thoughts forward

CFP - PG conference - "Intertexts", Durham University, 23rd September 2011

2011-06-01T13:39:00.000-07:00

Call for papers: InterTexts -- a one-day conference on interdisciplinarity

Durham University, Durham, UK

Friday, 23rd September 2011

Abstract submission deadline: 10th June 2011

The tradition of working across disciplinary boundaries has a long

history: literature and visual arts, literature and philosophy, literature and psychology, all feature prominently in the field of literary studies. At present, when humanities face escalating funding challenges and a constant requirement to justify and validate the research carried out, literary scholars increasingly look at other disciplines, expanding their field of inquiry and contributing to a proliferation of research in areas such as literature and law, literature and science, literature and medicine, literature and ecology.

This conference aims to give postgraduate and early career researchers working on interdisciplinary projects an opportunity to present their work and contribute to the discussion on the developments of interdisciplinary research within literary studies. Alongside traditional panels, we will be offering workshops that deal with practical issues, resources and challenges of conducting interdisciplinary research within one of the five interdisciplinary fields at the core of the conference (Literature and Law, Literature and Science, Medical Humanities, Literature and Visual Arts and Literature and Music).

We invite papers focusing on any issue within one of the following interdisciplinary fields:

Literature and Law

Literature and Science

Medical Humanities

Literature and Visual Arts

Literature and Music.

We also welcome proposals discussing challenges and demands of conducting interdisciplinary research. These could include, but are not limited to: proliferation of interdisciplinary research, the value of interdisciplinarity, the future of interdisciplinarity, traditional humanities vs. interdisciplinary research, implications of interdisciplinarity for literary scholarship, traditional methodologies and interdisciplinary research, interdisciplinarity and canonisation or how, if at all, do we define canons within interdisciplinary fields.

Authors of selected proposals will be invited to submit an extended version of their paper for consideration by the editorial board of Durham's Postgraduate English journal. The papers will be considered for publication in the special issue of the journal focusing on interdisciplinarity, celebrating ten years of the journal, and coinciding with the launch of its new website.

Please send 250-300 word abstracts proposing 20 minute papers to Kaja Marczewska by 10th June 2011.

Notifications of acceptance, together with more information about Postgraduate English publication opportunities will be sent by 17th June 2011.

enquiries: kaja.marczewska@durham.ac.uk

website: http://intertexts.wordpress.com/

UCL SSEES PG Conference: "Crisis: Interruptions, Reactions and Continuities in Central and Eastern Europe", 15-17th February 2012

2011-06-01T13:36:00.000-07:00

Crisis: Interruptions, Reactions and Continuities in Central and Eastern Europe

The 11th International Postgraduate Conference on Central and Eastern Europe.
The School of Slavonic and East European Studies, University College London
15-17 February 2012

Crises have been common in the history of Central and Eastern Europe. The term crisis
implies that a particular order, whether financial, social or political is thrown into a state of
flux. The resultant instability usually forces those affected to react to the disturbance and
reassert a sense of equilibrium. By unravelling the operation of social and political
mechanisms that are normally taken for granted, crises give rise to a number of questions:
Were crises preceded by a generally accepted order? How did individuals confronted with a
crisis react to the new state of affairs? Were their attempts successful or has instability
remained?
This conference examines the concept of crisis from a plethora of disciplinary angles within
the Central and Eastern European context. It offers a platform for discussing a complex set
of interactions, interruptions and continuities that various forms of crises provoke.
The conference invites postgraduate students and early career researchers in the
Humanities and Social Sciences to take part in an interdisciplinary debate about the nature,
meaning, causes and results of crises in Central and Eastern Europe, including South-East
Europe, Russia and the countries of the former USSR. The disciplines include, but are not
limited to, anthropology, art history, cultural and literary studies, economics, geography,
history (medieval to modern), linguistics, politics and sociology. We particularly encourage
comparative and multidisciplinary perspectives, as well as proposals using new research
methodologies.
We look forward to receiving submissions on topics including but not limited to the
following areas:
• financial and economic crises;
• social crises, gender and sexuality struggles, crises of memory and identity, crises of
values, crisis of political activism;
• environmental and energy crises;
• existential crises, crises of the subject, philosophical, religious and confessional
crises;
• representation of crises in literature, film and drama
• institutional, political and security crises, crises of regime, succession and legitimacy,
crises of empire;
• urban crises, rural and agrarian crises.

Paper abstracts of up to 300 words and a brief biography should be sent with full contact
details (E-mail, Telephone, Postal Address) to postgradconference2012@gmail.com.
Paper presentations should not exceed twenty minutes. The language of the conference is
English. A selection of papers will appear in a separate Conference publication.

Further information will be available on the following website in due course:
http://www.ssees.ucl.ac.uk/postgradconf2012.htm

Deadline: 15 July 2011

PG Conference - "Writing for Young People: The Process", 13th July, 2011, Bath Spa University

2011-06-01T13:31:00.000-07:00

*Writing for Young People: The Process*

A day conference for postgraduate student writers for children and young adults

hosted by

the /Writing for Young People Research Group, /Creative Writing Department, Bath Spa University

Wednesday 13th July 2011

10am – 4pm

Bath Spa University Postgraduate Centre,

Corsham Court, Corsham, Wiltshire SN13 0BZ

Speakers will include:

* *

*Children and Young Adult Fiction writers*

· Lucy Christopher (/Stolen, Flyaway)/

· Steve Voake (/ The Dreamwalker’s Child; The Web of Fire; The Starlight Conspiracy; Blood Hunters; FightBack; the Daisy Dawson series; Hooey

Higgins/)

· Julia Green (/ Blue Moon; Baby Blue; Hunter’s Heart; Breathing Underwater; Drawing with Light)/

· Debut novelist Moira Young ( /Blood Red Road)/

*Publishers:*

Liz Cross, Oxford University Press Children’s Publisher

Emma Matthewson, Editorial Director, Bloomsbury Children’s Books

* *

*Coffee/tea and light lunch will be provided*

* *

*Cost : this day is free for postgraduate students*

*Please apply before Friday July 1st to: j.a.green@bathspa.ac.uk to book a place.

