Welcome to our latest round up of events, opportunities and schemes that may help you meet collaborators, improve your career prospects or simply broaden your horizons.
Please let us know if you have any suggestions for the next edition via sed-web@qmul.ac.uk
From QMUL, Partners & Friends
Last QUORUM of 2021/22: Family Tree by Dr Mojisola Adebayo (QMUL)
Wednesday 29 June | Soft start at 18:30 BST with a presentation starting at 19:00 BST via Zoom
Mojisola Adebayo (playwright, performer, producer, director and Lecturer in Drama, Theatre and Contemporary Performance, at Queen Mary, University of London), will read extracts from her latest play, Family Tree with a discussion about the research process, from and through community gardens in Berlin graveyards, to a former hospital in South London and petri dishes in science labs. This practice-as-research project is part of her White Climate: Afriquia Literatures and Agri/cultural Practices research fellowship, at University of Potsdam, Germany.
Danielle Jawando will be visiting us, to read from her work and take part in a Q&A, hosted by Dr Hetta Howes. Danielle’s debut YA novel And the Stars Were Burning Brightly was shortlisted for numerous awards and her new novel, When Our Worlds Collided, has been described as “a raw, unflinching and powerful story.” Centring on a shooting in Manchester, it explores the deep-rooted prejudice and racism that exists within the police, the media and the rest of society. Refreshments will be served in The Pavilion from 5:30-6, and after the event.
Raging Sea Pathologies of Solitude Project Final Exhibition and Event on Tuesday 5th July
The Old Church, Stoke Newington Church Street N16 9ES 5pm – Late Performances 6pm
This event is free but registration is required. Please book a ticket on ourEventbritehere.
This event is a celebration of art, poetry and storytelling by people with lived experience of migration. It features works created in projects organised in collaboration with Hackney Migrant Centre.
Masculinity does not exist, only masculinities. Identity doesn’t exist, only identities. We live in a promising world of gender expression and exploration, where how you define yourself can take on multiple forms. In this plural world, On the Verge explores the tipping point, highlighting the artists, designers, and performers, questioning the norms of masculine and feminine identity and the possibilities to come. Let a thousand genders bloom.
I Can Make You a Man – A guided tour of the Theatre and Performance Galleries 18.45, 19.45, 20.45 Meet at Gallery 102, Leighton
In this performed tour, artist Nando Messias activates selected items in the galleries, mixing personal stories with theatre history. I Can Make You a Man plays with the notion of gender as fiction, how it is constructed —‘made’ — on stage and how gender-nonconformingindividuals are often coerced – ‘made’ – to comply. @nancymessias
Don your best pyjamas and spend an evening exploring Museum of the Home, as we open our Festival of Sleep with a house party like never before.
Be first to experience what we have in store for the festival. From our famous Rooms Through Time re-styled to explore folklore, traditions, myths and magic connected to sleep through the centuries, to installations exploring how home environments affect sleep today, there’s so much on offer.
Book ahead for free Liberty Festival: Symposium on 22 July
Join us for an insightful day of presentations and conversations from artists industry and experts as part of Liberty Festival which showcases work by D/deaf and disabled artists, including:
Suzanne Alleyne, ‘The Power of Difference’
A Manifesto for 2.8 Million Minds
Raymond Antrobus
An anti-ablist approach to teaching with Paul Morrow
You are invited to complete an online questionnaire looking at the emotions, coping styles and future plans of UK university students. Data from this questionnaire will be analysed for a MSc dissertation project by Cami Daeninck (Imperial College London), supervised by Dr Ans Vercammen and Dr Vasiliki Kioupi.
Any student currently completing an undergraduate or postgraduate degree within the UK is eligible to complete the questionnaire, which will take approximately 7-9 minutes to complete. Responses will remain anonymous. Respondents are asked to provide consent but can withdraw at any time.
Should you have any questions, feel free to reach out to co-investigator Cami Daeninck at cami.daeninck21@imperial.ac.uk.
All respondents have the option to be entered to win 1 of 4 £10 Grind Coffee e-gift cards!
As the data collection period is brief, we ask you to please complete the questionnaire at your earliest convenience. You are welcome to forward the survey link to any other UK-based students who might be willing to take part.
Mind the Gap LGBTQIA+ Research Conference – 30 July [online, with in-person London networking] A free, online, interdisciplinary PGR-focused conference on LGBTQIA+ research and community.
Hear artist Mahmoud Khaled and writer Omar Kholeif speak about the new work in the exhibition and Mahmoud’s interest in queering the museological notions of a house museum.
Welcome to our latest round up of events, opportunities and schemes that may help you meet collaborators, improve your career prospects or simply broaden your horizons.
Please let us know if you have any suggestions for the next edition via sed-web@qmul.ac.uk
From QMUL, Partners & Friends
Finishing your studies at QMUL or simply want to have a productive summer? Talk to QMUL Careers Consultant: Charlotte Brown: Email her or book an appointment with Careers
Raging Sea
Join us for a celebration of poetry, artworks, performances and storytelling by people with lived experience of migration.
This event is a celebration of art, poetry and storytelling by people with lived experience of migration. It features works created in projects organised in collaboration with Hackney Migrant Centre.
Over the past year, the ‘Pathologies of Solitude’ project, based at Queen Mary University of London, held a series of workshops including creative writing and poetry with Rachel Long and Olumide Popoola; print making with Dima Karout; zine making with Migrants in Culture at Rabbits Road Press; storytelling with Stories in Transit, Wafa’ Tarnowska and Debsey Wykes.
The event will also feature a performance by Singing Blankets, a project that combines musical exploration, sewing and ritual.
The exhibition will be open 4th-6th July.
Paid Opportunity for Students to work on Exhibition/Event with Pathologies of Solitude research project
Pathologies of Solitude/Centre for the History of Emotiong have been running a project with Hackney Migrant Centre this year, and we are currently planning our final exhibition/ event on the 4th-6th July.
The ‘Pathologies of Solitude’ project are running an exhibition and performance event on 4th-6th July at the Old Church, Stoke Newington Church Street N16 9ES.
Roles:
Exhibition Assistant:
This role will involve helping to set up and take down the exhibits, and to act as custodian of the exhibition during opening times.
4th July 9am – 6pm
5th July 11am – 4pm
6th July 11am – 8pm
Event Assistant:
This role will involve supporting the project team to run our performance event on Tuesday 5th July. We will need people to run the bar, set up the performance space, welcome guests, and provide general support.
5th July 4pm – 11:30pm
We need 2/3 people to cover all these time slots.
Please contact Tasha Pick if you’d be interested: t.pick@qmul.ac.uk
How do we talk about the networks, communities, and infrastructures that arise from efforts to organise collectively? How does the language we use to describe radical organising affect the way we do it? And what productive conversations can be had when theory and practice are brought into dialogue?
