SED February 2024 Newsletter



Welcome to your February 2024 newsletter from the School of English and Drama at Queen Mary University of London.

We have a jam packed edition for the new year with lots of events coming up!


Things to Do in February 

Book your place for our next SED Taster Day, Rediscover: Postcolonialism, on 27 March here
Read Queen Mary Global blogger, Ficky, from Indonesia – sharing her experiences of studying English Literature in London at SED.   


News



Queen Mary Wasafiri Writing Prize 2024

For 15 years, the Queen Mary Wasafiri New Writing Prize has awarded some of the most exciting new voices in life writing, poetry, and fiction from around the world. We are pleased to share that 2024 edition of the prize, in the 40th anniversary year of the magazine, is now open for submissions until 5pm BST on 1 July 2024.

This year’s multi-award-winning judges are Margaret Busby CBE (Chair), Cristina Rivera Garza (Life Writing), Meena Kandasamy (Poetry), and Isabel Waidner (Fiction).   

Representing more of the globe than any other prize of its kind, the prize supports writers who have not published book-length works, with no limits on age, gender, nationality, or background. The winners of each category will receive a £1,000 cash prize and publication in Wasafiri magazine, and all winners and shortlisted writers will be published and offered career development support through prize partners, The Literary Consultancy and The Good Literary Agency, and also receive a one-year print subscription to Wasafiri.
Enter Here




Intelligence wins 2024 Women’s prize for Playwriting

QMUL PhD Drama Alum, Sarah Grochala, recently won the Women’s Prize for Playwriting for her play Intelligence, which begins with Victorian computer pioneer Ada Lovelace in the 1840s then moves through a series of unexpected reincarnations.

Grochala, who completed her PhD at QMUL on the politics of dramatic structure in contemporary stage writing (supervised by Prof. Michael McKinnie), now teaches at the Royal Central School of Speech and Drama.
Read more

 

News in brief

Congratulations to Lois Weaver and her partner Peggy Shaw (the writing and performing duo of Split Britches) who won a Lifetime Achievement Award in the 2023 Obies, announced on 27 January.

The New Books Network Podcast on Matthew Rubery’s book “Reader’s Block: A History of Reading Differences” is now available here

The Philip Leverhulme Foundation will be running a profile and highlighting the research of Dr Nil Palabiyik under its ‘Grants in Focus’ section. This is in recognition of her being one of the 30 prize winners for 2023, it is only extended to one or two people per year.

Call for papers from undergraduates, masters and PhD students and researchers – for international conference. Wings of Ink: Manifestations of Fantasy in Literature. Deadline for proposal submission: 15th February 2024.

Calling for submissions for A Season of Bangla Drama 2024 (taking place 1-24 November 2024).  This fantastic festival of theatre will be back in 2024 and once again they are seeking new writing. Please complete the expression of interest form here by 15 February 2024.


Events in February


Fiction and Film as Both Record and Distortion

Seminar (Histories of libraries series) – 6 February 2024, 5:30 – 7:30pm
Bloomsbury Room, G35, Ground Floor, Senate House, Malet Street, London WC1E 7HU


Speaker Alistair Black (University of Illinois) on ‘Fiction and Film as Both Record and Distortion: Kingsley Amis’s Novel That Uncertain Feeling (1955), the Feature Film Only Two Can Play (1962) and the Post-War Public Library in Britain’.

In 1962 Kingsley Amis’s second novel That Uncertain Feeling, published in 1955, was turned into the comedy film  Only Two Can Play , starring Peter Sellers as the Welsh public librarian Amis had created. Both book and film can be used to explore the history of the public library in post-war Britain by examining the extent to which they either serve as a true record and valuable primary source or represent a distortion of reality which in itself, ironically, can provide useful evidence of that history.

Book now



Samuel Takes A Break In Male Dungeon No. 5 After A Long But Generally Successful Day of ToursYard

Theatre Hackney Wick
9 February – 9 March, 7:30pm, 2:30pm Saturday Matinee. Tickets start at £10 discounts for groups

Samuel Takes a Break is a darkly comedic and genre-bending odyssey on the legacy of slavery within Ghana and beyond from debut writer Rhianna Ilube (shortlisted for the Women’s Prize for Playwriting and Soho Theatre’s Verity Bargate Award) and directed by Olivier Award-Winning Director Anthony Simpson-Pike To secure your seats, please email marketing@theyardtheatre.co.uk.

Read more




Corey Fah Does Social Mobility Tuesday 13 February, 6pm on Zoom Isabel Waidner talks about her latest novel, Corey Fah Does Social Mobility, in conversation with Merve Emre (Professor of Creative Writing and Criticism at Wesleyan University).

Described as a novel that celebrates radical queer survival and gleefully takes a hammer to false notions of success.





Subtexts: Bodies

Wednesday 14 February, 5-7pm
White Box Gallery, BLOC


Open-mic event around the theme of BODIES.  Bring something along to read!

We welcome readings of all work that has any connection to the theme for a 5-minute reading slot.  Pains and chains of the flesh, viscera, monsters, hybrid, identities, embodiments, hauntings, morphings, autonomies, fugitivities, in this world (or others), we want everything and in betweenness.

If you would like to do a reading email Prerana on p.p.kumar@qmul.ac.uk

Otherwise just come along and have a listen!



On Direct Action

14 & 15 February 2024 – Various venues

There is a series of events marking the 130th anniversary of the Greenwich Outrage, to consider the ways that revolutionary pasts can inspire contemporary praxis.

Two days of creative performances, workshops, film screenings and talks will take the 130th anniversary of the Greenwich Outrage as an opportunity to bring organisers, activists, scholars and artists together in order to consider the past, present and possible futures of direct action.

Book here



Martin O’Brien’s DISCHARGE

Saturday 2 March 2024, various times
Ugly Duck, 49 Tanner Street, London SE1 3PL

Tickets £8 – £25

DISCHARGE was a notorious performance art event dedicated to presenting difficult, radical and marginalised performance work. Curated by artist Martin O’Brien it embraced the endless possibilities of the performance space for aesthetic, physical, and political art and experimentation.

Marking the end of Martin’s project ‘An Eternity of Nothingness or The (Im)possibility of Living On’, DISCHARGE returns with a special one-off event making space to think queerly about living and dying.

The talks, conversations and performances reflect on sickness, sex, queerness, death, disability, mourning and (im)mortality.

Sam McBean is speaking at the symposium and Swati Arora will be chairing one of the panels.  Ansuman Bisws and BA and MA alum Pianka Parna are performing.

Book here



Events Round Up

Yoko Ono at Tate Modern, preview Wednesday 14 February 9-10am.  Looking for students to attend the press view and be photographed in the show itself.  The shots would be candid shot of people naturally exploring the exhibition.  This would be an exclusive first view of the show before it opens to the public on Thursday 15 February. If interested email Kadi.Diallo@tate.org.uk by 2 February.

Placing Migrant Histories Centre Stage, Pinter Studio, Arts One, Mile End Campus. Wed, 14 Feb 2024 14:00 – 16:00 GMT. Join us to explore how migrant histories can be represented through theatre and performance. Book here.

Law, Politics, and Literature in the Nineteenth Century, Wednesday 14 February 17:30 – 19:30pm. Room 313, Third Floor, School of Law, Queen Mary University of London, Mile End Road, London E1 4NS. In this in-person roundtable the Law and History Research Group brings together  Professor Pamela ClemitProfessor Georgios Varouxakis , and Postdoctoral Fellow Dr. Charlotte Johann  to present and discuss their recent work in nineteenth century intellectual history. The presentations will be followed by an open Q&A session. The aim is to bring together scholars interested in the relations and intersections between law, politics, and literature in the nineteenth century. Book here 

GRAVY – 20 February 2024, 7pm, Canary Warf (a floating theatre on a converted cargo ship). Poetry performances by Joelle Taylor, Hannah Silva, Abigail Parry, Oluwaseun Olayiwola, Fran Lock, sound artist Reid Dudley Peirson.

Verve Poetry Festival – 24 February 2004, 4 – 5pm, Hippodrome Birmingham. Hannah Silva performs from ‘My Child, the Algorithm‘.



Apologies if we missed any listings or made any errors, do let us know and we can post on social media.

Also if you have any news for our next newsletter please do reply or get in touch.

Best wishes,


Lynn McSweeney

Marketing Manager
sed-web@qmul.ac.uk


Queen Mary University of London
#FutureQMUL

English and Drama Newsletter – October 2023 Edition

Welcome to your October newsletter from the School of English and Drama at Queen Mary University of London.

We can’t wait to meet you this Saturday for our undergraduate open event or on Wednesday 25 October for our online postgraduate event

Ru (who compiles this communication) is moving to a new role of BLOC Venue Manager to run the new cinema/arts lab for 18 months so this will be his last newsletter for a while. Follow BLOC on Instagram to keep in touch or add Ru on Linkedin or Instagram


Things to Do in October

Come to Undergraduate Open Day Get student-designed freebies, books by our academics and tasters of our courses. Book now

Get application tips and start your UCAS application Read the No-Nonsense Applicant Guide by graduate Saarah Ahsan-Shah.

