TOEBI Meetings

The annual TOEBI meeting consists of a conference on Old English pedagogy and an AGM.

The History of TOEBI Meetings

The conception of TOEBI can be dated to a meeting of Old English teachers in December 1989, convened by Donald Scragg at Manchester, on the ominous-sounding topic ‘W(h)ither Old English’, a title that picked up on the anxiety about the future of Old English teaching widely felt among colleagues at the time.

TOEBI (as it came to be known in 1990) established itself as a mutual support association and as a forum for the exchange of ideas, thereby building up confidence and a sense of valued identity among members. Annual meetings were instituted and became increasingly popular. Teachers shared experience and learned from one another. Another early aim of TOEBI was to promote Old English more widely outside the core community of specialists, an endeavour that might nowadays be referred to as ‘impact’ or ‘outreach’, and one that we wish to reinvigorate today.

TOEBI has developed greatly as a professional organisation over recent years. As the organisation grew, support structures evolved, notably newsletters, grants, the website and online resources, and of course the annual meetings. A committee structure was established early on (1990) but in 2014 a formal constitution was drawn up (which you can read here).

The annual meetings have fostered collegiality, friendship and the sharing of ideas. A major contrast with thirty years ago is the prevalence of doctoral students and post-docs involved in TOEBI. Today they now have major roles in driving the association and routinely present at our meetings. Postgraduates, post-docs, and early career researchers are now substantially represented in the makeup of the committee.

TOEBI looks now to the future as a communal and collegial organisation, gaining non-profit charitable status this very year. We hope you will join us in taking these next steps.

The TOEBI annual meeting for 2025 will be held at University College Dublin on Saturday 25th October. The Call for papers and flyer are available here.

Previous TOEBI meetings:

  • 2024: “Borders and Boundaries” (Edge Hill University) – programme
  • 2023: “Adaptation” (University of Birmingham) – programme
  • 2022: ‘Teaching Death: Corporeal, Spiritual and Cultural Endings’ (University of Aberdeen)
  • 2021: Virtual Meeting “Feeling and Sense” (National University of Ireland, Galway) – programme
  • 2020: Virtual Meeting on Pedagogy and Research – programme
  • 2019: “Work and Play” (University of Manchester) – programme
  • 2018: “Contacts” (University of Oxford) – programme
  • 2017: “Old English Across Borders” (University College Cork) – programme
  • 2016: “Performance, Pedagogy and the Profession” (King’s College London) – programme
  • 2015: “Values” (Trinity College Dublin) – programme
  • 2014: “Opportunities” (University of Nottingham) – programme
  • 2013: “Challenges” (Queen’s University Belfast) – programme
  • 2012: “Encounters” (University of Hull) – programme
  • 2011: “Nationalities” (Cardiff University) – programme
  • 2010: “Narrating” (University of Leicester) – programme
  • 2009: “Learning Old English: Past and Present” (University of St Andrews) – programme – meeting report
  • 2008: “Contexts” (University of Nottingham) – programme
  • 2007: “Materials” (University of Cambridge) – programme
  • 2006: “Collaboration” (University of Leicester) – programme
  • 2005: “TOEBI Now: Fifteen Years On” (Queen’s University Belfast) – programme
  • 2004: “Why are we here?” (University of Manchester)
  • 2003: “Metamorphoses: Teaching Old English in Multicultural Contexts” (Royal Holloway College) – programme
  • 2002: “-” (University of Glasgow)
  • 2001: “-” (University of Leeds)
  • 2000: “-” (University of Nottingham)
  • 1999: “The Canon and Translation” (University College of North Wales, Bangor)
  • 1998 “-” (University of Oxford) – programme
  • 1997 “-” (University of Cambridge) – programme
  • 1996
  • 1995
  • 1994
  • 1993
  • 1992
  • 1991
  • 1990