The Trinity College English Department proudly hosts discussions on timely and engaging scholarly topics, featuring presentations from distinguished colleagues in the field. These talks offer our community the chance to explore new perspectives, connect with current research, and engage in thoughtful dialogue across literary and cultural studies.

Paul Schrader, Russell Banks, & Affliction Screening 

Film Screenings at Cinestudio

• Feb 24th: First Reformed (2017)
• March 5th: Affliction (1997)

 

 

 

PAUL SCHRADER

Born in Grand Rapids, Michigan, Paul Schrader grew up with Calvinist parents and graduated from Calvin College. He received an MA in film studies from the UCLA Film School and was a film critic before turning to screenwriting. Schrader started directing in 1978 and has made over 25 films since.

 

 

 

Caerthan Banks

Caerthan Banks is an actor, writer, director, and producer whose stage and film work has been produced in Los Angeles and recognized with award nominations and Los Angeles Times Critics’ Choice selections. Her short film The Moor—adapted from a short story by Russell Banks—was produced, directed, and adapted by Banks and screened at festivals nationwide. Since her father’s passing in 2023, Banks has served as executor of his artistic estate, overseeing the development of his work for future film and theatrical projects.

 

Anthony Bale

The First Witches: The Fourteenth-Century English Invention of the Witch

Tuesday, April 14th @ 4:30pm, Admissions Grand Room

Food will be served! All are welcome!

Anthony Bale is Professor of Medieval and Renaissance English at the University of Cambridge, UK, and a Professorial Fellow of Girton College, Cambridge. He is currently a Leverhulme Trust Major Research Fellow. His most recent book is A Travel Guide to the Middle Ages: The World through Medieval Eyes (published by Norton in the USA in 2024); his current work, on medieval witchcraft, will appear in 2027. Anthony Bale is a Fellow of the British Academy.

Bale’s Introduction:

In this lecture I will discuss my recent research on the Kilkenny Witch Trials of 1324, the first developed witchcraft trial in western Europe. I will compare the specific dynamics of the case with larger typologies of witchcraft and place the 1324 trial within its literary and cultural frame. I suggest in this lecture that the origins and resonances of the 1324 trial have largely been overlooked. This trial is a remarkable example of how ideas can be mobilised into violent actions, and tells us much about medieval antecedents of disinformation (information spread intentionally to deceive) and the workings of male-only communities that brought the image of the witch into being.