2021 schedule

This schedule summarizes all Summit sessions across the three days. The Eventbrite registration link has more detailed descriptions for each session.

This is a global event with contributors from 12 timezones. Most sessions will happen during an optimal window of time for most timezones but others will seem very late or very early depending on your location.

Session formats vary (workshop, show & tells, discussions, facilitated panels, group activities) and can be 30, 45, 60 or 80 minutes long.

All time blocks noted in yellow happen in the "Water Closet", the open Zoom where all Summit attendees gather, regardless of which sessions you are attending. 

Taming your research and turning it into something

With Alex Pryce

Whether you see yourself as a ‘researcher’ or not, texts, details and a building body of knowledge can quickly become overwhelming. How do you keep track of all your notes and ideas? What would you actually need to do to turn them into something you can share? 

This session aims to help you tame your research with some tips and tools for managing information. It’ll also help you to think about what and how you can turn your thoughts and finds into something you can share with everyone.

Buns. Stomach. Household. Hair. An introduction to some less-celebrated Anne Lister notebooks.

With Lynn Shouls

Anne Lister's journals and travel diaries are the most well known of her notebooks. But Anne kept a range of other logs and memoranda, such as account books, copies of business letters, lecture notes, poems, and address books. In this session we dip into Anne's notes of recipes, health and personal treatments, and household remedies.

Ever invariably and affect[ionatel]y yours, AL

With Shantel Smith

The journals are transcribed & the travel journals are on their way, so what’s left to transcribe? The correspondence! 

The Anne Lister Letter Bag tracker contains over 4700 tracked items and that’s not even half of it! You can find many in the archives and others only copied versions in her journal pages. Letters, letters everywhere!

Join us as we take a deep dive into the mechanics of Anne’s letter writing, the wax seals, and all the other discoveries you can make in the letter bag! 

#AnneListerCodebreaker retrospective

Facilitated by Janneke Vanderweijden

All pages of Anne Lister’s journals and travel journals are assigned. What happens now?

Join the West Yorkshire Archive Service and the Anne Lister Code Breakers for a retrospective of the award-winning volunteer project responsible for transcribing the five million words Miss Lister wrote during her life. 

We will explore the transcription project and get insights from those involved from start to finish. What stories can they tell us? And what comes next? Join us and find out!

Not quite a Lady’s expedition: Anne Lister’s mountaineering adventures

With Marlene Oliveira and Amanda Pryce

From Ben Nevis to Mt. Vignemale, Anne conquered the summits of several mountains, enjoying walks, treks, and scrambles. But what do we know about Anne's mountaineering exploits? How did she prepare? What were her concerns? How did she handle the danger? And who were her companions in these ('not lady's') expeditions? 

Join us in an analysis of Anne's mountaineering adventures!

New books for your Anne Lister shelf

With Clara Barley, Adeline Lim, and Lynn Pharaoh. Facilitated by Janet Lea.

Newfound interest in Anne Lister and Ann Walker produced new writers exploring the global impact of the TV show, traveling in their footsteps, transcribing Anne Lister’s journal, and speculating about Anne’s and Ann’s thoughts as their relationship unfolded. 

In this session, you’ll learn about these new books that will make a nice addition to your Anne Lister book shelf:

• Janet Lea, "The Gentleman Jack Effect: Lessons in Breaking Rules and Living Out Loud"

• Adeline Lim, "In the Footsteps of Anne Lister (Volume 1..."

• Clara Barley, "The Moss House", "The Meer Side"

• Lynn Pharaoh,"Anne Lister, Ann Walker, and me"

'Wrote the above of today' — Anne Lister's Writings

With Jenna Beyer and Dannielle Orr

Take a deep dive into how Anne Lister built her autobiographical project. Journey with Jenna Beyer and Dannielle Orr through Anne's journal entries, marginalia, letters, and indexes from her trip to Paris in 1824-1825, and explore how these structural techniques may reveal a way Anne could have been using her journal to build her own story.

Resources: 30 Jan. 1825 - Entry Transcription, 31 Jan. 1825 - Letter to Aunt Anne

Beginners guide to research resources with Calderdale Libraries

With Sarah Rose

Join Sarah Rose from Calderdale Libraries for an introduction to library resources. Especially helpful for background research, we'll be taking a look at Trade Directories, Maps, Newspapers, and more! 

