The Oxford Centre for Life-Writing (OCLW)

Life-writing can involve memoir, poetry, song, weather, memory, love, loss, comedy and joy. It can cover every possible form of telling a life-story, from diaries and letters to documentary film and music-performance, from biography and autobiography to anthropology and history.

The Oxford Centre for Life-Writing (OCLW) at Wolfson College was founded in 2011 by the then President of Wolfson College, the biographer Dame Hermione Lee.

In that time the Centre has gained a local, national and international reputation as a unique hub of activities relating to many kinds of life-writing and as a significant interdisciplinary cultural presence. OCLW is directed by Professor Elleke Boehmer, with Dr Kate Kennedy as Associate Director, and Dr Katherine Collins as Fellow.

OCLW promotes a lively, cross-disciplinary dialogue on all aspects of life-writing through a busy weekly programme of events, including lunch talks, lectures, performances, panel discussions, conferences and seminars and full day workshops.

The Centre is committed to outreach, collaboration, and fostering research into life-writing through postdoctoral Research Fellowships, Postgraduate Scholarships, Visiting Scholarships and Visiting Doctoral Studentships. It supports early career academics at a critical time, and provides a central point for established practitioners for discussion and international collaboration.

OCLW has a significant educational and outreach impact beyond the college and the academy. The majority of the events are free, and people come to visit the Centre from communities outside the university, people who’ve never set foot before in an Oxford college.

For more information, please visit our website.