Inaugural Lectures: Anna Vaninskaya In brief Date - 22 October 2025Venue - Lecture Theatre G.03, 50 George SquareSpeaker - Anna Vaninskaya (Professor of Literary and Cultural History)Title - Union: A Political FantasiaSeries - Inaugural Lectures at the University of Edinburgh Book your free ticket on Eventbrite About the lectureHow do writers imagine union – the joining of separate things into one? How do they depict national communities, political collectivities and personal associations and explore the ways solitary individuals negotiate their positions within and between them? How do they reconcile the psycho-social and political failures of our discordant reality with the longing to escape from it to an unreal but more harmonious alternative?In this lecture, Anna will bring together two strands of her research: the fantastic and the political, to ask what writers from radically different traditions could possibly have to say to one another about human unity (and its inevitable obverse, human isolation).‘Union’ will thus be her method as well as her theme, as she dovetails romantic poetry with political fiction and makes fairies join forces with communists to reveal all the paradoxical implications of the old proverb, ‘union is strength’.About the speakerProfessor Anna Vaninskaya holds a D.Phil. in English Literature from the University of Oxford, where she was a Marshall Scholar. She came to the University of Edinburgh in 2010, after holding a Leverhulme Trust Postdoctoral Research Fellowship at the University of Cambridge.She is the author of William Morris and the Idea of Community: Romance, History and Propaganda, 1880-1914 (2010), named Choice Outstanding Academic Title for 2011; Fantasies of Time and Death: Dunsany, Eddison, Tolkien (2020), winner of the 2021 Mythopoeic Scholarship Award for Myth and Fantasy Studies; and editor and co-translator of London Through Russian Eyes, 1896-1914: An Anthology of Foreign Correspondence (2022).She has published over forty articles and book chapters on topics in nineteenth and twentieth-century literature and culture, including socialism, utopianism, historiography, education, popular reading, immigration and Anglo-Russian encounters.Anna was the Founding Programme Director of the Edinburgh Futures Institute 'Narrative Futures: Art, Data, Society' MSc and is currently Deputy Head of the Department of English and Scottish Literature in the School of Literatures, Languages and Cultures.Browse Anna's staff profile on the University websiteHow to attendThis lecture is a free, in-person event held on the University of Edinburgh campus. It is open to all.The event will not be live streamed - tickets (bookable via Eventbrite) are for access to the venue. However, the lecture may be photographed and/or recorded and added to the University website afterwards. If you would prefer not to appear in any recordings, please contact us in advance or speak to us on the day. It's not a problem. Book your free ticket via Eventbrite About Inaugural LecturesInaugural Lectures are free public talks by recently-appointed Professors and Chairs at the University of Edinburgh where they share their work with a wide audience, inviting reflection and discussion on its broader implications.Browse more Inaugural Lectures on the University of Edinburgh websiteAre you interested in English Literature at Edinburgh?We offer a wide range of undergraduate programmes, taught masters, and research degrees, including a Masters by Research and a PhD. As an undergraduate, you will read works of literature written in English from around the world, and encounter a range of ideas about the nature and purpose of literary study. Our courses explore the relationship between literary texts and the construction of national, international and imperial cultures. Working with colleagues in LLC and across the wider University, we are able to support postgraduate research which crosses boundaries between languages and disciplines. Find out more about studying English Literature at Edinburgh Tags English and Scottish Literature Oct 22 2025 17.15 - 18.30 Inaugural Lectures: Anna Vaninskaya Join us for 'Union: A Political Fantasia', an Inaugural Lecture celebrating the appointment of Anna Vaninskaya as Professor of Literary and Cultural History. Lecture Theatre G.03 50 George Square University of Edinburgh EH8 9LH Find the venue: 50 George Square Book your free ticket on Eventbrite
