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Welcome! You have reached the web page of TOEBI, the professional organisation of Teachers of Old English in Britain and Ireland. TOEBI aims to promote and support the teaching of Old English in British and Irish Universities, and to raise the profile of the Old English language, Old English literature and early medieval England in the public eye. The organisation consists of some 200 professionals, students and other enthusiasts; it produces its own newsletter, holds an annual meeting and an AGM.

Annual Meeting

The next TOEBI meeting in 2023 will be held at the University of Birmingham on Saturday 9th September, on the theme of ‘Adaptation’. Updates will be posted in the TOEBI Meetings tab.

Conference Grants 2023

We invite applications from TOEBI members who are graduate students or recent PhDs without a full-time post to support presentations at conferences (in-person or online) in 2023. Expenses covered may include conference fees, accommodation and travel. Available funds are modest and we cannot guarantee to grant the full amount requested. We will consider each year’s applications after the deadline and apportion the available funds as seems most appropriate. Applications should be sent to Dr Daria Izdebska, izdebsd@hope.ac.uk by 5pm on the 21st April.

To apply please submit a completed TOEBI Grant Application Form.


Our Values

Teachers of Old English in Britain and Ireland (TOEBI) is dedicated to providing a meeting space for teachers and scholars of Old English at any stage of their career and coming from all academic and/or personal backgrounds. We seek to foster inclusion, freedom, and diversity amongst our members and to enable all participants to have a voice and influence, regardless of sex, gender identity and expression, sexual orientation, disability, physical appearance, body size, age, race, or religion. We actively support faculty, students, and early career researchers suffering discrimination for these or other reasons. 

We value and support the efforts of disabled scholars for greater accessibility and recognise the challenges that our field faces in terms of inclusivity and precarity. TOEBI supports scholars impacted by these issues and is currently working towards a range of actions that will be made public in due course. 

Our society is also committed to raising the public profile of our field. On both ethical and intellectual grounds, we acknowledge the ideologically problematic history of our field. While the contributions of past scholarship provide valuable foundations for our understanding of early medieval England’s culture, history, and society, we strongly reject the misuse and appropriation of medieval texts and symbolism for the creation of racist and xenophobic narratives. 

Please feel free to contact our committee on any of these points.