This is the second of three ‘in-conversation’ workshops that bring academics from the humanities and social sciences into conversation with organisers and artists to unpack the challenges and opportunities afforded by different ways of thinking, talking, and theorizing about radical organising. This session will focus on the term ‘infrastructure’. The speakers are: Seb Franklin (KCL), Charlotte Lemanski (Cambridge), Catalina Pollak (Public Interventions) and Gráinne Charlton (organizer).
‘I’ll be reading from and talking about my new book, Before We Were Trans, and there’s a fantastic line-up of other queer authors including Stella Duffy, Laura Kay and Justin Myers. It starts at 6pm, and the venue is The Apple Tree Pop-Up, 30 Clerkenwell Green, EC1R 0DU. It’d be lovely to see any colleagues there if you’d like to join us: you can book tickets via the link above, and there’s a virtual option as well as an in-person one.
(Also, if you happen to be up north for any reason, I’m having a launch party for Before We Were Trans alongside a screening of the trans history film Framing Agnes on 29 June – tickets on the door – and also doing an event at the Thackray Medical Museum on 2 July.)’
In this lecture, Professor Fowler addresses the origins and impacts of Britain’s current culture war. She considers how those working on British colonial history – students, activists, academics, museum and heritage professionals – can respond effectively to these fraught public discussions. Her talk will draw on her public history work on the project ‘Colonial Countryside: National Trust Houses Reinterpreted’ and her forthcoming book, The Countryside: Ten Walks Through Colonial Britain (Penguin Allen Lane, 2023).
Join us for an exciting and ground-breaking evening where activist historians with learning disabilities talk about their work.
People with learning disabilities have been excluded from their own history more than any other group. A new generation of activist historians are working with co-researchers to lay claim to their history, and tell it their way.
Speakers include:
Paul Christian and Sue Ledger – the black history of learning disability
My Life My Choice and Lee Humber – participation of people with learning disabilities in World War I
The Antonia Grandoni Project team – Antonia Grandoni’s story: bringing the past into the present
Nathaniel Lawford and Jan Walmsley – finding Grace Eyre and the origins of Shared Lives
Panel presentations followed by audience questions and discussion
Elevate Education are currently looking for engaging and motivated people to join our team of workshop presenters in September.
The role involves delivering hour-long seminars to secondary school students on effective study skills to boost their confidence at school and help them achieve their best. This job ties in perfectly whilst studying for a performance-related degree as you get to perform to an audience every time. Plus, it pays well!
As our team is primarily made up of current university students, the role is designed to fit around your university schedule.
The starting rate is between £46-£51 for a 1-hour session + travel expenses, with the room to move up to £70 as your experience grows.
Verb Short Fiction Prize -£500, £250, £100 cash prizes
Sign up to our beta, use Verb app to write a piece of short fiction between 5000-7,500 words and be eligible for cash prizes and a lifetime Verb discount code. No fee, deadline midnight 1st August, 2022.
CILIP LGBTQ+ Network Festival of Pride & Knowledge
21st June,12.30pm. Queer Collections: LGBTQ+ Archives at Bishopsgate Institute (Stef Dickers shares highlights from the collection and the collection’s context in LGBTQ+ History)
28th June 7pm. LGBTQ+ Censorship Panel (a discussion around LGBTQ+ Censorship in Libraries and related areas).
We’re back with another journalism career virtual workshop with @BBCNews! If you’re 18+ and want to know what working in a newsroom is all about join our #bbcyoungreporterfestival al webinar
Working in theatre, or considering a career in the sector? Join us in person at the National Theatre for our masterclass on Tuesday 5 July.
Join us for our next Creative Access masterclass on Tuesday 5th July, in person at the National Theatre. Hear from a range of theatre specialists working at the National Theatre. They will discuss their respective areas of expertise spanning directing, dramaturgy, playwriting, marketing & sales, business planning and governance. Join us for a relaxed panel discussion, networking and refreshments.
Behind the Lens Introduction to Live Broadcasting & Film | Apply by Monday 8 August | Age 18-25
How To Take Up Space Women, Trans and Non Binary People in the Creative Industries Monday 22 August | Age 18-30 Gain insider tips from Pembe Tokluhan, CEO of Petok Productions on forging a career behind the scenes.
Welcome to our latest round up of events, opportunities and schemes that may help you meet collaborators, improve your career prospects or simply broaden your horizons.
Please let us know if you have any suggestions for the next edition via sed-web@qmul.ac.uk
From QMUL, Partners & Friends
Drama Research Showcase: What I’m Working On – Lunchtime Lectures in June
Please join us for our new series of weekly lunchtime lectures, in which Drama staff discuss the research they are working on. The lectures will be 25 minutes long and there won’t be any questions or discussion after – just a pleasurable dip into somebody’s research. Please do join us on Teams to hear about the rich array of research taking place across our department. We really hope that all of our students and staff will join us there.
Mad Hearts: The Arts and Mental Health – Free conference on 10-11 June
This two-day event explores productive, radical, contemporary encounters between the arts and mental health, bringing together clinical, artistic and research perspectives that offer a re-interpretation of contemporary mental health science and practice, with a view of imagining a different future.
Book here
This year’s theme is Masked/Unmasked – the wearing of physical masks to face the pandemic is a prompt to reflect on the metaphorical masks we wear to face the world, how we put these on to protect us from an unforgiving social world at the price of hiding the beauty of our differences. Interventions will examine how the arts can help us see behind the masks and sustain a new vision for mental health.
We welcome service users, mental health professionals, artists and researchers and any members of the general public interested in the way the arts can contribute to mental health.
Highlights
Onsite day – 10 June
Theatre Temoin’s work ‘NHS Yarns’ comes to Queen Mary and will be followed by a discussion panel about the pandemic and impact on NHS and other key workers
Performances and participatory creative and discussion workshops
Exhibition of selected artistic work submitted by conference participants (see here below for how to submit)
‘How to Read, Write, and Publish’ Workshop at Queen Mary
Date: Tuesday May 31, 3-5pm
Location: Arts Two Senior Common Room (on the top floor of the Arts Two building)
I’d like to invite you to an upcoming workshop led by our IHSS Distinguished Visiting Fellow John Durham Peters. This workshop, aimed at MA students, PhD students, and Early Career Researchers, will focus broadly on ways to improve your writing and address any concerns participants might have about the writing process.
All are welcome at this event, though please email me (m.rubery@qmul.ac.uk) to let me know you’re coming.
Professor Peters will also be available during his visit for individual consultations if any of you would like to meet with him. Just send me a note so that I can arrange a time.
