The Department of English is co-hosting three events at the London Review Bookshop in collaboration with New York’s 92nd Street Y cultural centre (92Y). Featuring:
The Writers on Writers series invites contemporary authors to discuss the legendary voices that have meant the most to them.
Each conversation is led by Bernard Schwartz, who is a Distinguished Visiting Fellow within the Department of English, and the series is a collaboration between him and QMUL’s Dr Peter Howarth.
Join Warren Boutcher, Professor of Renaissance Studies and Head of School of English and Drama, for his Inaugural Lecture.
Lecture Synopsis As the United Kingdom prepares to leave the legislative and economic union of Europe, it is a good moment to think about our membership of cultural Europe. For part of the shock felt by many people who voted to remain is cultural: it took the Brexit vote to make them realise how connected to Europe they felt in many different spheres, including the arts, and how disconnected others felt.
But what, if any, has been the contribution of literature to this sense of connectedness? The connections of English literature now are global, like the language. But if we go back in time to the medieval and early modern period (1300 – 1750) we find that the cities and nations of what is now the United Kingdom and Ireland were embedded in a Europe-wide literary culture. How should we describe this culture and recount its history while avoiding the pitfalls of Eurocentric and nation-centric perspectives? Is it the case that a common body of texts from Rome, Greece, and the Levant disseminated classical and Christian values across a continent and then across the globe? Or are there other ways of tracing the literary connections across and beyond the western peninsula of the Eurasian landmass?
Theatre, Performance & Employment will bring together scholars, artists, and activists from the theatre and performance industries.
23 February, 18:00-20:00
Keynote Event: Professor Kate Oakley (University of Leeds) & Dr Cristina Delgado-García (University of Birmingham), chaired by Professor Jen Harvie (Queen Mary).
“We are excited to invite you to the launch party for the second issue of The Still Point Journal, The Researcher’s Notebook, featuring creative non-fiction, poetry and visual work, produced by researchers in London.
Join us for an evening of live readings and music at The Gallery Café, Bethnal Green, and pick up a free copy of the print edition. We have a limited number of copies to gift to our launch party attendees, so come along to adopt your own!”
Exploring both analogue and digital experiences of performance and live art, this event looks at how the fields of design and performance are shaping contemporary identities and features our very own Jen Harvie.
Tank has a vacancy for a full-time social media editor to join its editorial team. Since the magazine started in 1998, Tank has remained dedicated to the printed form, producing a quarterly publication of arts, fashion, politics, science and literature. As we advance our digital output we are looking for someone to join us in developing and managing Tank’s social media channels, podcast, newsletter and online content. It’s a chance to work with us to think about, shape and develop the way that people engage with our print magazine. As part of the editorial team, the social media editor will have the chance to work on both our print and online editions, oversee the maintenance and repurposing of the web archive, as well as produce and edit our fortnightly podcast.
The Literature team in the UK work with British Council offices in more than 100 countries around the world to create programmes that help to build those important connections and increase mutual knowledge and understanding. We work with individuals and organisations from all parts of the UK literature sector and their international counterparts. In all our programmes we focus on creating international opportunities for emerging and mid-list writers; building an international network for the next generation of literature producers; and raising awareness of UK literature areas of strength that are less well known abroad. Due to the high profile success of our London Book Fair Market Focus programme, there has been a recent significant increase in invitations to the UK to be Guest of Honour at Book Fairs around the world. The core part of the internship will be focused on helping the literature team to support the response to this demand as well as managing other exciting new projects, notably a new children’s literature focus and our input into the ‘Hull City of Culture 2017’. The ideal candidate will have some digital experience of working on materials for social media, online campaigns and commissioning, writing and uploading content. A proven experience and interest of Literature, particularly contemporary UK writing is a must, as is some experience working on projects with digital communications & social media through professional experiences or other means.
“DIY is an opportunity for artists working in Live Art to conceive and run unusual research, training and professional development projects for themselves and other artists.
We want to hear from you if have an idea for an exciting, innovative and idiosyncratic Live Art professional development project.
Past DIY projects have taken many forms: a silent retreat with noise music in Folkestone, a temporary biker gang in Cambridge, eavesdropping in Bournemouth, a workshop for assholes in Glasgow, skirt-raising in Newcastle, looking for missing black histories in London, an Elvis Presley pilgrimage in Porthcawl, exploring the potential of ‘inabilities’ in Colchester, armed resistance training for women in Norwich, and a lapdancing weekend in Birmingham.”
Calls for Papers & Contributions
‘William Godwin: Forms, Fears, Futures’ | Newcastle University on Sat 24 Jun | Deadline: Wed 15 Mar
To add a listing to next week’s digest or to help us update this edition please email us by Friday 24 February 2017 at 5pm
We try and keep these listings as accurate as possible but errors can occur. Please check with the relevant party before going to an event or taking up an opportunity.
Please join us for a reading by Juliet Jacques from her recent book Trans: A Memoir, followed by a conversation with Dr. Sam McBean (QMUL SED) and questions.
This is the first public event of the newly founded Sexual Cultures Research Group (SexCult).
It is FREE to attend and the event will be followed by a drinks reception.
