Dearest creatures,

After its postponement to next summer, the 30th Annual International Conference on Virginia Woolf will now take place 10–13 June 2021 in Vermillion, South Dakota (USA) at the University of South Dakota. The main site (usd.edu/virginiawoolf) will be updated over the next several weeks and months with additional information. A revision of the Call for Papers will be posted in early September. Folks who had had an abstract accepted back in February / early March for the postponed 2020 conference will be contacted in a few months to see if they would like to present on the same material in 2021 or submit a new proposal.

Just a few months ago, before the 2020 conference had been postponed to 2021, I looked forward to this week in June with excitement and, I admit, some trepidation. Would everyone’s travel go smoothly? Would folks have enough pillows and linens? Will the food be okay? Will the mics work? Please let there be enough tea and coffee . . .

The world looks much different now—though much of this difference is a sameness that some of us have only recently begun to see.

Whether our lives have been impacted by COVID–19 or the historic levels of protest and rebellion in the United States and across the world, it is my hope that as we carry on into our uncertain futures that we commit ourselves to create and protect conditions of equality, equity, and peace. The parts we play in helping to achieve these conditions (to think and live them into existence) has a great deal to do with “profession”—that is, with what we profess, with the institutions that are home to our professions, and with the complicities of these institutions and professions in a long history of tyrannies and servilities.

It had been my original intention that the 30th Annual International Conference on Virginia Woolf—themed “Profession and Performance”—could be a place where several generations of readers, scholars, and performers of Woolf’s life and work from around the world could reflect on and debate these issues. And even after postponing the conference to next summer, this past spring has strengthened my commitment to this intention. The 2021 conference will look much different, I think, from what we organizers had originally designed for 2020. Even so, I look forward to seeing you (even if virtually), learning from you, and working with you in this corner of South Dakota.

If you have any questions about next year’s conference, don’t hesitate to write to me at Benjamin.Hagen@usd.edu. More information will be made available throughout the summer and early fall months.

Love,

Benjamin Hagen

Organizer of 2020/2021 Woolf Conference

Assistant Professor of English

University of South Dakota