CFP: "Diaspora Strategies: Encouragement, Evolution, and Engagement" 9-10 September, 2011 UCD Clinton Institute of American Studies, Dublin, Ireland

2011-06-01T13:28:00.000-07:00

Diaspora Strategies: Encouragement, Evolution, and Engagement

9-10 September, 2011 UCD Clinton Institute of American Studies, Dublin, Ireland

Plenary Speakers:

Prof. Gabriel Sheffer (Hebrew University of Jerusalem)

Gabriel Sheffer is Emiterus Professor at the Department of Political Science at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. He has researched and published extensively on diasporas. His publications include Diaspora Politics: At Home Abroad, which was awarded the Israeli Political Science Association Prize for best book in 2004. During his career, he has been a Senior Fellow at the Woodrow Wilson Center and the Max Planck Institute, amongst others. He has also served as a member of the editorial boards of leading journals and publications such as Diaspora and India Journal of Diaspora. He is a regular contributor to Israeli newspapers such as Ha`aretz, Ydioth A'haronot, and Ynet.

Kingsley Aikins (Networking Matters)

Kingsley Aikins worked for The Ireland Funds for 21 years and during that time over a quarter of a billion dollars was raised and distributed to over 1200 projects in Ireland, North and South. These projects were in the areas of peace and reconciliation, arts and culture, education and community development. The Funds are now active in 39 cities in 13 countries around the world and over 40,000 people attend more than 100 events annually. He is also co-founder on Networking Matters.

Tim Finch (Institute for Public Policy Research)

Tim Finch is ippr’s Director of Communications and is an expert in the areas of politics and media and strategic communications. He has degrees in politics from the London School of Economics and the University of Essex. His research and publications on diaspora strategies include GlobalBrit: Making the most of the British diaspora. He worked for a number of years for the BBC, latterly as a senior political journalist based at Westminster. He is a trustee of Asylum Aid, the Zimbabwe Association and the Ramphal Centre, and sits on the Housing and Migration Network.

“There is much more to learn about diaspora engagement. Part of its promise lies in its extraordinary diversity- there is a diaspora partner for every dimension of development and for every corner of the earth. But for diaspora engagement policy to be most effective, it needs to move beyond the familiar language of using, tapping, or even exploiting diaspora ties into the language – and practice - of mutuality and reciprocity.” (Migration Policy Institute)

This conference will engage with one of the most pertinent political discourses emerging in recent decades, diaspora strategies. The conference aims to examine the definitional, theoretical and practical frameworks of diaspora strategies. It will examine historical connotations of the subject matter as well as more contemporary policy implications. It will examine the role diaspora strategies play in both the domestic and foreign policy of Ireland. Furthermore, it will locate such discourses within the broader international community, drawing out comparative analysis on questions of nationalism, identity and representation.

Possible topics:

Defining Diaspora: How do we define ‘diaspora’? Are there competing definitions of the term? How do they inform our understanding of different diasporas?

Diaspora Frameworks and Agency: How are diasporas structured, or indeed, are they? How do they evolve? Who or what instigates these processes?

Diaspora, Homelands and Hosts: What role does the perceived homeland play in diaspora consciousness? Does it have to be real, or can it be imagined? What is the relationship between diasporas and their homelands? Concurrently, what role does a host country play in a diaspora strategy?

Diaspora Strategies and Engagement: What is a diaspora strategy? Who should encourage diaspora strategies? What is their purpose? How can we progress to the language and practice of mutuality and reciprocity?

Diaspora Sections: Where can diasporas be strategically engaged? Historically, what had their role been in such areas as conflict resolution, philanthropy, and Foreign Direct Investment?

Diaspora Language: How central are native languages to diaspora communities? How many retain their language as a form of identity and community?

We invite single paper and panel proposals for this conference. Please send an email to diasporastrategies@gmail.com with the following information

1. Name, contact details and academic affiliation

2. Paper title

3. 200-300 word abstract

4. Brief CV or biographical statement

DEADLINE FOR SUBMISSIONS: JUNE 4 2011.

The conference is kindly supported by the UCD Graduate School of Arts and Celtic Studies.

European Research and Mobility Grants for European Studies ‘Charles V European Award’

2011-06-01T13:27:00.000-07:00

European Research and Mobility Grants for European Studies ‘Charles V European Award’ from the European Academy of Yuste Foundation -

2011-2012 SESSION: European Union Foreign Relations and Foreign Policy, and Cooperation in the Mediterranean

The European Academy of Yuste Foundation announces its European Research and Mobility Grants for European Studies ‘Charles V European Award - Javier Solana Madariaga’ and its “VI Summer Doctoral Seminar in Contemporary European Multidisciplinary Studies” with the academic support of SEGEI (SocioEconomic Governance and European Identity) Research Network, to take place at the Royal Monastery of Yuste (Extremadura, Spain) in the second semester of 2011.

The grants are supported by the Alliance of Civilizationsof the United Nations and the European Commission through the Europe for Citizens European Programme.

This European grants announcement, related to the ‘Charles V European Award - Javier Solana Madariaga', is addressed to European students, and also from countries in the Mediterranean which are not EU Member States, working on a Ph. D. dissertation in history, political sciences, economics, law and other human and social sciences or in other scientific fields, on the “European Union Foreign Relations and Foreign Policy, and Cooperation in the Mediterranean”, who have not enjoyed a ‘Charles V European Award grant’ in the past.

The European research and mobility grants for European Studies ‘Charles V European Award-Javier Solana Madariaga’ of the European Academy of Yuste Foundation are aimed at supporting the necessary research to prepare the contribution to be submitted at the summer doctoral seminar, the researchers’ travel to participate in the seminars organised in the framework of the this grants edition, and to publish the final version of their contributions.

