‘Talking Together’: School of Humanities 2020 Postgraduate Colloquium

Thursday 26 November 2020, 9am–6pm (on Microsoft Teams) with an evening of poetry, art and sound on Wednesday 25 November, 6–7.30pm

LINK: FULL PROGRAMME WITH ABSTRACTS AND BIOS

We warmly invite all PhD and MA students, whatever your year and stage of research, to come to and be part of this online colloquium. It will be a friendly and supportive day of “Talking Together”, focusing on connecting all the departments of the School in an interdisciplinary and stimulating exchange of ideas and will provide PGRs with experience of a conference setting. You can attend the whole event, or drop into sessions that particularly interest you.

The sessions for the day are:

9.00am: Arrivals

9.15am: Welcome by PROFESSOR GIULIANA PIERI, Head of the School of Humanities

9.25am: “Introductions to productive cultural conversations” writing workshop and Q&A with DR MATT LANE

10.15am: Round-table panel on “Translation” chaired by DR DANIELLE SANDS (Director of Postgraduation Education (Research) for the School of Humanities) with DR PARIS CHRONAKIS (History), DR LIZ GLOYN (Classics), DR TERRI OCHIAGHA (English), PROFESSOR HANNAH THOMPSON (LLC)

11.30am: Break

11.45am: Postgraduate panels

PANEL 1: Speaking across cultures, geographies and time

WILL BURNS: “The homesick self: the anxiety of place in the poetry of Malcolm Lowry” | LEILA KASSIR: “Looking for Lions in London: Lyons Corner Houses and the search for belonging in two Caribbean texts, 1937 and 1950”  | CATIA RODRIGUES: “‘Do art […] a greater service’: religion and sacrifice in Ellen Heaton’s patronage of Pre-Raphaelite artists” | DAVID WILLIAMS: “Hagia Sophia as built by Justinian and Muhammad”

PANEL 2: Conversations with the nonhuman (other species, other materials, other things)

PABLO P. CASTELLO: “The decisive presence of language in a human-animal encounter” | KATE DEVINE: “The artefact and the artwork: craft and Arte Povera” | CAROLINE HARRIS: “Talking to cats: can we move beyond the language of cuteness?” | ELEONORA TRAVERSA: “‘Ceramica aristocrazia della scultura’: the revival of ceramics in Italy after World War II”

1.15pm: Lunch break

2.15pm: Keynote: MIRANDA LOWE, principal curator and scientist at the Natural History Museum

3.00pm: Break

3.15pm: Postgraduate panels

PANEL 3: Speaking with bodies, minds and memory ASH FINN: “Animal nature in Lacan” | CHLOE LEE: “Back to ‘the Loft’: collaborating with a school partner” | AMANDA REDING: “Protest manifested in the body: the New Woman in Edith Ayrton Zangwill’s The Call” | DILARA SCHOLZ: “Commercialising grief: mourning warehouses and the material culture of mourning in Victorian England”

PANEL 4: Talking together through crisis and transition KATE FERRY-SWAINSON: “‘Men have made my language into the language of torturers’: Charlotte Delbo’s chorus of the oppressed in La mémoire et les jours” | JAKE SHORT: “Learning from the past: how Civil Defence has shaped COVID response” | GENEVIEVE STEVENS: “‘The approach is the point: There is no there to get to.’ Driving uncertainty: Karen Solie and the poetics of the open road” | NADIRA WALLACE: “‘Using our “real” world somewhat as a spring-board’: Hart Crane, T. S. Eliot and De-reification”

4.45pm: Break

5.00pm: Closing the day with an informal networking gathering (ends 6.00pm)

Please don’t hesitate to get in touch with any questions on talkingtogether2020@gmail.com. We will be posting the full programme with abstracts and bios here too. We look forward to seeing you!

Georgios Argiantopoulos, Martina Borghi, Caroline Harris and Cathy Dondelinger

(PGR Colloquium Committee 2020)

Keynote: Miranda Lowe, Natural History Museum

‘A seat at the round table of engagement’: presentation with Q&A

We are delighted to announce that principal curator and scientist Miranda Lowe will be giving our keynote, at 2.15pm on Thursday 26 November.

MIRANDA LOWE is a principal curator and scientist at the Natural History Museum, London ensuring collections management and care for the Museum’s historic marine invertebrate collections. She presents lectures and publishes on both curatorial and scientific research, with related appearances on radio and TV. Her work with creative industries allows her to link art, science and nature to aid the public understanding of the natural world. With an avid interest in the history of natural history she helps to reveal and recognise contributions of those underrepresented black voices within natural history and science. She has recently been listed in the book ‘100 Great black Britons’ and is a founding member of Museum Detox, a network for people of colour who work in museums, galleries, libraries, archives, and the heritage sector championing fair representation and the inclusion of cultural, intellectual, and creative contributions from POCs. As a STEM Ambassador she is passionate about ensuring diversity and social justice at all levels and works with various charities mentoring young people as future advocates for museums and the planet.

Round-table discussion: ‘Translation’

Our round-table panellists represent all four departments from the School of Humanities. They will be presenting research, discussing and answering your questions around the broad theme of ‘Translation’.

Chair: Dr Danielle Sands (Director of Postgraduate Education (Research) for the School of Humanities)

Panel:

Dr Terri Ochiagha (English)

Dr Liz Gloyn (Classics)

Dr Paris Chronakis (History)

Prof Hannah Thompson (LLC)