English and Drama Newsletter – October 2019

Welcome to October. We have some incredible events and news to share with you so please read on…

Picture: Meet our student of the month Şenay Camgöz from MA Live Art

Read Şenay’s post

Events

OCTOBER OPEN DAY

Undergraduate Open Day
Saturday 5 October 2019, 10am-3.30pm

From Werewolves to live art, taster sessions at our open day are a great chance to explore English and Drama at QMUL.

Book online

FEATURED

A Season of Bangla Drama
November 2019, Various venues in Tower Hamlets including QMUL

A Season of Bangla Drama is back in Tower Hamlets for another month-long festival of British-Bengali theatre. It is now in its 17th year and firmly established in the area’s cultural calendar and includes a magnificent performance of East Side Story in our very own Great Hall in The People’s Palace.

Download the Season brochure

LISTINGS

New Suns: A Feminist Literary Festival
Saturday 5 October 2019, Barbican

Nisha Ramayya is reading and speaking at New Suns which explores new and continuing debates in feminist approaches to technology. She will also be reading and speaking at: Exploring Poetry as Disruption (Sat 19 Oct – Southbank Centre)  States of the Body Produced by Love (Fri 25 Oct – ICA)

Solitude, Sociability and Insanity in the Nineteenth Century
Tuesday 8 October 2019, ArtsTwo 3.20, QMUL

In the first paper in our 2019/20 seminar series, Mark Lee from the University of Oxford explores devotional solitude through the lens of ‘religious insanity’ in the nineteenth century.

Philosophy as Therapy
Wednesday 9 October 2019, LSE

Our very own Molly Macdonald is on the panel for to discuss whether thinking philosophically can be a form of self-help.

Writing Our Way Home
Tuesday 15 October 2019, Free Word EC1

What role can literature play in combatting hostile environments? In a new and exciting collaboration between Wasafiri and London’s Free Word Centre, Roger Robinson, Winsome Pinnock, Inua Ellams and Bridget Minamore join forces for readings and debate on writing and resistance. 

Find out more

QUORUM Drama Research Seminar: Molly McPhee
Wednesday 16 October 2019, QMUL

Be sure to go to the next QUORUM entitled ‘Miasmatic Performance: Carceral Atmospherics in the Theatre of Clean Break’. Photo: Pests by Vivienne Franzmann. Photo by Jonathan Keenan.

English Postgraduate Research Seminar
17 and 31 October, QMUL

Join us for the next English Postgraduate research events from Patrick Flanery and Kirsty Rolfe.

Follow @QMEnglishPGRS on Twitter for booking links

Doing Dr Duckie’s Homemade Mutant Hope Machines
Tuesday 22 October 2019, Attenborough Centre, University of Sussex

Drama PhD Ben Walters unpacks the world-making approaches to performance, cabaret, culture and care for so-called ‘marginalised’ communities.

Book here

Children Behind Bars

Thursday 24 October 2019, 2.07, Bancroft Building, QMUL

Matthew Ingleby will be giving a paper entitled ‘The Child through the Railings’ at this event.

Matthew will also be hosting a free Children’s Bloomsbury Walking Tour as part of Bloomsbury Festival on 20 October.

The Occult
Wednesday 30 October 2019, LSE, WC2A

How does philosophy contend with the mysterious and the inexplicable? Can it really be logic all the way down, or might rationality stand on something a little spookier? Our very own Nisha Ramayya is on hand to discuss at the Forum for Philosophy.

WEAVE IT! – Exhibition
30 October – 6 November 2019, Stour Space

Decorating Dissidence, run by our very own Jade French and alumni Dr. Lottie Whalen, invite you to ‘WEAVE IT!’ an exhibition celebrating and challenging 100 years of the Bauhaus women’s weaving workshop.   This exhibition considers the legacies of crafting and weaving from modernism to the contemporary, exhibiting textile practitioners who respond in different ways to the Bauhaus and beyond.

The launch night on 1st November will see performances by Rasia Kabir and SED’s Julie Rose Bower, with DJs and drinks. 
ONGOING


Read the Room – Contemporary Poetry Reading Group
Every Wednesday (12-1pm) in the Yurt, St Benet’s Chaplaincy, QMUL

Join Read the Room every Wednesday (beginning 9 October) to gather together and fill the room with poetry. Each week we will read aloud work by a different poet or on a different theme, appreciating the culture of contemporary poetry and a collaborative environment.