Here’s his bio:
John Durham Peters is María Rosa Menocal Professor of English and Professor of Film and Media Studies at Yale and is the author of Speaking into the Air: A History of the Idea of Communication (1999), Courting the Abyss: Free Speech and Liberal Tradition (2005), The Marvelous Clouds: Toward a Philosophy of Elemental Media (2015), and Promiscuous Knowledge: Information, Image, and Other Truth Games in History (2020), co-authored with the late Kenneth Cmiel. He taught for thirty years at the University of Iowa before moving to Yale, and he has held visiting fellowships in England, Finland, Germany, Greece, the Netherlands, and Norway. He loves several languages, even if that love is not fully requited. For more info, see: https://english.yale.edu/people/tenured-and-tenure-track-faculty-professors/john-durham-peters
Outside QMUL
THE WHITE REVIEW SUMMER PARTY & ISSUE 33 LAUNCH
Thursday 30 June / Bold Tendencies, Peckham / Doors 6:30 pm, readings from 7:30pm / Tickets
Join us on 30 June for our annual summer party. This year, we’ll also be launching Issue 33 of The White Review. We’ll be celebrating with readings from Fahad Al-Amoudi, winner of the 2022 White Review Poet’s Prize, Claire-Louise Bennett and Amber Husain, followed by drinks at Bold Tendencies. Copies of the new issue will be available to purchase on the night. The event will take place in Bold Tendencies’ covered spaces. The downstairs concert bar will be open for ticket holders from 6:30pm and after the event has finished.
Join us this June as we throw open our doors for the British Academy’s annual two-day Summer Showcase, a free festival of ideas for curious minds. Alongside a programme of pop-up talks, workshops and performances, 12 of our researchers will bring their work to life – from livestreamed global connections and an immersive VR experience to calligraphy workshops, live woodcarving and a conspiracy kitchen.
At Toynbee Studios and online, we continue to nurture the vision of artists at all career stages: you can book Creative Support Sessions conversations with our producers; there’s a workshop to help you write your best possible application for Arts Council England’s Project Grants; and our Morning Producers gatherings offer a space for exchange and peer-led support.
Final call for participants from East and South East Asian backgrounds with a desire to discover their creative voices!
Unearthyour creative voice through a range of writing and performance exercises that will allow you to experiment with diverse forms of storytelling.
Inthe 4 workshops, you will be guided by experienced writer, actor and filmmaker Daniel York Loh (below, left) and fellow accomplished theatre director and facilitator Lexine Lee (below, right), who will support you in developing your ideas. You will then have the opportunity to share your work at the brilliant New Diorama Theatre in Euston.
Location: 12th, 19th and 20th June at Linen Hall, London, W1B 5TE 21st June at New Diorama Theatre, London, NW1 3BF
How To Participate?
Toregister interest, please complete this short questionnaire . Therewill be a fee of £20 for all 4 sessions. Places are limited!
CRIPtic x Spread the Word are pleased to announce the new season of CRIPtic x Spread the Word Writers’ Salons – bi-monthly online workshops and readings for d/Deaf and disabled writers.
The Salon aims to support, develop, promote, and feature underrepresented d/Deaf and disabled writers and be an inclusive space where these writers can be part of a community, learn, have fun and share their work.
The new season starts in June 2022 and runs through to December 2022. Each Salon will have a workshop with an invited facilitator followed by a reading and Q&A from a guest writer and an opportunity for participants to take part in an open mic (five x five mins slots will be available at each Salon).
The Salon is open to d/Deaf and disabled writers writing in any genre, new or more experienced and is hosted by Jamie Hale.
The Salon is free to attend and will take place on Zoom. The BSL interpreters are Michelle Wood and Jemima Hoadley.
Upgrade Yourself Festival powered by Squarespace on 10-11 June 2022
We’re hosting our first-ever Upgrade Yourself Festival powered by Squarespace, the all-in-one online platform for creators. The festival grants exclusive access to trailblazing creatives and experts via talks, workshops and mentoring sessions.
For creatives aged 16-24, Upgrade Yourself Festival champions expertise from across the creative and cultural sectors. Guest speakers from Run the Check, Merky Books and the Black Wellbeing Collective share the tools, hacks and skills to tackle issues such as finances and budgeting, burnout and self-care.
Wingstop, Poke House, Proper and Karma Drinks will be providing free food and drink across the weekend.
Get ahead of the curve and book your free ticket now, we’d love to see you there.
In Conversation: Literature Events at City University of London
21 June, 6-7pm, B104: In Conversation with Ayisha Malik
Ayisha Malik will be visiting us, to read from her work and take part in a Q&A, hosted by Dr Hetta Howes. Ayisha is the author of various novels including Sofia Khan is Not Obliged (described as “The Muslim Bridget Jones”) and The Movement, coming out in June, which explores the power of words – when to shut up and when to speak. Refreshments will be served in The Pavilion from 5:30-6, and after the event.
14 July, 6-7pm, B104: In Conversation with Danielle Jawando
Danielle Jawando will be visiting us, to read from her work and take part in a Q&A, hosted by Dr Hetta Howes. Danielle’s debut YA novel And the Stars Were Burning Brightly was shortlisted for numerous awards and her new novel, When Our Worlds Collided, has been described as “a raw, unflinching and powerful story.” Centring on a shooting in Manchester, it explores the deep-rooted prejudice and racism that exists within the police, the media and the rest of society. Refreshments will be served in The Pavilion from 5:30-6, and after the event.
Creativity Works: Podcasting is a 6-week immersive training programme for young people aged 18-24. If you are based in London and have an interest in storytelling and presenting then this is your sign to apply!
This year, you will have the chance to produce your own 5-10 minute podcast with an exciting creative brief set by The Migration Museum, and will learn how to make your ideas a reality!
BBC Academy Fusion invites you to AI 2022: The Conference – Automation, Algorithms and Accountability
Are you aware of what AI is, what it can do or to what degree it’s disrupting the media and journalism landscape?
Brought to you by the BBC Academy, this free online conference will explore the latest developments in the use of automation, algorithms and accountability. It will also interrogate the complex moral, legal and ethical issues they raise: the mass capture of personal data, bias, hidden environmental and social costs, plus the constant battle against fake news.
Lighting, Sound and Design Assistants,CATALYST An opportunity to work on the Donmar Warehouse’s production of The Band’s Visit. Perfect for underrepresented talent who are looking to take their first steps in the industry but are unsure how to get started.
Welcome to our latest round up of events, opportunities and schemes that may help you meet collaborators, improve your career prospects or simply broaden your horizons.
The third IHSS Annual Symposium will host Professor Helen Small followed by an in-depth discussion with Professor Simon Reid-Henry.
