Tudor Stuart Conference 2019
This post - very belatedly - relates the fantastic experience I had helping to organise the TSI 2019 conference.
Last year, I was fortunate enough to work on hosting the 2019 Tudor Stuart Ireland conference at Trinity College Dublin. It was a fascinating and great experience to work with a team of fellow postgraduates and early career researchers from TCD, liaising with our contacts in TCD’s History Department and with the TSI steering committee. I had already worked for two years for a company that deals in abstract management - Ex Ordo - and which works closely with conference organisers so it was interesting to be on the other side for once!
We managed to book the Long Room Hub at Trinity for the two days of the conference, in mid-August, and luckily were also able to secure our plenary speakers. My own role focused on managing the public side of the conference, manning our email and keeping in touch with those who were intending on presenting. Again, two years as support proved invaluable!
(I also took advantage of my privileged position in the organising committee to get my abstract in - though in sincerity I had intended on presenting long before winding up on the committee)
One aspect we considered was whether or not to produce a paper timetable. Past experience had taught us that many conference attendees now choose to view the timetable on handheld devices, some even printing out their own copies. We did end up producing a short run of paper timetables, making them available for people who needed them, but it may bode well for anyone in favour of a paperless conferences.
When we started organising we were concerned if we would reach our ideal numbers but as we approached the deadline we starting receiving a steady stream of submissions. We chose to extend the deadline for submissions and by our new deadline we found that we were well past our target! The submissions were also of such a quality that we spent quite a bit of time working out the logistics of our sessions and how we might accommodate everyone.
The conference also provided me with a new experience - that of chairing a session! I had been to several conferences by this point and knew what to expect but nevertheless it was somewhat daunting! Not least as the presenters were all established academics - people whose work I was already at least somewhat familiar with - and I felt something of an upstart keeping an eye on their time!
My own presentation focused on arguments in favour of William III based in his being a saviour of protestantism in England and in Ireland and how the histories of the Reformation were reappropriated towards this end. My went quite well, though as the paper is itself still something of a work in progress and is also part of my thesis it may be some time before I consider sending it for submission or publishing it online.
The 2019 TSI programme can be viewed here.
Hopefully the 2020 TSI conference will be able to go ahead as this ‘special edition’ is set to take place in Dublin Castle. With any luck, the current crisis will abate but unfortunately it may well be too soon to tell yet.
