2024 Conference

Saturday 27th, and Sunday, 28th April 2024

The 8th Academic Archers conference

Quakers Friends Meeting House, Euston Road, London

We had a record number of responses to our Call for Papers, so this year’s conference is a bumper two days packed full of Archers conversation and special guests.

Buy your tickets here.

Tickets are available for the one or two days, price include refreshments, and can be paid for in instalments.

The scheudule

A number of new faces, the welcome return of some we’ve not seen in a while, its one of the best years yet.

Saturday, 27 April

9:00 - 9.30 am                  Registration                                                                                                                                              Time to find a seat, grab a cuppa and your goody bag and get settled in 9.30 - 9.40 am                  Welcome                                                                                                                                                   From Academic Archers HQ        

9.40 – 9.50 am                  Love and Loathe, Philippa Manasseh, with Cara Courage

Session 1 - Locating where we are: the psychogeography of Ambridge

9.50 am – 10.05 am        Beyond the Bypass: the functions of Ambridge’s alter-space, Leslie Carlin & Simon Coleman

10.05 am – 10.20 am      The Felpersham Canal: An Asset Beyond Ambridge, Paul Rodgers

 Session 2 - Pot Poruri

10.20 am – 10.35 am      Moral Quagmire, Ruth Heilbronn & Rosalind Janssen

10.35 am – 10.50 am      Happiness is the perfect kitchen, Philippa Jill Manasseh

10.50 am – 11.05 am      'If listening to the birds for five minutes makes you feel better, good for you': Wellbeing, gardens and environmental activity, Camilla Royle & Lily Whittle

11.05 am - 11.45 am       Tea break

 Session 3 - Locating how we are: how we experience The Archers

11.45 am – 12 pm            We the Fandom: applying fandom theory to the Academic Archers Dum Tee Dum Mash Up weekend 2023, Caroline Birks

12:00 - 12.05 pm              The Ambridge in My Mind's Eye, Carolyn Cooper

12.05 - 12.20 pm             Aristotle’s Poetics fuel Ambridge Drama, Sally Knights                                

Session 4 - Pot Poruri

12.20 - 12.35 pm              Funeral Directing in the UK through an Ambridge lens, Abi Pattenden 12.35 - 12.50 pm             It's a ferret Ferris wheel!: depictions of human-animal interactions and animal welfare in the Archers, The Tams - Tamzin Furtado & Tamsin Durston                                                      

12.50 pm – 2 pm              Lunch

2 pm – 3 pm                      VIP headliners: One Stiletto in the Grave Live podcast recording

 Sunny Ormonde (aka Lilian Bellamy) and her old friend and collaborator Jane James chat with a special visitor or two from Ambridge about what's been happening in the village in the last twelve months

Session 5 - The Ambridge Family

3 pm – 3.15 pm                The only gay in the village? Queer(y)ing family in rural Borsetshire,        Peter Matthews

3.15 pm - 3.30 pm           A tractor and family overturned - the death of John Archer on 25 February 1998 - and the ongoing implications of this untimely event                              Deborah Miller & Meg Burton

3.30 pm - 3.45 pm           Mia and Brad are doing four A levels: will widening participation in higher education finally hit Ambridge?, Janette Myers

3.45 pm – 4 pm                Looking after the Penny Hassets so the Pounds look after themselves Katherine Jennings & Vikki Barry Brown  

4 pm – 4.20 pm                Tea Break  

Pot Poruri

4.20 pm - 4.35 pm           Grey Gables – did it need to close during renovation?, Katharine Hoskyn

4.35 pm - 4.50 pm           Make Every Contact/Episode Count, Jane Lothian

 Session 6 - The Men of Ambridge

4.50 pm - 5.05 pm           He’s is father’s son' – in word or deed?, Katharine Hoskyn & Deborah Miller

5.05 pm - 5.20 pm           ‘A man had two sons’: A sort of sermon on Luke 15v11, Jonathan Hustler

5.20 pm - 5.35 pm           The Playboy, the Father, the Scholar and the Brute: Ambridge Masculinities in Historical Perspective, Jessica Meyer 

5.35 pm - 5.40 pm           Love and Loathe review

5.40 pm - 5.50 pm           The Academic Archers Awards Ceremony             

5.50 pm                              Coats and bags                6 pm      Doors close                       

Sunday, 28 April                                    

9.30 am                              Doors open        

10 am - 11.15 am             Live Listen            

Session 7 - The Ambridge Family #2

11.15 am - 11.30 am       The Glass Floor in Ambridge - How does privilege endure?, Claire Astbury

11.30 am - 11.45 am       Educating Emma?, Nicola Maxfield

11.45 am – 12 pm            I look down on him – From Lord Netherborn to David Archer to Tracey Horrobin, Class in Ambridge does it reflect the English experience?, Christine Narramore 

Session 8 - Neurodiversity in Ambridge

12 pm - 12.15 pm             Living in a neurodiverse household: why accurate representation in storylines makes a difference, Andrea Hart

12.15 - 12.30 pm              It is not in the stars to hold our destiny but in ourselves, Helen Burrows & Louise Gillies  

Session 9 - Leaving on a song

12.30 pm - 12.45 pm       From Obscurity to Alternative Nation Anthem, The Story of Barwick Green Sally Cadle

12.45 pm – 1 pm              Tunes and transitions at the tearoom, Emily Baker & Freya Jarman

 1 pm                                    Coats and bags                 1.30 pm               Doors close