Juliet Jacques has published two books: Rayner Heppenstall: A Critical Study (Dalkey Archive Press, 2007) and Trans: A Memoir (Verso, 2015). As well as contributing to several anthologies, her short fiction has appeared in Five Dials, Berfrois, 3:AM and elsewhere; her essays and journalism have featured in Granta, Sight & Sound, Wire, The Guardian and many other publications and websites. She lives in London.
QMUL’s Graduate Festival is an exciting cross-disciplinary week of events that aims to showcase the cutting-edge research being conducted by PhD students at QMUL and to bring researchers together.
No listings this week. If you spot anything interesting please email sed-web@qmul.ac.uk and we’ll add in to this post.
Opportunities & Volunteering
No listings this week. If you spot anything interesting please email sed-web@qmul.ac.uk and we’ll add in to this post.
Calls for Papers & Contributions
No listings this week. If you spot anything interesting please email sed-web@qmul.ac.uk and we’ll add in to this post.
To add a listing to next week’s digest or to help us update this edition please email us by Friday 17 February 2017 at 5pm
We try and keep these listings as accurate as possible but errors can occur. Please check with the relevant party before going to an event or taking up an opportunity.
Maggie Inchley gives us insight into The Verbatim Project, which won a Public Engagement Award for Influence:
‘Right now, according to the system, kids have become just another number, another statistic, and it’s not whether a child is being cared for it’s whether they’re being dealt with. And that’s not the same.’
This is part of a testimony given to us by a 14 year-old care experienced girl as part of our applied theatre research project, The Verbatim Formula.
It’s powerful material, especially when perfomed anonymously to the adults who are responsible for children in care.
Verbatim makes them stop. And listen.
This week , the project – a collaboration with Maggie Inchley, Sylvan Baker, Sadhvi Dar and People’s Palace Projects – won the 2017 Centre for Public Engagement Award for Influence.
We’re thrilled – and hope it helps the project develop further. If you’re studying at QMUL and interested in working with young people or applied theatre do get in touch with Maggie (m.inchley@qmul.ac.uk). We’ll be running another workshop in the summer.
Morag Shiach tells us about the impact of the Creativeworks London project, which won an award for Academic Innovation in Non-Commercial Enterprise:
Since its launch in 2012 Creativeworks London has transformed the landscape of collaboration between arts and humanities researchers and the creative economy in London. Through more than a hundred funded collaborative and co-created research projects and other research activities, and also through partnership in London Creative and Fusion, Creativeworks London has significantly increased the number of small and micro creative businesses working with research institutions in London. It has built capacity for collaboration with the creative economy across a wide range of arts and humanities disciplines, and significantly raised the level of engagement and investment in this activity by partner universities. It has enabled the development of significant new networks that will have a major impact on the future growth and success of the creative economy in London.
Fourteen of the projects supported by CWL have had outputs that are ‘spin outs’, and the range and diversity of innovation and research assets generated by the project is a clear indication of the power of the collaborations it enabled and supported. Other outputs have included new products and services, apps, performances and exhibitions, new business models, evaluation reports, films, software, training in creative skills, policy reports and more than fifty publications.
Recently Creativeworks London has begun working in Brazil, in partnership with People’s Palace Projects. The focus of this work is on the development of creative hubs in the State of Sao Paulo. A volume of essays exploring collaborations supported through Creativeworks London’s creative voucher scheme has recently been published by Palgrave Macmillan: Morag Shiach and Tarek Virani (eds.), Cultural Policy, Innovation, and the Creative Economy: Creative Collaborations in Arts and Humanities Research (2017).
Here’s our list of events and opportunities we’ve just discovered and that are coming up in the next week (from Thursday to Wednesday).
If you’d like to add anything to next week’s digest then please email us.
Events
FEATURED
GALACTICS | Term-time Fridays from Friday 10 February | 5pm-6:30pm, Film and Drama Studio, Arts 2 | Free
A series of laid back scratch performance events followed by music and chit-chat MA Independent Practical Project students Alex Lyons and Camilla Canocchi are excited to invite you to MA Independent Practical Project students Alex Lyons and Camilla Canocchi.
We welcome Esther Leslie, Professor in Political Aesthetics and Acting Co-Director of the Birkbeck Institute for the Humanities for a postgraduate research seminar entitled ‘Animating Clouds’.
Libreria & Second Home present the third edition of Veranda, a monthly series of poetry & spoken word events, to showcase some of the freshest literary talent around London. This edition will be an intimate evening of poetry exploring the theme of ‘Truth To Power’. The line up includes Victoria Bulley, Inua Ellams & a special appearance from Brooklyn poet, R.A. Villanueva.
L-PRS are delighted to welcome Lynda Pratt, Professor of Modern Literature at the University of Nottingham, who will present a paper entitled Romanticism and the Culture of Non-Publication. This will be followed by a discussion and a wine reception, to which all are invited. Admission is free.
Please join the MSc in Creative Arts and Mental Health and the Drama Department at Queen Mary University of London for: “Gazing with alterity in Titicut Follies, Blue/Orange, and Ship of Fools” Dr Anna Harpin (University of Warwick, Theatre and Performance Studies).
