‘To enter a wood is to pass into a different world in which we ourselves are transformed.’

Roger Deakin, Wildwood: A Journey Through Trees (2008)

An interdisciplinary, one-day conference with the Literature and Science Hub on the cultural representation, study and conservation of trees and woodlands.

Our keynote speakers include Professor Fiona Stafford (Somerville College, Oxford), author of The Long, Long Life of Trees (2016), Dr Hugh McAllister (Integrative Biology, University of Liverpool), author of The Genus Sorbus (2005), and Matt Larsen-Daw (Project lead on The Charter for Trees, Woods and People).

Trees are sites of natural, cultural and personalised memory. Their life-spans can encompass decades of human encounters, experiences and narratives, and this has long made them objects for scientific study and imaginative engagement.

From root-tip to the upper-most branches, trees are at once single entities and part of a much wider community and environment. This one day conference aims to bring together current and different strands of research that focus on trees and woodlands. This event will explore how we shape the ongoing memory of trees, and how trees continue shape our own identity too.

Registration fee includes refreshments, lunch and a wine reception to take place after the conference.

More information on the programme can be found here

The Memory of Trees Conference