Friday 21 December 2012

3rd Global Conference: Communication and Conflict

Thursday 5th September - Saturday 7th September 2013
Mansfield College, Oxford, United Kingdom

Call for Presentations

Our ability to communicate successfully affects so many aspects of our lives. Difficulties, indeed failures, or breakdowns in communication can play a major role in hostility, conflict and war. Communication problems can also lead to personal frustration and desired outcomes not being realised.

The nature of our communications can raise larger contextual issues about human learning, exchange of knowledge and the nature of humanity. How can we communicate where those involved have quite different languages, specialisations and views of the world? How can we avoid conflict when we strongly disagree based on the great differences in how we perceive things? How can we appreciate and consider highly divergent views from our own? How can we still communicate effectively when the conceptual gap is so large? How can we make good decisions and complete tasks when communication is difficult?

Wars may be started and sustained by communication difficulties. When we communicate we are not just stating facts, but also emotions and personal positions that may underlie them. In the cut and thrust of everyday life, being able to recognise, track, and respond to the varied levels in communication can be challenging. It may require us to appreciate knowledge and realities vastly different than our own; bridging communication gaps may place us well outside our comfort zone.

This new inter- and multi-disciplinary conference project seeks to explore these and other topics and create dialogue about communication and conflict. We seek submissions from a range of disciplines including communication studies, journalism, public affair's, public relations, philosophy, psychology, literature, management, business studies, information technology, science, the visual and creative arts, music, politics and also actively encourage practitioners and non-academics with an interest in the topic to participate.

We welcome traditional papers, preformed panels of papers, workshop proposals and other forms of performance recognising that different disciplines express themselves in different mediums. Submissions are sought on any aspect of Communications including the following:

1. Non-violent, or Compassionate, Communication (NVC)
- Honest self-expression
- Empathy
- Spiritual Connections
- Active Listening

2. Communication and Conflict
- Workplace
- Domestic
- International Relations
- Cultural
- Spiritual
- War
- Terrorism

3 . Communication Breakdowns and Breakthroughs
- Breakdowns (e.g. language and gender differences, misinterpretations,mental illness, failure to notice, to listen, effects of complexity, and disagreements etc.)
- Breakthroughs (Creative responses such in music, drama, literature, art, humour, etc.)

4 . Dehumanising Communication
- Reification
- Alienation
- Portraying others, strangers, the enemy
- Effects of technology (electronic communication)

5. Dialogue
- Friendship
- Philosophy
- Dialogical Relationships
- Counselling
- Teaching
- Respect and recognition

6. Communication in Health and Illness
- Stories and symptoms
- Communicating meaning
- Role of communication in treatment
- Communicating identity and experience
- Communicating care

7. Communication and Decision Making
- Role of communication in making decisions, (group decisions)
- Conflicting opinions and views
- Group think

The Steering Group particularly welcomes the submission of pre-formed panel proposals. Papers will also be considered on any related theme.

What to Send:

300 word abstracts should be submitted by Friday 22nd March 2013. If an abstract is accepted for the conference, a full draft paper should be submitted by Friday 21st June 2013. 300 word abstracts should be submitted simultaneously to both Organising Chairs; abstracts may be in Word, WordPerfect, or RTF formats with the following information and in this order:

a) author(s), b) affiliation, c) email address, d) title of abstract, e) body of abstract, f) up to 10 keywords.
E-mails should be entitled: CC3 Abstract Submission

Please use plain text (Times Roman 12) and abstain from using footnotes and any special formatting, characters or emphasis (such as bold, italics or underline). We acknowledge receipt and answer to all paper proposals submitted. If you do not receive a reply from us in a week you should assume we did not receive your proposal; it might be lost in cyberspace! We suggest, then, to look for an alternative electronic route or resend.

Organising Chairs:
Paul James: pj@inter-disciplinary.net
Rob Fisher: cc3@inter-disciplinary.net

The conference is part of the Probing the Boundaries programme of research projects. It aims to bring together people from different areas and interests to share ideas and explore various discussions which are innovative and exciting. All papers accepted for and presented at the conference will be eligible for publication in an ISBN eBook. Selected papers may be developed for publication in a themed hard copy volume(s).

