Chesterton and Dickens to be explored in online conference

Seton Hall's Chesterton Institute will examine relationship of the two British writers.

Last year, on June 9, Charles Dickens fans marked the 150th anniversary of the death of the author of Oliver Twist, Great Expectations, and so many other beloved novels.

Next week, Seton Hall University will note the observance with a program, “Dickens & Chesterton—a sesquicentennial conversation.”

The G. K. Chesterton Institute for Faith & Culture at Seton Hall, located in South Orange, New Jersey, is organizing the conference. Speakers will be Dermot Quinn, Professor of History at Seton Hall and Editor of The Chesterton Review, and John M. L. Drew, Professor of English Literature at the University of Buckingham in Great Britain. Gloria Garafulich-Grabois, Director of the Chesterton Institute, will moderate. The event will be streamed online on Wednesday, February 17, 2021, from 1:30 p.m. to 3:30 p.m. Eastern Standard Time.

“Charles Dickens brought out the best in G. K. Chesterton and so it is fitting that he should also bring the best in the G. K. Chesterton Institute for Faith & Culture and The Chesterton Review, which has devoted its last issue to Charles Dickens,” said promotional material for the conference.

Drew has taught at the University of Buckingham since 1998. He was editor, with Michael Slater, of Volume IV of the Dent Uniform Edition of Dickens’ Journalism (2000), and author of Dickens the Journalist (2003). He publishes and reviews widely on Victorian print culture and the works of Dickens. Since 2012, he has directed the open access web archive of Dickens’s journalism.

Quinn earned a doctorate at Oxford and has written extensively on Chestertonian themes. He is author of The Irish in New Jersey: Four Centuries of American Life (Rutgers, 2004); Patronage and Piety: The Politics of English Roman Catholicism, 1850-1900 (Stanford/Macmillan, 1993) and Understanding Northern Ireland (Baseline, 1993).

Founded in 1974 by Father Ian Boyd, C. S. B., the G. K. Chesterton Institute for Faith & Culture promotes the thought of Chesterton and his circle and explores the application of Chestertonian ideas in the contemporary world. The Institute’s work consists of conferences, lecture series, research, and writing. The Chesterton Review, founded in 1974 by Father Boyd, is edited by Dermot Quinn.

For information, contact chestertoninstitute@shu.edu or this website.