Welcome

Welcome to the website for the Medieval and Renaissance Scottish Language and Literature Conference 2008. The venue for this Twelfth International Triennial Conference is Edinburgh, the first UNESCO World City of Literature. The conference will take place between June 30th and July 4th 2008.

The conference is hosted by the department of Celtic and Scottish Studies, and the department of English Literature in the School of Literatures, Languages and Cultures at the University of Edinburgh. It will continue the conference tradition of exploring, commemorating and celebrating the rich diversity of Scotland's literatures, cultures, and languages - Gaelic, Scots and Latin - in the Medieval and Renaissance periods, and welcomes scholars and interested readers from all areas and all stages. Postgraduate students working in the area are particularly welcome.

The City of Edinburgh provides a cultured and historical as well as geographical context for the conference and its papers. 2008 will mark the five hundredth anniversary of the nation's first printing press which was established in the city in 1508 by Chepman and Myllar. The conference will commemorate this event by making the subject of Early Scottish Printing one of the principal themes.

This will raise interconnected questions of manuscript and print. Celebration and Commemoration will be another strand, covering topics such as festivity, ceremonial, history and memory. Both strands should be interpreted in their widest sense. The themes are not exclusive and papers will be presented on many aspects of the Scottish languages and literatures of the period.

Interdisciplinary in breadth and focus, the conference will include a range of distinguished plenary speakers, themed academic sessions, and a variety of workshops and community activities. In addition, a series of exhibitions, theatrical and musical events is planned which will highlight aspects of Scotland's early artistic heritage, and which will take place against the backdrop of the city's architectural and civic beauty.

Delegates will explore the many locations of the city that throw light on the subjects of the conference, material testament of the rich historical and cultural past which the 2008 conference will celebrate and commemorate.