Candidates should submit their applications from May 16, 2011 to June 25, 2011.

The announcement and the application forms in Spanish, English and French can be found at the European Academy of Yuste Foundation’s website:

Wellcome Library - 2011 Roy Porter Lecture

2011-06-01T13:20:00.000-07:00

The Wellcome Library invites you to the 2011 Roy Porter Lecture:

The Decline of Magic: Challenge and response in early Enlightenment England

by Professor Michael Hunter, Birkbeck, University of London on Monday 20 June 2011, 18.30-19.30, at Wellcome Collection,

183 Euston Road, London NW1 2BE.

To be followed by a drinks reception in the Wellcome Library, 19.30-20.30.

RSVP to Tracy Tillotson: t.tillotson@wellcome.ac.uk or 020 7611 8486 begin_of_the_skype_highlighting 020 7611 8486 end_of_the_skype_highlighting.

Wellcome Collection is part of the Wellcome Trust.

Durham University Postgraduate Discussion Group’s Annual Conference: "Recognising Beauty in the Middle Ages and the Renaissance"

2011-05-18T05:18:00.000-07:00

Registration is now open for Durham University PG Discussion Group's annual conference, due to take place from 23-24th June 2011, and they welcome all postgraduates and post-doctoral researchers working on the medieval and Renaissance periods. Registration is free - but you need to register by 13th June.

Thursday 23rd June will see three panels of three speakers each, addressing various aspects and manifestations of ‘beauty’ in the Middle Ages and the Renaissance, and culminating in a keynote address to be given by Professor Mary Carruthers (New York University, and All Souls’, Oxford). Reflecting their inter-disciplinary ethos, the conference will feature UK and international postgraduate speakers from various Arts and Humanities backgrounds. The event will take place in Prior’s Hall, Durham Cathedral, with a buffet lunch in St John’s College.

On the morning of Friday 24th June a selection of Durham’s medieval manuscripts will be a displayed from 10-11am, presented by Professor Richard Gameson (Durham University).

For more information, visit http://www.dur.ac.uk/imrs/mrpdg/introduction/conference/, or contact the Chairman of the group, Jamie McKinstry, at j.a.mckinstry@durham.ac.uk.

CFP - “Cultures of Surveillance”: An Interdisciplinary Conference, UCL, 29 September - 1 October

2011-05-16T09:33:00.000-07:00

“Cultures of Surveillance”: An Interdisciplinary Conference,

sponsored by The Film Studies Space: The Centre for the Cultural History of the Moving Image,

UCL (University College London), 29 September - 1 October 2011

We are being watched. The amazing part is that we are no longer even surprised by this. The culture of surveillance increasingly surrounds us in Europe where omnipresent CCTV cameras remind us that nothing escapes the invisible gaze of those behind the lens. At UCL, we have long been surveyed by our founder, Jeremy Bentham, who sits in a wooden case in the lobby and peers from glass eyes and a wax head: his own ‘icon’ body signals that he not only knew what surveillance meant but named it through his invention of the Panopticon. That imaginary device, which Bentham proposed would “help reform morals, preserve health, invigorate industry, diffuse instruction, and lighten public burdens,” continues to be a resonant touchstone for questions about the way governments and private agencies keep watch over our interests – and theirs. This conference, held where Bentham goes on watching both literally and metaphorically, proposes to explore, broadly, the interdisciplinary frameworks for understanding modern surveillance and, particularly, how surveillance practices intersect with visual technologies and histories of culture.

Our conference project emerges from an eagerness to think in new ways about surveillance practices as they intersect with culture, visual culture, and moving image studies. We start from the vantage point that there are many frameworks through which surveillance might be imagined today, ranging from the kinds of surveillance that entail keeping a friendly watch over each other to those represented by policing practices, government monitoring, and undercover investigations. Our call for papers likewise assumes that questions about surveillance have become central to today’s world, as states and cultures grapple with the complex dynamics of security and liberty and as corporations demand ever more precise data about the world’s populations. As a modern panoptical city, London stands at the centre of the shift away from a Cold War culture of surveillance toward the post-9/11 order of things. It has long been one of the centres for the development and deployment of surveillance practices ranging from census taking to identification methods (such as fingerprinting, photography, passports, and DNA typing). It has also served over the past two centuries as a crucial nexus for practices of culture that perpetuate – and often question – the work of both social surveillance and self-surveillance: for example, the novel, detective fiction, museums, and the BBC. Visual recording and representations have historically played a central role in surveillance practices throughout the industrialising world: printmaking, photography, the cinema, and televisual moving images have accompanied the rise of the modern police force and the development of security systems in public as well as private spaces. “Cultures of Surveillance” hopes to address these intertwined histories of surveillance, practices of governance, visual technologies, and cultural forms.

This conference is sponsored by UCL’s Film Studies Space, an interdisciplinary centre for the study of the cultural history of moving images. It derives from two ongoing research projects, The Work of Film, investigating the ways moving images have been utilised by states and corporations to guide the conduct of populations; and The Autopsies Project, examining the afterlife of material objects in relation to the history of consumer culture and cinematic memory. We hope that conference presenters will discuss a range of issues in the long history of surveillance practices, from photography to digital media. We anticipate contributions that analyse the myriad ways that visual culture has been enmeshed with political rationalities. We are keen to expand our frameworks far beyond the sphere of London and to look outside the Panopticon. We especially hope that contributions will find new ways of asking what it means to watch and to be watched, and to police and to be policed. We look forward to discussing ways that scholars of the humanities can interrogate the networks of surveillance that both protect and transform our world.

Following an opening lecture by Professor Tom Gunning, The University of Chicago, on Thursday, 29 Sept. 2011, the Conference will take place on Friday and Saturday, 30 Sept. and 1 Oct. 2011.

