The twentieth annual conference of the British Society for Literature and Science will take place at Lancaster University, on 10th – 12th April 2025 in person.
The 20th Anniversary BSLS Conference has proved more popular than anticipated, and we are looking forward to a fascinating conference on the relationships between science and literature in all periods. The speakers have been informed, and the programme of accepted papers will be sent in due course.
Keynote talks will be given by:
- Dr Kanta Dihal (Imperial College London),
- Sydney Padua (Buckinghamshire New University), and
- Professor Michael Whitworth (Merton College, Oxford).
Registration will start from 10am on the Thursday, lunch will be served at 12pm and the first session will start at 12.50pm. We will finish the academic programme on Saturday by 2pm. A trip to the The Wordsworth Trust in The Lake District will take place on Sunday 13th April and there is an extra cost of £40 for this. If you would like to join the trip, please fill out this form: Visit to The Wordsworth Trust and pay here: Payment for the trip to The Wordsworth Trust
The conference will continue online on Thursday 8th and Friday 9th May to enable wider participation; those who attend the in-person conference are welcome to also attend the online conference. The online keynote talk will be given by Dr Debapriya Sarkar (University of Connecticut). There will be a fee of £10 for the online conference to cover admin costs.
Registration is open. Please see here for the Conference and Dinners payment links: The British Society for Literature and Science (BSLS) Conference 2025 | Lancaster University Online Store and if you wish: Donate to the BSLS Hardship Fund here (£5, £10 or £20)
If you would like to attend for one day, but you are unsure which day to choose at the moment, please pay the Day Delegate attendance rate – and we will contact you after the programme has been finalised and confirm which day with you.
Accommodation
If you would like to stay on site, a limited number of Lancaster University campus Bed & Breakfast guest rooms are available; please book here, using Promotion Code: BSFLSC25
(Only double and twin rooms now available at £80 per room, per night)
https://www.conferences.lancs.ac.uk/bedandbreakfast/
Hotel accommodation on campus and in the city centre, can found on the usual hotel discount sites and Lancaster Tourist Information
Request for YouTube ‘shorts’
This will be the twentieth BSLS conference and we’d like to mark that by asking everyone who is willing to upload a short (2 minute max.) video on a BSLS YouTube channel with a message. You might say what BSLS has meant to you, share a memory from a previous conference you’ve attended, write a poem for the occasion or let us know your hopes and vision for the future of the field. If you are interested, please email bsls2025@lancaster.ac.uk to let us know, by 31st January 2025. We hope to show the films at the Conference Dinner in April and during the online conference in May. Thank you.
We’ll send further information (e.g. on how to get to Lancaster University campus etc) with the conference programme after the Early Bird registration deadline has closed on 6th January.
Membership: all conference delegates are required to be members of the BSLS in order to attend the conference (£26 waged/£11 unwaged): https://www.bsls.ac.uk/membership/join-us/. There will also be the opportunity to join or renew membership when you register for the conference.
For further information and updates about the conference, please contact Professor Sharon Ruston at BSLS2025@lancaster.ac.uk
