Having applied for a place at the School of English and Drama, we are sure you will have lots of concerns about what happens next.
We recognise how hard you will have been working and understand that this period is extremely unsettling. Please try not to worry, we will work hard to ensure that none of our applicants are disadvantaged by this unprecedented situation.
UCAS has advised that it will be providing an update for those applying for Undergraduate programmes as soon as possible and the UK Government has published on 3 April 2020 this advice on how A-levels will be awarded.
If you have any specific questions about your course, your application or the School in general, we are happy to help. You can contact us via sed-admissions@qmul.ac.uk
We will stay in touch and keep you up to date with our plans. In the meantime, stay safe and well, and we look forward to welcoming you soon.
I am an ambitious, positive and proactive individual constantly on the move, seeking out my next challenge.
Tell us about your time at QMUL. What have been your highlights?
Becoming Editor in Chief of CUB Magazine, meeting new people that I would never have encountered had it not been for university and broadening my mind by studying modules that have changed my outlook on life completely such as all of the postcolonial based modules. Also completing my dissertation and seeing how my initial idea blossomed and having it published as an official document to be circulated in academic circles.
How has your course at Queen Mary helped you to progress into the world outside? What’s next?
It has given me a first class degree which will make me stand out to employers. I am actively looking to pursue a job in journalism or editorial industries.
Aside from course content what have been your favourite elements of the experience of studying here as a whole? (societies/friends/community/values)
The diverse and inclusive community at QM which welcomes everyone and also caters/puts on events for everyone. Also being affiliated with and working closely with QMSU as Editor in Chief of CUB.
Tell us about your life outside Queen Mary including any projects, ambitions or jobs you’ve had.
I had an internship writing for the UK branch of an American magazine called SOCIETY19 last summer writing mainly for the sex and relationships section. I have just started a two month placement as an Editorial Administrator for an educational company called SAM Labs. My goal is to find a permanent job doing the editorial work I love.
What could be improved to enhance future students’ experience at Queen Mary?
To really advertise the social side of the university and also the support side, especially for mental health.
We’re excited to share news of a new multi-sensory walk at the National Theatre devised by our very own Aoife Monks.
About the event
Come along to ‘The Secret Lives of Costume’ and discover the profound
ways in which clothing shapes the experience of our bodies and the
world. This sensory walk backstage at the National Theatre
invites audiences to pay attention to the senses we can use to engage
with theatre costume, to the smell of sweat, the sensation of a corset,
the weight and sound of armour or the taste of thread. Visitors are also
invited to consider the meanings of theatre costume for the people who
work with it. Building on recent scholarship on the histories of
backstage work, this event draws on research by Dr Aoife Monks to
investigate the multi-sensory aspects of costume work. The event draws
attention to the people who construct, repair and wear costumes for a
living at the National Theatre.
If you would like the chance to perform in one of the biggest performance festivals in the world, then come along to one of the auditions that are taking place throughout the rest of March and April.
Information about our four shows, auditions and the festival can be found on the QMTC website using this link:
Our Queen Mary student company Stage 3 won “Best Educational Event” at the Srebrenica Awards last night for their tour of interactive performances and discussions about the UK’s treatment of immigrants and refugees.
Listen, chat and network with recent QM SED graduates and discover what they are doing with their degrees. Our guests are doing different things often beyond what you might expect… what will you do with your degree? Drinks & Snacks will be served.
Come along for an entertaining evening and discover opportunities in a range of possible careers… a few years ago, our guests were just like you! This is a fantastic opportunity to get some insider tips on starting out in a career.
Our guests will all talk about what they do and answer your questions:
Anna Matheson – Senior Features Writer, ‘Closer’ & ‘Bella’, Bauer Media Group
Kate Turner – Media & Public Affairs Manager, FIA Foundation
Claudia Catelin – EU & Trade Analyst, Institute of Directors
Danniella Hart – English Teacher, Harris City Academy
Natalie Jaaskelainen – Publishing Project Manager, Dennis Publishing
Nilufa Yasmin – Development Manager, QMUL
4 out of the 7 guests have also gained a Masters since graduating from QM, we will also explore what they did & why… perfect if you are considering a Masters before making any career decisions.
Schadenfreude – enjoying the pain and failures of others – is an all-too-familiar feeling. It has perplexed philosophers and psychologists for centuries but, in a time of polarised politics, twitter trolls and ‘sidebars of shame’, has never been more relevant. Recent studies have shown that we smile more at a rival’s loss than at our own success. But why can it be so much fun to witness another’s distress? And what, if anything, should we do about it?
