Knowledge: Communication, Communities and Conflict

UCL Postgraduate History Conference 2016

Knowledge is an essential component of life and of the human experience. This conference will seek to explore the concept of knowledge across different historical periods, geographical landscapes and disciplines.

The conference will consist of three panels of three speakers. The panels will consist of three 20 minute talks followed by 30 minutes for discussion. The conference will end with a speech by a guest keynote from Professor Catherine Hall (UCL, The Legacy of British Slave Ownership). Current postgraduate students are welcome to attend, and the event is free!

Location: Room 508, Roberts Building, Malet Place, UCL, London.

Find us here: http://www.ucl.ac.uk/maps/roberts-building

Schedule:

9.15am Registration and Coffee

9.50am A word from the UCL History Department Head: Dr. Jason Peacey

10am Panel 1: Communities

Whether in elite intellectual groups or activists from broader social strata, knowledge is central to communities of all kinds. Our first panel explores how knowledge is produced and transmitted in communities, approaching this question from a variety of historical perspectives.

• Dr. Alice Stevenson (Curator, The Petrie Museum of Egyptian Archaeology): "'The Material Facts of History': Creating Archaeological Knowledge 1880-1910"
  
• Professor Elena Isayev (University of Exeter): "Knowledge of the Stranger, Ancient and Modern"
  
• Professor Nicola Miller (UCL): "Architects of Knowledge: "Why Drawing Teachers Mattered in Nineteenth-Century Latin America"

11.30am Coffee Break

11.45am Panel 2: Communication

Knowledge in all its forms is intricately bound up with communication. Engaging with themes such as authenticity and representation, this panel interrogates how knowledge is disseminated and received in a variety of historical periods and geographical locales.

• Dr. Peter Yeandle (Loughborough University): "The Spectacle of the 'Boer War' (1899-1902) on Stage, Screen and in Song: A Multi-Media Tour of London's Entertainment Industries"
  
• Dr. Mark Towsey (University of Liverpool): "Who did they think they were? Manuscript Notes and Readers’ Uses of the Past in Georgian Britain"
• Dr. Andrea Janku (SOAS): "Global Connectness and its Discontents: Earthquake Coverage in the Early Shenbao (Shanghai 1872-1911)"

1.15pm Lunch

2pm Panel 3: Conflict

Addressing both knowledge about conflicts and how conflicts influence the acquisition and dissemination of knowledge, the third panel will draw on a wide range of perspectives to consider the interplay of these two important concepts.

• Professor Kevin Williams (University of Swansea): "War Reporters in their own words"
  
• Dr. James Noyes (Policy Advisor and Analyst; Honorary Fellow, UCL): "Iconoclasm: How the Breakers Remake the Order of Things"
• Dr. Jonathan Taylor (British Museum): “Preservation through destruction: the curious case of Ashurbanipal’s library”
  

3.45pm Coffee Break

4pm Keynote Address and Q&A

• Professor Catherine Hall (UCL, Principal Investigator for the project 'Legacies of British Slave-Ownership')
  

5pm Closing Comments

• Professor Eleanor Robson (UCL)
  

5.15pm Drinks Reception

Please direct enquiries to: rtsconference2016@gmail.com

Find us on Twitter: @UCLRTS2016