Read our research newsletter Find out about our groundbreaking research here
Book for Open Day
   
October Events
Lisa Jardine Annual English Lecture: Professor Alan Stewart
The First Coming of the Strangers: An Experiment in Elizabethan Immigration
Thursday 19 October – Queen Mary University of London Mile End CampusIn 1561, the town of Sandwich in Kent petitioned the Privy Council to allow a significant influx of immigrants to settle in their town, and practice their skills working with ‘says, bay and other clothe’—a model that was to spread across the south-east of England. Within six years, immigrants in Sandwich outnumbered the previous inhabitants, provoking a predictable backlash. While this immigration is often claimed as a masterstroke of state policy to introduce artisanal skills lacking in England, this paper explores it as a multi-faceted experiment, of importance not only to trade, but also to social relations, religion, education, and the period’s literature.
Alan Stewart is Professor of English and Comparative Literature at Columbia University, and currently a Visiting Lecturer at Queen Mary, where he received his PhD, held a British Academy postdoc, and helped to found the Centre for Editing Lives and Letters with Lisa Jardine. He is the author of several books including, most recently, The Oxford History of Life-Writing, volume 2, Early Modern (2018). He is also Director of the Oxford Francis Bacon, for which he has edited volume 1, Early Writings, 1584-1596, and is now editing volume 2, Late Elizabethan Writings, 1596-1602.
Book now
‘Islamic Communities in Victorian Britain’

Monday 30 October, 2-3pm. Room 0.14, iQ East, QMUL Mile End Campus.
 Join us to hear Yahya Birt and Hamid Mahmood in conversation about some of the earliest Muslim communities in Britain. Birt and Mahmood have both written extensively on this topic, their most recent book being Our Fatima of Liverpool: The Story of Fatima Cates, the Victorian woman who helped found British Islam. 

All staff and students are welcome. 
Book ahead
All Borders Blur: Mapping Intersections and Genre Crossings in UK Spoken-Word Poetries Since 1965

11-12 November 2023
A two day hybrid (in person and online) conference at QMUL 

Keynote speakers are Joelle Taylor and Dr. Anthony Joseph. Full schedule of speakers can be found here: https://allbordersblur.univie.ac.at/?page_id=157

 
Book now
Events & Workshops Round Up

Wars Within Wars: Black History’s Warning to the World
Tuesday 17 October 2023 – 6pm, Peston Lecture Theatre

Register here for this event

Interdisciplinary Workshop with Vince Brown
Tuesday 17 October 

This interdisciplinary workshop will be based around the rough cuts of two films made by Professor Vincent Brown (Harvard) on the commemoration of slavery and slave revolts. Please email Miles Ogborn (Geography) on m.j.ogborn@qmul.ac.uk to confirm a place.

Bibliodiversity: A Book History Workshop 
Friday, 27 October, 12.30-6.00pm, Graduate Centre GC603, Queen Mary University of London, Mile End Campus 
This workshop will explore the variety of book formats from the nineteenth century to the present day. Whereas the term ‘bibliodiversity’ is sometimes used in relation to a book’s contents, this workshop extends that term to the book’s contours. Bringing together scholars associated with the fields of literature, media history, and disability studies, it will take up the following questions: What are some of the different configurations through which books have reached audiences? What effect have these alternative designs had on their relationship to readers? What can these books contribute to our understanding of book history? 

Register here

 
   
News
New book by Matthew Mauger published: ‘William Blake and the Visionary Law”This book examines the difficult relationship between individual intellectual freedom and the legal structures which govern human societies in William Blake’s works, showing that this tension carries a political urgency that has not yet been recognised by scholars in the field. In doing so, it offers a new approach to Blake’s corpus that builds on the literary and cultural historical work of recent decades.’

Find out more
Professor Dominic Johnson honoured with Fulbright Scholar Award at University of Southern California’ Dominic Johnson will be based at the Roski School of Fine Art, University of Southern California in Downtown Los Angeles for four months from January 2024. His larger project is to produce the first scholarly study of the work of the British South Asian artist Hamad Butt, in the context of art and HIV/AIDS. Butt made a series of sculptures that used toxic or noxious materials in volatile-seeming setups, creating environments that threaten or provoke fear in those who encounter them. Johnson is also curating the first comprehensive retrospective exhibition of Butt’s work, which will tour to major museums in the UK and Europe in 2024-25. While in Los Angeles, Johnson will research how artists, scholars and curators approach ‘recalcitrant’ art that can be difficult to make, show, or acquire, and that rethinks what art does and why it matters.’

Find out more
Round up Graduate Carrot has been nominated for Drag AwardGraduate Joshua Young has been nominated by Pink News for Drag Artist of the Year 2023 in their annual awards.

Vote for CARROT here
SED Writer Katherine Angel to speak at New York eventKatherine will be speaking at event on Sexuality, Consent, and Trauma at the New School in New York on 30 October, with psychoanalysts Jamieson Webster and Avgi Saketopoulou.

Follow Katherine on Instagram for updates

Ruth Ahnert’s new book ‘Tudor Networks of Power’ is published on 12 October

‘Tudor Networks of Power is the product of a groundbreaking collaboration between an early modern book historian and a physicist specializing in complex networks. Together they have reconstructed and computationally analysed the networks of intelligence, diplomacy, and political influence across a century of Tudor history (1509-1603), based on the British State Papers.’

Find out more about the book

Nisha Ramayya appearances in October

 Friday 13 October: Ignota Gathering: The Spiral at St James Picadilly – Join us at  the Ignota Gathering: The Spiral to celebrate Ignota’s fifth birthday on Friday 13 October at St James’s Church, Piccadilly, London, with Ignota’s friends and family to explore the spiral through resonance, poetry and philosophy. Wednesday 25 October: Wordriver: Celebrating Ursula K Le Guin at Southbank Centre Ursula K Le Guin’s work is celebrated at this performative reading, marking the publication of  Space Crone, a new collection of her writing. Wordriver explores the confluence of the written and spoken, the currents of truth in fiction, and the flows between daughters and mothers in a matrilineal society still marked by the legacies of militarism and toxic masculinity.
Opportunities
For more opportunities see our regular Opportunities Digest blog post
Apologies if we missed any listings or made any errors, do let us know and we can post on social media.

Also if you have any news for our next newsletter please do reply or get in touch.

Best wishes,

Ru

Rupert Dannreuther

SED Opportunity Digest – 28 September 2023 – Jobs, Events & Ideas

TALK TO YOUR CAREERS CONSULTANT Get help finding jobs, making great applications and becoming more confident in interviews. Book an appointment or email your careers consultant Fliss Bush

TALK TO RU ABOUT CREATIVE CAREERS OR YOUR MENTAL HEALTH – Ru is happy to chat any time and create some plans for your future or talk through worries and sign post you to further support. Book an appointment

If you get to the end and apply for an opportunity please let us know and we’ll give you a freebie as a reward.

Please let us know if you have any suggestions for the next edition via sed-web@qmul.ac.uk

From QMUL, Partners & Friends

Professional & Personal Development Schemes at QMUL

  • Diversity Speaks – Starts 11 October: Group coaching programme specifically for students from ethnic minority backgrounds. Sign up
  • Mindfulness – Free 4 week course for HSS students. Sign up

ArtsOne BLOC Cinema Event:
Black History Month 2023:
Film Screening ‘THE WOMAN KING’and Pizza – Thu 12 October

A film screening of The Woman King + a recorded Introduction from Dr. Reuben Loffman, followed by pizza and refreshments.

Explore: Lunch with HSS Alumni – 17 October

Attend this speed networking event to find out about a wide range of employers, sectors and graduate opportunities available to Humanities and Social Sciences students and graduates, from large graduate recruiters to SMEs and local employers.  

Free Food provided 

Sign up

QMUL Autumn Careers Fair 2023

Wed, Oct 18, 2023, 10:00 AM – 3:00 PM – The Octagon, The Queens’ Building

  • gain an valuable insight into a wide variety of industry sectors and companies
  • leave lasting impressions on employers as well learning more about the tips and trick to help you succeed in the application process
  • engage with a broad range of employers, from small businesses to FTSE 100 companies
  • learn more about the opportunities available to you – from early insight programmes to graduate schemes

Sign up

Thawra Book Club for BAME Community run by SED Alumna, Asia Khatun

Run by alumna ‘We’ll be reading Jade LB’s Keisha The Sket. Told with the heart and soul of the inner city, with an unforgettable heroine, Keisha the Sket is a revelation of the true, raw, arousing and tender core of British youth culture.

Our in-person book club will be on Thursday 26th October at Penguin Random House HQ, 20 Vauxhall Bridge Rd, London, SW1V 2SA, expect lots of great discussion, good vibes and some bookish goodies!