Sarah will show you how to access and search online catalogues and listings, where you may be able to view digitised items. 

She will also demonstrate how some of these physical and online resources can be used to build a picture of Anne's life or answer queries that may come up in your research. 

Genealogy Q&A with Natalie Pithers

Facilitated by Shantel Smith

Are you missing some branches on that family tree? Do you have no idea where to start because there are 127 Annes & 89 James? 

Join special guest Natalie Pithers, creator of Genealogy Stories and the Twice Removed podcast, as she answers all your genealogy questions and helps you go from building a tree to telling a story! 

Bring your questions to this live Q&A as we dive into the details of telling stories through history. 

Maria Barlow: Ancestors and Descendants

With David Glover

Maria Barlow entered Anne Lister’s life in Paris in 1824; as far as we know, they never met in England itself. 

But what was Maria’s background, and who were her transatlantic ancestors? Hear how her aunt inspired a character in a classic American novel of 1826!

David will include quotations from Jane Barlow’s diary, and trace descendants into the 20th Century, revealing how one inspired a world-famous inventor.

Resources: Maria Barlow's Pedigree

Translating Anne Lister

With Juliette Ulmann, Chris Santos and Lucia Falzari. Facilitated by Lívia Labate. 

Anne Lister had a keen interest in other cultures and languages, as evidenced by her many travels and the breadth and variety of her reading interests. Her own masterwork, her journals, show her comfort with learning and exploring other languages, as well as an ability to develop her own when existing language was not enough.

In this session we hear from Juliette Ulmann, Chris Santos and Lucia Falzari, who have translated portions of Anne’s work for different purposes, and discuss what it is like to interpret and translate Anne Lister’s own words into other languages, the challenges of understanding and representing intent accurately, and the role in-language information plays in bringing Anne Lister to the world.

Educating the Self: Anne Lister and the Ancients

With Chris Roulston

This presentation focuses on Lister’s engagement with the Classical tradition. On the one hand, Lister’s knowledge in that area was a sign of her independence and brilliant mind. On the other, it was an ongoing reminder of the complicated relationship to her own sexuality, of her exclusion from a fully masculinized subject position within Regency culture and more broadly, of the kinds of privileges she desired but did not have access to. 

Chris Roulston argues that Lister’s knowledge of the Classical tradition involved a certain kind of loss as well as obvious gains.  

Rethinking Anne Lister's Sexual Knowledge

With Anna Clark

In 1831, at age forty, Anne Lister wrote that she “found distinctly for the first time” the clitoris. While one might expect a Victorian woman to be sexually ignorant, Anne Lister’s late-blooming anatomical knowledge is surprising, for she was quite unusual in two ways. First, as her coded diaries reveal, she had clearly been experiencing pleasure through the clitoris and giving pleasure to other women; second, she educated herself in anatomy, and even dissected bodies. 

By looking at Anne Lister’s quest to find the clitoris, we can understand in more detail how difficult it was for women to conceptualize this important part of their bodies. This paper will also illuminate the debates about changing understanding of anatomy and the one-sex/two-sex models of gender difference.

In Lunacy: the case of Miss Ann Walker

With Marlene Oliveira

After Anne Lister's death, a series of turbulent and controversial legal issues culminated in the commission and inquisition of lunacy of Ann Walker. Deemed a person of unsound mind, her life changed forever, and she lost the right to care for herself and her property. 

Join us in the analysis of Ann's lunacy case, and learn more about the legal proceedings and living and treatment conditions in which some lunatics lived. We'll also discuss others whose treatment and outcomes differed from Ann's.

Sensitive content warning: mental illness, death, self-harm.

Searching for Ann Walker

With Diane Halford, Dorjana Širola, Leila Straub, Louise Godley and Deb Woolson. Facilitated by Steph Gallaway.

A panel of contributors from In Search of Ann Walker, a collaborative group of people interested in bringing to light details of Ann Walker’s life and ensure her rightful place in history, will share projects and research they are involved in.  

This will include:

• Ann Walker in the Diaries 

• Ann’s Associate research

• Transcription of Ann Walker’s diary

• The diary comparison project 

• Transcription of Ann’s letters

• Archive research

• Account and Will transcriptions

• Ann’s Legacy & fundraising

There will be opportunity to ask questions as well as find out more about how to get involved.

