Coventry and the surrounding region from the fifteenth to the seventeenth centuries and their legacy

A conference to celebrate Coventry’s year as UK City of Culture 2021 (May 2021–April 2022). Coventry has a rich heritage of large-scale civic and religious events from medieval mystery plays to royal and noble visits to the city and the surrounding area. Throughout the medieval, Renaissance and early modern periods it had a strong monastic heritage as well as royal and civic processions and pageants, tournaments and jousts, music and soundscapes, a rich tradition of trades guilds and interactions with Europe and more widely, through Coventry’s years as a royal city to those of rebellion and parliamentarian conflicts. The legacy of such public, performance-based occasions remains relevant in the multi-cultural, diverse community of Coventry today. Celebrating the heritage of the region can also offer a way to harness memories and sustain the socio-economic stability of the city’s community and its cultural heritage into the future.

This conference is organized by Dr Margaret Shewring (co-founder of SEFR, Emeritus Reader, Theatre and Performance Studies, School of Creative Arts, Performance and Visual Cultures, and Honorary Research Fellow of the Centre for the Study of the Renaissance, University of Warwick), Dr Mark Webb (PhD, University of Leicester), an archaeologist who works for the Prince’s Foundation as a Development Director including responsibly for the restoration of Drapers’ Hall, Coventry, and a trustee of the Historic Coventry Trust, and Dr David Coates (Teaching Fellow, Theatre and Performance Studies, School of Creative Arts, Performance and Visual Cultures, University of Warwick). It will take place in two of Coventry’s historic buildings – the Drapers’ Hall (days and evenings) and St Mary’s Guildhall (for evening sessions with a focus on performance interventions).