Book now (last few tickets)

Jobs at QMUL

See all jobs at QMUL | Join Qtemps for short term work opportunities

Free performance event: A Season of Bangla Drama 2023- Festival Bites

A Season of Bangla Drama 2023-  Festival Bites

  Saturday, 14 October 2023 at 15:00 160 Whitechapel Road – London E1 1BJ – United Kingdom

See three tantalising sketches (open rehearsal) to give you taste of our upcoming theatre festival which Queen Mary is a proud organiser alongside Tower Hamlets council! Production companies Marble Sinew, Mitali Arts Group and Adity Roy Dance CIC present snippets of a dark comedy murder mystery, challenges of old age and a dance drama to champion neurodiversity.

Book a free ticket

TAKE PART in a participatory live art project about living and dying queerly – The Last Breath Society

We are currently accepting proposals to join The Last Breath Society. The deadline for applications is Thursday 5th October.

Find out more

Making and Remaking the Jewish East End events

Listening to the Jewish East End: A guided walk | Sunday 8 October, 11.00am-1.00pm | Whitechapel

Explore London’s Jewish East End with Professor Nadia Valman and Dr Vivi Lachs of Queen Mary, University of London, who present a free guided walk through East London’s Jewish past based on their Arts and Humanities Research Council project on English and Yiddish literature and song of the East End from the 1880s to the 1950s.

Book your place here 

Re-sounding the East End | Thursday 16 November, 6.30-8.00pm | Tower Hamlets Local History Library & Archives, London E1

Join us for a discussion with curators and historians Nadia Valman, Tamsin Bookey, Rehana Ahmed and Alan Dein and artists Alastair Levy, Emily Peasgood and Syma Tariq, on their sound art installation ‘Everything Is Different, Nothing Has Changed’, in the context of the East End’s social and public history.

Book your place here

Oral Storytelling for Heritage Workshop – Saturday, 14 October 2023 10:30

Event Logo

Join us We’re hosting a new event, and we’d love to see you there. IROKO Theatre Company present a FREE workshop which involves hands-on exploration of oral storytelling performance techniques. Saturday 14 October from 10.30am – 1.30pm Register soon because space is  very limited. We hope you’re able to join us!    

Register

Outside QMUL

Jobs and Opps Closing Soon

Sign up to these for more interesting events, opportunities and jobs…

10 Places to Apply for Creative Jobs | Apples & Snakes Artists Newsletter | Arts Admin E-Digest | ArtsJobs | BBC Academy | The Bookseller | Creative Access (Jobs) | Creative Lives in Progress | Creative Mentor Network | The Dots | ERIC – Career + Opportunities App | Film London | IlikeNetworking | JournoResources | LawCareers.Net | Lectures.London | MediaBeans (media jobs) | QMUL Careers | Presspad | The Publishing Post | Run the Check | ScreenSkills | Society of Young Publishers | Startup Jobs | Tower Hamlets Arts | Write at Home (freelance writing opps)

Free weekly workshops in Film and Music Production at Rich Mix in Shoreditch

New Creates Film Are you interested in creating short films, music videos or other visual content but not sure where to start?

New Creates Music Are you interested in music? Have you thought what it might be like to write your own song? Maybe you’re an upcoming rapper, DJ or producer?

Find out more

Young Technicians Programme at Stratford East

The FREE 12-week introductory training course offers 16–21 year olds the opportunity to develop practical skills in stage management, lighting and sound with industry professionals. No experience necessary.

Find out more

 Register Now for TheatreCraft 23 on 20 November!

Join Theatrecraft for:  Q&As and Workshops, Backstage Tours, On Stage Demonstrations, Exhibitor Marketplace, featuring more than 70 universities, theatre venues and suppliers to the industry and a 1:1 CV Clinic.

REGISTER NOW for TheatreCraft 2023

Thinking about a career in one of the United Kingdom’s foremost law firms? Applications now open for LawCareersNetLive

Then LawCareersNetLIVE is a must-attend event, looking at the skills, attributes and techniques that are necessary to launch a career at a commercial law firm.

Apply here

Human Rights Lawyers Association Careers Day 2023

The annual HRLA Careers Day will be held at Goldsmiths, University of London and is primarily aimed at students, prospective lawyers and those interested in a career in human rights law. We are grateful to our headline sponsor, the Department of Law of Goldsmiths, University of London for their generous contribution, and for making Careers Day possible. A range of sessions have been organised for the day, including:

Sign up

Free ‘LGBTQ Printmaking for Change’ talk 12 October 6-8pm

Via seventeenth-century radicals, eighteenth-century flamboyance and nineteenth-century scandal, to contemporary understandings around diverse gender and sexuality, prints and ephemera, the talk will provide a unique snapshot into a rich and radical history. Through looking at portraits and zines celebrating pioneering activists, writers and artists, as well as highlighting significant Queer spaces in Britain through the centuries, this session will provide an overview of the considerable contribution to printmaking made by the LGBTQIA+ community and its many ancestors.

Book here

More LGBTQIA+ Opportunities…

  • Careers guidance, webinars and inclusive employers at myGwork’s WorkFair 2023 WorkFair 2023 will return on 18 October featuring hundreds of jobs worldwide for students and recent graduates with inclusive employers, alongside empowering careers guidance workshops and webinars – all for free.
  • ACCEPT is an industry leading event for LGBTQ+ students interested in a career in commercial law. To find out more about the event, please watch this video.

Roundhouse Rising Festival x BBC Introducing Live

Roundhouse Rising Festival is delighted to partner with BBC Introducing Live on 14 October to deliver a daytime programme of live panels, panels, performances, feedback sessions designed to empower aspiring artists.

Book now

Free TV Jobs Conference in Newcastle in October – Worth the Trip! – London Dates in January

The National Film and Television School are working in partnership with Channel 4 to bring you exciting career events across the country.  Each event will run over 2 days with one day devoted to Scripted and the other day devoted to Unscripted sessions.Sign up for a full day of interactive sessions offering insights into different television roles, followed by a masterclass and networking session. Sessions will cover a range of disciplines across the world of film and television, allowing you to learn more about the roles and responsibilities within the industry.

To book your FREE place at one of these fantastic national events, please choose from a location below:

Newcastle | 15th – 16th October | Leonardo Hotel

For More Info & To Book Your Place for Newcastle Click Here
Session Banner
Session Banner

London Film Festival for Free 4-15 October

The festival fun doesn’t stop when the credits roll… Join us for a line-up of free events, including talks, short film screenings, DJ nights, fun family workshops and much more.

See the programme

Creating Routes – Free Programme for Global Majority Creatives with Talawa – apply by 16 October

Creating Routes is a free, practical, training programme for Global Majority theatre makers and creatives who want to use their artistic skills in community settings. This programme is a collaboration between Talawa Theatre Company, Emergency Exit Arts (EEA) and Goldsmiths University of London.

Find out more and apply



English and Drama Newsletter – September 2023 Edition

Welcome to your September newsletter from the School of English and Drama at Queen Mary University of London.

Still Time to Start This Year 

Undergraduate: We still have places for this year on our undergraduate degrees. Our clearing phone line is closed but you can apply online here.

Postgraduate: The deadline for UK Home student applications is this Friday 8 September. See courses available here.

Things to Do in September

Make a last minute application Get in touch via sed-admissions@qmul.ac.uk to explain the process.

Book now for open day on 7 October Meet students, discover the career benefits of our courses and see the campus.

Talk to us Book a time to chat about your application or campus tour Sign up 

Read our research newsletter Find out about our groundbreaking research here 

Book for Open Day
September EventsOPEN HOUSE TOURS OF QUEEN MARY BY NADIA VALMAN

Sunday 10 September – Queen Mary University of London Mile End Campus
On Sunday 10 September, Professor Nadia Valman will lead historical tours of the Mile End campus, including the Novo Cemetery, the UK’s second oldest Jewish cemetery.

Find out more and book a place on the tour on the Open House website.

Currently sold out but keep an eye for returns
  Find out more EVERYTHING IS DIFFERENT, NOTHING HAS CHANGED

Tower Hamlets Archives Bancroft Road | 15 August – 23 November 2023 | Free

‘We are thrilled to announce our first ever exhibition of sound art inspired by the amazing collections of oral history and archival audio held at Tower Hamlets Local History Library & Archives.

Dating back to 1962 and held on fragile cassettes and open reel audiotape, these recordings offer us tantalising fragments of the sonic past. For historians, they are especially valuable as intimate first-person accounts of daily lives. In this installation, the audio collections held at Tower Hamlets Local History Library and Archives are revisited by three sound artists – Alastair Levy, Emily Peasgood and Syma Tariq.

Produced in collaboration with researchers at Queen Mary, University of London and Birkbeck, University of London, who have been exploring what the East End meant to generations of migrants, Everything is different, nothing has changed uses archival audio to offer new interpretations of Tower Hamlets’ past, focussing particularly on the experiences of Jewish and Bengali/Bangladeshi migrants living here during the twentieth century.