For further details of the conference, please visit:

Friday 14 December 2012

Sites of Memory- Friday 22 February 2013

An interdisciplinary postgraduate conference and interactive workshop at the University of Birmingham

Call for Papers

How is memory related to physical space, objects and texts? How do different disciplines conceptualise memory? How do we research and write about memory?
“Sites of Memory” invites undergraduates, postgraduates and early career scholars to submit papers for an interactive workshop on memory across the disciplines. Running as the first in a series of three workshops based within the Centre of West African Studies at the University of Birmingham, this session seeks to provide an informal and hands-on environment where the subject of memory can be discussed in the broadest possible sense.
The first part of the conference will feature papers reflecting on memory in different disciplines and regions. This will be followed by an interactive workshop exploring how different ‘sites’ stimulate, document and dissemble memory. Presented with a case study in which past objects and events are remembered in multiple ways, participants will discuss issues related to the processes of remembering and commemoration.
We welcome proposals for 20 minute papers on all aspects of the study of memory, particularly those which engage with the physicality of memory and its relationship to space, place, objects, texts and bodies.
Sites of memory to consider include:
·    Bodily / imagined
·    Textual (primary and secondary sources)
·    Musical
·    Oral
·    Physical / geographical
·    Artistic (pictorial / artefacts)
     Encouraging interdisciplinary study and conversation, we welcome proposals from researcher working within, but not limited to, the following fields:
·    History     
·    Area Studies
·    English
·    Art History
·    Medical Sciences
·    Archaeology
Interested participants should submit a 100-200 word abstract and a 50 word biography, along with five-key words relating to their papers or memory interests. Please submit to Tom Penfold, twp005@bham.ac.uk and Rebecca Jones, RKJ982@bham.ac.uk by 7th January 2013. Selected participants will be invited back to participate in a peer review publication workshop later in the year, with a view to preparing papers for publication. For further details please see http://sitesofmemory.wordpress.com/

Thursday 6 December 2012

Home and Nation: Reimagining the Domestic, 1750-1850

22-24 March, 2013, University of Leeds
Plenary Speakers: Dr Karen Harvey (University of Sheffield) and Professor Harriet Guest (University of York)
The domestic is an expansive concept. Denoting both the home and the nation, it exerts a powerful organisational force upon the formation of gendered, national, and racial identities. Under the influence of Jürgen Habermas, literary critics and historians have explored the role that the domestic plays in constructing – and deconstructing – the opposition between the public and the private spheres. Similarly, feminist investigations of this category have complicated the enduring notion of the ‘domestic woman’, bringing more complex and mobile forms of gender identity into clearer definition. Recognising the way in which the domestic mediates between the home and the nation has also had implications for critical work on national identity: as a process, domestication entails the regulation and assimilation of the alien and the other.
This three-day conference aims to take stock of recent critical approaches to this topic, and to explore the various ways in which the domestic interacts with ideas of privacy, publicity, the home and the nation. We invite proposals for papers (of 20 minutes) that address these issues with reference to the literature and culture of the period 1750-1850. We welcome papers that take an interdisciplinary approach to the subject. Possible topics might include (but are not limited to):
•     The relationship between the home and the nation
•     The boundaries of the home
•     The representation of domestic space
•     The relationship between domesticity and gender identity
•     The domestication of the other / the alien
•     The relationship between domestic and professional labour
•     Consumerism, commerce, and the home
•     Theorisations of the public and the private
Proposals (of approximately 250 words) are welcome from established scholars and postgraduate students. Please email your proposal to Richard De Ritter (r.deritter@leeds.ac.uk) by Monday, 7th January 2013.

