Towards New Histories of Imprisonment in England

We’ve recently learned that the conference Towards New Histories of Imprisonment in England, 1500-1850, will be held July 15-16 at Keble College, University of Oxford.  It is free, although the conference organizers ask attendees to register here.  The program is here; here’s the organizers' description:

The conference brings together historians, criminologists and literary scholars to explore ongoing research into English imprisonment, discuss recent developments in the field, and set out new agendas for the history of prisons and imprisonment. The conference takes an inclusive view of imprisonment, including not only criminal custody and incarceration, but also the imprisonment of debtors, political prisoners and prisoners of war. The papers further encompass the complete range of penal institutions that existed across the sixteenth to nineteenth centuries, beyond the penitentiary, such as lock-ups, roundhouses, compters or counters, gaols, houses of correction or bridewells, prisoner of war camps and prison hulks. Broadly, our speakers seek to explore the role that imprisonment and prisoners played in English social, economic, religious political and legal life.

--Dan Ernst