Each artist in this show takes a different approach to the archive, but recurring themes of home, memory, dislocation and protest resonate across their work. Surprising, playful and reflective, they make magic with recorded sound, bringing the past and the present up close to one other.

The exhibition includes special events including:How Writers Remembered the Jewish East End with Nadia Valman on 28 September Find out moreA CHANGING TAPESTRY OF LIMEHOUSE

A series of free public events to coincide with Open House weekend 9 September 2023.
 
A Changing Tapestry of Limehouse
Saturday 9 September 10am – 5pm


Following a collaboration between Stitches in Time, Dr Shane Boyle of Queen Mary University and local art activist groups, we’ll be spending the day sharing old and new work to reflect on the past and future role of art activism in Limehouse.
 
This intergenerational and cross-cultural project looked at how historic art activism can inform future practice, gathered ideas on what challenges are the local community facing and created opportunities for different responses culminating in this event to see the work, create more responses and discuss the issues. Email Shane for more info

News & Opportunities 

QMUL Drama Wins at TAPRA Awards’Congrats to Maggie Inchley and the The Verbatim Formula team for receiving the award for the Transformative Research and to Seb Mylly for the Postgraduate Essay prize. It’s fantastic to see the work of colleagues and students being acknowledged by our subject and disciplinary peers, and huge congratulations are due to them.’ Professor Martin Welton – Head of Drama.

Round up 

Graduate Zainab Hassan
Graduate Zainab Hassan who delivered a session for our first year Power Plays module students last year is performing in Brassic FM at the Gate Theatre – it’s on until 30 September:

Find out more and book now

Jen Harvie
Jen has published an article on Lois Weaver’s company Split Britches in a special issue of the Journal of the British Academy on Old Age and Gender: Multidisciplinary Perspectives: “Queering Time, Ageing, and Relationships with Split Britches”, Journal of the British Academy 11 (s2) (2023): 117-146; special issue on ‘Narratives of Old Age and Gender’, eds Siân Adiseshiah, Amy Culley, Jonathon Shears; open access; https://doi.org/10.5871/jba/011s2.117 The whole issue is open access and is co-edited by former QM English colleague, Amy Culley. 

The Bloomsbury Companion to J.M. Coetzee
 Huw Marsh has a chapter in a new collection on J.M. Coetzee , as has Ed Charlton. It’s edited by Andrew van der Vlies and there are chapters by former SED PhD students (Alexandra Effe, Andrea Thorpe, Xiaoran Hu), as well as Andrew van der Vlies and Patrick Flanery.

Find out more

Opportunities
For more opportunities see our regular Opportunities Digest blog post

Apologies if we missed any listings or made any errors, do let us know and we can post on social media.

Also if you have any news for our next newsletter please do reply or get in touch.

Best wishes,

Ru

Rupert Dannreuther

Marketing Manager
sed-web@qmul.ac.uk


Queen Mary University of London
#FutureQMUL

SED Opportunity Digest – 24 August 2023 – Jobs, Events & Ideas

TALK TO YOUR CAREERS CONSULTANT – Don’t forget your careers service is open all year round and can help with finding jobs, making great applications and becoming more confident in interviews. Book an appointment or email your careers consultant Fliss Bush

If you get to the end and apply for an opportunity please let us know and we’ll give you a freebie.

Please let us know if you have any suggestions for the next edition via sed-web@qmul.ac.uk

TALK TO RU ABOUT CREATIVE CAREERS OR YOUR MENTAL HEALTH – Ru is happy to chat any time and create some plans for your future or talk through worries and sign post you to further support. Book an appointment

From QMUL, Partners & Friends

Get work experience with QMUL programmes – open now for applications

Student Consultancy Project (SCP)

The Student Consultancy Project gives you the chance to work in multidisciplinary teams solving problems faced by businesses, charities and social enterprises within the UK and Internationally. Gain first-hand experience working with a client whilst receiving support from a Queen Mary supervisor. This programme gives you the opportunity to develop skills you can take forward into any profession – not just consultancy.

QTaster

QTaster helps you explore your career options and gain insight into different companies and roles. It also helps those looking to acquire experience build their network and commerical awareness.

Free Greenwich + Docklands Festival – Directed by Alumnus Bradley Hemmings

GDIF 2023 will bring together UK and international artists in a programme of ground-breaking outdoor theatre, performance, art, dance and circus in iconic public spaces across London. The line up includes our very own Mojisola Adebayo’s show The Architect.

Outside QMUL

Jobs and Opps Closing Soon

See all jobs at QMUL


Updated: Sign up to these for interesting events, opportunities and jobs…

Apples & Snakes Artists Newsletter | Arts Admin E-Digest | ArtsJobs | BBC Academy | The Bookseller | Creative Access (Jobs) | Creative Lives in Progress | Creative Mentor Network | The Dots | ERIC – Career + Opportunities App | Film London | IlikeNetworking | JournoResources | LawCareers.Net | Lectures.London | MediaBeans (media jobs) | QMUL Careers | Presspad | The Publishing Post | Run the Check | ScreenSkills | Society of Young Publishers | Startup Jobs | Tower Hamlets Arts | Write at Home (freelance writing opps)


Want to get into law after your degree? Check out Chambers Student

Chambers Student is the definitive guide to the legal profession. Our interview-based research reveals the truth about life at the leading law firms and barristers’ chambers. Our vivid accounts and detailed analysis combine in the most useful guide a student can access. 

See the website

Call Out for #QTIBPOC Creatives aged 18-35 years

Would you like to be inspired and develop your creativity in a supportive group environment? 

QTIBPOC Creatives are producing a series of bite size short sharp taster workshops in arts and contemporary queer and trans Black culture workshops this summer

Apply here

Jobs at Muslim Council of Great Britain closing soon

TikTok Creative Academy

Supporting people aged 16-24 into a job in the creative industries, in partnership with TikTok.

Apply here

#MerkyBooks New Writers’ Prize – open until 29 August

What’s on offer?

The winner of the New Writers’ Prize will receive a publishing contract with #Merky Books. All shortlisted writers will also be invited to our Writers’ Camp, where they will be able to participate in writing workshops, panel talks, editorial one-to-ones, and meet the #Merky Books team.

The prize will also aim to provide all applicants the tools, information and access they need to develop their ideas, progress their writing and set off on the path to publication.

Who are we looking for?

We’re looking for unpublished and un-agented writers aged between 18 and 35 who are currently a resident in the UK or ROI. If you have a manuscript you are working on, or an idea ready to be put onto paper, we want to hear from you.

This year, we are looking for the next Bolu Babalola, Cecile Pin and Caleb Azumah Nelson and are focusing on fiction only, and unfortunately we will not be accepting non-fiction, poetry or children’s books this year.

Apply now

BFI Film Academy accreditation for 2023 BFI London Film Festival now open

BFI Film Academy accreditation for this year’s BFI London Film Festival are selling fast and we only have a limited number. If you’d like to be part of the Festival action make sure to get yours now!

Get access to:
• press and industry screenings during festival dates of 4 to 15 October
• the BFI Film Academy programme of industry and networking events
• panels and talks included in the LFF industry programme
• public weekday matinee screenings via a rush queue, and subject to availability

Passes cost £40 and are available to 18-25 year-olds who are based in the UK and interested in pursuing and progressing a career in the screen industries. Over 25 year-olds in full-time education and in possession of a valid student ID can also apply.

Apply now

James Baldwin Event: I Heard It Through The Grapevine (12*) + Q&A with Dick Fontaine – 11 September

In a Cinema Restored and Open City Doc Festival collaboration, we bring you Dick Fontaine’s charged and intimate portrait of James Baldwin, followed by a Q&A with the director and Haden Guest. 

Book now

OPPORTUNITIES FOR YOU FROM ERIC’S PARTNERS – DOWNLOAD THE ERIC APP

Find these opps in the search section on the ERIC app

MARKETING & PUBLISHING – You don’t need any experience to become Penguin Children’s Books’ next Marketing Assistant! Work on campaigns & learn everything you need to know to get your career started PHOTOGRAPHY – Explore a stunning converted Georgian townhouse and snap some incredible photos on this photography tour! Make sure you get your free ticket for September 15th before they’re gone ALL INDUSTRIES – Learn to deliver your own creative workshops and make money as a facilitator with Roundhouse’s course! Over 5 sessions, you’ll develop all the skills you need to succeed ALL ARTS – Live in Hackney or Tower Hamlets? Apply for Peer Ambassadors! You’ll get paid work experience at a professional art gallery alongside a development and learning programme… for FREE PUBLISHING – Learn all about editorial processes and publishing books as an Assistant with Penguin Michael Joseph’s fiction team! Home to some of the UK’s best-loved writers, this is the perfect place to kickstart your career ALL INDUSTRIES – Want to work in a professional Creative Arts Organisation? Interested in Youth Work? Get paid to oversee work experience for young creatives with this freelance role from Talent Accelerator

Head to the ERIC app to access all these exclusive opportunities

Click here for iPhone users | Click here for Android users

Don’t have the app? Download for free! DOWNLOAD 


Why English? What to expect…

I’m here to debunk all the things you may have heard about doing an English degree as I’m sure you may naturally have your reservations. English is such a broad subject that allows you to draw on many different areas of knowledge, this means that once you have finished your degree you can go down so many different career paths. You are not just confined to one job; it opens many doors for you. As well as this you will find that at QMUL you experiment with many different mediums in English. 