Topics might include but are not limited to:

* Histories of surveillance technologies and their applications

* The geo-politics of surveillance (in the 19th century? in Cold War culture? After 9/11?)

* Architectures of surveillance – visibility and urban space

* Film and television representations of surveillance / Film and the construction of public space

* Photography and the police

* Constructions of identity and surveillance methods (fingerprinting, passports, census taking)

* The hidden objects of surveillance (cameras, tape recorders, transmitters, interceptors, tracking systems)

* Histories and representations of objects associated with the collection, storage, and retrieval of personal data: from filing cabinets, paper shredders, computers .... (etc.)

* The Obsolete Objects of Surveillance (i.e., objects of surveillance that have fallen out of use)

* How do objects make visible personal data that is otherwise invisible?

* Self-policing: how do we watch them watch us?

* Technologies of the self and new media / Technologies of the self and dead media

* Systems of meaning and truth under surveillance/ imaginary and real inventions for policing and detecting such as lie detectors, truth serums, mind reading

* War-time surveillance: rationing and ration books, black market trading (representations and history)

* Governmental efforts to educate citizens (e.g. road safety campaigns, anti-littering campaigns, anti-smoking campaigns, etc.), both in filmic representation or through tv and press media.

* The gadgets of surveillance in spy films

* The art of CCTV cameras / Cultural plays with CCTV

* Watching cultures and Reality TV

* The relationship of bodies to surveillance technologies.

* The arts of documentary photography

* Prison plans and texts

* Watching you watching me: photography OF the police

* Under-cover policing in Film Noir / Policing practices in tv crime series

* Police procedurals (novelistic, cinematic, televisual)

* Forensic science and the invention of modern vision

* Panopticism and cinematic surveillance: theories, practices, and representations

* The relationship between voyeurism and surveillance

* New visibilities of surveillance / Changing temporalities and spaces of surveillance

* Documentary (as) surveillance

* Self-registration (tattoos, dog-tags) and rights

* Neighbourhood watch, curtain twitches, vigilante work: putting the everyday under surveillance

* ‘Take back the night’ and women’s relationship to surveillance

* The political economy of visual technology and surveillance

* Advanced capitalism and (visual) cultures of surveillance

* Surveillance regimes in comparative historical, national, and political contexts

* Watching out for the future: surveillance technologies in science fiction

* ‘They have me under surveillance’: Paranoia and modernity

* Design technologies and panopticism / anti-panopticism

* The aesthetics of surveillance

* What can humanities scholars bring to current debates about surveillance?

* How can film studies contribute to debates about surveillance culture?

Individual papers are invited from scholars and researchers in any discipline of the humanities, arts, social sciences, and sciences. Scholars from postgraduate to permanent senior academics are welcome to submit papers. Presentations would equally be welcomed from artists and filmmakers.

One-page abstracts for 20-minute presentations and a brief c.v. should be sent by Wed., 15 June to:

The Culture of Surveillance Conference Organisers

(Lee Grieveson, Rebecca Harrison, Jann Matlock, and Simon Rothon) at deadobjects@gmail.com

Participants will be notified by 30 June 2011

A conference publication is projected.

For more information on our projects, see http://www.autopsiesgroup.com

http://www.autopsiesgroup.com/the-work-of-film.html and http://twitter.com/autopsiesgroup

Upcoming LINKS conference - reminder and programme

2011-05-16T09:02:00.001-07:00

LINKS London Intercollegiate Network for Comparative Studies 2nd Graduate Student Conference in Comparative Literature -

COMPARATIVE LITERATURE: BEYOND THE CRISIS

Medawar Watson Lecture Theatre

University College London

Wednesday, 18 May 2011

9.00 am 6.30 pm

9.00 Welcome

9.15 SESSION ONE: TRAVELLING CONCEPTS / MYTHS IN NEW CONTEXTS

Chair: Georgia Panteli (UCL)

Sophie Corser (Goldsmiths): Ovids English Voice.

Pablo Maurette (University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill): Lucretius among Early Modern Physicians and the Sense of Touch."

Shao-Hua Wang (Kings): From the Man in the Crowd to the Man on the

Train: The Baudelairean Flaneur Sped Up.

Melissa Gelinas (UCL): Magical Realism, Postmodernism and Mythopoesis:

Perspectives from Cien años de soledad and Not Wanted on the Voyage.

Christoph Söding (Kings): 500 years of Utopia: Collectivism in Tommaso Campanellas Città del Sole and Star Trek.

11.15 Coffee

11.30 SESSION TWO: THEORIES OF LITERATURE

Chair: Erin Horakova (Goldsmiths)

Laura Tenschert (Goldsmiths): "The Herald of Pure Language: The Ideal as Task for Benjamin's Translator.

Niall Sreenan (Kings): Darwinian Literary Theory: Misguided Determinism?

Or the Next Step in the Evolution of Literary Theory?

Regina Fabry (Johannes Gutenberg Universität Mainz): On Self-Narration in

Literature: Thomas Bernhards Korrektur; Paul Austers Invisible and Daniel C. Dennetts Theory of Narrative Self.

Philip Sayers (UCL): The Possibility of Good Psychoanalytical Approaches to Literature and Film.

Beth Guilding (Goldsmiths): A Royal Road to Primal Fiction: Dreaming in Freud, Blanchot and Borges.

1.30 Lunch

2.15 Round Table: Comparative Literature Beyond the Crisis

Chair: Dr Florian Mussgnug (UCL)

Dr Lucia Boldrini (Goldsmiths, London)

Prof Paul Hamilton (Queen Mary, London)

Prof Timothy Mathews (UCL)

Prof Robert Weninger (Kings College London)

Recession is a time for asking fundamental questions about value. How will funding cuts, curriculum reform, and higher tuition fees transform teaching and research? How will they affect the future of comparative literature? What will be the social and cultural role of comparative studies in a rapidly changing world? This round table brings together four leading scholars of literature and culture, all working in London, to reflect on the public value of their discipline, and on the future of comparative literature.