Inaugural Lectures: Anna Vaninskaya In brief Date - 22 October 2025Venue - Lecture Theatre G.03, 50 George SquareSpeaker - Anna Vaninskaya (Professor of Literary and Cultural History)Title - Union: A Political FantasiaSeries - Inaugural Lectures at the University of Edinburgh Book your free ticket on Eventbrite About the lectureHow do writers imagine union – the joining of separate things into one? How do they depict national communities, political collectivities and personal associations and explore the ways solitary individuals negotiate their positions within and between them? How do they reconcile the psycho-social and political failures of our discordant reality with the longing to escape from it to an unreal but more harmonious alternative?In this lecture, Anna will bring together two strands of her research: the fantastic and the political, to ask what writers from radically different traditions could possibly have to say to one another about human unity (and its inevitable obverse, human isolation).‘Union’ will thus be her method as well as her theme, as she dovetails romantic poetry with political fiction and makes fairies join forces with communists to reveal all the paradoxical implications of the old proverb, ‘union is strength’.About the speakerProfessor Anna Vaninskaya holds a D.Phil. in English Literature from the University of Oxford, where she was a Marshall Scholar. She came to the University of Edinburgh in 2010, after holding a Leverhulme Trust Postdoctoral Research Fellowship at the University of Cambridge.She is the author of William Morris and the Idea of Community: Romance, History and Propaganda, 1880-1914 (2010), named Choice Outstanding Academic Title for 2011; Fantasies of Time and Death: Dunsany, Eddison, Tolkien (2020), winner of the 2021 Mythopoeic Scholarship Award for Myth and Fantasy Studies; and editor and co-translator of London Through Russian Eyes, 1896-1914: An Anthology of Foreign Correspondence (2022).She has published over forty articles and book chapters on topics in nineteenth and twentieth-century literature and culture, including socialism, utopianism, historiography, education, popular reading, immigration and Anglo-Russian encounters.Anna was the Founding Programme Director of the Edinburgh Futures Institute 'Narrative Futures: Art, Data, Society' MSc and is currently Deputy Head of the Department of English and Scottish Literature in the School of Literatures, Languages and Cultures.Browse Anna's staff profile on the University websiteHow to attendThis lecture is a free, in-person event held on the University of Edinburgh campus. It is open to all.The event will not be live streamed - tickets (bookable via Eventbrite) are for access to the venue. However, the lecture may be photographed and/or recorded and added to the University website afterwards. If you would prefer not to appear in any recordings, please contact us in advance or speak to us on the day. It's not a problem. Book your free ticket via Eventbrite About Inaugural LecturesInaugural Lectures are free public talks by recently-appointed Professors and Chairs at the University of Edinburgh where they share their work with a wide audience, inviting reflection and discussion on its broader implications.Browse more Inaugural Lectures on the University of Edinburgh websiteAre you interested in English Literature at Edinburgh?We offer a wide range of undergraduate programmes, taught masters, and research degrees, including a Masters by Research and a PhD. As an undergraduate, you will read works of literature written in English from around the world, and encounter a range of ideas about the nature and purpose of literary study. Our courses explore the relationship between literary texts and the construction of national, international and imperial cultures. Working with colleagues in LLC and across the wider University, we are able to support postgraduate research which crosses boundaries between languages and disciplines. Find out more about studying English Literature at Edinburgh Tags English and Scottish Literature Oct 22 2025 17.15 - 18.30 Inaugural Lectures: Anna Vaninskaya Join us for 'Union: A Political Fantasia', an Inaugural Lecture celebrating the appointment of Anna Vaninskaya as Professor of Literary and Cultural History. Lecture Theatre G.03 50 George Square University of Edinburgh EH8 9LH Find the venue: 50 George Square Book your free ticket on Eventbrite
Oct 22 2025 17.15 - 18.30 Inaugural Lectures: Anna Vaninskaya Join us for 'Union: A Political Fantasia', an Inaugural Lecture celebrating the appointment of Anna Vaninskaya as Professor of Literary and Cultural History.