“The Institute is delighted to announce a new funded studentship for one place on our MA/MRes History of the Book programme. The award covers fees in full at the Home/EU rate. The studentship will be offered every year over the next four academic years.
Our MA/MRes in the History of the Book provides an unrivalled base for the study of a subject that has been the focus of increasing scholarly attention over the past 30 years. Originally considering mainly physical aspects of the book and the details of its manufacture and trade, scholars have come to see the study of the book as an aid to understanding literary texts and as a focus for insight into social, cultural and intellectual processes in history. The course focuses not only books, but also newspapers, magazines, chapbooks and broadsides. Because the book did not begin with the invention of printing, the course will also consider the manuscript period before print–as well as the book in the digital era.
VOGUE Talent Contest for Young Writers – Entry now open
The annual VOGUE Talent Content 2017 is now open for entries. The annual talent contest for young writers is one of the most prestigious awards in the industry and has helped launch the careers of authors, playwrights and poets, as well as members of Vogue’s own staff. Entrants must be under the age of 25 and I wondered whether it might be of interest to any of your students? I attach details in the hope that it might be and that you might be willing to share them. The closing date for entries is Friday 7th April.
2017 Cambridge Long Vacation Scholarship Scheme has been launched (Current QMUL students only)
The College has again been invited to send up to 8 students to spend over three weeks at King’s College and one student to St John’s College, Cambridge during the Long Vacation, which this year will be from Monday 17th July 2017 to Saturday 12th August 2017. These Long Vacation scholarships commemorate the period during the Second World War when Queen Mary College was evacuated to King’s College, Cambridge.
All non-final year undergraduate students (home and international) who do not have academic commitments during the Long Vacation are eligible for consideration.
Each student will receive a scholarship of £455 from QMUL to cover travelling expenses to and from Cambridge, together with maintenance during the 4 week period. It is expected that they will spend their time at Cambridge in using the academic facilities in the furtherance of their undergraduate studies and would be expected to devise their own study programme. Each School can nominate 2 candidates to the Dean.
In order to apply, students must first discuss their application with their adviser or a tutor who knows them well, either face to face or by email. If you are approached by a student and asked to support their application, they must email you a completed version of the attached application form no later than midday on Monday 27th February. If you have agreed to support the application, please complete the second part of the application form and email the complete form to me sed-hos@qmul.ac.uk), no later than midday on Friday 10th March. I will then consider all the applications and will forward the names of two shortlisted candidates to the Dean for Taught Programmes,
Eligible students have been told about the Scheme today, sent a copy of the application form and told about the 27th February deadline. Please note that final year students, MA students and Associate students are not eligible. The School normally shortlists current second year students. There is information about the Scheme at
The Captivating Criminality Network is delighted to announce its fourth UK conference. Building upon and developing ideas and themes from the previous three successful conferences, Crime Fiction: Detection, Public and Private, Past and Present will examine what is arguably the very heart of this field of critical study.
Please send 300 word proposals to Dr. Fiona Peters (f.peters@bathspa.ac.uk) by 13th February 2017. The abstract should include your name, email address, and affiliation, as well as the title of your paper. Please feel free to submit abstracts presenting work in progress as well as completed projects. Postgraduate students are welcome. Papers will be a maximum of 20 minutes in length. Proposals for suggested panels are also welcome.
Attendance fees: £155 (£105 students)
To add a listing to next week’s digest or to help us update this edition please email us by Friday 10 February 2017 at 5pm
We try and keep these listings as accurate as possible but errors can occur. Please check with the relevant party before going to an event or taking up an opportunity.
We’re excited to see that Jen Harvie has launched her new podcast series, which explores contemporary arts and culture with the people who make it.
The first episode which you can listen to below is with Sh!t Theatre (QMUL graduates too!) who are currently performing at Soho Theatre until 11 February.
Topics covered in the podcast range from from love to death, gentrification, friendship, money, and cardboard comets.
‘This will be an open discussion event for students and staff in the School of English and Drama at QMUL to have a dialogue about a lack of representation in the school and what can be done about it’.
Join our local history archive for a packed afternoon of talks on different aspects of theatre history in the East End. Distinguished speakers for the day are:
Dr Janice Norwood on nineteenth century theatre in the East End
Carole Zeidman on the history of Wilton’s Music Hall
Erin Lee on the Black Plays Archive, including Elmina’s Kitchen by Kwame Kwei-Armah, set in Clapton
Isabelle Seddon on the Jewish East End’s contribution to twentieth century political theatre
Ashraf Neswar on the history of Tower Hamlets Council’s annual Season of Bangla Drama
Join our very own Eirini Kartsaki for Coocoolili, evening of a variety of acts brought together under a common theme; an evening of music, songs, spoken word, performance, dance, quirky tomfooleries, profound ideas and profanities.
No listings this week. If you spot anything interesting please email sed-web@qmul.ac.uk and we’ll add in to this post.
To add a listing to next week’s digest or to help us update this edition please email us by Friday 3 February 2017 at 5pm
We try and keep these listings as accurate as possible but errors can occur. Please check with the relevant party before going to an event or taking up an opportunity.