Gilbert White and his Contexts

Conference Programme Archive

Tuesday 3 June

9.30. Bus departs from Alton House Hotel

9.45. Bus departs from Alton Railway Station

10.30-11:00. Welcome from the Organisers

11.00-12.30. Panel 1: Gilbert White: Reception, Legacy, and Reinterpretation

Chair: Brycchan Carey (Northumbria University)

Bill Brooks: Gilbert White: A Photographic Exploration

R. Paul Evans: 'The vain and self-seeking author of the British Zoology': How justified was Professor T. Bell in his negative assessment of Thomas Pennant's lack of formal acknowledgement of the support he had received from Gilbert White in the writing of his various zoological works?

Rosamund Paice (Northumbria University): Three Trees and a Bridge Repair: the Politics of White's Second Letter to Pennant

12.30-1.15. Lunch

1.15-2.30. Keynote Talk 1

Anne Secord (University of Cambridge), The 'man with the detective eye': Gilbert White and the Art of Observation

Chair: Stephanie Holt (Oxford University/Natural History Museum, London)

2.30-2.40: Break

2.40-4.10: Panel 2: White's Networks and Friendships

Chair: Linda Troost (Washington and Jefferson College)

Brycchan Carey (Northumbria University): Gilbert White in the Network of Eighteenth-Century Clerical Naturalists

Caroline Davison: 'The amiable Mr Stillingfleet' and the 'ingenious friend Mr. Marsham': how a friendship influenced the writing of The Natural History of Selborne

Ben Jackson (University of Manchester): 'The warmth of our old friendship': Friendly Bodies in John Mulso's Letters to Gilbert White, 1744-1790

4.10-4.30: Break

4.30-6.00: Panel 3: Gilbert White and his Clerical Contexts

Chair: Ben Jackson (University of Manchester)

Daniel Reed (Westminster College Oxford Trust): What was a 'typical' Clerical Career in the Eighteenth Century?

Nigel Aston (University of York): Gilbert White the Oxford Don

William Gibson (Oxford Brookes University and Faculty of Theology, University of Oxford): Gilbert White the Parson

6.00-7.30: Drinks Reception and Launch of Edwin Rose's Reading the World: British Practices of Natural History, 1760-1820

7.45: Bus departs Selborne, arrives Alton House Hotel approximately 8.15

Wednesday 4 June

8.15. Bus departs from Alton House Hotel

9.00-10.30. Panel 4: Thomas Pennant, Gilbert White, and the Tours of Natural History 1: The Tours

Chair: Edwin Rose (University of Cambridge/Natural History Museum, London)

Mary-Ann Constantine (University of Wales) and Nigel Leask (University of Glasgow): Thomas Pennant, Gilbert White and the Tours of Natural History

Lisa Cardy (Natural History Museum, London): Digitally unlocking Thomas Pennant's Extra Illustrated Tours of Wales and Scotland

Alex Deans (University of Glasgow): 'A part of Great Britain that perhaps was never so well examined before': Gilbert White, Thomas Pennant, and the natural history of Scotland

10.30-11.00. Break

11.00-12.30. Panel 5: Thomas Pennant, Gilbert White, and the Tours of Natural History 2: Natural Histories

Chair: Mary-Ann Constantine (University of Wales)

Stephanie Holt (Oxford University/Natural History Museum, London): Corresponding Naturalists: Thomas Pennant and Gilbert White

Edwin Rose (University of Cambridge/Natural History Museum, London): Gilbert White in a Global Context: Thomas Pennant, Daines Barrington, and the Beginnings of Biogeography

Elizabeth Edwards (University of Wales): Teaching taxonomies: Thomas Pennant and natural history in the classroom

12.30-1.15. Lunch

1.15-2.30. Keynote Talk 2

Jenny Uglow, 'Watching Narrowly': Reading Gilbert White's Journals

Chair: Brycchan Carey (Northumbria University)

2.30-2.45. Break

2.45-4.15. Panel 6: The Literary Gilbert White

Chair: Rosamund Paice (Northumbria University)

Sayre Greenfield (The University of Pittsburgh at Greensburg): 'Such observations as may occur': Poetry, Science, Gilbert White, and the Disordering of Birds

Richard Kerridge (Bath Spa University): Gilbert White and Present-Day Nature Writing

Toby Stinson (University of Oxford): 'Nor be the parsonage by the Muse forgot': The Poetic Legacy of Gilbert White

4.15-6.30. Excursions

4.15-6.30. Private viewing of the Curious Travellers exhibition

6.45. Bus departs Selborne, arrives Alton House Hotel approximately 7.15

8.00. Conference Dinner at The Swan, High St, Alton, GU34 1AT

Thursday 5 June

8.15. Bus departs from Alton House Hotel

9.00-10.30. Panel 7: Walking and Observing

Chair: Toby Stinson (University of Oxford)

Chris Mounsey (University of Winchester): Walking in White's Footsteps: The Enduring Legacy of Local Natural History Observation

Stan Booth (University of Winchester): The Bioethics of the Vista: Gilbert White's Contribution

June Chatfield: Forty years of recording in White's Selborne from 1978 to present

10.30-10.50. Break

10.50-12.35. Panel 8: White and Biodiversity

Chair: Stephanie Holt (Oxford University/Natural History Museum, London)

Kevin Richard Butt (University of Central Lancashire): Observations of the Earthworms from Gilbert White's Estate

Nigel Cooper (Anglia Ruskin University and the Diocese of Ely): A Comparative Critical Discourse Analysis of White's Natural History and the Dasgupta Report on the Economics of Biodiversity

John C. Rumm: Awakening to Birds at 'The Wakes': Gilbert White's Journey from Novice to 'Full-Fledged Watcher'

David M. Wilkinson (University of Lincoln/University of Nottingham): Gilbert White, Swift Populations, and the Silwood Circle

12.35-1.20. Lunch

1.20-2.50. Panel 9: Learning From White

Chair: Brycchan Carey (Northumbria University)

Helen Clarke and Sharon Witt: How Does the Wisdom of Gilbert White—as a Geographer with a Deep Sense of Place—Inspire Educators Today?

Ralph Pite (University of Bristol) and Francesca Mackenney (Manchester Metropolitan University): GIlbert White and the Natural History GCSE

Graham Usher (Diocese of Norwich): Watching Narrowly; the Gift of Attention to Heal our World

2.50-3.00. Break

3.00-4.15. Keynote Talk 3

Stephen Moss (Bath Spa University) Gilbert White: the first Birdwatcher?

Chair: Richard Kerridge (Bath Spa University)

4.15-4.30. Concluding Remarks

4.30. Conference Ends

4.45. Bus departs Selborne, arrives Alton Railway Station approximately 5.15, Alton House Hotel approximately 5.25