Bloomsbury Research Lectures
Oct28

Bloomsbury Research Lectures

During the Autumn Term 2016, the School of Arts will host two Bloomsbury Research Lectures on topics related to contemporary literature. Thursday 17th November 2016 7:40pm-9pm Julia Bell (Birkbeck), ‘The Territory of the Strange Room’ How does a writer find and define their territory? Before this lecture, please read Damon Galgut’s short 'novel' In A Strange Room and Zadie Smith’s Essay ‘Fail Better’. Thursday 1st December 2016 6:00-7:30pm Agnes Woolley (RHUL), Literature, Law and the 'Asylum Story' In a moment of anxiety over the meaning and scope of citizenship comparable to that of the post-War period – and facing a ‘refugee crisis’ of similar scale – an investigation of the means by which asylum protection is constituted by and enacted through narrative forms is long overdue. The entanglement of literary and legal technologies in the asylum decision-making process as it operates today in legal, advocacy and creative circles, excludes asylum seekers from incorporation as rights-bearing individuals if they do not conform to a particular narrative of persecution. This paper will analyse the procedural characteristics of the asylum decision-making process, which produces what I call the ‘asylum story’: an idealized version of refugeehood on which the civic incorporation of the asylum seeker depends and which circulates in a narrative economy that sets the terms for the enunciation of refugee experience. It considers how the notion of a discoverable truth has inflected literary engagements with asylum, which are beset by the same anxieties around veracity and authenticity endemic to the legal process of decision-making on asylum. Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie’s short story ‘The American Embassy’ from her 2009 collection The Thing Around Your Neck offers an insight into the narrative instabilities of the asylum determination process, highlighting the ways in which those international institutions designed to protect human rights continue to be deeply implicated in regimes of truth which regulate upon whom they may be conferred. Dr Agnes Woolley is Lecturer in Contemporary Literature at Royal Holloway, University of London. Her research interests are in contemporary and postcolonial literature, theatre and film, with a focus on concepts of migration and diaspora. She is the author of Contemporary Asylum Narratives: Representing Refugees in the Twenty-First Century (Palgrave Macmillan, 2014) and has published extensively on asylum, climate change and contemporary literature. She is also Chair of a London drop-in centre for asylum seekers and refugees and a regular contributor to openDemocracy, reporting on migration issues.   The Bloomsbury Research lectures are organized by Dr Ana Parejo Vadillo.  ...

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Words on the Move
Oct28

Words on the Move

1st November 2016 We are delighted to invite you to Words on the Move: A Day of Talks and Performances across Languages, a collaboration between the Stories in Transit project, the Contemporary Poetics Research Centre (CPRC) at Birkbeck and Watadd. Location: Keynes Library, 43 Gordon Square. Time: 1-7pm Book your place for free via Eventbrite Animating Questions for the event: 1.    Can culture, and specifically storytelling (in any form) provide shelter for people who have lost their homes? Can a tale become a home? Can a poem? Can a memory of literature and the process of making it over and over again build ‘a country of words’ (Mahmoud Darwish)? Can narratives build a place of belonging for those without a nation? 2.    How do experiences of conflict and forced migration place pressure on narrative form? How might artists and writers respond or register these pressures in their creative work? What are the possibilities for creative collaboration in this context? 3.    What methods and processes can be developed together to allow the unfolding and generation of stories? What role can imaginary narrative and non-narrative form play in contemporary conditions? In what ways can the ancient human capacity to tell and pass on stories help in the present crisis? 4.    What are the best uses of contemporary media for supporting exchanges of stories across borders and to ease and/or explore communications between languages and cultures? How might we talk about and make texts that work across multiple languages (including non-verbal languages such as dance, music and visual art)? Programme 1pm — Professor Marina Warner (Birkbeck) Introductory Remarks 1:15pm — Dr Steve Willey (Birkbeck) ‘Multi-Lingual Workshops’ 1:30pm — Keynote Address, Dr Caroline Bergvall ‘Methods of Engagement’ 2:30pm — Dr Camilla Nelson, (Schumacher College) ‘Performative Reflections on “Reading Movement” in Palestine’ 4pm — Paula Claire ‘Yet More War…and Peace’ (performance inviting creative response) 5pm — Dr Atef Alshaer, (University of Westminster) ‘Individual and Collective Voices in the Poetry of Mahmoud Darwish’ 5:30pm — Fuensanta Zamrana Ruiz ’The Language of Violins: Teaching at the Baremboim-Said Foundation’ 6pm — Roundtable, Chair: Professor Matthew Reynolds (St Anne’s College, Oxford University) Organizers Professor Marina Warner, Professor of English and Creative Writing at Birkbeck College, University of London and a Professorial Research Fellow, SOAS, 2014-2017 Dr Steve Willey, Lecturer in Creative and Critical Writing at Birkbeck College, University of London, and Director of the Contemporary Poetics Research Centre Image: Palestine by MissyKel, used under a CC BY-NC-ND 2.0...

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Transitions 7: New Directions in Comics Studies
Oct15

Transitions 7: New Directions in Comics Studies

Saturday 19th November 2016 The Centre for Contemporary Literature is delighted to support Transitions 7: the seventh annual symposium on comic book studies. Organised in collaboration with Comica – London International Comics Festival, Transitions at Birkbeck, University of London is unique in offering a regular comics studies symposium and meeting point in London, a platform for emerging research at an event that is free of charge and open to all. Originally convened by PhD students in 2009, Transitions has become an annual fixture in the UK comics scholars’ calendar.  We are especially supportive of postgraduate and early career presenters, but open to any new and ongoing research in our field. Our aim is to provide a platform for debate and a space from which further collaborations can emerge, to further strengthen our area of study and academic community, and to support connections between comics scholars working in diverse academic departments and contexts.  This year we are running workshops as well as panel presentations. Respondents: Dr. Maggie Gray (Kingston); Dr. Julia Round (Bournemouth); Professor Roger Sabin (Central Saint Martins) Attendance is free but registration is required: to book a place email: transitionssymposium@gmail.com. Click here for the complete programme for the event including the running order and abstracts for each paper.   Transitions 7 Poster by John Miers. Click on poster to...

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