In Schadenfreude, historian of emotions Tiffany Watt Smith offers expert insight and advice. Ranging across thinkers from Nietzsche to Homer Simpson, investigating the latest scientific research, and collecting some outrageous confessions on the way – she reveals how everyone, babies, nuns, your most trusted friends, are enjoying your misfortunes. But rather than an emotional glitch, she argues, Schadenfreude can reveal profound truths about our relationships with others and our sense of who we are.
Frank, warm and laugh-out-loud funny, Schadenfreude makes the case for thinking afresh about this much-maligned emotion – and perhaps, even, embracing it.
About the author
Tiffany Watt Smith is a Research Fellow at the QMUL Centre for the History of the Emotions, and was a 2014 BBC New Generation Thinker. She has also worked as a theatre director, including stints as Associate Director at the Arcola and International Associate Director at the Royal Court. Schadenfreude is published in association with Wellcome Collection, a free museum and library that aims to challenge how we think and feel about health. Inspired by the medical objects and curiosities collected by Henry Wellcome, it connects science, medicine, life and art. Wellcome Collection exhibitions, events and books explore a diverse range of subjects, including consciousness, forensic medicine, emotions, sexology, identity and death.
Early career researchers seeking support for their application to the Leverhulme Trust’s Early Career Fellowship scheme are invited to get in contact with us from now [deadline 12 noon, 18 January 2019].
The School of English and Drama invites early career researchers seeking support for their application to the Leverhulme Trust’s Early Career Fellowship Scheme to submit to us:
An outline research proposal including title, abstract (250 words), statement of past and current research (250 words), a 2-page (A4) project outline, and a one-paragraph statement detailing relevant research being carried out in the School of English and Drama and your reasons for choosing Queen Mary.
An academic CV of not more than 2 pages to demonstrate your research stature.
Please send the above to Dr Huw Marsh, Research Manager, at: sed-research@qmul.ac.uk by no later than 12 pm on Friday 18 January 2019.
All outline proposals will be considered by a School committee and applicants will be notified of the shortlisting outcome in the week of Monday 21 January 2019. Shortlisted candidates will be put forward for approval by the Humanities and Social Sciences Faculty Executive, who will report their decisions by 11 February, which will then be communicated to candidates. The final deadline for submission of approved applications is 28 February 2019 by 4pm.
The School recommends that applicants make clear the following in applications (CVs and proposals):
the strength of your academic record (e.g. classifications, awards, time taken to complete your PhD, etc.)
the strength of your research record (e.g. publications (including their length; and if forthcoming, where they are at in the process); presentations; research leadership; if you make practice as research, indicate how it is research; etc.)
what research you will publish/disseminate through the fellowship
the importance of doing your fellowship in the School of English and Drama at QMUL (e.g. synergies with staff and research centres)
your proposal’s importance, originality, methods, critical contexts, resources, structure and outputs.
Are you interested in learning a language outside of your programme of study next year?
Under QMUL’s Language Learning Scholarship Scheme, scholarships are available for returning undergraduates (second year and above in 2018–19) to take a non-credit bearing language module alongside their main degree studies.
Following a successful first round in June, we are delighted to announce further scholarships for 2018-19. Application deadline will be 16:00 on Monday 13 August 2018.
You can find more information about the scheme, the languages available and how to apply on the SLLF Language Centre website.
Drawing together the insights of postcolonial scholarship and cultural studies, Popular Postcolonialisms questions the place of ‘the popular’ in the postcolonial paradigm. Multidisciplinary in focus, this collection explores the extent to which popular forms are infused with colonial logics, and whether they can be employed by those advocating for change. It considers a range of fiction, film, and non-hegemonic cultural forms, engaging with topics such as environmental change, language activism, and cultural imperialism alongside analysis of figures like Tarzan and Frankenstein. Building on the work of cultural theorists, it asks whether the popular is actually where elite conceptions of the world may best be challenged. It also addresses middlebrow cultural production, which has tended to be seen as antithetical to radical traditions, asking whether this might, in fact, form an unlikely realm from which to question, critique, or challenge colonial tropes. Examining the ways in which the imprint of colonial history is in evidence (interrogated, mythologized or sublimated) within popular cultural production, this book raises a series of speculative questions exploring the interrelation of the popular and the postcolonial.
Welcome to the July 2018 edition of our School of English and Drama newsletter.
Photo above is from the Women’s Voices in Parliament event in the Octagon on 13 June 2018. This was Lise Olson’s provocation on finding your authentic voice. Photo by Debbie Bragg.
Events
BOOK AHEAD
Show and Tell Wednesday 5, 12, 19 and 26 September 2018
18:00-20:00
Arts One Lecture Theatre, QMUL – Mile End
Inspiring TED style talks from top speakers from the arts and humanities aimed at young people aged 16-19, incoming Queen Mary students and teachers.