Universitas 21 PhD Scholarships

Applications are now invited for the Universitas 21 PhD Scholarships Programme. We are keen to encourage as many PhD students as possible to take advantage of this excellent opportunity. PhD students can apply for a Scholarship award of up to £1500 for a period of around one month’s stay at a Universitas 21 institution. The main aim of the award is to allow students to enhance their research by providing access to expertise or resources not readily available at Birmingham. It also aims to facilitate collaboration with academics internationally and create opportunities to present, helping to raise the profile of students’ work. Funding is for projects to be initiated during 2013-14.
The application deadline is Friday March 29th 2013. For further information please go to https://intranet.birmingham.ac.uk/external/international/Universitas-21-students/U21-PhD-Scholarships.aspx
 

Erasamus Mundus GEM

Looking for: 
A truly international program rooted into excellence?
An exiting interdisciplinary research agenda dealing with the challenges facing the global system? 
Generous doctoral scholarships
JOIN THE ERASMUS MUNDUS PhD SCHOOL ON GLOBALIZATION, THE EUROPEAN UNION AND MULTILATERALISM (GEM PhD SCHOOL)
The Erasmus Mundus GEM PhD School just launched its new call for applications' round. It offers up to 10 Erasmus Mundus 3-year long PhD Scholarships funded by the European Commission. 
DEADLINE FOR APPLICATIONS: DECEMBER 20th 2012
3 Overarching Research Projects are proposed: 
MORGANITE: Institution centred research focusing on regional and global institutionalized multilateral cooperation. Led by the Université Libre de Bruxelles (Belgium)
CITRINE: Interest centred research focusing on interaction between European policy mechanisms and global imperatives. Led by the University of Warwick (United Kingdom)
AMETRINE: Norms centred research focusing on the normative components of European international politics. Led by LUISS-Guido Carli (Italy)
CALLS FOR APPLICATION AND INFO AVAILABLE ON THE GEM WEBSITE: www.erasmusmundus-gem.eu

Thursday 29 November 2012

The English Department invites you to the end-of-semester party for all students and staff in the Department

The English Department invites you to the end-of-semester party for all students and staff in the Department. Please join us on Friday, December 7th, from 4-7pm*, in the Mason Lounge to celebrate the end of the semester with drinks and snacks and a light-hearted ‘lit / Lang pub- quiz’** (with prizes). Please bring snacks to share. Attached is a festive poster to get you in the mood.
 
You can sign up to participate in the quiz (in teams) with Richard House (Arts, 112), or simply just turn up on the day...
 
We look forward to seeing you there.
 
* those of you who have sessions till 5 – join us once you’re done
 
** if you have questions for the quiz, send them to r.house@bham.ac.uk
 

Monday 26 November 2012

Funding Opportunities

Dear all,

We can confirm that details about the Research Councils (AHRC/ESRC) and the College of Arts and Law funding opportunities are now available from the College of Arts and Law Website:


This website will be updated accordingly as other funding opportunities become available.

If you are interested in finding out more about these specific funding options, Dr Gavin Schaffer, Director of the College of Arts and Law Graduate School, will deliver a Funding Talk, on Wednesday 5 December 2012 in Lecture Room 6, Arts Building at 4.00p.m.

If you require any further information please do not hesitate to contact us at: calpg-research@contacts.bham.ac.uk

College of Arts and Law
Graduate School Research Team

Thursday 8 November 2012

Café PhD
A social opportunity to discuss, debate and learn more about postgraduate research

Are you interested in doctoral study at the University of Birmingham?

Would you like to find out more about being postgraduate researcher in your College?
Do you want to meet and socialise with postgraduates across your College?
 If you answered yes to one or more of the above, then Café PhD is for you. Café PhD is a social, a research forum and a discussion session rolled in to one.
Ultimately, Café PhD is an informal social event designed to showcase and discuss exciting PhD research being done at Birmingham, as well as offering the chance to find out what postgraduate research is all about.