My experience:

If you’re like me and struggled with English at A-level you may be worried that this isn’t the degree for you; however, that is not the case. At A-level you’re confined to certain texts and rules you have to follow in your essay writing but at university you’re allowed so much more creative freedom. This is where your writing style can flourish. At QMUL especially there’s a lot of room to draw on other subjects you may have studied and not just focus solely on literature. For me, I excelled at poetry, something I never cared for because I had the opportunity to create a piece of artwork and analyse it allowing me to use my art skills and fully express myself. Likewise, with one of our modules allowing us to explore creative writing I realised this is something I enjoyed where before I couldn’t stand it. This is because I was able to write about my own experiences and express my own opinions. Some of my modules even had me utilising things I learned from the humanities, which came to me as a surprise. 

English at QMUL:

You may be thinking that this isn’t what you signed up for however, your first year will include loads of different literary pathways that help you experiment to see what your good at and enjoy, so in your second year you are able to specialise in the areas you like. The good thing about English at QMUL is that you have a choice, you are given the option to create artwork, analyse film/music or you can just stick to literature if that’s what you prefer. Another thing I appreciated was the focus on coursework, I struggled in a level because of exam pressure and having to memorise quotes constantly, but here I have been able to submit essays with my full knowledge and dedicated enough time to writing it.  

That being said, you are still studying English and the key fundamentals of reading and writing are still there, you just have a lot more freedom and opportunity to try new things. So, if you’re thinking I didn’t like it at A-level or I didn’t do so well, don’t let that stop you, you may have just the things you need!  

Welcome to the School of English and Drama – 2023/24

This page contains key information on what’s next and suggested preparation for your degree

Jump to a section: What Happens Next | Preparation for your degree

What happens next

Congratulations, you’ve got a place with us in the School of English and Drama – here’s a handy list of what to expect.

  1. Welcome: You should receive a welcome email from QMUL and your UCAS account should change to reflect that you have a place with us.
  2. Email: In the next few weeks you should get online enrolment information, IT account information, welcome week timetable and lots more information about starting with us. Once your IT account email is set up all emails are sent there so please do keep an eye on it, add to your phone or download our QMUL app.
  3. Preparation: Please read the information below for preparation advice for your course. Our module directory will tell you which modules you’re studying.
  4. Welcome Week: Welcome week starts on Monday 18 September 2023 so please make sure you are ready to attend all sessions you’re invited to in this week. Check out the new student information here.
  5. First Week of Teaching: Teaching begins on Monday 25 September 2023. Be sure to check your timetable and the QMUL map or Apple iOS / Android app to get your bearings and arrive on time.

If you have any questions please get in touch.

Preparation for your degree

Skip to: General | English | Drama | Creative Writing

General

Please join our Get Ahead programme run by our library service to help with a smooth transition to university life. You can join a book club to meet new students and read together.

English & Creative Writing Preparation Information

Creative Writing 

In the first semester of your Creative Writing module, we’ll be focusing on poetry. It would be very useful (perhaps also for your own writing during the summer) to look at the great variety of poetry on the Poetry Foundation website, which we’ll be using a lot in the early weeks. In particular, you might look at work by the contemporary poets Claudia RankineCathy Park Hong and Anne Carson, who are all also great writers of prose.

On the Poetry Foundation pages for those poets, you’ll find links to their poems and essays, videos and podcasts with their readings and interviews, and much more. As an exercise, you could challenge yourself to write a poem in the style or voice of one of these poets over the summer. 

Drama

We look forward to welcoming you to a Drama programme at Queen Mary University of London This is an indicative list of some advance reading that will prepare you for starting BA (Hons) Drama or any joint honour programme with Drama.

These are useful suggestions to help you prepare for your degree. None of them are compulsory. These books may also be useful during your first year, and throughout your entire degree.

Critical Studies

  • Allain, Paul and Jen Harvie (eds). Routledge Companion to Theatre and Performance 2nd Addition (New York: Routledge, 2014).
  • Campbell, Ali. The Theatre of The Oppressed in Practice Today: An Introduction to The Work and Principles of Augusto Boal (London: Methuen, 2019).
  • Harvie, Jen. Theatre & the City (London: Palgrave Macmillan, 2009).
  • Johnson, Dominic. Theatre & the Visual (London: Palgrave Macmillan, 2012).
  • Kuppers, Petra. Theatre & Disability (London: Palgrave Macmillan, 2017).
  • McAvinchey, Caoimhe. Theatre & Prison (London: Palgrave Macmillan, 2011).
  • Ridout, Nicholas. Theatre & Ethics (London: Palgrave Macmillan, 2009).
  • Young, Harvey. Theatre & Race (London: Palgrave Macmillan, 2013).

Collections of Plays and Performance Texts

  • Adebayo, Mojisola. Mojisola Adebayo: Plays One (London: Oberon Books, 2011).
  • Adebayo, Mojisola. Mojisola Adebayo: Plays Two (London: Oberon Books, 2019).
  • Fugard, Athol ed. by Dennis Walder. Township Plays (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2000).
  • Deavere Smith, Anna. Notes From the Field (New York: Anchor, 2019).
  • Sophocles, Antigone, trans. by Don Taylor (London: Methuen Drama, 2006).

Do you have a question?

5 Things I wish I’d known about Clearing

By Paneez Pouryan

When does clearing open?

If you were eligible for early clearing this would have opened on the 5 July, but the main clearing for all students opens on results day the 17 August at 8 am.

How to apply?

Ring our clearing hotline with your grades, UCAS id, and the course you want to study ready. If your grades match the requirements and the degree has vacancy you will be issued a verbal offer of your acceptance. Then you will be given a 24 hour deadline to self release yourself from an existing university or add a clearing choice on your UCAS application using the code for your degree you want to study. Once this is done and your grades are verified you will receive final confirmation of your acceptance.

What courses are available?

Not every degree will be available for clearing due to limited spots, so we advise you to use the clearing course finder on our website to check if we your course is available. When you call the hotline they will inform you if the course has space.

What is the 24 hour deadline?

This window of time is for you to decide if your 100% sure you want to go through clearing it gives you time to make the decision and consider all your options as once you self release from an existing university and get accepted through clearing you can’t go back so take your time deciding! It is important you update your UCAS application before the 24 hours as after that your spot is not guaranteed. If for any reason you can’t do it in 24 hours call us and let us know! Depending on the circumstances you may be able to get an extended deadline.

When will I receive information on accommodation and lectures?

The UCAS website can take up to 1 or 2 days to update your application but once you have officially got into QMUL you will receive emails within a few days and over the next month updating you. If you have any other questions most things can be found on our website.

Summer of SED – Students, Graduates, Staff & Friends live at Edinburgh Fringe 2023

We are excited to see so many graduates, staff and friends at Edinburgh Fringe.

QUEEN MARY THEATRE COMPANY AT EDINBURGH FRINGE

14-26 August – theSpace on the Mile

Join our talented students for brand new work they have created at the world’s largest arts festival. The four shows are:

ALUMNI SHOWS

If you are an alumni and would like to join this list please email us

High Steaks by ELOINA

HIGH STEAKS is a show about labia, labia-shaming, cosmetic surgery and fundamentally, body lovin’.


Little Wimmin by Figs in Wigs

A live art, feminist “adaptation” of Louisa May Alcott’s novel Little Women.


Nan, Me and Barbara Pravi by Hannah Maxwell (pictured above with Phoebe Waller Bridge – featured on Mail Online).  

It’s La La Land meets Mission Impossible meets Hannah’s nan.


English and Drama Newsletter – August 2023 Edition

Welcome to your August newsletter from the School of English and Drama at Queen Mary University of London.

Clearing is now open for those with their exam results to apply and we’d love to hear from those getting results this year on Thursday 17 August from 8am. Register your interest

We are sending this early to avoid the UCAS embargo period where we can’t contact you. Please do get in touch with us if you have any queries. We are around all summer. 


Apply in August
BA Degrees including English if you have results via Clearing to our Undergraduate programmes Get the lowdown

MA Programmes Last Chance to apply for our MA courses in English LiteratureCreative Writing and Theatre and Performance.

Talk to us Book a time to chat about your application or campus tour Sign up
See our clearing courses
August Events
QUEEN MARY THEATRE COMPANY AT EDINBURGH FRINGE

14-26 August – theSpace on the Mile 

Join our talented students for brand new work they have created at the world’s largest arts festival. The four shows are:All the Glorious Moments In BetweenDead End JobPaper WallsPark Bench
Book here
EVEN MORE SHOWS BY STUDENTS & GRADUATES THIS SUMMER

HIGH STEAKS
Eloina (Drama Graduate)


HIGH STEAKS (pictured above) is a show about labia, labia-shaming, cosmetic surgery and fundamentally, body lovin’. 

