Calendar of
literature sessions
Image: Jeremy Peters, Newnham College
2025 Summer Course
Virginia Woolf Season. 1. Claire Davison on The Years
Virginia Woolf Season 2026-27. Lecture 1. Claire Davison on The Years (1937) and the Streets of London.
Virginia Woolf Season: Clara Jones on Night and Day
Virginia Woolf Season 2026-27. Lecture 2. Clara Jones on Married Love in Night and Day (1919).
Woolf Season: Mark Hussey on Between the Acts
Virginia Woolf Season VII. 2026-27
Mark Hussey on Woolf’s last novel, Between the Acts (1941). Live online lecture and seminar.
Virginia Woolf Season. Trudi Tate on Mrs Dalloway.
Virginia Woolf Season 2026-27. Lecture 4. Trudi Tate on Mrs Dalloway (1925) and the Peace Treaties.
Virginia Woolf Season. Beth Daugherty on Woolf’s Essays
Virginia Woolf Season 2026-27. Lecture 5. Beth Rigel Daugherty on The Historian in Woolf’s Essays.
Virginia Woolf Season. Kabe Wilson on To the Lighthouse.
Virginia Woolf Season 2026-27. Lecture 6. Kabe Wilson on To the Lighthouse (1927) and the Alphabet
Virginia Woolf Season. Claire Nicholson on Mrs Dalloway
Virginia Woolf Season 2026-27. Lecture 7. Claire Nicholson on Mrs Dalloway (1925) and Fashion History
Virginia Woolf Season: Ellie Mitchell on Three Guineas and LW, The Hotel
Virginia Woolf Season 2026-27. Lecture 8. Ellie Mitchell on Three Guineas (1938) and Leonard Woolf, The Hotel (1939).
Virginia Woolf Season: Alison Hennegan on Orlando
Virginia Woolf Season 2026-27. Lecture 9. Alison Hennegan on Orlando (1928) and Their Histories.
This lecture will explore the relation between ‘History’ as usually understood now and the common 18thC use of the word to mean a novel. From the beginning ‘story’ was recognised as central both to historiography and fiction, something of which Woolf was well aware and with which she plays throughout Orlando.
Virginia Woolf Season: Varsha Panjwani on A Room of One’s Own
Virginia Woolf Season 2026-27. Lecture 10. Varsha Panjwani, A Room of One’s Own (1929): An Inspiration Manual for Feminist History.
The lecture will trace how A Room of One’s Own has explicitly inspired feminist history projects in Shakespeare studies and beyond - from exhibitions that recover early modern women’s writing, to podcasts recording women's labour, to creative historiographies that imagine women’s lives into the archive - and show how Woolf’s essay still offers untapped tools for doing feminist historical work today.
2026 Summer Course in Cambridge: Virginia Woolf and the Natural World
Summer Course in Cambridge. Five days’ intensive study on Virginia Woolf and the Natural World. This course takes place in person in Cambridge, Monday 3 August to Friday 7 August 2026. Arrive in Cambridge Sunday late afternoon for a welcome dinner and lecture.
We study: Jacob’s Room, To the Lighthouse, The Waves, The Years, and Between the Acts. Plus talks, visits, and more.
Participants arrive in the afternoon of Sunday 2 August and depart on the morning of Saturday 8 August 2026. OR stay an extra day for an optional trip to Monk’s House and Charleston on Saturday 8 August; depart Sunday 9 August. Details on the booking page.
Virginia Woolf and the Natural World. Summer Course Live Online
We will run the Woolf Summer Course twice in 2026 - once live online in July, and again as an in-person course in Cambridge in August. Our theme is Virginia Woolf and the Natural World. This is the page linking to the live online course.
We will study five novels by Woolf: Jacob’s Room, To the Lighthouse, The Waves, The Years, Between the Acts.
The live online course has 5 days of lectures, seminar, supervisions, talks and more, Thursday to Monday, including the weekend. An intense and memorable experience. Do join us.
Virginia Woolf Season. The Waves
Virginia Woolf Season 2025-26: Woolf’s Rooms. Lecture 10. Ellie Mitchell on Rooms in The Waves (1931).
Virginia Woolf Season. The Years
Virginia Woolf Season 2025-26: Woolf’s Rooms. Lecture 9. Trudi Tate on Rooms in The Years (1937).
Virginia Woolf Season. Mrs Dalloway
Virginia Woolf Season 2025-26: Woolf’s Rooms. Lecture 8. Angela Harris on Rooms in Mrs Dalloway (1925).
Virginia Woolf Season. Orlando
Virginia Woolf Season 2025-26: Woolf’s Rooms. Lecture 7. Claire Davison on Orlando’s Bedrooms.
Virginia Woolf Season. Jacob’s Room
Virginia Woolf Season 2025-26: Woolf’s Rooms. Lecture 6. Karina Jakubowicz on Jacob’s Room (1922).
Virginia Woolf Season. Woolf’s Essays.
Virginia Woolf Season 2025-26. Woolf’s Rooms. Lecture 5. Beth Rigel Daugherty, Living and Thinking in the Rooms of Woolf’s Essays.
Virginia Woolf Season. A Room of One’s Own
Virginia Woolf Season 2025-26: Woolf’s Rooms.. Lecture 4. Alison Hennegan, Rooms for Women in A Room of One’s Own (1929).
Virginia Woolf Season. lecture 3
Virginia Woolf Season 2025-26. Lecture 3. Natasha Periyan on Rooms in Virginia Woolf’s short fiction.
Virginia Woolf Season. Lecture 2
Virginia Woolf Season 2025-26. Lecture 2. Frances Spalding, A Walk Around A Room of One’s Own (1929)
Virginia Woolf Season. Lecture 1
Virginia Woolf Season 2025-26. Lecture 1. The Dinner Party in To the Lighthouse (1927) with Trudi Tate.
Please note this session is on a Sunday, but the rest of the Season’s lectures are on Saturdays.
Woolf in August 2025: Sapphic Love in Orlando
August Lectures 2025. We repeat some lectures from previous Woolf Seasons, in case you missed them. All live online.
Alison Hennegan on Sapphic Love in Orlando (1928)
Woolf in August: Politics in Mrs Dalloway
Woolf in August 2025. Mark Hussey on Politics in Mrs Dalloway (1925).
Woolf in August 2025: Mrs Dalloway: War Trauma 6 pm
August Lectures 2025. We repeat some lectures from previous Woolf Seasons, in case you missed them. All live online.
Trudi Tate on War Trauma and Loss of Freedom in Mrs Dalloway (1925). Afternoon session: 6.00 pm to 8.00 pm British Summer Time.