The latest event is scheduled as follows:

College of Arts and Law Café PhD

from 5.30pm, Wednesday 21st November

Beorma Bar

Guild of Students

Come along and get a chance to:

· Hear three current PhD candidates from the College introduce key issues from their research

· Discuss and debate these issues in a relaxed and social atmosphere

· Find out about postgraduate funding opportunities in the College

· Ask questions about all aspects of the PhD experience

· Enjoy free drinks

Speakers:
Helen Coy (Department of History): ‘Crusader Identities’ (Helen will also be talking about her involvement in student groups EMREM and CeSMA);
Katie Barnett (Department of American and Canadian Studies): ‘Representations of Fatherhood in 1990s Hollywood Film’ (Katie will also be telling us about the journal 49th Parallel and the experience of running a student journal) 
Clare Watters (Department of Italian Studies): ‘Italian Comedians in the Berlusconi Era’ (Clare will also be speaking about her involvement with the Graduate Centre for Europe and other exciting opportunities available to PhD researchers in Arts and Law).
Introduced by Dr Holly Prescott (Formerly of the Department of English) – see what a finished PhD thesis actually looks like!!

If you would like to learn more about Café PhD, or if you are a current doctoral researcher interested in paid speaker opportunities to present at a Café Event, email Holly Prescott: h.prescott@bham.ac.uk
For more details about the event and for upcoming Cafes, visit Cafe PhD on the web at: http://www.birmingham.ac.uk/students/cafephd.aspx or find the event on Facebook at: http://www.facebook.com/events/550790791603273/

Café PhD is run in association with the University’s Postgraduate and Mature Students’ Association.

Monday 25 June 2012

BBC Head of Science Talk For Ph.D. Students

The BBC’s Head of Science, Andrew Cohen
(http://eandt.theiet.org/magazine/2011/05/interview-andy-cohen.cfm) is visiting the University next week, and will be giving a talk for PhD students and postdoctoral researchers at 4.15pm on Tuesday 26th June. This is a great opportunity to hear more about media careers and opportunities from someone with a science background (Andrew has a degree in Physiology and Pharmacology) who has spent a long time helping to overlap those interests with arts and humanities at a national level. There will hopefully be plenty of opportunity to quiz him after the talk with any burning questions you have.
 
Places are limited for this event, which is being advertised across campus, so please register your interest in attending with Linda Briscoe (l.a.briscoe@bham.ac.uk) and we’ll let you know the venue and save you a seat!

Thursday 21 June 2012

PESS 2012


  • Are you a Doctoral Researcher looking to enhance your personal and professional development?
  • Do you want to gain enterprise skills which can give you the edge in any career, whether it’s private enterprise, academia or third sector?
  • Do you want the opportunity to gain transferable skills to take your research and future career forward?
  • Would you like to work with a social enterprise on real strategic issues?
The Postgraduate Enterprise Summer School takes Doctoral Researchers through an intensive week of training from Monday 23 July to Friday 27 July 2012. Participants will work together in small teams to solve a real strategy challenge being faced by an influential local organisation.
Alongside the comprehensive programme of interactive professional skills training sessions, participants take part in visiting the organisation; research; guest speaker sessions and developing proposals to address the organisation’s requirements. On the final day each team will present their findings back to a panel of the organisation’s representatives and the winning team will be announced.
The course provides a fantastic opportunity for top quality training alongside the opportunity to work on real strategic issues. No previous experience is required and participants from all subject areas are welcome.
Places are limited and will be allocated on a first come first served basis.
Find out more
The cost to attend is just £30, including all training materials, lunches and refreshments. You can book and pay for the course through the University of Birmingham Online Shop at http://shop.bham.ac.uk.
For more information about PESS 2012 and other Entrepreneurship and Innovation programmes see www.ei.bham.ac.uk.
T: 0121 414 2678
E:
ei@contacts.bham.ac.uk

Improve Your Latin!!

Done some Latin this year, and want some practice to help you keep it up over the summer and perhaps even improve a bit?

There will be an informal Latin reading group on Wednesdays till the 27th June, in the Whitting Room, on the fourth floor of the Arts Building; perhaps beyond if people are around. The level will be roughly post-beginner/intermediate and all interested postgraduates and undergraduates are welcome to attend. We will be reading some simple passages of Latin with plenty of reinforcement of key grammar and vocab.