COVID-19 has seen the Humanities enrolled in the service of science and society. This lecture will consider efforts at articulating the public good of the Humanities in the context of the pandemic crisis and subsequent pressures on the economic and political contexts of university research. Particular attention will be paid to the terms of engagement on which some social scientists and scientists, encountering public resistance to their expertise, have sought assistance from the Humanities. Drawing on recent philosophical writing about styles of reasoning and the limits of disciplinary claims, the lecture will endeavour to explain why (even) high-level efforts at cross-disciplinary collaboration often falter—and identify ways of alleviating the difficulties.
Sophie Ellis-Bextor, DIY sperm banks, pole dancing comedians and personal experiences of vaginisimus will all feature in this year’s festival. We have planned Work in Progress Scratch nights, writing workshops, film screenings and tons more. We are extremely proud of this programme and we hope to see lots of our devoted Figs in Wigs followers there, supporting new, exciting and incredible work.
What is the relationship between sound and social justice?
Featuring rapper & activist: Lowkey MC
» Tickets are now availablevia the Brighton Fringe website here«
A two-day event hosting a variety of speakers, panels and workshops including academics, artists, and activists. At the University of Brighton (UK) on Friday 27th and Saturday 28th May. Themes include:
Rap Soundsystems Mixtapes
Protest Gentrification Neoliberalism
Borders Soundscapes Decolonising
And many more!
You can find the full conference programme here. The conference is in-person, we will be announcing online participation closer to the time, you can keep your eye on the websites for news.
Your ticket gives you access to all sessions across that day and includes an all vegan/vegetarian lunch.
Organised by Wanda Canton in collaboration with the Centre for Applied Philosophy, Politics and Ethics and Brighton Fringe Festival.
Global city leaders will explore how culture is addressing urgent challenges at this free online event from the World Cities Culture Forum and University of the Arts London (UAL).
Freedom Seekers of London – 24 May
Performative interventions in the London, Sugar & Slavery gallery through poetry and art
We warmly invite you to join us for the activist/aesthetics reading group, an interdisciplinary effort at the University of Cambridge concerned with the intersections of material culture and political organizing in the 20th century. Our approach is comparative, multi-disciplinary, and discussion based, and we welcome scholars from all backgrounds.
This term we will meet to discuss Painting (25th May), Theatre (8th June), and Textiles (22nd June). Meetings will be held online onWednesdays at 5pm GMT.
Please find attached our flyer with initial readings (more to come!). Should you wish to join us, please write to ac919@cam.ac.ukto sign up. We hope to see you there!
Our alumnus Um-E-Aymen Babar has been awarded the prestigious Hugh Cudlipp student journalism prize, for an article which includes parts of her thesis written at Queen Mary.
After graduating from our School of English with a First Class Honours, in 2021 Aymen went on to the University of Cambridge for a Masters researching sports in the South Asian subcontinent. Aymen’s studies fuelled her interest in how sport intersects with race and class, which has now become the focus of her award-winning journalism.
This month, Aymen won the Hugh Cudlipp Student Journalist Award and a £1,500 cash prize. A joint initiative of the London Press Club and Daily Mirror, the honour was created to recognise a student who has made an outstanding contribution to journalism, as well as exploring an issue of public interest or concern which exemplifies lucid and graphic communication.
Aymen was awarded the prize following her journalistic debut in The Nightwatchman, Wisden’s quarterly collection of essays and long-form articles. She wrote a hard-hitting commentary on the effects of the Azim Rafiq racism scandal, which included parts of her thesis written during her time studying at Queen Mary.
Reflecting on her journey to this achievement, Aymen said: “I had a passion for English Literature from a young age and really enjoyed studying it at Queen Mary University of London. I was able to explore texts ranging from Chaucer to post-colonial texts by Anita Desai. In my final year, when I was supervised by Professor David Colclough, I became interested in sport literature and wrote my thesis on C.L.R. James’ Beyond a Boundary.
“I want to take this opportunity to thank the School of English and Drama, and in particular my wonderful supervisor Professor David Colclough, for all his continued support. These achievements would not have been possible without them, and I would also like to extend my support to all the institutional and structural challenges that academic staff are facing in higher education.”
The Cudlipp judges called Aymen’s work “a brave, poignant, well-researched and timely piece that asks as many questions as it answers about systemic racism”. They also praised her for “preaching outside the choir, by speaking to readers of Wisden’s cricket magazine in the wake of the Azeem Rafiq racism scandal”.
Dr Suzanne Hobson, Head of the Department of English at Queen Mary, said: “This is wonderful news, and we would all like to congratulate Aymen on her very well-deserved success. English is a key part of our curriculum and research culture at Queen Mary, so it’s fantastic to see one of our graduates go on to receive this prestigious prize. We are proud to have been a part of Aymen’s journey so far and excited to see where her career goes next.”
Welcome to our latest round up of events, opportunities and schemes that may help you meet collaborators, improve your career prospects or simply broaden your horizons.
Please let us know if you have any suggestions for the next edition via sed-web@qmul.ac.uk
From QMUL, Partners & Friends
Don’t forget your last chance to ask questions on Tue 17 May at 11am before the EC deadline on 23rd May. Join on Teams / Add to Calendar
Enter to win a £50 voucher and get your design on our new 2022 tote bag. Enter and more info
Professor Thomas W. Laqueur – Pathologies of Solitude Distinguished Visiting Fellow – May 2022 Programme of Events
Professor Thomas Laqueur, based at Berkeley, University of California, is the author of Making Sex: Body and Gender from the Greeks to Freud (1990), Solitary Sex: A Cultural History of Masturbation (2003), and The Work of the Dead: A Cultural History of Mortal Remains (2015), among many others.
This month, Professor Thomas Laqueur is the Distinguished Visiting Fellow with the ‘Pathologies of Solitude’ project at Queen Mary, University of London. All are welcome to these events, but booking is required. Please register using the links below.
The 2003 publication of Solitary Sex: A Cultural History of Masturbation stimulated academic and popular discussions about masturbation which have increased our understanding of this under-discussed human behaviour. This paper revisits the arguments of the book in the light of these discussions and considers the implications of solitary sex – its practice, its reputation, its friends and enemies – for the history of human solitariness in general.
Co-sponsored by ‘Pathologies of Solitude Project’, Centre for 18th Century Studies, Sexual Cultures Research Group (SED)
This lecture argues that the gaze of the dog, grounded in evolution and appropriated by visual artists in the western tradition, offers a way of representing being seen – being regarded as worth regard – as a defence against loneliness both as a species and as social beings.
All welcome but registration is required.
Individual Student Meetings
Professor Laqueur is also available to meet individually with students. Please choose one slot on this Doodle poll:
Do you have an interesting story about Bow? Maybe from your recent past, or from your family history? Roman Road Trust is rediscovering Bow Heritage Trail – and we want to hear from you!
Join Bread Theatre and Film Company for a film screening and discussion with filmmaker Logan Dandridge.
