Robin Hood Spotlight

The International Association of Robin Hood Studies

A Retrospective by Allen W. Wright

Attendees of the 2003 Robin Hood conference in York, UK

Introduction

The International Association of Robin Hood Studies was formed in the wake of the 1997 Robin Hood academic conference in Rochester, NY.

They have held conferences every two years since then. They have also hosted special sessions at other medieval conferences.

This URL was original used for a reproduction of the IARHS page for the 2001 conference. It's not an official page of the IARHS, but I guess I'm still a member of what Lorraine Stock once called "the Merry Men and Women of the Internet". (Funny story on that below.)

Where to Find IARHS On the Web

IARHS: ROBIN HOOD SCHOLARS ON THE WEB - The official blog of the International Association for Robin Hood Studies

THE BULLETIN OF THE INTERNATIONAL ASSOCIATION FOR ROBIN HOOD STUDIES - The official online journal of the organization

THE IARHS FACEBOOK PAGE - Catch them on Facebook where I am sure there is lots of meta-textual analysis of the legend.

List of Robin Hood Conferences

1997: Rochester, NY, USA - Hosted by Thomas Hahn, this is the one that launched the trend that others followed. The plenary speakers were Barrie Dobson and Stephen Knight. Click here to read my article on the conference and the book collection that followed.
1999: Nottingham, UK - It's not surprising that the first of the UK conferences was hosted in the city most closely associated with Robin Hood. The plenary speakers were Jeffrey Richards and Thomas Hahn. Click here for the conference programme. Stephen Knight also shared with me the article Gendering Robin Hood on the media storm caused by this conference. My conference paper is available in the book Bandit Territories.
2001: London, Ontario, Canada - The sole Canadian conference. The plenary speakers were Douglas Gray, Stephanie Barczewski and Kevin Harty. Click here for the conference schedule and more. You can also read my conference paper The Sheriff of Nottingham: Evil Supervillain or Just Misunderstood.
2003: York, UK - The venue for the second UK conference was another city closely associated with Robin Hood, home to the abbey of St. Mary's and his foe the abbot. The plenary speakers were Mark Ormond, Lois Potter and Thomas Ohlgren. Click here for my memories of the conference. Also, you can read my paper Beating and Binding in a Shaky Liturgical Era: Religion and the Modern Robin Hood Legend
2005: Newark, Delaware, USA - The second American conference based itself in an area closely associated with author/illustrator Howard Pyle. The keynote speaker was Stephen Knight. Here's the conference website on the Wayback Machine. You can also read my conference paper After the Code: Robin Hood Comics from the 1970s to the Present
2007: Cardiff, Wales (and Gregynog) - This time we travelled to the realm of a knight of great renown -- Professor Stephen Knight, actually. My paper for this one was a last minute presentation about Rocket Robin Hood.
2009: Rochester, NY, USA (Again) - The conference returned to its original home for a conference titled "Media Creature". This was the last conference I attended in person with a presentation called The Secret Origin of Robin Hood, looking at the various accounts of how and why Robin became an outlaw.
2011: Beverley, UK - "Outlaw / ed Spaces: Constructing and Reconstructing the Medieval 'Other Within'. Richard Bell's Wild Yorkshire site has sketches from the conference
2013: St. Louis, MO, USA - The ninth conference focused on The Games of Robin Hood and sounds like fun
2015: Doncaster, UK - This conference was held at a location mentioned in the medieval ballads. Here's a conference review.
2017: Montgomery, AL, USA - The theme of this conference was Southern Outlaws and was held at Auburn University at Montgomery
2019: Montevallo, AL, USA - The first time that the conference did not alternate sides of the ocean. The title was Outlaw Bodies.
2021: Zoom (online) - Held during the pandemic, this was an entirely online conference and was appropriately named Global Outlaws
2023: Marshall, MO, USA (Hybrid) -The conference retained an online component and focused on the impact of AI and the legend
2025: Cracow, Poland (Hybrid) - The theme of the latest conference was "Robin Hood and Other Social Bandits in Folk and Popular Culture"

Reflections

I was delighted to be at the very first of the Robin Hood conferences, where I made many dear friends who are still friends to this day. And I was thrilled to start presenting with the second conference.

I have very happy memories of the group, and who knows... maybe I'll see them again for the 30th anniversary (which will also be the 30th anniversary of my site.)

Lorraine once called us the Merry Men and Women of the Internet - and that's true in the sense of camaraderie we felt. Although when the interviewer for the documentary Robin Hood: The First Outlaw Hero read her description. He asked me to say it on camera. Now, as I know from my days in journalism, when they ask you a question, you need to repeat the question in your answer. So, when they asked me "Do you think of yourself as a Merry Man of the Internet." They were hoping I'd say "I think of myself as a Merry Man of the Internet" -- and cut their question. Of course, it's not always easy to remember to include the question in the answer and I'd have to rephrase. But this time, I deliberately said "You might say that ..." pause as if I were going to rephrase and give them what they wanted "... but I'm not going to."

But even though I wouldn't say those words on camera, I have very fond memories of this gang.

Where to go from here:

THE THIRD BIENNIAL ROBIN HOOD CONFERENCE - the main index page
CONFERENCE PROGRAMME - A list of all the events at the conference and the times they occurred
SPEAKERS AT THE CONFERENCE - An alphabetical list of the conference participants
PHOTO GALLERY - When I first preserved the conference website I added a collection of photos from it
A LITTLE GEST OF ROBIN HOOD BY BOB FRANK - A look at the modern adaptation of the Gest first performed at this conference
THE SHERIFF OF NOTTINGHAM: EVIL SUPERVILLAIN OR JUST MISUNDERSTOOD? - The paper I delivered at the conference

If you enjoyed this Spotlight, check out the following:

THE FIRST ROBIN HOOD CONFERENCE (ROCHESTER, 1997) and ROBIN HOOD IN POPULAR CULTURE EDITED BY THOMAS HAHN - A look at the first of the biennial conferences for Robin Hood scholars and the proceedings volume that emerged from it
THE SECOND ROBIN HOOD CONFERENCE (NOTTINGHAM, 1999) - The Conference Programme for this scholarly event which conference caused controversy by a one sentence joke about Robin Hood being gay
THE FOURTH ROBIN HOOD CONFERENCE (YORK, UK 2003) - A look at the events of the second conference to be held in the UK
THE HIDDEN GROVE - A section of my site that I originally created for charity which features my 2001, 2003 and 2005 conference papers along with more in-depth articles on Robin Hood and related topics