Please do get in touch if you have a show coming up in September  that you’d like us to mention.
Follow us on Instagram for more
BLOOMSBURY WALKING TOURS WITH MATTHEW INGLEBY

Weekends in August 2023

Since the 1800s Bloomsbury has been an ideas factory! So, in these walks, facts always come with ideas.

Matt has devised these new walks after 15 years of researching, writing and speaking about the area. Each walk explores a different aspect of Bloomsbury’s intellectual & cultural identity. 

Let’s think together, on our feet…

Highlights coming up:Wartime Bloomsbury – 12 AugMurder in Bloomsbury – 12 AugGreen Bloomsbury – 13 AugQueer Bloomsbury – 19 Aug
Book now
News & Opportunities
‘Grenfell: in the words of survivors – new play is an angry demand for accountability’ – Maggie Inchley in The Conversation’Grenfell continues the tradition of verbatim theatre as an acute critical and political form that enables the National Theatre to fulfil its unofficial remit for staging “state of the nation” drama.’

Read the article
Hannah Silva launches new book written in conversation with AI technologyThe pioneering new book is described as: ‘A living exploration of undoing and redoing queer single parenting and love, in conversation with an AI algorithm and a toddler.’GET A COPY: My Child, the Algorithm is out now: Buy the bookLEARN ABOUT THE PROCESS: Read Hannah’s article for The Bookseller, ‘How – and why – I wrote a book in conversation with generative AI.’INTERACT WITH AI: Footnote Press have trained a GPT algorithm on her book, so readers can generate their own texts, and enter a competition. Learn more & read an article about the marketing campaign
New Writing Prize
Watch online: Brian Dillon & Brandon Taylor: Essay Means ‘To Try’ – Pay What You CanDifficult to define and diverse by its nature, the essay is a slippery form. It requires – according to Brian Dillon – some ‘combination of exactitude and evasion’. Join Dillon, author of a new collection of interlinked essays, Affinities, alongside Booker Prize-shortlisted author, critic, and essayist, Brandon Taylor as they discuss the form, function, and very point of the genre with Michael Williams.
Find out more
Round upDeven Parker

Deven has been awarded Leverhulme Early Career Fellowship at the University of Glasgow. The project title is ‘Performing Authorship: Theatre, Print, and Intellectual Property, 1774-1833.’

Lois Weaver & Peggy Shaw

Peggy and Lois will be attending the Association for Theatre in Higher Education Conference in Austin Texas were we will receive their 2022 Ellen Stewart Career Achievement in Professional Theatre award and perform Last Gasp, a Recalibration.
Opportunities
For more opportunities see our regular Opportunities Digest blog post
Apologies if we missed any listings or made any errors, do let us know and we can post on social media.

Also if you have any news for our next newsletter please do reply or get in touch.

Best wishes,

Ru

Rupert Dannreuther

Marketing Manager
sed-web@qmul.ac.uk


Queen Mary University of London
#FutureQMUL

SED Opportunity Digest – 20 July 2023 – Concise Version

If you get to the end and apply for an opportunity please let us know and we’ll give you a freebie.

Please let us know if you have any suggestions for the next edition via sed-web@qmul.ac.uk

TALK TO RU ABOUT CREATIVE CAREERS OR YOUR MENTAL HEALTH – Ru is happy to chat any time and create some plans for your future or talk through worries and sign post you to further support. Book an appointment

TALK TO YOUR CAREERS CONSULTANT – Don’t forget your careers service is open all year round and can help with finding jobs, making great applications and becoming more confident in interviews. Book an appointment or email your careers consultant Fliss Bush

From QMUL, Partners & Friends

QMUL Virtual Careers Fair 2023 –  Thu, Aug 3, 2023, 10:00 AM – 3:00 PM

Register here (you must be logged in with your QMUL credentials)

Investigative Journalism Masterclass with The Blood Rep Investigations Substack – 29 July

Join QMUL alumnus Tam Hussein to experience a real-life journalism investigation, as you and your team apply open-source investigative techniques to a detailed case-study

Students can get £35 tickets or email Tam for limited free tickets (in exchange for some marketing work).

Book now

WOWZINE ISSUE 2 – SUBMISSIONS INVITED

We’re looking for bold, authentic and first-person-led stories that explore the theme of pleasure through art, food, design, architecture, gender and sexuality from women, non-binary and other marginalised genders. 

Specific callout for Calling all Trans or Non-binary Creatives and Writers  We want to spotlight the multitude of experiences for trans and non-binary people that respond to themes of Pleasure/Joy/Desire. The selected writer will receive £50 for their completed essay and be published in-print. Deadline: Sunday 30th July 2023.

Submit your work

Be part of The Space Winter Season with your show…

Why should you apply to be a part of our Winter Season? Find out more on our website!

The deadline to submit an application is midnight on Friday 11th of August

More info and apply

Outside QMUL

Jobs and Opps Closing Soon

See all jobs at QMUL


Sign up to these for interesting events, opportunities and jobs…

Apples & Snakes Artists Newsletter | Arts Admin E-Digest | ArtsJobs | BBC Academy | Creative Access (Jobs) | Creative Lives in Progress | Creative Mentor Network | The Dots | ERIC – Career + Opportunities App | Film London | IlikeNetworking | JournoResources | Lectures.London | MediaBeans (media jobs) | QMUL Careers | Presspad | Run the Check | ScreenSkills | Society of Young Publishers | Startup Jobs | Tower Hamlets Arts | Write at Home (freelance writing opps)


Workshop: Content Production for Digital Marketing at Roundhouse – 11am-5pm

Sign up

M&C Saatchi Open House – Online Advertising Training Programme

M&C Saatchi Open House is a free online training programme open to anyone.  Yes, ANYONE. No matter who you are or where you are, we’re opening our doors for all to experience the joys of the creative communications industry.  We are on a mission to remove barriers to access. Whether you are starting out, shifting your career, returning to work after a break or just finding out more, we can’t wait to meet you during our 8-week programme.

Find out more

Masterclass: Exploring Dystopia in Games at BAFTA – 26 July

In this masterclass hosted by Elle Osili-Wood, you will hear from Gareth Damian Martin and Jörg Tittel as creators of two recently released games which explore dystopian futures from the perspective of a worker.

Book here

TV Production Management Course with Georgina Bobb

£117.66 discounted for our students – Various Dates in September

Find out more

Zoom Dive | The impact of generative AI on creative entrepreneurs

THU 27 JUL 14:00 BST, ZOOM  

Gen AI and machine learning are big topics right now – not a day goes by when they aren’t making the headlines. As a creative entrepreneur, you may be worried about the impact of Gen AI and whether it’s a threat or an opportunity for your business. Join us for a talk with Gen AI expert Paul Dowling about how Web 3.0 has revolutionised art in the digital world and the implications Gen AI is having on art today. You’ll also discover how Gen AI will facilitate an explosion of creative talent and how to use Gen AI tools to enhance your own business.  

SIGN UP



Book Fair – Small Press Fest Saturday 22 – Sunday 23 July
12-6pm

Join us for the second iteration of Small Press Fest, an annual fair celebrating small-press and independent publications. Browse through publications, meet artists and publishers, and participate in the activities. This year, the programme also explores solidarity in publishing practices.

From the Lips to the Moon created by Pouya Ehsaei and Tara Fatehi brings together performances by Jabbaristan, and poetry by Dzifa Benson, Momtaza Mehri, Maureen Onwunali and Silai. There will be a book launch of Moving Pictures Painted, a sale of aflam vintage posters from the 1950s to 1970s, and a pop up bookshop by Maqam, readings for children by LibLib Publishing and a screening and conversation on DIY cultures festival becoming a solidarity network with Hamja Ahsan.

Featuring tables by aflam, CentreCentre, Chutney Magazine, Discontent, Hamja Ahsan, Khidr Collective, LibLib Publishing, Maqam Books, Small Tune Press, STUART, the87press, alongside a curated table with contributions from Book Works, Hajar Press, LUMIN, Rab-Rab Press, The Book Society Seoul, amongst others.

Check out the full programme for Small Press Fest

Application process for sponsored places for An Introduction to Publishing Course from 29 August

We try to keep our fees as low as possible. But we wouldn’t want them to be a barrier. Which is why there are sponsored places available on all our courses.

Please contact us for more information at info@getintobookpublishing.co.uk

Find out more about the course


English and Drama Newsletter – July 2023 Edition

Welcome to your July newsletter from the School of English and Drama at Queen Mary University of London.

3 Things to Do in July

Queen Mary Drama graduate wins Roundhouse Poetry Slam 2023

Queen Mary alumna Annabel Fabian wins Roundhouse Poetry Slam 2023 at renowned spoken word event at the prestigious London venue, Roundhouse in Camden.