Bread Theatre and Film Company (IG: bread_london) are delighted to host Breaking Bread with Logan Ryland Dandridge, an experimental filmmaker and Assistant Professor of film at Syracuse University College of Visual & Performing Arts.
Logan Dandridge is an artist from Richmond, Virginia, USA. His films interpret the nuances of African American culture through the poetics and aesthetics of experimental cinema. As a filmmaker, cultural referencing, nostalgia, and religion are themes explored in his work. His research interrogates various histories through a combination of assemblage, superimposition, and multi-channel orientation.
Join us on 27th May at Basement Gallery @candidartstrust at 7.30 pm for a gathering that will provide a chance to see and discuss new work-in-progress that Logan has been developing through the course of his Cavendish Arts Science residency at Cambridge.
More information about Logan’s work can be found on Cavendish Arts Science’s website.
We welcome you back to Scratch, Crackle & POP!, our seasonal scratch night showcasing the work of writers, performers and poets in the early stages of development, giving audiences a taste of upcoming and developing shows.
Want to get involved?
Applications for the June scratch night are now OPEN.
Please send the following information to emma@poplarunion.com by Monday 16 May for the chance to take part:
• The type & length of piece (must last no longer than 15 minutes)
• Max 100 words description of the piece (this doesn’t have to be too polished and can be a list of ideas, themes or questions you are exploring)
• Links to previous/current work (eg. YouTube/Vimeo/Tumblr etc) or/and social media links (if applicable)
• Basic tech requirements
All applicants shall receive a response by Friday 20 May. The event will take place on Tuesday 14 June.
Outside QMUL
PR and Communications Assistant at Social Streets C.I.C
Social Streets is looking for a PR & Communications Assistant to work alongside the founder and director of Social Streets C.I.C Tabitha Stapely.
The initial contract is for three months to assist in the promotion of our print publications, our online membership and our work to lobby the government for policy that supports sustainable local journalism. Starting immediately.
City of Stories Home celebrates London’s libraries as places to make and share stories, and is run as a partnership between London Libraries and Spread the Word.
Throughout June, the City of Stories Home sees 33 free events for writers and readers taking place in every London borough and the City of London to celebrate the launch of the City of Stories Home Anthology. The Anthology features over 70 short stories written by London writers on the theme of home. 63 of the anthology stories features winning and highly commended writers from the City of Stories Home writing competition which was open to London writers who attended a free City of Stories Home workshop in February.
At the events you’ll be able to:
Take part in a creative writing taster session;
Hear local authors read their stories;
Pick up a free copy of the Anthology, and
Find out how libraries can support you as a reader and writer.
As part of this event, Merve Emre will be interviewed by Sarah Edwards, a PhD candidate at UCL studying contemporary feminist essays. The interview will focus on Emre’s upcoming book titled Post-Discipline: Literature, Professionalism, and the Crisis of the Humanities, and the recent publication of The Annotated Mrs. Dalloway (2021). However, the interview will also touch on Emre’s earlier works such as Paraliterary: The Making of Bad Readers in Postwar America (2017) and her work on the contemporary essay.
The event will take place at 5pm on the 1st June in the ‘IAS Forum’ which is situated within UCL’s Institute of Advanced Studies.
The event is free to attend but you must book a place at this event on Eventbrite prior to attending. The Eventbrite link can be found here.
If you have any questions you would like to ask Merve Emre, please feel free to contact sarah.edwards.19@ucl.ac.uk with your question by 5pm on the 25th May and she will try to incorporate them into the interview.
TALK 2 DAN – Bridge the Gap between Employer & Young Creative
Talk 2 Dan in partnership with Camden Open Air Gallery brings you ‘Bridge the Gap between Employer & Young Creative.’
Come meet our media partners ranging from BBC Sport, Roundhouse, Sony Music, BBC Radio 1/1Xtra, BBC Studios Productions, the award winning ERIC app & more!
Welcome to our latest round up of events, opportunities and schemes that may help you meet collaborators, improve your career prospects or simply broaden your horizons.
We are so excited to announce the collaboration between History Soc, Geography Soc, Peach Magazine, The Print, CUB Magazine, QMTC and English Society to bring you a Humanities Ball on the 27 May!
It will be taking place from 7-11pm in the Octagon, Mile End Campus.
Dress Code: Formal/Black tie. Cultural clothing is also welcome.
Ticket Prices: £23 for members of all participating societies and £26 for non-members (this includes non-qmul students).
Included in the ticket price is a finger buffet, a glass of Prosecco on entry and half a bottle of wine per person (non-alcoholic alternatives will be provided). There will also be a bar to buy additional drinks from.
The buffet will be Halal and will have Vegetarian and Vegan options. There will also be allergen cards.
There will be a DJ, a dance floor and a photobooth to capture memories from the evening.
Would you like to be part of our Queer Makers Market?! Do you make sexy queer zines? Design weird & wonderful clothes? Maybe you’re part of a queer charity or small collective?
If you would like a stall at our Queer Summer Fayre, happening at Hackney Bridge on Saturday 18th June get in touch with us!!!
Join us at the London Train to Teach event on Saturday 11 June 2022, from 10am until 2:30pm for support on your journey to the classroom.
Want to know what it feels like to stand in front of a class? Interested in what qualifications you need?
Discover the answers to all your questions and receive tailored information to give you all the confidence you need to decide to become a great teacher.