This is very much a self-help group, designed to have fun and learn stuff. If you plan to attend, could you please contact me (Philip Burton, P.H.Burton@bham.ac.uk) to let me know.

See you there?

Philip

Dr Philip Burton
Reader in Latin and Early Christian Studies
Institute of Archaeology and Antiquity
University of Birmingham

Tuesday 12 June 2012

Global Conference on Language, Literature and Culture

Global Conference on Language, Literature and Culture
10th to 12th December 2012
Pune, India

ICLLC invites papers on Language, Literature and Culture: Interdependence and Interdisciplinarity that explore current approaches alongside technological revolution and sociocultural transformations having bearing on our perception of language and literature.

Enquiries: iasepune@yahoo.com

Web address: http://www.iasepune.org/


Sponsored by: Forum for Innovation and Transformation

Wednesday 16 May 2012

Translation Studies Research Forum

Translation Studies Research Forum, Tuesday 22 May 2012, 2-5pm, Ashley Building, Room, 422, College of Arts and Law

Guest speaker: Professor Susan Bassnett
Following the very successful event with Professor Theo Hermans in 2009, we are delighted to announce that we will be holding another meeting of the Translation Studies Research Forum in May 2012.

Our guest speaker is Susan Bassnett, Professor of Comparative Literature in the Department of English and Comparative Literary Studies at the University of Warwick. Professor Bassnett is a leading figure internationally in the field and her publications include the seminal textbook Translation Studies (3rd edn 2002). She has also (co-) written or edited Translation, History and Culture (1990), Constructing Cultures: Essays on Literary Translation (1996), Postcolonial Translation: Theory and Practice (1998), The Translator as Writer (2006), Translation in Global News (2008) and Political Discourse, Media and Translation (2010).

During the first part of the afternoon, colleagues across the College working on translation-related topics will have the opportunity to discuss their research interests and current projects. Please let us know in the next couple of weeks if you would like to give an informal talk on your research (5-10 mins).

We hope that many of you will be able to attend!
Dr Angela Kershaw (French Studies) a.kershaw@bham.ac.uk
Dr Hilary Brown (Translation Studies) h.j.brown.1@bham.ac.uk

Postgraduate Enterprise Summer School for Doctoral Researchers

Is the Summer School for you?
· Are you a Doctoral Researcher looking to enhance your personal and professional development?
· Do you want to gain enterprise skills which can give you the edge in any career, whether it's private enterprise, academia or third sector?
· Do you want the opportunity to gain transferable skills to take your research and future career forward?
 
The Postgraduate Enterprise Summer School takes Doctoral Researchers from a wide range of specialist areas through an intensive week of training from Monday 23 July to Friday 27 July 2012. Participants will work together in small teams to solve a real strategy challenge being faced by an influential local organisation.
The course provides a fantastic opportunity for top quality training alongside the opportunity to work on real strategic issues.
No previous experience is required and participants from all subject areas are welcome. The programme costs £30 for the week and all lunches and refreshments are provided.
More information and how to register go to: www.ei.bham.ac.uk/pess

Tuesday 15 May 2012

The MRC at the University of Leicester

The MRC at the University of Leicester will be hosting two inter-disciplinary workshops on Medieval Metalwork lead by Dr. Helen Geake (National Finds Advisor, Portable Antiquities Scheme.)

Workshop 1: Animal Ornament, 2.30 - 4.00pm, Thursday 17th May

Workshop 2: Methods of Making Metalwork, 10.00 - 11.30am, Friday 18th May

On Thursday 17th May Dr. Geake will also be giving a public lecture on 'The sword in the hoard.'  All are welcome to attend. (6pm, Ken Edwards Lecture Theatre 3, University of Leicester.)