The Roundhouse Poetry Slam is one of the highlights of the Roundhouse calendar, bringing together emerging spoken word artists aged 18-25 to compete for a cash prize and the coveted title of Slam Champion.

Having made it through six national heats, the most exciting voices in spoken word put their original work to the test in front of a live audience and an esteemed panel of judges: gal-dem founder and ‘Rosewater’ author, Liv Little, T.S. Eliot Prize Winner Roger Robinson and Rachel Long, one of the UK’s most acclaimed poets and the founder of Octavia Poetry Collective for Women of Colour.

On the night Annabel’s captivating and emotionally charged performance scooped her the cash prize of £1,000 and crowned Roundhouse Poetry Slam Champion 2023.

Watch Annabel’s performance on Youtube

July & August Events

AI ENCOUNTERS – HUMAN IMAGINATION MEETS ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE

19 July – ArtsOne BLOC – Free tickets via Eventbrite
Join us for three exciting performance sharings by writer Lishani Ramanayake, poet Hasti and musician Pedro Pereira Sarmento where they explore the possibilities (and problems) of artistic collaboration with AI tools. These experiments reflect on the ethical and creative questions prompted by this rapidly evolving technology.   
 
After the artists’ presentations, a panel discussion will be led by writer and performer Hannah Silva, who is a Leverhulme Fellow at Queen Mary. The discussion will invite the audience to consider their own perspectives on AI and its potential impacts on creativity and culture.
 
Please join us for this free event, as we gain practical insights into the challenges, discoveries, and transformative potential that arise when the human imagination encounters artificial intelligence.

Book here

SHOWS BY STUDENTS & GRADUATES THIS SUMMER

Run to the Nuns (Produced by Estelle Homerstone)
Until 19 July | Riverside Studios, Hammersmith | Various times

‘Run to The Nuns’ is a new, queer musical set in a fictional ‘Nunnery’.

Hannah Maxwell: Nan, Me and Barbara Pravi
19-20 July | Camden People’s Theatre, Euston | 19:15

Entirely fictional. And completely true. Voila. An epic tale of care, crisis and the Eurovision Song Contest by Hannah Maxwell (pictured above), the acclaimed creator of I, AmDram.

Lorna Vassiliades: The Suitcase 20 July | Teatro Technis, Camden | 19:30

On the anniversary of the Turkish Invasion of Cyprus, performance Artist Lorna Eleonora Vassiliades creates a ritual of grief and mnemonic resistance through the suitcase and items her family grabbed when they were forced to flee from their home in Famagusta.

Figs in Wigs: Little Wimmin’
21-27 August | Zoo Southside, Edinburgh | 22:20

Figs in Wigs are back and this time they’ve got their period (dresses). A live art, feminist “adaptation” of Louisa May Alcott’s novel Little Women.

Please do get in touch if you have a show coming up in August you’d like us to mention. 

Follow us on Instagram for more

WHITECHAPEL GALLERY
OVERTURE FOR THE END (AN ASHEN PLACE)

22 July – Advance Sales Fully Booked – Tickets On Door
A spectacular exploration of death and immortality, Whitechapel Gallery Writer in Residence Martin O’Brien presents a newly commissioned performance work.

Overture For The End (An Ashen Place) transforms the gallery into a place of decay, part hellscape, part apocalyptic landscape, filled with strange bodies performing deathly actions. The performance imagines repetitive cycles of life and death, an eternity of continuation with a promise of death that never arrives. Taking on the figure of banshee and crone, legendary Los Angeles artist Sheree Rose watches over the actions and intervenes in the cycles.

Read all about it in these preview articles: 

ArtLyst | QueerGuru

Listen to Martin on Whitechapel Radio today from 1500

​​​​​​​Listen live here

Find out more

News & Opportunities 

New Centre for Contemporary Writing

We are delighted to announce that Queen Mary’s Centre for Poetry is now a Centre for Contemporary Writing. Unique in the UK, we are a practitioner-led research centre that serves as a real and virtual meeting space, hub, and archive where writers, researchers, artists, and students who are compelled by innovative forms of contemporary writing can not only work together and celebrate each other but reach broader communities. 

Activities at the Centre are led by a dynamic cluster of writer-practitioners, including Rachael Allen, Katherine Angel, Caroline Bergvall, Andrea Brady, Brian Dillon, Dominic Johnson, Nisha Ramayya, Hannah Silva, Rivers Solomon, Isabel Waidner, and Lois Weaver. Working in interdisciplinary and collaborative ways across fiction, creative nonfiction, performance, and poetry, these writers breach ‘specialisms, modes, distinctions, and genres to create a more hybrid space for work to exist’ (to borrow Rachael Allen’s words about her own practice). 

Their concerns are urgent, current, and far-reaching. From climate grief to artificial intelligence, class politics to drone poetics, our work intersects with anti-racist, queer, class, and trans politics, practice, and theory.

Please contact Susan Rudy if you’d like to get involved


Video with our very own Charlotta Salmi on street art in Nepal that displays powerful messages for women and girls

Street art, murals and graffiti can be seen all over urban areas in Nepal. Researcher Charlotta Salmi has considered how activists and agencies in Nepal use these media to raise awareness of gender-based violence (GBV) in the country. How can organisations work to create inclusive, effective, and culturally sensitive messaging around GBV awareness?
 Watch the video

Wasafiri Magazine Publishes Essential ‘Windrush: Writing the Scandal’ Issue for 75th Windrush Anniversary

Marking the 75th anniversary of the arrival of HMT Empire Windrush, Wasafiri, the magazine of international contemporary writing, is excited to announce the publication of Windrush: Writing the Scandal.
 Find out more

Alumni Update: 

Um-E-Aymen Babar

Aymen is an award-winning cricket journalist and one of the few young women of colour working at the BBC on cricket coverage. Read more

Zara Joan Miller

Zara just published her first book of poetry and is performing widely and building up a nice repertoire Read more

Tomiwa Owolade

Tomiwa Owolade is an alumnus, and a Spectator columnist who has recently published ‘This is Not America: Why Black Lives in Britain Matter’.

Read the Guardian’s review of his latest book

Izzy Stuart writes about the political power of indifference/in-difference and Travis Alabanza’s play Overflow

Article title: ‘Fluidity of Feeling: Water, Gender, and the Political Potential of In-difference in Travis Alabanza’s Overflow’

Read the article

Opportunities Highlights

BRITISH ACADEMY POSTDOCTORAL AWARDS 

The School of English and Drama, Queen Mary University of London, invites expressions of interest from post-doctoral researchers considering making an application for the 2023/2024 British Academy Postdoctoral Fellowship competition. Deadline 7 August.

Download the call out

For more opportunities see our regular Opportunities Digest blog post

Apologies if we missed any listings or made any errors, do let us know and we can post on social media.

Also if you have any news for our next newsletter please do reply or get in touch.

Best wishes,

Ru

Rupert Dannreuther

Marketing Manager
sed-web@qmul.ac.uk

Queen Mary University of London
#FutureQMUL

Courses Available in Clearing 2023 including BA English & BA English with Creative Writing

Clearing is now open and if you have your results already you can apply online now.

Key courses in our School with availability:

Our grade requirements at clearing are BBB at A-level or equivalent in other qualifications i.e. 120 UCAS points. Use the UCAS points calculator to work your points if you have done alternative qualifications.

Watch Paneez journey to English via Clearing and listen for her top tips

Joint Courses

Need Help?

Email: sed-web@qmul.ac.uk | Call: +44 (0)20 7882 8910

SED Opportunity Digest – 6 July 2023 – Concise Version

If you get to the end and apply for an opportunity please let us know and we’ll give you a freebie.

Please let us know if you have any suggestions for the next edition via sed-web@qmul.ac.uk

TALK TO RU ABOUT CREATIVE CAREERS OR YOUR MENTAL HEALTH – Ru is happy to chat any time. Book an appointment

TALK TO YOUR CAREERS CONSULTANT – Don’t forget your careers service is open all year round and can help with finding jobs, making great applications and becoming more confident in interviews. Book an appointment or email your careers consultant Fliss Bush

From QMUL, Partners & Friends

Writing Prizes to Enter

The Aurora Prize For Writing seeks outstanding new writing in short fiction and poetry. As well as receiving a £500 cash prize, winners will receive feedback on a piece of work of their choice from a matched literary agent or editor. Deadline: 19th July, midnight

The Morley Prize for Unpublished Writers of Colour is awarded to unpublished aspiring authors of colour. There are two prizes – one for works of Fiction and one for Life Writing and Creative Non-Fiction. Deadline: 14th August

The Oxford Poetry Prize is awarded to a single poem in the English language. The winner of the Oxford Poetry Prize receives £1,000 and is offered publication in Oxford Poetry magazine. Deadline: 31st August

Could you be Roman Road Trust’s Managing Director?

Roman Road Trust (RRT) is a grassroots organisation working to improve Roman Road high street and its community for the benefit of residents and regular visitors. Roman Road is in the heart of London’s East End and home to one of London’s longest-running and largest street markets. RRT’s vision is for a thriving local economy that gives opportunity and space for communities to flourish.