4.00 Coffee

4.15 SESSION THREE: COMPLEX IDENTITIES / NARRATIVES OF THE SELF

Chair: Daniel O'Connor (Kings)

Kate Willman (Kings): Constructing Identities: (Dis)Engagement with History in Juan Goytisolos Marks of Identity and Cesare Paveses The Moon and the Bonfires.

Emma Grylls (UCL): Loneliness in the Fiction of Yiyun Li and William Trevor.

Maha Abdel Megeed (Kings) The Metamorphosed Clown Mask: From Rabelais to Machado de Assis.

Christine Tiedemann (Kings): "Post-Mortem Identity: Posadas Calaveras and Rulfos Pedro Páramo."

Scott Yearsley (UCL) Sweet Transvestites from Krypton! Secret Identities and Sexual Performativity in Superman comics and The Rocky Horror Picture Show.

6.15 Closing Remarks: Rosa Mucignat (Kings) and Florian Mussgnug (UCL).

The organizers of LINKS 2011 thank the UCL Faculty Institute for Graduate Studies for its generous support. This event is free of charge and open to all.

For more information, please contact Dr Florian Mussgnug at f.mussgnug@ucl.ac.uk.

Skills4Work Session for SELCS students

2011-05-16T09:01:00.000-07:00

There's an upcoming Skills4Work session at UCL which could be useful and interesting for SELCS students...

Creative Thinking & Problem Solving - Monday 16th May - Foster Court 130 - 18:00-20:00

. What is creativity & problem solving?

. Different stages of creativity & problem solving

. The 4 types of problem

. Apply creative thinking techniques to develop solutions

. Ideas storming

. The 'reframing matrix'

. The 'SCAMPER' technique

. Creating a creative environment

. Deciding on the right solution

. Turning your ideas into a reality

. Action planning techniques

. Taking ownership of your ideas

. Influence & Persuasion techniques

To book these events, visit www.skills4work.net

'Skills4Work' is a joint skills development initiative run by UCL Careers Service and UCLU.

For more information visit www.skills4work.net.

King’s College London English Postgraduate Conference - "Motion and Space", May 23rd

2011-05-16T08:59:00.000-07:00

King’s College London English Postgraduate Conference - "Motion and Space" is coming up on May 23rd, and the organisers are keen to emphasise that PGT and PGR students are warmly welcome to attend - and there's no registration fee! The conference will be held at King's College London's Strand Campus WC2R 2LS. When you arrive,follow the signs to the Council Room, or ask the desk for directions.

For full details, have a look at http://www.kcl.ac.uk/schools/humanities/depts/english/events/postgraduateconference.html

Conference - "Selma Lagerlöf 2011: Text, Translation, Film", at UCL, 20-22 June

2011-05-16T08:51:00.000-07:00

A major international conference, SELMA LAGERLÖF 2011: TEXT, TRANSLATION, FILM, will take place at University College London, 20-22 June 2011. The conference is hosted by the Department of Scandinavian Studies at UCL in conjunction with the Division of European Languages and Cultures (Scandinavian Studies) at the University of Edinburgh and the Department of Literature, History of Ideas and Religion at the University of Göteborg. The conference will mark the publication of the first three volumes in the new series 'Lagerlöf in English', published by Norvik Press, London, and will be the first international gathering of Lagerlöf scholars in well over a decade. The organisers hope the conference will contribute to raising Selma Lagerlöf's international profile and to the repositioning of her work in a global context. The organisers are planning a publication consisting of selected and considerably expanded conference papers.

The programme will include a plenary lecture on translation followed by a panel debate, a film evening including a screening of The Phantom Carriage, a plenary lecture focusing on the new Selma Lagerlöf Archive, and around 30 papers. The organisers would like to thank all those who have submitted abstracts for papers.

Draft programme [link]

Registration

The registration fee covers the cost of

tea and coffee during the Conference (afternoon Monday 20 June, morning and afternoon Tuesday 21 June, morning and afternoon Wednesday 22 June)
the Film Evening at the Horse Hospital on Tuesday 21 June, including buffet and drinks
the full Conference programme, abstracts and other material provided in the Conference Folder

Lunches are not included. There are plenty of cafeterias and restaurants in the area around UCL.

The standard registration fee is GBP 55.

For PhD students, and for those who are attending only part of the conference, there is a reduced registration fee of GBP 30.

Film Evening - only for those NOT registering for the Conference

Interested in early film? We have 20 tickets available for the screening of Victor Sjöström's The Phantom Carriage (Körkarlen, 1920), based on Selma Lagerlöf's novel Körkarlen (1912) and one of the iconic films of early cinema. A new English translation by Peter Graves of Lagerlöf's text, also entitled The Phantom Carriage, is being published by Norvik Press, London, in time for the Conference.

The Film Evening will take place on Tuesday 21 June, 19.00, at The Horse Hospital, The Colonnade, Bloomsbury, London WC1N 1JD (right behind the Russell Hotel in Russell Square). The cost of the ticket is GBP 9.00 and includes a talk on the film and a reception.

Register for the film evening here.

For full details, see here.

Conference on the Literary Essay at Queen Mary and the London Review Bookshop, July 2nd-3rd

2011-05-16T08:48:00.000-07:00

This July 2nd-3rd, there will be a conference on the literary essay from Montaigne to the present, which will be taking place at Queen Mary and the London Review Bookshop, featuring Adam Phillips, Andrew O'Hagan, Geoff Dyer, Jeremy Treglown, Karl Miller, Hermione Lee, Gillian Beer, Markman Ellis, Peter Howarth, Ophelia Field, Felicity James, Uttara Natarajan, Stefano Evangelista, Adam Piette, Kathryn Murphy, and Sophie Butler.