Access to start-up training Want to be your own boss? Access a free e-learning hub to get the resources you need to begin your entrepreneurial journey. Created in partnership with Launch It, the Next Generation programme is part of the UK’s Community Renewal Fund. It aims to give thousands of young people in London, aged 18-24 the support to start a business. Sign up to Next Generation by Enterprise Nation and Launch It to access free training, events, content access to advisers, peer groups, funding and more. Sign up and be in with the chance of winning £2,000 for your start-up Apply now >
DIF – Allia Accelerator Challenge Allia is partnering with DIF Capital Partners to support social enterprise and purpose led businesses by providing 6-months of mentoring support from the DIF team and a grant cash prize pool of £30k to be shared with three finalists. All social enterprises, charities, tech for good ventures, and impact businesses are eligible to apply to be part of this unique opportunity. Closing date: 9th May 2022Find out more >
Free webinar – Harness the Power of Social Media With many small businesses having to rethink their marketing strategy to align with the changing landscape, social media has become more crucial than ever before. This comprehensive London Business Hub virtual workshop is designed to transform your strategy with changing consumer habits and walk you through everything you need to know; from starting a social media campaign, creating online content, engaging with your target audience and evaluating your campaign effectiveness. Packed with tips and insights from our social media expert, you will leave with the knowledge to effectively leverage your social media channels to stay visible, connect with new and existing customers and generate future business opportunities. Thursday 26th May, 10am – 4.30pmRegister now >
C
ommunity Business Crowd Match Programme Community Businesses in England that are crowdfunding new initiatives and projects can receive match funding from Power to Change up to a maximum of £10,000. The funding can be used to help launch new ideas to help local neighbourhoods, help meet increased demand, save community spaces or help bridge a funding gap. The match funding will be on a £ for £ basis. Power to Change are particularly keen to support new and existing projects in more deprived areas of the country, and to work with communities experiencing racial inequity across England. Applications to the Community Business Crowd Match Programme can be made at any time. Find out more >
Join us at the Creative & Cultural Futures showcase to celebrate the creative minds from The London Borough of Tower Hamlets through an evening of artistic and interactive exhibitions. The London Borough of Tower Hamlets has been working with Allia Impact to provide grant funding to creative freelancers from the borough. The Creative and Cultural Futures project has provided direct support to creative and cultural industry freelancers. Grant funding has been given to freelancers to help them adapt and develop their businesses with additional workshops and 1-to-1 professional support provided by Allia Impact. Participants who came on the programme are from a wide range of creative industries such as artists, musicians, filmmakers, photographers, dancers, and sculptors. Allia Impact in partnership with The London Borough of Tower Hamlets would like to invite fellow creatives and cultural organisations to this showcase to celebrate the end of this 5-month project by giving our participants the opportunity to exhibit their creative projects. Date: Saturday 28th May 2022, 6pm – 9pmLocation: WappArt, Gauging Square, 150 Vaughan Way, London, E1W 2AHBook your place >
Market engagement sessions for café operators Do you run a food business in Tower Hamlets and are you looking for a new opportunity? The Council is holding market engagement sessions to get feedback from food businesses on the commercial catering offer for the New Town Hall in Whitechapel, and St Georges Town Hall in Shadwell. This is not a tender or a competition, but an exercise to allow the Council to get feedback from the market; to raise awareness and inform upcoming opportunities. Three hour-long sessions are taking place on Thursday 19 May (10-11am, 11am-12pm, 12pm-1pm) at the Town Hall, Mulberry Place, Clove Crescent. Please register your place before Monday 16 May. Book your place >
Safety App Safe Up is a women’s safety initiative that supports women to get home safe, there are two key aspects of their offer: Members (women) sign up to the app and can find locations (safe spots) when they feel at unease. Businesses can sign up to provide safe spaces for members. Find out more > Useful email contacts: Business SupportHigh Streets and Town CentresHealth and SafetyBusiness RatesLicensingMarkets Register for Enterprise Business Support The council’s Enterprise Team provides a number of projects to support new and established businesses. Register for support. size=2 width=”100%” align=center> Did you know that Tower Hamlets offers other email newsletters to keep you up to date on a variety of topics? See the list and sign up!
Calling all local creatives! Women of the Wick is thrilled to launch a new Storytelling Programme for creative freelancers & entrepreneurs followed by a printed zine supported by @foundationforfuturelondon.
Want to see your short film on the big screen at Sheffield DocFest 2022? We’ve teamed up with The Associated Press to present the 1-Minute Archive Film Competition, and challenge you to make a minute-long film using footage from the AP archive. £1000 cash prize for the winning film; Winning film selected by our 2022 Guest Curator, Asif Kapadia; Top 3 films will screen at this year’s edition of Sheffield DocFest – taking place 23-28 June 2022. The competition is open to all entrants around the world aged 18 and over. No previous experience is required, so whether you’re a seasoned professional or just interested in trying your hand at something new – get involved!
ArtFund has partnered with Van Gogh House in Brixton, London to bring you five paid opportunities to work with artist Harold Offeh on his upcoming exhibition ‘Nineteen to Twenty’. The exhibition will explore themes of migration within young communities in Brixton, using Van Gogh’s migration from Holland to London at aged 19 as inspiration. This part-time role will run from September to December and is ideal for those aged 19-24 with personal links to migration, who are keen to connect their experiences to the exhibition while working on a range of responsibilities as Community Engagement Guides.
Sunday 15 May Fairytales For Lost Children – Diriye Osman
Monthly book club focused on queer authors on a range of topics. Each month we’ll discuss a title and offer readers the chance to suggest the next month’s read.
There’s also the opportunity to have a non-alcoholic drink, make new friends and socialise after the book discussion.
TRAILERFARM A games studio based in Brighton, meet the team and learn about the different jobs in Gaming. They also currently have 3 entry-level opportunities available. Check them out and apply on the ERIC app. Watch the session here.
Financial Times One of the world’s leading news organisations, recognised internationally for it’s authority, integrity and accuracy. Interested in the journalism & media world, this session is worth watching! Watch the session here.
Renaissance Studios Come meet and get to know this female run production company based in Brixton. They create everything from TV, Film, Ads AND have recently partnered with Netflix & Channel 4 to help create more inclusive & diverse content. They also have their Creative Clinic coming up, full of workshops and events for young creatives 16th-20th of May. Watch the session here.
BBC Sport Part of BBC, BBC Sport covers everything from football to skateboarding, the Olympics to skiing. In this session you’ll meet 4 different people from across the company who share their career journey and how you can get into Media too. Watch the session here.
Framestore Known globally for their visual effects, they have created scenes for some of the biggest productions including Marvel films, Harry Potter, Paddington Bear., the list goes on. In this session you will learn all about the VFX & animation industry and learn how you could work in this growing industry. Watch the session here.
28-29 May – 10:00-22:00 Daily – In-person in the People’s Palace Great Hall at QMUL Mile End
This May, Queen Mary Arts and Culture hosts Europe’s biggest Bollywood Dance Convention, bringing together the best choreographers, YouTubers and influencers from around the world.
Bollywood Dance Festival celebrates all forms of South Asian, Bollywood and Indian classical dance across 24 masterclasses led by a spectacular line-up of Bollywood choreographers and dance icons from India, UK and the USA. The convention is curated and produced by Bollywood Choreographer Naz Choudhury alongside internationally acclaimed dance company Bolly Flex.
Masterclasses will be held in 90-minute sessions throughout the weekend. Pick and choose a masterclass, or stay for the weekend! – classes are open to all, and you don’t need any previous experience with dance to take part.
Click here for clips from featured choreographers including: Karthik Priyadarshan and Mohan Pandey of Kings United India, the World of Dance Champions; from the USA, Youtube dance sensations Anisha Babar and Swara Karulkar; India’s most popular viral dance icons Himanshu Dulani & Alex Badad; classically trained dance sensation Kumar Sharma; popular film TV dancing star Pery Sheetal; south of India reality TV dance icon Naval Arasan from B-Fab; Mumbai’s finest Akanksha Sharma and Muskan Singh, who recently appeared in India’s Best Dancer…
Mad Hearts – The Arts and Mental Health Masked/Unmasked10 June – In-person at QMUL Mile End and 11 June 2022 – Online (Zoom)
This two-day event explores productive, radical, contemporary encounters between the arts and mental health, bringing together clinical, artistic and research perspectives that offer a re-interpretation of contemporary mental health science and practice, with a view of imagining a different future.
