Queen Mary,
University of London, Friday 21 June 2013.
Faced with
pressure to quantify and possibly to commodify our research and our teaching
through the narrow and potentially homogenizing parameters of concepts such as
‘impact’, many researchers and teachers in English departments seem to retreat
from the challenge of affirming what it is that we value in the study and
teaching of English.
This one-day
conference to be held at Queen Mary, University of London, aims to meet this
challenge by tracing and interrogating historical and contemporary debates
pertaining to English and English departments. Commencing from a suspicion of
certain rhetorical commonplaces, whereby the subject is discussed as something
to be ‘defended’ or ‘protected’, we hope to keep in play an openness to the
future(s) of the work that we do, by considering the injunction to respond,
ethically and imaginatively, to our subject-matter’s indomitable capacity to
surprise and alarm.
The day is
structured as a sequence of three sessions, each featuring an address from a
guest speaker, followed by a panel of three shorter papers. We are delighted to
announce Professor
Derek Attridge (University of
York, Fellow of the British Academy) as our first confirmed guest speaker. For
the panel papers, we welcome abstracts from all scholars, including
postgraduates and early career researchers, to discuss questions such
as:
The Past:
·
The theorisation of literary and aesthetic study in the University from Kant,
Schlegel and Schiller through to Matthew Arnold, I. A. Richards, and F. R.
Leavis, and beyond.
·
The formation and history of English departments, their role within the
university, the theorisation of pedagogy in English departments and attendant
questions of canon and canonization.
·
The history of the relationship between research and teaching in the
University.
The
Present
Guest Speaker:
Professor Derek Attridge.
Chair: Dr
Andrew van der Vlies.
·
The role of theory today.
·
Interdisciplinarity.
·
The archival turn and material culture.
·
Distant reading.
·
The ethical turn.
·
The usefulness or otherwise of such terms, ‘turns’, and
terminology?
·
English departments and creative writing.
·
The politics of English studies, for researchers, teachers, and students,
today.
The
Future
·
Digital humanities.
·
The role of creativity in English research and
teaching.
·
‘Post-criticism’.
Proposals, of a
maximum of 300 words, including a short biography (maximum 100 words), for
twenty-minute papers, as well as queries and comments, should be addressed to:
artofenglishconference@gmail.com.
The deadline for
submissions will be Thursday 28 February 2013.