Asking for a Raise Tuesday 3-Saturday 7 July 2018, 19:30
The Space, Isle of Dogs
Drama graduates Franciska Ery and Hugo Aguirre present their ‘verbose cyclical comedy ‘ about an office worker who dares to ask their boss for a raise.
Handle with Care Friday 6 July 2018, 19:00-23:00
Wellcome Collection, Euston
A free late event at Wellcome Collection around care featuring our very own Lois Weaver, Maggie Inchley and Daniel Oliver, associate artists Stacy Makishi and MA graduates, Mary Osborne and Emma Moller.
The Refugee Tales, which campaigns against indefinite immigration detention holds an annual walk in solidarity with refugees, asylum seekers and detainees. The walk, which is in collaboration with people who have experienced the UK asylum system, aims to reclaim the landscape of South East England for the language of welcome.
Taking Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales as a model, the walk is punctuated by contributions en route by writers. On 11 July the walk comes to east London. At Cable Street, Nadia Valman (English) will give a talk on the Battle of Cable Street, and at QMUL, the writer Iain Sinclair will give a lecture called ‘What the world is telling us. And why we won’t listen.’ (Wednesday 11 July, 12 noon, Arts Two Lecture Theatre).
Much Ado About Nothing + Shakespeare Beyond Borders 29-31 July 2018
Venice
The Centre for Global Shakespeare, in collaboration with Ca’Foscari University, Venice and the Venice Shakespeare Company, is staging a directorless production of Shakespeare’s Much Ado About Nothing in Venice from 29-31 July. The cast includes professional actors from Australia, Italy, the UK, Germany, South Africa and the USA. The performances will be accompanied by a symposium on Shakespeare Beyond Borders on 30 July, which aims to bring practitioners and academics together in mutual conversation. There is still space to take part in the symposium. Tickets to the performance are free for participants. Please contact David Schalkwyk at d.schalkwyk@qmul.ac.uk for further information.
As part of Rich Mix TAKEOVER, Drama graduate Rosie Vincent is regurgitating her ongoing photography project into a new performance. Comprised of over 200 photographs, London is Vomit continues to explore the sickness of the city whilst celebrating the resilience and endurance of the urban body.
Moa Johansson (Drama graduate) has been interviewed by To Do List on her performance tonight is the night baby and forever (but no recycling) at Paper Dress Vintage on 3 July. Read the interview here
People’s Palace Projects (Arts Organisation based at QMUL) update
The Verbatim Formula (pictured above) At the beginning of July, 14 young people from the borough of Wandsworth worked for a full weekend at Battersea Arts Centre together with Professor Maggie Inchley (Drama), Sylvan Baker and Sadhvi Dar (Business and Management) using verbatim techniques to make a performance that shares their experience of care services.
Stage 3 People’s Palace Projects’ new student theatre company at QMUL will be performing Stage 3, an immersive theatre experience that will involve the young people* in the Tafahum project in Tower Hamlets as participants. The production looks at the bureaucracy and power of the naturalisation system.
*Tower Hamlets A Team Arts participants, Youth Parliament, and youth in Tower Hamlets.
Two events on campus People’s Palace Projects also hosted a symposium Policy in Cultural Relations and also a Contemporary Narrative Lab. They’re partnering on the latter with the Financial Times, via journalist Robin Kwong, and Battersea Arts Centre to form a collaborative research project involving academics, artists, researchers and journalists.
2. Jen Harvie (Drama) reviewed ‘Fun Home’ on the BBC Radio 3 programme ‘Free Thinking’. The musical explores family, memory and sexuality and is currently running at the Young Vic in London. Listen here
3. Drama graduates Figs in Wigs are doing a private sharing of their adaptation of Little Women, called Little Wimmin’ on Friday 6 July at Battersea Arts Centre.
4. Kathleen McCarthy (School of Languages, Linguistics and Film) has organised this launch event of short films in the Octagon at Queen Mary as part of a project to promote heritage language use, as well as reconnect and increase cultural awareness across generations within the London Bangladeshi community. Find out more
Here’s a quick update on 2 current projects from People’s Palace Projects an Arts Council England National Portfolio Organisation based at Queen Mary University of London.
The Verbatim Formula
In the beginning of July, 14 young people from the borough of Wandsworth worked for a full weekend at Battersea Arts Centre together with Prof. Maggie Inchley (QMSED), Sylvan Baker and Sadhvi Dar (QM Business and Management) using verbatim techniques to make a performance that shares their experience of care services. The workshops ended with a presentation open to the public, which had as audience members of the Department of Education, social workers Wandsworth Council Representatives, artists and foster carers. Next up, the project is hosting its first University Summer Residency outside QMUL, in partnership with University of East London, engaging young people from Newham Council this beginning of July.