Wednesday 11 May 2022 – 3-4.30pm – In-person – ArtsTwo Senior Common Room In-person seminar on ‘Queer Ecology’ led by Dennis Denisoff, one of our Distinguished Visiting Fellows.
Queer ecology studies engages with the sexual, sensual, and affective relations among the organic and inorganic, while also problematizing distinctions between the natural and unnatural. Sexuality, gender, trans, and affect studies engage with, among other things, animality studies, Anthropocene studies, deep green religion, and notions of urban, frontier, and Indigenous ecologies.
George Makari’s book, Of Fear and Strangers: A History of Xenophobia (2021) traces the history of xenophobia from its origins to the present day. To discuss diverse experiences of xenophobia, past and present, Makari will be joined by David Feldman (Director, Birkbeck Institute for the Study of Antisemitism), Thomas W Laqueur (Berkeley), Akshi Singh (Queen Mary University of London).
Decadence, Paganism, and the Environment – In-Person & Online
The School of English and Drama at Queen Mary – University of London is pleased to hosta conversation with Dennis Denisoff (Tulsa), Stefano Evangelista (Oxford) and Alex Murray(Queen’s, Belfast).
Please register via the button below to get the Zoom link or a seat in person.
14 June Groundbreakers: A Living Maps Network events programme focused on the history and heritage of the Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park site for the 10th anniversary of the Park opening.
Daniel Oliver (Drama) will be presenting his board-game about performance art and time travel at CLAY in Leeds on 6 May Find out more
Michael Craske (English)’s essay on Edmund Gosse’s malign influence on Swinburne studies is available in the latest issue of the International Walter Pater Society’s journal.Read more
Queen Mary Arts and Culture (Run by Aoife Monks (Drama) and Molly McPhee) launches new Assistant Producers programme
Listen to the BBC series One Direction on the points of the compass Author Jerry Brotton (English Department) presents a five-part series exploring each of the four cardinal directions in turn – north, east, south and west – and the possibility that, in the age of digital mapping, we are being left disoriented.
Contributors include: Google spatial technologist Ed Parsons, historian Sujit Sivasundaram, neuroscientist Hugo Spiers, author Rana Kabbani, journalist and editor for Bloomberg City Maps Laura Bliss and many more mapaholics.
On 28 April David Duff spoke at the Faculty of Addictions annual conference at the Royal College of Psychiatrists. He was part of an interdisciplinary panel celebrating the bicentenary of the publication of Thomas De Quincey’s Confessions of an English Opium-Eater. His fellow panellists were the historian Lucy Inglis, author The Milk of Paradise: A History of Opium, and the psychiatrist Sir John Strang, Director of the National Addiction Centre, who described De Quincey’s Confessions as ‘the greatest book in the world ever written about addiction’.
David argued that it was also a masterpiece of Romantic literature, inspired by Wordsworth’s autobiographical poetry and by the myth of drug-induced creativity in Coleridge’s ‘Kubla Khan’. David’s PhD student Hannah Donovan is writing about dreams in De Quincey and every year his undergraduates do group projects on the Confessions as part of the Romantics and Revolutionaries module. He was pleased to hear professional psychiatrists expressing similar enthusiasm for De Quincey’s extraordinary book.
Alumni Round Up
Chloe Borthwick (Drama BA) is presenting their show Christ Alive! at Camden People’s Theatre. The show is a miraculous encounter with the son of God. The power of comedy music drama compels you.
Not everything is as it seems. This show is less about Jesus, more about faith, love, and expectation. Jesus shows us that miracles can be actualised with simple belief, the glory of song, and a perfectly executed punchline. Crazy holy good.
Welcome to our latest round up of events, opportunities and schemes that may help you meet collaborators, improve your career prospects or simply broaden your horizons.
Want to learn professional filming skills for free?
The Verbatim Formula, a project for care-experienced young people, is creating a short film to inspire more people to become foster carers.
But to be able to do this…we need your help! We are holding 3 workshop sessions in which you get to learn filming skills and share your creative ideas!
1. Film Scripting and Storyboarding workshop: writing and planning the film. (open to 6 young people)
Saturday 7th May, 11-4pm
Location: Battersea Arts Centre
2. Filming weekend: capturing sound and images (open to 6 young people)
Saturday 21st and Sunday 22nd May, 11-6pm
Location: Battersea Arts Centre on Saturday and Sunday TBC.
In this talk, I will reflect on more than ten years of engagement with the Theater an der Ruhr, a public-private theatre founded in the early 1980s by the Italian philosopher, actor, director, and clown Roberto Ciulli and two companions, the dramaturge and philosopher Helmut Schäfer and the late stage designer Gralf-Edzard Habben. Since its outset, the theatre has reacted against the aesthetic and political overdetermination of artistic production by a statist cultural logic. This theatre formed labour conditions and a proto-universal stage philosophy of a bastard theatre without fatherland and mother tongue.
Free exhibition near QMUL’s Whitechapel Campus: ‘Damned If I Do’ – A group show of 6 international female artists
Damned if I do; damned if I don’t. A paradox of daily existence surrounding the haunted doublings that emerge from society’s double standards. The virgin-whore, the untouchable priestess, the innocent temptress. A series of female archetypes, their potential power held in check by social conditions.
The exhibition Damned If I Do challenges the social straightjacketing of the patriarchal system, bringing together work across a range of media by a group of women artists exploring the female experience, the body, and the gaze. The artists challenge and subvert the hypersexualisation of the female body in Western culture, looking to undermine problematic art historical tropes and traditions surrounding the female nude.
Talk: Body Mapping and Social Memory Technology fighting VAWG
Visit our exhibition and participate in the talk about resisting gendered urban violence in Rio de Janeiro and London! At The Exchange, @kingscollegelon 5th May, 6 pm to 8 pm Talk: Body Mapping and Social Memory Technology fighting VAWG
Professor Bill Bell (Cardiff University): ‘Mobility and Meaning: Libraries at Sea and the Problem of the Reader’
This talk will examine a range of mobile libraries established between 1830 and 1918 in order to determine whether the intentions of their founders aligned with their use by readers. A quantity of archival evidence exists for the libraries of convicts, soldiers, and polar explorers, for example, relating not only to the imperatives of their organisers but also to the reading practices of their users. How was reading transformed on the move and in the field and what implications does this have for the role of the library in a colonial context?
This is an in-person event at the Warburg Institute, Woburn Square, London WC1H 0AB, Tuesday 10 May, 5:30PM – 7:00PM
Tate Modern Lates – This month celebrates South Asian artists and creatives with a programme curated in collaboration with artist Chila Kumari Singh Burman.