Tickets and details available at:

http://www.english.qmul.ac.uk/news/literaryessay/

CFP for LINKS (London Intercollegiate Network for Comparative Studies) Conference- 18 May

2011-04-13T02:02:00.000-07:00

LINKS – London Intercollegiate Network for Comparative Studies
2nd Graduate Student Conference in Comparative Literature
University College London, 18 May 2011

•••
Comparative Literature: Beyond the Crisis

This conference fosters a space to discuss and re-think intercultural ‘links’, and to approach literary and non-literary texts from a comparative perspective. For the second time, students and staff in comparative literature departments across London have joined forces, providing MA students in Comparative Literture with a unique opportunity to exchange ideas, and develop their networking, presentation, and discussion skills.

Round Table

Recession is a time for asking fundamental questions about value. How will funding cuts, curriculum reform, and higher tuition fees transform teaching and research? How will they affect the future of comparative literature? What will be the social and cultural role of comparative studies in a rapidly changing world? This round table, organized within the context of LINKS, brings together four leading scholars of literature and culture, all working in London, to reflect on the public value of their discipline, and on the future of comparative literature.

Participants
Dr Lucia Boldrini (Goldsmith University London)
Prof Paul Hamilton (Queen Mary, University of London)
Prof Tim Mathews (University College London)
Prof Robert Weninger (Kings College London)

Call for Papers

MA students in Comparative Literature from anywhere in London and beyond are warmly invited to send proposals for twenty-minute papers on any aspect of comparative literary study. Subjects may include, but are not limited to:

Cultural identities / Self and Other
Literatures of a globalized world
Gender, corporeality, and writing
Literary criticism and theory
Forms and genres
Themes, myths, and archetypes
Literature and other arts
Reception Studies and Translation

Presentations must not exceed 20 minutes. Abstracts should be up to 400 words in length, and must include • your name, email address, contact telephone number, institutional affiliation and year of study • title of research /dissertation project • note of any technical requirements for presentation.

Abstracts should be sent to f.mussgnug@ucl.ac.uk before Saturday, 30th April.

For more information, please contact Dr Rosa Mucignat rosa.mucignat@kcl.ac.uk or Dr Florian Mussgnug f.mussgnug@ucl.ac.uk.

Prof W J T Mitchell lecture - UCL - 16th June 2011

2011-04-12T07:47:00.000-07:00

Prof. W.J.T. Mitchell (University of Chicago) will give a lecture on "Migration, Law and the Image. Beyond the Veil of Ignorance" at UCL on the 16th June 2011. There will be two respondents: Prof. Parvati Nair (Queen Mary Hispanic Cultural Studies) and Dr Ingrid Boccardi (UCL Laws).

Please find all details here: http://mitchellmigrationucl.eventbrite.com/.

The event is free but a registration is required.

For any further information please contact the organizer, Federica Mazzara: f.mazzara@ucl.ac.uk.

CFP - "Eating Words: Text, Image, Food" One Day Workshop

2011-04-08T04:16:00.000-07:00

Eating Words: Text, Image, Food - a one day workshop organized by the Centre for Material Texts, University of Cambridge

Some of our most material interactions with texts are grounded in the very
food that we eat. Comestibles are eloquent objects; they come stamped with words,
festooned with decorative designs, and wrapped in packaging that is at once
visually and verbally loquacious. The kitchen has long been a textual domain,
regulated by cookery books and recipe collections and noisy with inscriptions
on pots, pans, plates and pastry-moulds. This one-day colloquium will explore
numerous aspects of the relationship between writing, eating and domestic life
across a broad swathe of history, in order to illuminate the unsuspected power
of words and pictures in a paradigmatically practical locale and to shed light
on the textual condition more broadly.

Questions to be addressed include:

What is the relationship between the visual and the verbal in the history of food?

What archival and physical evidence survives for the textual realms of the kitchen, and what methodological challenges does it present?

Who produces the texts that circulate during the preparation and consumption of food, and for whom?

How do the textual economies of the kitchen relate to those of other household spaces-the study, the library, the gallery-and of the wider world?

How are public historical or cultural events refracted in the domestic locale and its object-worlds?

What permutations has the metaphor of reading-as-eating undergone in its long history?

Speakers include: Deborah Krohn (Bard Graduate Centre), Sara Pennell
(Roehampton University)

This one-day workshop will take place under the auspices of the Centre for
Material Texts, University of Cambridge, on I3 September 2OII. Please submit 25O
word proposals for 2O minute papers by I May to Melissa Calaresu (mtc12@cam.ac.uk)
and Jason Scott-Warren (jes1003@cam.ac.uk). http://www.english.cam.ac.uk/cmt

Miscellaneous PG Funding

2011-03-30T05:36:00.000-07:00

Fellowships at the Wilson Centre:

http://www.wilsoncenter.org/index.cfm?fuseaction=Fellowships.welcome

Jean Monnet fellowships (not just for Italianists!):

http://www.eui.eu/ServicesAndAdmin/AcademicService/Fellowships/JeanMonnetFellowships/Index.aspx

DAAD fellowships (not just for Germanists!):

http://www.daad.de/deutschland/foerderung/ausschreibungen/16753.en.html

Thoughtsforward's Rush Hour Lectures in April - Speaker List

2011-03-30T05:26:00.000-07:00

Thoughtsforward organises Rush Hour Lectures in April - get excited and turn up!

2011-03-30T05:05:00.000-07:00

Cramped, stinky tube carriages? Boo!
Wine, brainfun and giggles? Hurrah!

During the month of April Thoughtsforward is organising The Rush Hour Lectures; a series of events and talks which anyone can attend. From the dark comedies of Machiavelli through to explorations of the Grime scene, all sorts of research interests are presented in a fun and informal way. All the lectures open their doors at 17.10 for a 17.30 start, and promise FREE WINE.