The Verbatim Formula is an creative action research project which is currently working with looked after children and young people, recording the words of participants and sharing them through performance. The process is being developed by Dr Sylvan Baker, Dr Maggie Inchley and Dr Sadhvi Dar at Queen Mary University of London’s Drama Department, Ms. Mita Pujara (evaluator) and produced by People’s Palace Projects, in partnership with the Greater London Authority Peer Outreach Team and funding from the Arts and Humanities Research Council.
Stage 3
People’s Palace Projects’ new student theatre company at QMUL will be performing Stage 3, an immersive theatre experience that will involve the young people* in the Tafahum project in Tower Hamlets as participants. The production looks at the bureaucracy and power of the naturalisation system. The performance will be presented as a space for dialogue between the performers and the participating young people and decision makers. The aim is to engage the participating audiences in a mock process of citizenship in order to generate conversations about the subject of migration, discrimination and belonging, which resonates with many of the issues raised by the young people at the Tafahum project. Some of the young people have experienced, or are experiencing, the complex immigration process. This production will address the process of being categorized based on race, age and socio-economic background (class), placing participants in positions that question their perceptions of power and powerlessness. This production is strongly linked to young people’s sense of belonging and citizenship rights.
*Tower Hamlets A Team Arts participants, Youth Parliament, and youth in Tower Hamlets.
An exciting and unprecedented new MA Live Art will begin in September 2018*, convened by the Drama Department at Queen Mary University, London in collaboration with the Live Art Development Agency (LADA).
This house proposes that the inclusion of Shakespeare in the higher education curriculum and theatre and arts programming obstructs decolonization.
Join students, performers, policy makers, scholars, teachers, artists and artistic directors to debate what place Shakespeare has in education and the arts today.
How has writing from and about South Africa travelled beyond the borders of the country? How has it made readers feel, and why might this continue to matter? Using key examples from the past 130 years, the lecture will survey the trajectory of South African writing as a category, ask how and why some texts have become well known internationally while others have not, and consider the importance of the personae that South African writers have (or been thought by readers to have) adopted, as well as the significance of the material forms that texts have taken—the guises, or indeed ‘personae’, under which they have travelled. Texts from and about South Africa—not to mention readers encountering them—have had to find ways to grapple with questions about the appropriateness or otherwise of representations of the country’s diverse people and complex politics. (Appropriate can, after all, be an adjective and a verb.) This lecture will therefore also grapple with the politics of speaking—and writing—positions, including this lecturer’s own. It will address South Africa’s often problematic place in postcolonial studies, and will argue for the continuing relevance of the study of the country’s literature here and now.
Current students and recent graduates can book a bespoke careers appointment to help with: finding jobs, making your applications better and even interview practice.
Opportunities, Calls for Participation & Volunteering
We are looking for the UK’s most motivated and talented aspiring event producers to become part of our FREE professional development programme, Young & Serious for participants aged 18-25.
Young & Serious is an exceptional opportunity for young people to build their professional network alongside career development, gaining experience of working within the arts, music and events sectors. Participants will have the chance to attend industry events, talks and workshops, work with exciting national & international artists and programme and deliver music activity. Participants will also work towards a Bronze Arts Award accreditation throughout the year.
As part of the programme, young people will be invited to take part in a FREE professional development residency in London (20th-22nd April 2018), which will form an integral part of the year long training course.
To find out more and details on how to apply to take part, please click here serious.org.uk The deadline for applications is the 26th March 2018.
Wilton’s is looking for small to mid-scale companies (graduate companies only, current student companies will not be eligible) who are creating a piece of new work and would like to enter the Wilton’s Edinburgh Festival Award 2018 scheme.
We are looking for work that will have not have been produced before the Edinburgh Festival, which is new, exhilarating and fits in with Wilton’s mission to produce world-class original, contemporary theatre.
The winner will receive two weeks free rehearsal space in Wilton’s AALP Studio Monday – Thursday (10.00 – 22.00) w/c 16th and w/c 23rd July.
There may also be the opportunity to try out the show in Wilton’s Cocktail Bar or the Hall.
To enter please fill in the application form, available on our website wiltons.org.uk and return it by Monday 23rd April 2018.
The judging panel will be made up of Wilton’s Executive Director Holly Kendrick and Wilton’s Associates Steph Street, Justin Audibert, Rachel Bagshaw and Richard Beecham.
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