To confirm a place email Owen Robertson ogr1@le.ac.uk

Many thanks,

Steve Ling

University Graduate School Mid- May update: the last few training workshops for 2011/2012 academic year and upcoming events and competitions

Training
Training is an important part of being a postgraduate researcher here at the University of Birmingham.  It’s nearly the end of the academic year and therefore nearly the end of this year’s training programme.  Take this last opportunity to brush up on those vital skills and experiences by booking your free place on the below courses:
 
 
Events
We’re proud to announce the upcoming Research Poster Conference is open for guests to book their free ticket.  Why should you attend this event I hear you ask? For several reasons including:
·         Excellent networking opportunity with peers across all five colleges (you never know who you’ll meet and how they can help you/ you can help them and the useful contacts you’ll create)
·         Getting to see and hear about current research here at UoB (most of the time we don’t know what’s going on in the next room so we’ve made it easy for you by organising such a variety all in the Great Hall)
·         Opportunity to network with high profile people across the University and people from local business
·         Food and drinks are provided
·         It’s a fun day of celebrating research here at UoB so if you can visit for 2 hours or 5 minutes you are more than welcome!
 
The Research Poster Conference is being held in the Great Hall on June 19th so please come and along and bring family, friends and supervisors.  Simply book your free place here.
 
 
Competitions
You can win £50 Amazon Voucher with just a Tweet!  Simply tweet @UoBGradSchool and tell us why you love your research with the hashtag #ugscomp by May 28th.  We’ll retweet all of our entries and our favourite will win £50 Amazon Voucher.  Twitter is an effective, fast and fun way of communicating and networking within the research community and we warmly welcome any tweets that are sent our way. 

Monday 19 March 2012

'The Making of Modernity' Seminar Series 2012

This Wednesday is the first in a new series of seminars called ‘The Making of Modernity’.  This is a new series of research seminars that replaces the ‘Late Victorianism and Modernism’ series that we ran in 2010-2011.  Since then, we’ve established a new research centre, the Centre for the Study of Cultural Modernity, that brings together research into this period.  The new seminar series, ‘The Making of Modernity’, is the flagship research seminar for this new centre.
The first seminar in the series is on Wednesday the 21 March 2012, 4-6pm, in Arts 103.  The speakers are:
1.  Sue Currell (University of Sussex): Painting the Town Red:  New Masses Magazine and Communist Partying in the 1930s.
2.  Clare Pettitt and Mark Turner (King’s College, University of London): The Distance of Print: Global Networks in the Nineteenth Century
Details are available on the Centre’s website here:
You can download the poster here:

BRITISH ACADEMY SHAKESPEARE LECTURE

Shakespeare and the Reformation

Professor Brian Cummings

University of Sussex

Tuesday, 1 May 2012
6.00pm - 7.15pm, followed by a drinks reception
The British Academy, 10-11 Carlton House Terrace, London, SW1Y 5AH

Religion is the last great mystery of Shakespeare studies. For most of the last century he was regarded as a quintessentially secular author, and attributing religious belief to him was a kind of blasphemy. In the past few years a counter-argument has been made, associating Shakespeare with the recusant Catholicism of Elizabethan England. Such issues have run aground in the frustrating remains of his personal biography. This lecture asks whether we could take a different approach to the legacy of the Reformation in Shakespeare. Rather than seeking the miasma of individual faith as a key to dramatic meaning, it investigates instead the burden of religious change and controversy on fundamental questions of identity and the human body. Looking at a variety of different plays, it shows how the transformations in the rituals of everyday life are constantly present in the dynamic forces of Shakespeare’s theatre in performance.

About the Speaker:
Brian Cummings is Professor of English at the University of Sussex and was founding Director of the Centre for Early Modern Studies, 2004-8. He was previously Fellow of Trinity College, Cambridge, and has held visiting fellowships in California and in Munich. His books include The Literary Culture of the Reformation: Grammar and Grace (OUP, 2002), and The Book of Common Prayer: the Texts of 1549, 1559, and 1662 (OUP, 2011). Currently, he holds a Leverhulme Trust Major Research Fellowship for 2009-12, researching his next book, The Confessions of Shakespeare. In 2012 he will give the Clarendon Lectures at Oxford University on ‘Bibliophobia’.