The first lecture is this Friday, entitled "Masturbation - A Natural History". This lecture seeks to discuss the differences between male and female masturbation in humans and non-humans from evolutionary biological and sociological perspectives. In what ways might it be reproductively

advantageous to tickle the kitten or spank the monkey? Join former UCL alumnus Alexis Hatto for a frank and stimulating discourse on self-inflicted intercourse.

EVENTS THIS MONTH:

1st April 2011

"Masturbation - A Natural History"

Alexis Hatto (UCL) Chadwick Lecture Theatre, UCL

8th April 2011

"Machiavelli Laughing: Religion, Politics and Renaissance Comedy"

Adam Mowl (KCL) Garwood Lecture Theatre, UCL

15th April 2011

"Speeding up the slowest game of 'Chinese Whispers' - The Medieval

Manuscript Tradition in 50 Minutes"

Dr. Reynir Þór Eggertsson (UCL) Garwood Lecture Theatre, UCL

21st April 2011

Faroese Chain Dancing Comes to London

with Rasmus A. Joensen

Somers Town Community Association Hall (http://bit.ly/fTUVQM)

27th April 2011

"The two-way road: Language meets Grime meets language"

Nichola Smalley (UCL) Pearson Lecture Theatre, UCL

Thoughtsforward Spring Forum - Wednesday 30th March - free wine and nibbles!

2011-03-25T06:00:00.000-07:00

SELCS and ThoughtsForward request the pleasure of your company at the end of term FORUM – complete with free WINE and NIBBLES!

WEDNESDAY, 30 MARCH 4-5.30

FOSTER COURT 113

This is a great opportunity for SELCS PhD students to discuss their progress, problems and triumphs of this past term in an informal setting.

UCL POSTGRADUATES CAN EARN 1 GRADUATE SKILLS POINT FOR ATTENDANCE!

School of Advanced Study - PG Funding Opportunities, 2011 entry

2011-03-25T03:30:00.000-07:00

Apply now for postgraduate funding in the humanities and social sciences for 2011 entry at the School of Advanced Study.

The School offers masters & research degrees across a broad range of subjects in the humanities and social sciences including:

American, Caribbean & Latin American Studies
Commonwealth StudiesCultural Studies
History
History of Art
History of the Book
Human Rights
Law
Literature
Modern Languages (French, German, Hispanic & Italian)

Contact the School:

E: sas.registry@sas.ac.uk
W: www.sas.ac.uk
T: +44 (0)20 7862 8661 or 8662 or 8663

Arts and Humanities Research Council Studentships
      The School has available a number of studentships for both
      research (MPhil / PhD /doctoral) and master's degrees under the
      AHRC scheme. The School is offering AHRC awards to Home/EU
      students, in the following three subject areas:
      * Cultural Studies
      * History
      * History of Art

School of Advanced Study Doctoral Studentships
      The School has available up to two studentships for research study in
      any of the subject areas in which the School offers supervision.
      Studentships cover tuition fees and a maintenance grant and can
      be awarded to Home/EU or Overseas students.

Deadline for applications to both studentship competitions is Wednesday 27 April 2011.
Please note applicants must have accepted the offer of a place from the Institute in which they intend to study first to be eligible to apply for studentships.

Further degree-specific funding is offered by the Institutes of the School.
For more information about all funding available, please visit www.sas.ac.uk/funding.html

IGRS conference - "Jewish Identities in Contemporary Europe", 11-13 April 2011

2011-03-08T14:03:00.000-08:00

See below for details about "Jewish Identities in Contemporary Europe" - an upcoming conference at the Institute of Germanic & Romance Studies, University of London, to be held Monday, 11 - Wednesday, 13 April 2011. (The co-ordinators are Lucille Cairns (Durham) and Andrea Reiter (Southampton)).

Programme

Monday, 11 April 2011

Room ST 274/275, Stewart House, 32 Russell Square, WC1

09.00 Registration

09.30 Lucille Cairns (Durham) and Andrea Reiter (Southampton): Welcome and Introduction

09.45 Cinema

Nathan Abrams (Bangor): 'Almost the same, but not quite': Jewishness in Contemporary UK Cinema Lihi Nagler (Tel Aviv): Images of Jews in Post-Reunification German Cinema and Television Nathalie Ségeral (Los Angeles/Paris): Frenchness, Jewishness and Identity in Karin Albou's La Petite Jérusalem Lea Wohl (Hamburg): Dani Levy's Film Narrations: a Map of the 'Minefield' of the Contemporary German-Jewish Relationship

11.45 Coffee

12.15 Keynote Lecture

Atina Grossmann (New York): The 'Surviving Remnant' in the Early Postwar Period: Ruptures and Surprising Continuities in the New Europe

13.15 Lunch (own arrangements)

14.30 Intellectuals (1)

Devorah Baum (Southampton): Circumcision Anxiety Maxime Decout (Lyon): Standing Apart/Being a Part: Cixous's Fictional Jewish Identities Robert Kahn (Rouen): The Jew is Never where You Expect Him: Zagdanski and Piperno Read Proust

16.10 Tea

16.40 Intellectuals (2)

Keith Reader (Glasgow): 'Two bald men fighting over a comb?' The Quarrel between Alain Badiou and Eric Marty Matteo Di Figlia (Palermo): Italian Jews and the Extra-Parliamentary Politics. The Assembling of an Identity Marcy Brink-Danan (Providence, RI): Writing to Comfort Ourselves: European Jewish Journalists Reconsider the Audience

At the Austrian Cultural Forum, 28 Rutland Gate, London SW7

19.00 Zorro's Bar Mitzva. A Discussion with Filmmaker Ruth Beckermann followed by a Reception

Tuesday, 12 April 2011

Room ST 274/275, Stewart House, 32 Russell Square, WC1

09.30 Literature (1)

Bettina Codrai (Southampton): Lost in Third Space? Narrating German-Jewish Identity in Maxim Biller's 'Autobiography' Der gebrauchte Jude Mona Koerte (Berlin): The Language of 'Things' in Contemporary German-Jewish Writing Andrea Reiter (Southampton): 'Performing the Jew'. Recent Novels by Jewish Writers in Austria

