We are delighted to announce that proposals and registrations for the Laurence Sterne Conference 2025 are now open. Terraqueous Globe: Land and Sea in the Age of Sterne marks a new publishing partnership between The Shandean and Liverpool University Press and the conference will be held at the School of the Arts Library, University of Liverpool.

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Eighteenth-century global history is a history of seas and oceans. International trade and migration stretched across all continents. Britain’s colonial empire, and the trades on which it thrived – not least the Slave Trade – was driven by its domination of the world’s waterways. The port city of Liverpool was a major gateway for Britain’s contact with the wider world through maritime routes. This complemented the complex network of domestic waterways – rivers, canals – which played a significant part in Britain’s industrial revolution.

Tourists from across the British Isles, meanwhile, enjoyed greater contact with other cultures and countries through improved transport networks, and a booming industry in travel literature. Land and sea make up Laurence Sterne’s world. From the journeys Tristram and Yorick undertake by crossing the Channel and travelling across the European continent, to Walter Shandy’s trading activities as a ‘Turky Merchant’, to references to warfare on both sea and land (the War of the Spanish Succession; the Seven Years’ War), Sterne’s works reflect the ‘terraqueous globe’.

Proposals, Panel Sessions and Roundtables

We welcome 150-200-word proposals for 20-minute papers that engage with any aspect of the conference theme, in relation to Sterne or to other works and writers of the period. We also welcome proposals for panels or roundtables.

The deadline for proposals is 15th August 2025. Please email all proposals to: shandeanjournal@gmail.com

Read the full Call for Papers >

Conference Registration

The deadline for conference registration is 1st September 2025 and the registration fee is £20. To register as a delegate and/or presenter, please complete the registration form and email it to j.lipski@ukw.edu.pl and newbould@ukw.edu.pl.

Find out more about conference registration via the conference website >

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For more information about the conference, visit the conference website >

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