The 2025 Iris Murdoch Summer School will look at Iris Murdoch in the 1970s. We will be studying A Fairly Honourable Defeat, An Accidental Man, The Black Prince and The Sea, The Sea.
We're delighted to welcome Cora Diamond, who will be giving this year's philosophy plenary titled 'Murdoch off the Map'. Cora Diamond is a leading American philosopher who is well known […]
Join Sarah Perry as she discusses with Avril Horner the importance of Iris' use of the gothic, and the impact it had on her own fiction. Sarah Perry is the […]
An exhibition displaying items from the Iris Murdoch Collections (Kingston University Archives) to mark the fifth anniversary of the Iris Murdoch Research Centre at the University of Chichester
What haunted Iris Murdoch? And how is this expressed in both her fiction, philosophy, and personal writing?
Celebrating Christmas with Iris Murdoch, this lecture looks at her neo-theology before turning to the novels and her depiction of Christmas as both festivity and a sign of hope for the future.
Iris Murdoch is rightly regarded as a religious novelist, of a certain kind. But what about the other side of the relationship: what did Christian readers in England make of her? This lecture examines Christian reactions to Murdoch, as both philosopher and novelist.
The Tenth International Conference on Iris Murdoch will take place at the University of Chichester in 2022. The conference will showcase ongoing, and published, Murdoch scholarship with a particular focus on Place and Space.
Join us as we celebrate the end of a wonderful conference in Chichester. You will enjoy a wonderful three-course meal in the city, and the after-dinner entertainment will be provided by the IMS President Anne Rowe, and our Society Patron, the acclaimed actress Annette Badland.
In this lecture Dr Rob Hardy (Henan Normal University, China) will discuss female agency, power and the gothic in Murdoch's The Unicorn, and will be followed by a Q&A. A treat for the festive season! The lecture is free for Society members, £5 for all others. Zoom link to be sent 24 hours before the lecture.
Professor Anne Rowe (University of Chichester) will explore the literary and theological links between the novelist and philosopher Iris Murdoch and the medieval mystic Julian of Norwich.
Much of our conception of the relationship between Iris Murdoch and John Bayley, happily married for over forty years, comes from Bayley's memoirs, and the Oscar-winning film adaptation of the first, Iris (2001). But what do we know of their life together outside of their public appearances and international travel?