11.00 Coffee

11.30 Literature (2)

Cathy Gelbin (Manchester): The New Jew: From the Fin de Siècle to the New Millennium Axel Stähler (Kent): Shifting Baselines: Israel in Recent British Jewish Fiction Olaf Terpitz (Leipzig): The Literary Production of the Russian Jewish Diaspora: Local, Global and Social Aspects Sue Vice (Sheffield): Becoming English: Assimilation and its Discontents in Contemporary British-Jewish Literature

13.30 Lunch (own arrangements)

14.45 Space/Place/Belonging (1)

Anna Maria Droumpouki (Athens): The Art of Holocaust Memory and the Emergence of Anti-Semitism in Greece Eszter Gantner (Berlin): European Jewry versus Hungarian Jewry? Jewish Identities in Contemporary Hungary Diana Popescu (Southampton): Israeli Artists Imagine the 'Return' of the Jewish People to Europe

16.15 Tea

16.45 Keynote Lecture

Matti Bunzl (Illinois): Theodor Herzl's Stepchildren: the Jews of Europe and the Israeli Question

Wednesday, 13 April 2011

Room ST 274/275, Stewart House, 32 Russell Square, WC1

09.00 Space/Place/Belonging (2)

Karine Michel (IDEMEC/IECJ): Communist Jews in Former East Germany - Expressing one's Jewishness Daniel Monterescu and Sara Zorandy (Budapest): 'Judapest': Improvising Community in Central Europe

10.00 Coffee

10.30 Space/Place/Belonging (3)

Helga Embacher (Salzburg): Solidarity with Israel and America: Jewish Reactions to the Intifada, 9/11 and the War in Iraq in France, Germany and the UK. A Comparison Eyal Lavi (London): 'If there isn't something bad about Israel I'm actually quite pleased': News Reporting and the Ambivalence of Belonging among British Jews Today Yuval Moshkovitz (London): The Jewish-Israeli Subject in the Diaspora - Negotiating Collective Identity between Zionist Ideology and Diasporic Reality

12.15 Keynote Lecture

Diana Pinto (Paris): Who are Europe's Jews Today? Negotiating Jewish Identity in an Asemitic Age

13.15 Closing Discussion

13.30 End of Conference

Further details and registration

To obtain further information and register for the conference, contact Jane.Lewin@sas.ac.uk <mailto:Jane.Lewin@sas.ac.uk> (tel: 020 7862 8966). Please note the closing date for receipt of registrations is Friday, 1 April 2011.

Conference Fees

All Days

£65.00

£60.00 Reduced Rate

£40.00 Student Rate

1 Day

£45.00

£40.00 Reduced Rate

£30.00 Student Rate

Reduced Rate: Fully paid-up Friends of Germanic Studies, Friends of Italian Studies, or paying members of the IGRS only

Student Rate: Students with proof of status only

A registration form can be downloaded through here: http://w01.igrscms.wf.ulcc.ac.uk/index.php?id=527

This conference is organised under the auspices of the

University of Durham

University of Southampton

and the

Institute of Germanic & Romance Studies, University of London

and sponsored by the Austrian Cultural Forum

Website www.igrs.sas.ac.uk

UCL Graduate School Funding - Deadline 28th April 2011

2011-03-08T14:01:00.000-08:00

To apply for funding available for graduate research students and research staff for the next Round of Major Awards applications (for requests over £250), click on the links below:

Research Projects Fund: http://www.grad.ucl.ac.uk/funds/resproj.html

Student Conference Fund: http://www.grad.ucl.ac.uk/funds/studconf.html

Remember, time to hurry up - bureaucracy takes time, the application forms need countersigning and the deadline for submissions is 28th April 2011.

CFP - 'Comparing: A Summer School', University College Cork, September 2011

2011-03-03T10:56:00.000-08:00

Check out the Comparing conference/event held by University College Cork, 5th-9th September 2011 not just for a CFP but also for an intriguing networking event about comparative research.

The main blurb, copied from the event website:

Comparing will take place from 5 to 9 September 2011 in University College Cork, and will be open to doctoral and other research students in Irish universities and internationally. The School aims to encourage participants to reflect on the bearing of comparative research in their own disciplines, while at the same time engaging with disciplines other than their own and with new interdisciplinary developments where comparison is at issue as a methodology, an element of substantive investigations, a critical problem. Throughout the School, the focus will be critical debate: presentations by established researchers will deal with the state of the art of comparison in the light of ground-breaking projects, and each day will include a round-table discussion of the approaches under exploration and the problems they may pose.

Central to the programme will be presentations by doctoral students, which be invited from intending participants on the basis of a call for papers. We will welcome proposals for twenty-minute papers within one of the subject areas which the School embraces — literature, history of art, history, philosophy — as well as interdisciplinary or theoretical proposals. Proposals should be no longer than 500 words, and should include your name, institution, title of your doctoral project or dissertation, year of registration, and email, and should be sent to comparing@ucc.ie no later than 14 March 2011. Proposals will be reviewed by a selection committee and the outcome will be notified to you no later than 28 March. Applications to the School will close on 29 April. An application should be forwarded with a proposal for a paper.

A number of bursaries will also be offered to participating doctoral students. Priority in awarding bursaries will be given to participants who are presenting papers. Bursaries will be paid on the basis of vouched expenses and will not in any case exceed a value of €300. Applications for bursaries must be made not later than 29 April 2011, and intending participants who submit proposals for papers should submit an application form and a bursary application at the same time.

The School will be offered to participating doctoral students for credit, subject to academic approval.