34th Annual International Conference on Virginia Woolf
‘Woolf and Dissidence’
5-8 July 2025, University of Sussex
(with opening event at King’s College London on 4 July 2025)
We are delighted to bring the Annual Virginia Woolf Conference back to the UK and to two sites – King’s College London and the University of Sussex – with such strong Woolfian connections.
The pre-conference events will be held at King’s College London on Friday July 4th: a visit to the King’s Archives and a panel discussion on ‘Virginia Woolf: Creative Engagements’ with contemporary writers and artists speaking about their multi-media engagements with Woolf’s writing. Our confirmed speakers include: Uzma Hameed, Jo Hamya, Olivia Laing, Katie Mitchell and Kabe Wilson.
From Saturday 5th to Tuesday 8th July, the conference proper will be held at the University of Sussex.
The programme (to be confirmed) will include talks from our keynote speakers, Professor Madelyn Detloff and Professor Anne Fernald.
We are planning an exciting schedule of events, including a performance of Between the Acts, events to mark the centenary of Mrs Dalloway, and a panel discussion about exhibiting Bloomsbury modernism. Optional extra activities include visits to Charleston, Monk’s House and Towner Eastbourne (Sussex Modernism exhibition).
We look forward to welcoming you to the conference. If you are posting about the conference on social media, please use hashtag(s):
#Woolf2025 and/or #WoolfandDissidence
Helen, Clara and Anna.
A post-conference thank you
Thank you to each and every one of you for your participation in ‘Woolf and Dissidence’. Whether you attended for just one day, all week, or in absentia, whether you presented, spoke or listened, and whether you gave a paper, a dissident presentation, a keynote, or contributed to a plenary discussion or lunchtime talk, we are grateful for your contribution. It was a joy and a privilege to welcome so many Woolf scholars, readers, and artists from around the globe—especially in such troubled times—and we are truly thankful to all of you for making the event so special.
Alongside our thanks, we want to share the following:
Conference Feedback
Many thanks to those of you who have shared feedback with us already. If you would like to tell us anything about your experience of the conference, please do fill out this short online feedback form (opens in a new tab).
Between the Acts Feedback
If you attended the performance of Between the Acts, writer Eleanor Lybeck and director Jen Heyes would be very grateful for your feedback about the performance. I’m sure that you will all agree that the performance and post-show Q&A with Refugee Tales and AVID (the Association of Visitors to Immigration Detainees) was powerful and moving. It revealed the transformative value of this unique and urgent collaborative work, which weaves the words of those with lived experiences of immigration detention with those of Virginia Woolf. Feedback will help Eleanor and Jen to apply for funding to take this project further, so please download and complete this form (Word document, 20KB) and email to Eleanor Lybeck at: eleanor.lybeck@liverpool.ac.uk.
Pressing Matters Feedback
If you visited the ‘Pressing Matters: Printing with Virginia Woolf’ exhibition in the University of Sussex library, we’d be grateful for any feedback here (opens in a new tab). This will help us to continue to run the Centre for Modernist Studies Artists in the Archives series in future years.
Conference Proceedings
We will be in touch with plans for conference proceedings publications later in the summer.
Photographs
View a selection of our photographers’ images below, or visit the conference Google Drive for the full set and to share your own (see ‘Woolf 2025: Thanks’ email from Helen Tyson, 15 July, for link).
Photo credits: University of Sussex (Stuart Robinson) and Chen Cannell.
Contact Us
You can contact the Conference Organising team (Helen, Clara and Anna) by emailing: virginiawoolf2025@gmail.com
We currently have limited capacity to respond to individual queries, and may take a couple of days to get back to you.
If you’re looking for general information about registration, accommodation, and travel, you might find what you need more quickly on the Registration or Plan Your Visit pages.
If you have a problem or query relating to orders places on the Online Shop (registration, activities, merchandise) or other logistical aspects of the conference, please email our Faculty’s Research Support team: mah-research@sussex.ac.uk
If you have a problem or query relating to campus accommodation, please email GuestBookings@sussex.ac.uk
Conference co-organisers: Helen Tyson (Sussex), Clara Jones (King’s) and Anna Snaith (King’s).
Artwork by A T Kabe Wilson.
Woolf 2025 