About

The Historical English Analysis and Research Tradition (HEART) Conference aims to gather specialists in English mediaeval language, literature, and culture. It offers a platform for interdisciplinary exchange on the research methods and new interpretations of the materials dated up to 1700. Its second edition will be held in person 16-17.04.2027 at the Faculty of Modern Languages in Warsaw.

The year 2027, marking fifteen centuries since the accession of Emperor Justinian, features Byzantium as an intermediary between the classical and the medieval world. Byzantium was not only the “second Rome” and the spiritual centre of Eastern Christianity, but also a lasting cultural myth – a symbol of splendour and distance. Its legacy has resonated in European writings and imagination from medieval chronicles to modern poetry and fiction.

For linguists and literary scholars, Byzantium represents not only a centre of transmission of ancient Greek and Roman learning but also a place where languages, scripts, and interpretative traditions interacted. Through its bilingual culture, its commentaries on grammar and rhetoric, and its preservation of ancient lexicons, it shaped the evolution of medieval literacy, translation practices, and textual scholarship that later paved the way to Renaissance humanism. Incidentally, the year preceding the conference, 2026, will have witnessed the 500th anniversary of the publication of Tyndale Bible, translated from Greek. This event seen in the Byzantine context may inspire translation studies potentially ranging far beyond Biblical scholarship only.

Byzantine legacy encourages also reflections on the nature of the presence and presentation of Greek language and Greek culture and the East in Western civilization. Turbulent connections with Byzantium in the times of the crusades had far-reaching historical, cultural and literary consequences. Renewed contact with Arab and Jewish philosophy led to a broadened awareness of the Aristotelian corpus, which gave rise to the flowering of scholastic thought.

Cherishing this heritage, HEART 2 seeks to find new insights into how medieval languages and literature both preserve and transform knowledge across the fields of historical linguistics, literary studies, manuscript studies, and translation.

Organizing Committee

  • Bartłomiej Błaszkiewicz (University of Warsaw)
  • Maria Błaszkiewicz (University of Warsaw)
  • Przemysław Grabowski-Górniak (University of Warsaw)
  • Barbara Kowalik (University of Warsaw)
  • Sylwester Łodej (Jan Kochanowski University)
  • Anna Łukaszewicz (University of Warsaw)
  • Monika Opalińska (University of Warsaw)
  • Marta Sylwanowicz (University of Warsaw)
  • Anna Wojtyś (University of Warsaw)

Conference Secretaries

  • Dominika Ruszkiewicz (Ignatianum University in Cracow) 
  • Joanna Szwed (University of Warsaw)

Scientific Committee

  • Francisco Alonso Almeida (University of Las Palmas de Gran Canaria)
  • Artur Bartnik (John Paul II Catholic University of Lublin)
  • Magdalena Bator (Technical University of Liberec / WSB Merito University)
  • Isabel de la Cruz Cabanillas (University of Alcalá)
  • Anna Cichosz (University of Łódź)
  • Judith Huber (Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich)
  • Yoko Iyeiri (Kyoto University)
  • Marcin Krygier (Adam Mickiewicz University in Poznań)
  • Ursula Lenker (Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich)
  • Ayumi Miura (University of Tokyo)
  • Rafał Molencki (University of Silesia)
  • John G. Newman (University of Texas Rio Grande Valley)
  • Jerzy Nykiel (University of Bergen)
  • Chris Palmer (Kennesaw State University)
  • Akinobu Tani (Kwansei Gakuin University)
  • Jacob Thaisen (University of Oslo)
  • Andrzej Wicher (University of Łódź)