Registration is not required for this event. Attendance is free and seats will be allocated upon arrival.

A poster for your notice board can be downloaded
here:

British Academy Shakespeare Lectures
In 1910 Mrs Frida Mond established ‘the nucleus of a fund which may hereafter be enlarged, to be devoted to the furtherance of research and criticism, historical, philological, and philosophical, in the various branches of English Literature’. One fruit of the fund was the foundation of this lecture series – on ‘some Shakespearean subject, philosophical, historical, or philological, or some problem in English dramatic literature and histrionic art, or some study in literature of the age of Shakespeare’. The lecture was first delivered in 1911.


Thursday 15 March 2012

Call for Papers: PG CWWN Women on Women Symposium Series 2012, Sister Earth: Global Relationships in Contemporary Women’s Writing

A half-day postgraduate symposium at Goldsmiths, University of London, Thurs 26 April 2012
Keynote Speaker: Bernardine Evaristo 
At the close of the twentieth century, feminists such as Audre Lorde, Susan Stanford Friedman and Sara Ahmed urged women to look beyond their local and national communities. Since 2000, contemporary women’s writing has sought inspiration from the idea of an increasingly global community. Women from a variety of locations have produced a number of works that engage with transnational and global relationships, including Aminatta Forna, Bernardine Evaristo, Kamila Shamsie, Andrea Levy, Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie and Tahmima Anam, amongst many others. This half-day symposium seeks to both address and celebrate the global outlook of contemporary women’s writing.
 
Topics may include (but are by no means limited to):
 
 
  • Contemporary women’s writing in the diaspora
  • Global influences on language, form and genre
  • Engagement with theories of transnational feminism  and/or globalisation
  • The contemporary  portrayal of women and religion
  • Friendship, family, romance and sexual relationships in the global era
  • The global legacies of slavery and colonialism
  • Immigrant women and the cosmopolitan city
Please submit abstracts of 250 words for 20 minute papers via email to women@pgcwwn.org. Please state ‘Goldsmiths’ in the title of your email. The deadline for proposals is 13 April 2012. 
 

This symposium is one of a nationwide series. For more details of future events, locations and more information, please visit our 
website.
--

Postgraduate Contemporary Women's Writing Network (PG CWWN

Website: 
http://pgcwwn.wordpress.com/

Twitter: http://twitter.com/pgcwwn

Facebookhttps://www.facebook.com/groups/34468732135/

Art As A Mode Of Enquiry: Graduate Sysposium Call For Abstracts

University of Oxford, June 16 - 17, 2012

DEADLINE: April 20th

Venues:    St. John's College, The University of Oxford (16th)
                 The Ashmolean Museum of Art & Archaeology (17th)

"Art as a Mode of Enquiry" is a graduate symposium organised by doctoral students in art and art theory at the Ruskin School of Drawing and Fine Art, The University of Oxford. The two-day interdisciplinary conference will take place on the weekend of the 16th and 17th of June 2012 and will be accompanied by an exhibition of site-specific works at the Ashmolean Museum by current DPhil students.

Confirmed keynote speakers:
Professor Adrian Piper (APRA Berlin): "On the Very Idea of Artistic Research"
Professor Shearer West (University of Oxford): title TBA

Drawing on a spectrum of disciplinary approaches, the conference seeks to investigate the theoretical underpinnings of the advanced degrees in art that have recently become established in many universities in the UK and abroad. In what ways might art practice constitute a form of research? What kinds of knowledge can it produce and how can these be evaluated? How can artists learn from, critique, and productively contribute to other disciplines? What historical precedents might be used to explore this relationship?