Meet other poetry enthusiasts or casual readers, stay on top of poetry events, or just enjoy reading something new. Drop in or just come when you can, Read the Room aims to be an accessible space to have fun with poetry.

Sign up for updates

BOOK AHEAD

Frauke Requardt & Daniel Oliver
Dadderrs

5-6 November 2019, The Place

Daniel is dyspraxic and is too slow.
Frauke has ADHD and is too quick.
They are married and have kids.

Join the couple in the Meadowdrome, their fantastical escapist world. Together you will encounter awkwardly intimate interactive actions, strange dances, sweet and surreal songs, and other off-kilter “grown-up” activities.

This interactive show invites you to explore, converse and play within the neurodivergent realm Daniel and Frauke have created.

Find out more

Turning the Page
Saturday 30 November 2019, QMUL

Launching an anthology of writings, Turning the Page, by the SBS Survivors’ Group: A literary conversation between two groups of BAME women – published writers responding creatively to the stories of the SBS support group.

Email us your event

News

Mojisola Adebayo will be presenting The Interrogation of Sandra Bland at the University of Pittsburgh, USA, in October, culminating in a performance by a huge chorus of black / women-of-colour on stage.

Pragya Dhital joined the English department in September as a British Academy Postdoctoral Fellow, with a project on proscribed political pamphlets in colonial India. During the summer she had two articles published: “From ‘Imam ul-Hind’ to Azizul Hind: The ‘One Man Media House’ in Modern India”, South Asia: Journal of South Asian Studies, 42:3, 452-468, DOI: 10.1080/00856401.2019.1596778 “Media satyagraha in the broadcast age: underground literature and populist politics during the Indian internal emergency of 1975–1977”, Interventions: Journal of Postcolonial Studies, 21: 7, 942-958, DOI: 10.1080/1369801X.2019.1585908

Michael Hughes (Creative Writing Lecturer)’s book is reviewed by The New York Times: ‘Hughes’s story proceeds at a breakneck cinematic pace, full of booby traps, double agents and arias promising gruesome revenge.’ Read the full review here

Eleni Sophia (aka English student Sophia Hussain) has published her third book ‘This One’s For You’. The poetry collection is about encouraging young women about the importance of self-love and provides words of encouragement for those going through a tough time.

In July, both Khloe and Kourtney Kardashian shared her poem ‘Her Mindset’ from my first poetry book, ‘Good Morning to Goodnight’ on their Snapchat and Instagram stories.

Hari Marini (Research Student Support) has published her poetry collection 28 ΔΙΑΔΡΟΜΕΣ ΤΗΣ | 28 PATHS OF HER. It has been reviewed here.

Susheila Nasta (English Professor) is has edited a collection called Brave New Words: The Power of Writing Now (Out 7 November) an anthology of essays by 15 world writers to celebrate 35 years of Wasafiri but also channels the hot political topics of today. It features work from Bernardine Evaristo, Tabish Khair, Blake Morrison, Mukoma wa Ngugi, Marina Warner and many more.

Pathologies of Solitude project has been awarded a ‘Diversity and Inclusion’ grant by the Wellcome Trust (£21,192) for a project addressing solitude and loneliness as aspects of migrant and refugee experience.

The 18-month project is led by Akshi Singh, postdoctoral fellow on the ‘Pathologies of Solitude’ project, and Nisha Ramayya ( Creative Writing Lecturer at QMUL), and is partnered by Akwaaba, an anti-racist migrant befriending centre in East London.

The project will support six creative arts workshops to be held at
Akwaaba, facilitated by BME writers and other diverse artists. Its
results will be disseminated through zines made with workshop
participants, an exhibition and a public story-telling event.

People Palace Projects’Xingu Encounter has been nominated for a Times Higher Education award for ‘International Collaboration of the Year’. The project explores new ways to work with indigenous people in Brazil to preserve & protect their knowledge & culture.

Mahima Tyagi (English with Creative Writing student) has taken over the School of English and Drama Instagram.

Follow us for news and views from Mahima and our students

Ellen Wiles (English Teaching Fellow) curated and spoke at Asylum Stories: Fact, Fiction, Truth event at British Library.

Follow us on Instagram

Whilst we try our hardest to make sure listings are accurate we recommend contacting the event organiser or registering before attending as mistakes can be made and we apologise for these.

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All Things SED Editor

I am the Web and Marketing Administrator in the School of English and Drama. Amongst my various roles, I run the School's website (www.sed.qmul.ac.uk) and its Twitter feed (@QMULsed). I also manage the running of the School's Open Days and draft promotional materials.

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