Trollope Society Conference 2026
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Registration has closed for the Trollope Society’s 2026 conference, which will take place at Magdalene College, Cambridge.
Trollope: The Law and Transgression
The Trollope Society’s 2026 conference explores the theme of law and transgression across Anthony Trollope’s fiction. Bringing together scholars, lawyers, novelists and readers, the conference examines how Trollope represents legal systems, moral failure, social rule-breaking, ecclesiastical authority, gender prejudice, inheritance, equity and international law. Across two days at Magdalene College, Cambridge, we will consider how Trollope dramatises both the letter of the law and the pressures of conscience, custom and social judgement.
Delegate information
Conference Programme
| Date | Start | Type | Session | Presenter |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Fri 27 Mar | 2:15 pm | Welcome | Welcome and housekeeping | Trollope Society |
| 2:25 pm | Intro | Introduction by Professor Linda McClain | Professor Linda McClain | |
| 2:45 pm | Paper | Mr Dove’s Opinion: Custom and Conscience in the World of the Pallisers | Gerard Clarke | |
| 3:25 pm | Paper | How bad is John Caldigate? | Tom Crewe | |
| 4:05 pm | Tea break | |||
| 4:35 pm | Paper | Unexpected Interventions: The Deus ex Machina in Court | Gilly Wilford | |
| 5:15 pm | Paper | Law, Transgression, and Gender Prejudice in Anthony Trollope’s Cousin Henry | Professor Deborah Denenholz Morse | |
| 7:00 pm | Reception | Reception in the Benson Room | ||
| 7:30 pm | Dinner | College Dining Hall | ||
| Sat 28 Mar | 7:30 am | Breakfast | Breakfast in Ramsey Room for residential delegates | |
| 9:00 am | Intro | Welcome and housekeeping | Trollope Society | |
| 9:10 am | Paper | Justifying Septimus Harding: Ecclesiology and Law in The Warden | Dr Mark Rigg | |
| 9:50 am | Comfort break | |||
| 10:00 am | Paper | ‘Some gross insufficiency in the laws of extradition’: Anthony Trollope’s Phineas Redux and International Law | Frederik Van Dam | |
| 10:40 am | Paper | Presence and Absence: Transgressive Trustees and Anthony Trollope | Dr Hazel Vosper | |
| 11:20 am | Tea break | |||
| 11:40 am | Paper | Trollope and the Equitable Judgment of Human Failings | Professor Gary Watt | |
| 12:20 pm | Roundtable | A Taxonomy of Transgression in Anthony Trollope’s Novels | Professor Linda C. McClain Claire Laporte |
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| 1:00 pm | Conclusion | Question and Answer | Claire Laporte | |
| 1:25 pm | Thank you | Thank you and housekeeping | Trollope Society | |
| 1:30 pm | Lunch |
Address: Magdalene College Cambridge, Magdalene St, Cambridge CB3 0AG