We invite postgraduate presentations from all disciplines, including fine art, art history, philosophy, cultural studies and psychology. Themes covered may include but are not limited to:

-         the relation between the arts and other humanities disciplines
-         the relationship between science and art
-         the place of art within the evolving university framework
-         artists' writings and the notion of an "academic" practice
-         alternative forms of research presentation
-         psychological and philosophical accounts of the cognitive value of art

Papers will be 25 minutes long, followed by 10 minutes for questions. We welcome proposals as abstracts of between 300 and 400 words, accompanied by a short CV. Submission deadline is the 1st of April and notification of acceptance will be provided shortly thereafter. Please submit the proposal and CV as attachments to
 

FROM GRANITE TO RAINBOW: TRANSMUTING THE MATERIAL INTO TEXT

A one-day conference on post-1980 writing for postgraduates and early career researchers.
University of East Anglia, Saturday 12th May 2012. 
Keynote speaker: Inga Bryden, Winchester 

Virginia Woolf wrote that the challenge of biography is to represent “that perpetual marriage of granite and rainbow”. In all writing the material world is transmuted into something other than itself, but what is the precise relation between written representation and material object? Does this interconnection allow for an opening of imaginative possibility, or constitute a limiting reification of the organic?

Object histories and material culture studies have recently introduced an emphasis on the material existence of their subjects, but the implications of materiality in a literary context invite further consideration. This conference seeks to explore the workings of this transformation from material to text in post-1980 writing, both fiction and creative non-fiction. 

We would like to encourage interactive papers, especially involving actual objects, and the conference will include a roundtable discussion using props.  Please email abstracts of 250 words for 20-minute papers to Carina Hart and Rebecca Harris at granitetorainbow@gmail.com by 12th March 2012. 

Deadline to present at the Research Poster Conference is 1 day away!

There’s not long left until the deadline of March 16th so apply now!  The application form won’t take long and the deadline for the poster isn’t until May 18th.  We cannot stress enough how useful and worthwhile the Research Poster Conference is to all researchers here at UoB in every college and at every stage of research.  This is a major skills development exercise, there will be cash prizes (given for every college) and this is UoB’s researcher event of the year so get involved!  Even if you have never made a poster before and don’t know what an abstract is you are encouraged to apply as much as everyone else as we can provide the training and all of the information.  We even organise and print your posters at no cost to you and you get to keep the poster.  Get your name and your research out there!  Develop skills you can take anywhere!   


 If you have any questions please contact the poster conference team on posterconference@contacts.bham.ac.uk

Public speaking workshop and Personal Branding Masterclass

*Please note that both of these workshops have a limited number of places and we recommend you book asap if you want to attend.
 
Personal Branding Masterclass
 
By the end of the masterclass delegates will be able to:
 
• Increase their attractiveness to prospective employers through their personal brand.
 
• Understand how to use their personal brand as part of their research careers.
 
• Appreciate why their values lie at the heart of their personal brand.
 
• Understand the rationale for connecting their values with their stakeholders’ values.
 
• Use communications, behaviour, design and multisensory cues to develop their personal brand.
 
• Reflect on their personal brand in a more meaningful way.
 
• Recognise the importance of delivering an authentic and consistent personal brand experience.
 
• Understand how to differentiate themselves from other personal brands.
 
• Feel more confident and comfortable with their personal brand.
 
• Utilise their personal branding knowledge and skills to refine ‘their brand’ as their careers develop.
 
To find out more and how to book your free place please go to the web page http://www.graduateschool.bham.ac.uk/training/personalbranding.shtml
 
Speakeasy!  Public speaking workshop for postgraduate researchers
 
Drawing on professional acting skills and techniques, the one-day course addresses the following issues:
 
• How to be an effective communicator in the lecture theatre, seminar room or in the conference hall.
 
• How to get your message across, keep your audience engaged and actually enjoy the experience.
 
• Voice projection, posture, body language and how to calm your nerves.
 
• Different modes of communication: how to lead seminars, chair conferences and conduct a Q&A.
 
• Techniques for presenting, how to deliver complex ideas and personalise your style of delivery.
 
• Methods of communication: how to use PowerPoint, present a poster and ‘how to think on your academic feet’.
 
To find out more information, read reviews or book your free place please go to the webpage http://www.graduateschool.bham.ac.uk/training/speakeasy.shtml