This is the programme for the 4th academic symposium held in association with the Gloucester International Mummers Festival on Friday December 5th 2014, at Gloucester Folk Museum.

Montage of images from the 2013 Symposium
Pictures from the 2013 symposium. Click on the image for more pictures.

Details for the symposium and the Festival's other activities on the 6th and 7th November 2014 can be found on the Festival website.
Click here for the abstracts of the papers, or on the author links for individual abstracts.
See also the author's biographies.
9.00-9.30 Registration and Coffee
9.30-9.40 Steve Rowley Welcome and Housekeeping
9.40-10.00 Peter Harrop Introduction to the Symposium
10.00-11.00 Panel One
• Mark Gowers 'Bisociated Identities and Playful Joking Relationships'
• Peter Millington 'Manning and Mumming'
• Helen Marshall 'So you want to be a Mummer? An Artist talk and visual presentation'
11.00-11.30 Coffee and refreshments
11.30-1.00 Panel Two
• Matt Fletcher 'Southampton Urban Mummers'
• Jim Birch 'Wantage Mummers: every year's performance is the same - but different'
• Tim Chatham 'Stoneleigh Mummers Play 1975 to 2014, Revival or Creation of a Tradition?'
• David Lock 'John Barleycorn - a suitable case for mumming'
1.00-2.00 Lunch
2.00-3.00 Panel Three
• Lynn Lunde 'Anonymity and Strangers: Three versions of the unknown in Newfoundland Christmas visiting'
• Mat Levitt 'New Folk Old Lore: The Coventry Mummers and the Alberta Avenue Mummers Collective'
• Randall Fraser 'The Alberta Avenue Mummers Collective and the Albertavia Mumming Trilogy'
3.00-4.00 Performance, Open Forum and Close
• Mark Gowers 'You're Gonna Die! A ten minute performance piece based on the mumming Doctor'