II International Congress of the John Gower Society 2011

The Second International Congress of the John Gower Society:
“John Gower in Iberia: Six Hundred Years”

Valladolid, Spain 18-21 July 2011

The International John Gower Society held its second International Congress July 18-21, 2011 in Spain, hosted by the Department of English Studies of the University of Valladolid.

About the Conference

Sessions were held on the campus of the University of Valladolid, a lovely, historic city an hour by convenient bullet train from Madrid. Meals and housing accommodation were available on and off campus, in university-owned residences, as well as in select private hotels at special rates. Our host was the Facultad de Filosofía y Letras, with Dr. Ana Sáez Hidalgo handling arrangements. Conference plans included focused sessions on the 15 th-century manuscripts in the collections of El Escorial and the Royal Library in Madrid translating the Confessio Amantis into (respectively) Castilian and Portuguese.

Congress Program

Organising Committee

Ana Sáez Hidalgo (U. Valladolid)
Berta Cano Echevarría (U. Valladolid)
Laura Filardo Llamas (U. Valladolid)
Marta Mª Gutiérrez Rodríguez (U. Valladolid)
Tamara Pérez Fernández (U. Valladolid
Patricia San José Rico (U. Valladolid)
Robert F. Yeager (U. West Florida, US)

Scientific Committee

Helen Cooper, Cambridge University (UK)
Elizabeth Dutton, University of Oxford –Worcester College (UK)
John H. Fisher, University of Tennessee (US)
Andrew Galloway, Cornell University (US)
Fernando Galván Reula, Universidad de Alcalá de Henares (Spain)
Santiago González Fernández-Corugedo, Universidad de Oviedo (Spain)
Richard Firth Green, Ohio State University (US)
John Hines, University of Cardiff (UK)
Russell A. Peck, University of Rochester (US)
Toshiyuki Takamiya, Keio University (Japan)

Social Events

Congress Dinner

“Restaurante Patio”: This restaurant is adjacent to the Patio Herreriano, a sixteenth-century monastery recently renovated in order to house the Museum of Spanish Contemporary Art. The dinner will start with a reception in the front garden of the museum. Very conveniently located downtown, it is within a five-minute walking distance from the Plaza Mayor.

Half-day Excursions

We visited two villages near Valladolid, Peñafiel (Tuesday 19th, the castle and the wine museum) and Urueña (Thursday 21st, the book museum e-LEA and a guided tour of the town).

Peñafiel (Tuesday 19th) – 20 € (incl. visit to the castle, the museum and the winery)
Urueña (Thursday 21st) – 5 € (incl. guided tour and visit to museum).

Night Tour of the City

The town hall tourist office led a guided tour of the city the evening of Monday 18th.

Funding Institutions and Collaborators