RRT is looking for a Managing Director to lead on the launch, programming and management of The Common Room alongside regular projects. RRT is seeking someone with a passion for our community, local businesses, market traders and achieving positive social impact. Roman Road Trust is small but ambitious. The role needs someone with an excellent ability to self-manage and work independently. This is a freelance and part-time role.

For more information and how to apply visit: https://romanroadtrust.co.uk/managing-director/ 

Deadline for applications: 9:00am on Monday 24th July

Have a question or would like an informal chat about the role? Email Drama grad Rosie Vincent: rosie@romanroadtrust.co.uk

Free Careers Fair at Dreamland Margate – 12-13 July

The UK Creative Festival is committed to helping create pathways into creative industries, ensuring a more diverse and representative workforce.

We invite every young aspiring creative to register for free to attend our creative Careers Fair. Here you can meet the leading companies across all creative industries, advertising, architecture, visual art, crafts, fashion and textiles, design, performing arts, music, photography, film and video, computer games, radio and TV, writing and publishing, heritage, software/electronic publishing, cultural education.

Get free tickets

Shakespeare and the Sea at Royal Museums Greenwich

8-9 September both at the museum and online. The conference features keynote speakers Professor Emma Smith and Professor Steve Mentz along with a host of researchers and academics from across the globe. A full conference schedule can be found here: https://www.rmg.co.uk/whats-on/national-maritime-museum/shakespeare-sea

There is also an opportunity to see a First Folio, on display at the museum until 24 September

Tower Hamlets Cemetery Park Summer Fair

The Summer Fair is back!

After some years away due to Covid-19 and all the associated lockdowns, Friends of Tower Hamlets Cemetery Park are thrilled to be welcoming the community back for the 2023 Summer Fair!

This will be a day of fun activities, informative tours, stalls for local makers, delicious food and drink and of course a chance to find out more about the work the Friends do at Tower Hamlets Cemetery Park.

Volunteer at The Access Project to help young people

Looking for a rewarding #volunteering opportunity?

We’re recruiting #volunteer A level and GCSE tutors tutors to help young people raise their grades, boost their confidence, and find their future. Find out more and apply now

https://bit.ly/3qFHkr7

Free Zoom Event with TransRadio UK – A Champion for the Community

Join founder and presenter Lucy Clark to discover how Trans Radio UK has developed as a voice, information source and champion for the international transgender community, and how other initiatives focused on supporting the trans community have grown from it, including TRUK United Football Club. It was also announced earlier this week that Lucy has been shortlisted for the National Diversity Awards (Positive Role Model category). 

Get your ticket at the Eventbrite link.

48h only!!! Join Dazed Club to get 50% off membership – only £24 for a year of mags, events, masterclasses & more. Click for info.

Join Dazed Club today to get your first year 50% off – that is only £24 for a year of free magazines, invitations to our events, masterclasses with our talent and exclusive discounts on all your favourite parties, festivals, galleries and more!

Use promo code FLASH when selecting a yearly membership and be quick – the offer ends in 48h!

Sign up here: https://www.dazeddigital.com/dazedclub

Outside QMUL

Jobs and Opps Closing Soon

See all jobs at QMUL

HarperCollins Author Academy 2023

Free training to writers from underrepresented backgrounds. Three courses with 15 spots in each.

Info and apply

Safar Film Festival

Explore the programme

Sign up to these for interesting events, opportunities and jobs…

Apples & Snakes Artists Newsletter | Arts Admin E-Digest | ArtsJobs | BBC Academy | Creative Access (Jobs) | Creative Lives in Progress | Creative Mentor Network | The Dots | ERIC – Career + Opportunities App | Film London | IlikeNetworking | JournoResources | Lectures.London | MediaBeans (media jobs) | QMUL Careers | Presspad | Run the Check | ScreenSkills | Society of Young Publishers | Startup Jobs | Tower Hamlets Arts | Write at Home (freelance writing opps)



SED Opportunity Digest – 22 June 2023 – Concise Version

If you get to the end and apply for an opportunity please let us know and we’ll give you a freebie.

Please let us know if you have any suggestions for the next edition via sed-web@qmul.ac.uk

Don’t forget your careers service is open all year round and can help with finding jobs, making great applications and becoming more confident in interviews. Book an appointment or email your careers consultant Fliss Bush

From QMUL, Partners & Friends

Sekforde Scholarship – 6 Students – award of £20,000 for the 2023/24 academic year (DEADLINE 30/06/23)

Read more and apply

Paid work placements with STEP – Deadline 25 June

Calling all East Londoners aged 18-30, don’t miss out on an incredible opportunity this summer! The application deadline for our popular paid 12-month traineeship is fast approaching. STEP is specifically designed to connect young East Londoners with exciting local creative jobs, equipping you with valuable skills and professionally guiding you towards your first entry-level creative dream role.

In this round, we are excited to announce a special creative takeover featuring roles such as Programming Trainee with Sadler’s Wells, Junior Designer at It’s Nice That, Gallery Assistant at Bow Arts, and Design Assistant at LEUDER. These placements offer a salary of London Living Wage (£11.95) or above. With STEP, you’ll not only grow alongside a community of like-minded individuals but also participate in monthly professional development workshops. Additionally, you’ll be matched with a specialist industry mentor and a career coach who will provide continuous support throughout your creative employment journey, even after you graduate from the programme.

Apply now

Also apply for Creativity Works: Non-Linear free training course is open for early-bird applications! Application deadline: Sunday 20 August 2023 We’re looking for young East Londoners aged 19-24 who want to kickstart their creative career and participate in our brand new, free, 13-week training course! Non-Linear offers a multi-disciplinary programme and covers a variety of creative fields such as Content Creation, Film & TV Production, Podcasting, Music, Art & Design. 

Along the way you will be inspired by well-known creatives, all at the very top of their game, including Campbell Addy, Yinka IIori, Grayson Perry, Thomas Heatherwick, Edward Enninful, Koby Adom, Vanessa Maria, Edem Wornoo, Marina Mansour, and more. 

You also will take part in masterclasses with industry professionals, technical skills-based workshops, guest lectures, inspirational bite-sized industry talks, fascinating field trips as well as a considerable time working within creative businesses to help them solve the real-world creative challenges they face.   

Apply now

Building Confidence – Free Workshop on 28 June

Book now

Newham Word Festival

A fantastic free local festival celebrating written and spoken word. Some highlights include:

See all events

Become a Buddy Mentor

Are a friendly Year 1 or Year 2 undergraduate student with strong interpersonal skills? Want to help new incoming students integrate into the Queen Mary community socially, whilst boosting your skills in the process? Become a Buddy Mentor and help new incoming SED first year Undergraduate students transition to university as part of the Buddy Scheme mentoring programme. Becoming a Buddy Mentor will boost your employability skills and be mentioned on your HEAR transcript.

For more information and to apply see here.

Nando Messias: Artist Residency

We are delighted to share news of two free events – a workshop and a performance – that may appeal to those with an interest in gender, queerness, and the archiving of exquisite trans ephemera. We will be welcoming Nando Messias to Goldsmiths to undertake an artist residency with the Staging Decadence project in the first week of July. They will be bringing with them their archive of costume spanning the breadth of their career as a performance maker as it makes its way to The Museum of Transology at Bishopsgate, London. Toward the end of the residency Nando will be sharing a workshop at 2pm on 6 July, which will focus on decadent costume and precarity, and a performance of their new work TransMission: Sissy TV at 6pm on 7 July. Both events will take place in the George Wood Theatre at Goldsmiths. Tickets are free, but booking is essential.

To book for the workshop: https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/nando-messias-artist-residency-workshop-tickets-656652835307?aff=ebdssbdestsearch 

To book for the performance: https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/nando-messias-transmission-sissy-tv-tickets-656656526347?aff=ebdssbdestsearch

Free Acting workshop on 15 July – Performing arts – intensive workshop – successful auditions

  • To understand the basics of preparing for successful auditions
  • Develop your confidence to deliver a successful audition
  • Prepare a for a minimum of 1 audition
  • To identify and achieve a personal goal, as discussed with your tutor

Enrol here

Events at QMUL

‘Archival Violence’ Masterclass with Prof. Tamar Herzig – 3 July

Outside QMUL

Jobs and Opps Closing Soon

See all jobs at QMUL

Updated: Sign up to these for interesting events, opportunities and jobs are…

Apples & Snakes Artists Newsletter | Arts Admin E-Digest | ArtsJobs | BBC Academy | Creative Access (Jobs) | Creative Lives in Progress | Creative Mentor Network | The Dots | ERIC – Career + Opportunities App | Film London | IlikeNetworking | JournoResources | Lectures.London | MediaBeans (media jobs) | QMUL Careers | Presspad | Run the Check | ScreenSkills | Society of Young Publishers | Startup Jobs | Tower Hamlets Arts | Write at Home (freelance writing opps)