Virgil Society: Schools Day

TIME: 12:00AM - 11:59PM

DATE: Saturday, January 17th 2026

VENUE: Senate House

Virgil Society Meetings

Meetings will take place in Room G35, South Block, Senate House, Malet Street, London WC1E 7HU (and online), except Saturday 17 January 2026, which will be held in Chancellor’s Hall, and Saturday 7 February 2026, which will be exclusively online (all timings given below refer to UK time). The Virgil Society is very grateful to the Institute of Classical Studies, University of London, and to the Department of Greek and Latin, University College London, for their continued support.

It will be possible to attend most meetings via Zoom: please check https://virgilsociety.org.uk/new/ for details on how to register for online attendance.

For more information on the Virgil Society, including details of how to join and digital access to past issues of Proceedings of the Virgil Society (PVS), please visit https://virgilsociety.org.uk/new/.

 

Schools Day

The Schools Day will take place from 11:45 a.m in Chancellor’s Hall, Senate House, Malet Street, London. The event is aimed particularly at current school pupils and their teachers, but all are very welcome to attend any or all of the talks; please note that this will be an in-person meeting. If you are planning to attend, please contact alicebolland296@gmail.com. Details of the day’s programme can be found below.

11:45   Welcome and introduction  (Alice Bolland, South Hampstead High School GDST / UCL)

12:00-12:30   Why do we study Virgil?  (Professor Matthew Leigh, St Anne’s College, University of Oxford)

12:35-1:15   Setting the scene in Aeneid 2  (Henry Tang, Headington School)

1:20-2:15   Coffee / lunch break

2:15-3:00   Virgil’s women and relationships in Aeneid 4  (Rosie Turnor, South Hampstead High School GDST)

3:05-3:45   The glory of Rome and the symbolism of the tree in the Aeneid  (Jonathan Barnes, UCL)

 

 

VIRGIL SOCIETY PROGRAMME 2025-2026

Saturday 11 October 2025, 2:30 pm

Dr Alexander Lee (University of Warwick)

‘Machiavelli and Virgil’s Eclogues

 

Saturday 29 November 2025, 2:30 p.m.

Dr Francesca Bugliani Knox (University College London)

‘“Looking below the surface”: Ronald Knox and Virgil’s Aeneid’

 

Saturday 17 January 2026 (see above)

SCHOOLS DAY – Chancellor’s Hall  

 

Saturday 7 February 2026, 10:00 a.m.

*Online meeting via Zoom*

Prof. Hae-Young Choi (Chonnam National University)

Eclogue IV and the Emperor Julian’

 

Saturday 14 March 2026, 2:30 p.m.

Dr Emily Pillinger (King’s College London)

‘Sounding out alternative futures in the Aeneid

 

Saturday 16 May 2026

11:15 a.m.   Dr Tristan Franklinos (University of Oxford)

‘Authorising the Catalepton

2:30 p.m.  Annual General Meeting for 2025-2026

3:00 p.m.  Reading from Virgil (John Hazel)

3:15 p.m.  Prof. Monica Gale (Trinity College Dublin)

‘The Death of Dido: mors (minime) Romana

 

Note: this is not a Classical Association event – please contact the organisers directly with any enquiries.