[ecrea] CfP: Cato Street Conference, September 2017

CALL FOR PAPERS: 500 WORDS

DEADLINE 31st MARCH 2017

SEND TO (cworrall1 /at/ sheffield.ac.uk) <mailto:(cworrall1 /at/ sheffield.ac.uk)>

Cato Street and the Revolutionary Tradition in Britain and Ireland
12th - 13th September 2017

‘Treason doth never prosper: what’s the reason?
Why, if it prosper, none dare call it treason.’
John Harrington.

Five men were executed at Newgate on 1 May 1820 for their part in an 
attempt to assassinate the British Prime Minister, Lord Liverpool, and 
his cabinet of ministers. The plotters envisaged that they would lead an 
insurrection across London in the aftermath of their ‘tyrannicide’.

The plot is usually referred to as the 'Cato Street Conspiracy' after 
the street in London in which the revolutionaries were arrested.

The conspiracy has received surprisingly little scholarly attention, and 
there has been a tendency among those who have examined Cato Street to 
dismiss it as an isolated, forlorn, foolhardy and - ultimately - 
unimportant event.

The violent intent of the conspirators sits uncomfortably with notions 
of what it was (and is) to be English or British. It even sits beyond 
the pale of 'mainstream' radical history in Britain, which tends to be 
framed in terms of evolution rather than revolution. Even within a 
revolutionary framework, Cato Street can be discussed as the fantasy of 
isolated adventurists who had no contact with, or influence upon, ‘the 
masses’.

This conference will examine the Cato Street Conspiracy through a number 
of different lenses. These perspectives will shed new light on the 
'plot' itself, its contemporary significance, and its importance (or 
otherwise) in the longer history of radicalism and revolutionary movements.

The conference will welcome papers which explore earlier and later 
revolutionary and insurrectionary ‘moments’ in Britain and Ireland. This 
longer chronological framework, stretching back as far as the 
Reformation and forwards into the twentieth and twenty first centuries, 
will enable scholars to consider whether Cato Street takes on a greater 
significance in the context of ill-fated entanglements such as the Rye 
House Plot, the Tong Plot, the Nonsuch House Plot, etc.

The organisers are particularly interested in comparisons and contrasts 
between the (under-explored) British insurrectionary tradition, and the 
(perhaps over-explored?) history of Irish revolutionary violence. How 
does a consideration of revolutionary violence in Britain and Ireland 
modify what we think we know about the history of radicalism on each 
distinct island?

The topics to be addressed may include (but will not be limited to):

 The Cato Street plot itself
 the organisation and nature of the Cato Street Conspiracy
 the reporting of the Cato Street Conspiracy in the press
 the use of spies and agents provocateurs by the authorities
 the response of different types of radicals to the conspiracy
 Literary, polemical and artistic responses to Cato Street
 References to Cato Street across time and into the present

 The broader chronological and geographical contexts of revolution in 
Britain and Ireland
 British and Irish plots and insurrections before Cato Street.
 British and Irish plots after Cato Street (As an aside, it should be 
mentioned that after 1820 the next people to be executed for treason by 
the British state were the 1916 Irish rebels).
 the European context (where does Cato Street sit in the context of 
European plots and insurrectionist adventures?)
 race, racism and radicalism (one of the executed Cato Street 
conspirators, William Davidson, was a Jamaican of African descent)
 enthusiasm for the French Revolution and other foreign risings and 
revolts (one of the executed Cato Street conspirators had served in the 
army of the French republic)
 the fate and influence of transported radicals (five of the Cato 
Street conspirators were transported to Australia)
 the changing contexts of political violence (national and global) in 
the late twentieth and early twenty first centuries

It is hoped to bring together scholars from a range of related 
specialisms, including history, journalism studies, English literature, 
criminology and politics.

Proposals are invited for papers of 20 minutes that address any aspects 
of the Cato Street conspiracy, its representation, its antecedents, its 
effect on radicalism, its place in history, or its contemporary resonances.

It is envisaged that the conference will lead to the publication of a 
high-quality volume of essays in time for the 200th anniversary of the 
discovery of the plot in  February 1820.

For more details about the conference, please head over to our website:

catostreetconference.wordpress.com 
<http://catostreetconference.wordpress.com>

Organisers:

Dr Adrian Bigham
Reader in Modern History
Co-Director of the Centre for the Study of Journalism and History
University of Sheffield

Professor Martin Conboy
Professor of Journalism History
Co-Director of the Centre for the Study of Journalism and History
University of Sheffield

Dr Jason McElligott
The Keeper
Marsh’s Library

Christopher Shoop-Worrall
Research Assistant
University of Sheffield

Christopher Shoop-Worrall

PhD Student
Department of Journalism Studies
University of Sheffield
9 Mappin Street
Sheffield
S1 4DT


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