Hidden Revealing: a deconstruction of Anne Lister’s crypthand creating type as image

With Jayne Graham-McMorrow. Facilitated by Jess Payne

Join Graphic Artist Jayne Graham-McMorrow to explore a deconstruction and manipulation of the architecture and geometry of Anne’s crypt-hand. Through the use of her collated digital typographic library she creates new typographical forms as images. Seemingly static, the images reveal a queer history through an Augmented Reality (AR) App, EyeJack, using motion graphics.

Jayne’s work reveals a hidden and contemporary mode of relating to, and with, a queer past through mobilising the digital. ‘Hidden Revealing’ is a viewing experience specifically designed to engage an audience within gallery and public spaces. Removing barriers or filters that may arise in people when considering interacting with queer history. Her work is political and personal, intending to create surprise, inform and subvert the viewer’s perceptions and preconceptions, it’s end goal is to revisioning Queer women's history.

CANCELED/CANCELLED

Design & Identity at Anne Lister's Shibden Hall

With Jennifer Briasco

Jennifer Briasco will discuss Anne Lister's construction and reflection of public identity in her renovations of Shibden Hall as it relates to the history of design, including the gothic revival architectural style and its already existing connection with queer identity, as well as the political influence of the Tory party and picturesque landscape of the Shibden valley.

Shibden Hall: A Volunteer’s Perspective

With Colette Fleming and Ian Wright. Facilitated by Sarah Rose 

Join Sarah Rose from Calderdale Libraries in conversation with two of the volunteer room stewards from Shibden Hall as we hear about why they became volunteers, their favourite experiences whilst working there, and the truth about the rumours of some ghostly sightings.

If you haven’t visited Shibden Hall yet, this is your opportunity to find out more about the estate from those who bring it to life for visitors from near and far. You’ll have the chance to ask your own questions at the end of the session.

Happy 600th Shibden Hall! A brief history: 1421-2021

With David Glover

This year the Hall celebrates its 600th anniversary. What did the building look like originally? In this presentation, David traces a story of absorbing interest, from the disputes between the Otes and Savile family in the late 15th Century, through the thriving Waterhouse years, down to the fascinating diversity of the Listers, and how the Hall was saved in 1925. And find out what lost gem was rediscovered in 1958!

Resources: "Happy 600th Birthday, Shibden Hall!" by David Glover

Curating Shibden Hall: Past & Present

With Ros Westwood and Angela Clare. Facilitated by Claire Mead

What was Shibden Hall like as a museum in the 1990s and how does it compare to today? What is it like being surrounded by 600 years of history? How has Shibden Hall changed over the years? And what does the future hold for this now famous landmark in Halifax?

Join Curator Claire Mead, former Shibden Hall Curator and current Derbyshire Museums Manager Ros Westwood, MBE, and Calderdale Museums Collections Manager Angela Clare in a conversation about their work and their connection to Anne Lister’s ancestral home.

CANCELED/CANCELLED

The evolution of Anne Lister’s theology: from Bondage to Liberation

With Azariah Rafael Journey

What did Anne Lister believe? How did she consolidate her Anglican Christian faith with her sexuality, educational adventures, and her travels? How did the intersectionality of her deeply rooted faith and her sexuality change throughout her lifetime?  Join Azariah Rafael Journey, an undergraduate student at the University of North Carolina-Greensboro History Department in an exploration of how Anne Lister’s faith evolved during her lifetime from feelings of shame and bondage to spiritual and sexual liberation. 

We will consider Anne Lister’s personal theology and some of the things that impacted it throughout her life as well as examine that the ideas of her theological stance are still being discussed, debated, and tested in the Christian Faith. 

Where is Anne Lister?

With Marlene Oliveira, Shantel Smith, Amanda Pryce. Steph Gallaway and Lívia Labate

We know where she lived, who she loved, and where she died, but the exact location of Anne Lister's final resting place at the Halifax Minster still remains a mystery. 

Join Packed with Potential contributors as they share how five people across three countries tackled this massive research project. From digging through hundreds of archival documents and research papers to reading old newspaper articles discussing bones poking through the Minster floor, they’ll share their favorite discoveries researching the potential burial locations of Anne Lister. And they’ll explain how they discovered the location of the Lister family vault, where Anne might be, and all the challenges that come with searching for an ‘unmarked’ grave. 

Sensitive content warning: Burial practices, body decomposition, and consequences of using lead coffins may be mentioned.