Colloque international / International Conference
APHRA BEHN EN MOUVEMENT / APHRA BEHN ON THE MOVE
Sorbonne Université – Université Sorbonne Nouvelle – Université Paris Cité

 18-20 June 2025, Paris, France

18 JUNE
 Université Paris Cité
 Amphi Pierre-Gilles de Gennes, Bâtiment Condorcet
(Entrance: 4 rue Elsa Morante, 75013, Metro: Bibliothèque François Mitterrand)

13 h 30 – 14 h 00: Registration and coffee

14 h 00 – 14 h 15: Welcoming address

14 h 15 – 15 h 10: Session 1: Biographical Wanderings (Chair: Charles-Edouard Levillain, Paris Cité)
          14 h 15 – 14 h 35: María José Coperías-Aguilar (Universitat de València), “Wondering about Aphra Behn’s Wanderings”
          14 h 35 – 14 h 55: Karen Britland (University of Wisconsin at Madison), “Movement and Paranoia in Behn's Netherlands”
          14 h 55 – 15 h 10: Q&A

15 h 10-16 h 00: Plenary 1 (Chair: Aleksondra Hulquist, Stockton University)
Leah Orr (University of Louisiana at Lafayette): “Social and Economic Mobility in Behn’s Works and Her World”

16 h 30 – 18 h 30: Guided visit to the Bibliothèque nationale de France (registration required)

19 JUNE
 Sorbonne Université
 Salle des Actes
(Entrance: 17 rue de la Sorbonne, 75005, Paris, Metro: Odéon or Cluny)

9 h 15 – 10 h 05: Plenary 2 (Chair: Line Cottegnies, Sorbonne Université)
Elaine Hobby (Loughborough University), “‘They Stand without Motion in Postures’: Movement in The Emperor of the Moon”

10 h 05 – 10 h 30: Coffee break

10 h 30 -11 h 25: Session 2: Mobility and identity I (Chair: Aurélie Griffin, Sorbonne Nouvelle)

10 h 30 – 10 h 50:  Marion Wynne-Davies (University of Surrey), “Aphra Behn: Mobility in London”
10 h 50 – 11 h 10: Mona Narain (Texas Christian University), “Aphra Behn: Transiting and Transitional Identities”
11 h 10 – 11 h 25: Q&A


11 h 25 – 12 h 15: Session 3: Mobility and identity II (Chair: Ladan Niayesh, Paris Cité)

11 h 25 – 11 h 45: Mathilde Alazraki (Sorbonne Nouvelle): “Femininity and Otherness across the Stage and Page: a Comparative Study of Behn's Abdelazer (1676) and Oroonoko (1688) through the Lens of Gender and Race”
11 h 45 – 12 h 05: Jasmin Bieber (University of Konstanz): “‘There she sails!’: Maritime Rhetoric in Aphra Behn’s Prose and Plays”

          12 h 05 – 12 h 20: Q&A

Lunch at the Club des Enseignants

 
13 h 45 – 14 h 35:: Session 3: A World in Transition (Chair: Pierre Lurbe, Sorbonne Université)

          13 h 45 – 14 h 05: Aleksondra Hultquist (Stockton University), “Aphra Behn’s Dutch Republic in The Dutch Lover and Love-Letters”
          14 h 05 – 14 h 25: John Yargo (Boston College): “Whatever happened to one common Ruin? Environmental Catastrophe and the Reinvention of Race”
          14 h 25 – 14 h 35: Q&A

 
14 h 35 – 15 h 45: Session 4: Transcending Boundaries in Behn's Fiction (Chair: Anne-Marie Miller-Blaise, Sorbonne Nouvelle)

          14 h 35 – 14 h 55: Karen Bloom Gevirtz (Independent Scholar), “Mind and Movement in The History of the Nun”
          14 h 55 – 15 h 15: Aditi Upmanyu (Oxford University), “‘Galloping Nuns’ and ‘fickle Humour’: Subversive Movement in Aphra Behn’s The Fair Jilt (1688) and The History of the Nun (1689)”
          15 h 15 – 15 h 25: Q&A

15 h 25 – 15 h 45: Coffee break
 

15 h 45 – 16 h 15: Aline César, “Aphra Behn, Punk and Poetess”
 Musical reading (in French).


16 h 15 – 16 h 45: A Scene from L’Ecumeur des Mers (The Rover) (in French)
 Performed by: Compagnie La Loupe; director:  Roxane Best
 Translation: L. Cottegnies and M. Perea Lopes.
 
16 h 45 – 18 h 15:  Round Table “Jouer Aphra Behn en France / Staging Aphra Behn in France” (in English and French), with Aline César, Roxane Best and Cecilia Dorland (stage directors), Clara Manco et Line Cottegnies.
 

20 JUNE
Université Sorbonne Nouvelle, room C405
(Entrance: 8 avenue Saint-Mandé, 75012, Metro: Nation)

9 h 30 – 10 h 20: Plenary 3 (Chair: Clara Manco, Paris Cité)
Claire Bowditch (Independent Scholar): “‘No such strange thing in our Age’: Transforming French Fools into English Cuckolds in Shifting Political Landscapes.”

10 h 20 – 10 h 45: Coffee break

10 h 45 – 11 h 40: Session 5: Generic Innovations I (Chair: Sandrine Parageau, Sorbonne Université)

10 h 45-11 h 05: Baudouin Millet (Lyon 2): “The Generic Instability of Aphra Behn’s Oroonoko”
11 h 05 – 11 h 25: Amelia Mills (Nottingham Trent University), “Translation Methods on the Move: a Cultural Shift in Literary Priorities?”
11 h 25 – 11 h 40: Q&A
 

11 h 40 – 12 h 35: Session 6: Generic Innovations II (Chair: Al Coppola, CUNY)

11 h 40 – 12 h 00: Sonia Villegas-López (University of Huelva); “From Seduced Maiden to Female Rogue: Behn’s Genre Transitions in Love-Letters Between a Nobleman and His Sister”
12 h 00 – 12 h 20: Rachel Carnell (Cleveland State University): “Moving Through Secret History: From Procopius to Brémond to Behn to Manley”
12 h 20 – 12 h 35: Q&A

12 h 35 – 14 h 00: Lunch
14 h 00 – 14 h 50: Session 7: From Fiction to Drama (Chair: Claire Boulard-Jouslin, Sorbonne Nouvelle)

14 h 00 – 14 h 20: Beth Cortese (University of Iceland), “Behn’s Comi-tragedies: Disrupting the Comic Mode”
14 h 20 -14 h 40: Cassidy Holahan (University of Nevada), “Aphra Behn’s Fictions Stepping on Stage”
14 h 40 – 14 h 50: Q&A
 

Venue : Salle de Cinéma, Université Sorbonne Nouvelle. (same address : 8 avenue Saint-Mandé)

15 h 00 – 15 h 30: Presentation of Aphra Behn's The Town Fop, by Clara Manco and Claire Bowditch (30 mn)

15 h 30 – 17 h 00: Performance of The Town Fop: A Promenade (in English),
by UPC-SN-SU students, directed by Clara Manco and Cecilia Dorland
 with the participation of the baroque ensemble La Rêveuse.
Free entry (registration required).

 
 
 Conference organized with the support of Sorbonne Université and VALE UR 4085, Université Sorbonne nouvelle and PRISMES UR 4398, Université Paris Cité and UMR ECHELLES UMR 8264,  the International Aphra Behn Society and the Société d'Études Anglo-Américaines des 17e et 18e siècles (SEAA1718).