Förstl (München)
  - 16:45
    
    Discussion 15m
Di., 27. Oktober
- Mo., 26. Okt.
- Di., 27. Okt.
- 09:15 → 10:30
  Readings: Book Four and Beyond
  
  Sitzungsleiter: Michael Düring (Kiel University)
  - 09:15
    
    Humility, Humiliation, and Humanity in *Gulliver’s Travels* 30m
    
    Sprecher: Nicholas Seeger (Keele University)
  - 09:45
    
    “Earth reeking with the blood of its inhabitants”: Environmental Satire in Jonathan Swift’s *Gulliver’s Travels* 30m
    
    Sprecher: Adam James Smith (York St John University)
  - 10:15
    
    Discussion 15m
- 10:45 → 12:30
  Contexts
  
  Sitzungsleiter: Laura Schmitz-Justen (University of Münster)
  - 10:45
    
    Gulliver and the Golden Rule 30m
    
    Sprecher: Melinda Rabb (Brown University, Rhode Island)
  - 11:15
    
    Welcome to the 1726 Birthday Party! Contextualizing *Gulliver's Travels* in Early Enlightenment Thought 30m
    
    Sprecher: Sonja Fielitz (Marburg University)
  - 11:45
    
    *Gulliver* through the Lens of *New Objectivity* and *Postmodernism*: The Illustrated German Editions of 1925 and 2006 30m
    
    Sprecher: Sigrid Seitlinger (München)
  - 12:15
    
    Discussion 15m
- 14:00 → 15:15
  Textual and Bibliographical Aspects
  
  Sitzungsleiter: James E. May (Lancaster)
  - 14:00
    
    *Several Copies of Verses on Occasion of Mr. Gulliver's Travels* (1727) 30m
    
    Sprecher: James Woolley (Lafayette College, Easton)
  - 14:30
    
    The Text, Contexts, and Afterlives of the Lindalino Episode 30m
    
    Sprecher: Kirsten Juhas (University of Münster)
  - 15:00
    
    Discussion 15m
- 15:30 → 16:45
  Taking Stock: Achievements and Failures
  
  Sitzungsleiter: Dirk F. Passmann
  - 15:30
    
    Method in the Criticism of *Gulliver's Travels*, Part Four 30m
    
    Sprecher: Stephen Karian (University of Missouri)
  - 16:00
    
    Responses 30m
  - 16:30
    
    Discussion 15m
- 16:45 → 17:00
  
  Farewell 15m
  
  Sprecher: Hermann J. Real (University of Münster)