What should the studio look like? How do we get there? What happens along the way?
Created by Duchamp & Sons, Whitechapel Gallery’s youth collective, this one day takeover invites you to see the studio through the eyes and ears of young artists. Choose your own path through temporary installations, sound works, activities and spaces for creativity and rest.
This event is open to all ages and marks the culmination of three months of exploration and collaboration between our youth collective, Duchamp & Sons, artist Shepherd Manyika and guest artist Ben Connors.
‘Community Building and Artivism’ is a FREE 3-month programme delivered weekly for 16-25 year olds, with connections to East London.
Each session will be 2 hours of fun and creation! We will conclude the series with 2 full days of art-making. Our programme will use a variety of different methods and creative tools, allowing participants to develop their creative skills, explore personal identities, learn about the power of Artivism (when art and activism combine to bring awareness of social issues), and discuss community issues. All of this will lead to the collaborative creation of an Artivist exhibition, set to open later in the year.
This project has been developed following the success of our pilot workshop held in July 2021 at the London Festival of Ideas. It will be held in person at St. Margaret’s House.
For creative practitioners, archives can be a goldmine of inspiration – but knowing where to start can be a struggle in itself. Join writer and director Clodagh Chapman for this practical insight into making new work from history. Aimed at historians and creatives alike, this workshop will arm you with the tools you need to start creating your own work.
This workshop is being run alongside Ladyfriends – a new show about queer history and lesbian period dramas, playing at Camden People’s Theatre on the 6th and 7th May 2022. It’s supported using public funding by the National Lottery through Arts Council England.
Are you interested in queer history, heritage and archives? Like meeting new people and increasing your professional networks?
We are looking for volunteers to gather a total of 30 stories about the Gender Identity Research and Education Society (GIRES) over summer 2022, for GIRES’ Legacy of Kindness project.
Volunteers will be interviewing a range of people who have been connected with GIRES from the 1990s to present. You will record these rich and vibrant stories to inform the archive, events and exhibition outputs.
Welcome to our latest round up of events, opportunities and schemes that may help you meet collaborators, improve your career prospects or simply broaden your horizons.
Thursday 23 June 2022, 6.00pm, followed by a wine reception
Peston Lecture Theatre, the Graduate Centre, Queen Mary, University of London, Mile End, E1 4NS
Free, but registration is essential. Book here(rsml2022.eventbrite.co.uk)
In this lecture, Professor Fowler addresses the origins and impacts of Britain’s current culture war. She considers how those working on British colonial history – students, activists, academics, museum and heritage professionals – can respond effectively to these fraught public discussions. Her talk will draw on her public history work on the project ‘Colonial Countryside: National Trust Houses Reinterpreted’ and her forthcoming book, The Countryside: Ten Walks Through Colonial Britain (Penguin Allen Lane, 2023).
We are delighted to announce ‘Pushing Culture into Politics’, a one-day symposium on Tuesday 28th June 2022 organised by the London Arts and Humanities Partnership and Royal Central School of Speech and Drama.
We welcome contributions from humanities and social science scholars at all career stages to this interdisciplinary event focused on how research in the humanities can play a role in shaping and propagating radical alternatives to the political status quo. The day will conclude with a keynote from Gargi Bhattacharyya (Professor of Sociology, University of East London).
More details about the event and applying to contribute can be found here.
The deadline to send a proposal by email to tom.cornford@cssd.ac.uk is Tuesday 3rd May 2022.
We are excited to invite you to the second ECR Work in Progress at the School of English and Drama on the 28th of April at 5.30pm! We will have with us Dr Rebecca Menmuir, please find the abstract of her presentation below:
‘A conspicuous nasus’: sniffing out forgery in the medieval pseudo-Ovidian De Vetula
In British Library, Harley MS 5263, the majuscule ‘O’ of De Vetula’s opening word – ‘Ouidius’– contains an illumination of a familiar figure: Ovidius Naso, made unmistakable by the contouring of what Dorothy Robathan has termed ‘a conspicuous nasus’. Ovid and his nose loom large over De Vetula, and with a book in hand Ovid’s figure is the very image of authority. And yet De Vetula is not genuinely Ovid, but a forgery. In this paper, I investigate a paradox at the heart of De Vetula: the poem strives to be taken as Ovidian at the same time as being an unashamed fake.
As a popular pseudo-Ovidian poem of the Middle Ages, De Vetula was taken as genuinely Ovidian by many. A fourteenth-century accessus (introduction) of the Metamorphoses uses De Vetula to comment on Ovid’s life, and parts of the poem were even read from the pulpit. The intensely authorial image of Ovid at the beginning of the Harley manuscript contributed to bolstering the text’s authenticity. Moreover, an elaborate accessus and preface trace the text back to Ovid’s own tomb. In these and other ways, the poem casts itself as immutably Ovidian. At other times, however, the poem is an obvious fake. In its language choices, in tracts on medieval mathematics and philosophy, and in the prediction of the birth of Christ, De Vetula flaunts its thirteenth-century contemporaneity.
This paradox is one seen across pseudepigrapha: Irene Peirano questions the paradox of ‘fakes that flaunt, rather than hide, their own derivativeness’ (The Rhetoric of the Roman Fake, 25). Despite this, the explosion of pseudo-Ovidiana in the medieval period prompts the question: what is it about Ovid in particular that invited imitation?
Becca is in the first year of her BA fellowship at Queen Mary: her project aims to be a book on forgeries and pseudepigrapha of Ovid from late antiquity to the early modern period, although focusing mainly on the Middle Ages. This follows on from her DPhil, which explored the medieval reception of Ovid’s exile poetry.
Sophie Ellis-Bextor, DIY sperm banks, pole dancing comedians…all this and MUCH MORE is coming to this years Calm Down, Dear Festival.
If that wasn’t enough excitement, for the very first time you can enjoy a fizzy, fresh and feminist programme curated by the hilarious, genre bending and all-round legendary performance company Figs In Wigs, who performed at the festival’s first outing back in 2013 (talk about a full circle moment!) This year’s programme spans intimate bathroom-based theatre to the vastness of space, from the past of 500 years of violence against women to a future where all men have become extinct.
Now in its ninth year, Calm Down, Dear continues to showcase some of the most exciting and innovative work exploring all forms of feminism. Highlights include Curfew, commissioned by CPT, which explores the sad, frightening, funny, and hopeful verbatim experiences of women and non binary people in public spaces at night. Meanwhile, Mummy Vs uncovers the guilt & parenting tropes in modern Britain told through the personal experiences of one unlikely parent. Returning in film form after being shared at the 2019 festival,Drink Your Pink mixes classical references from Greek mythology and fairytales with the modern world of Instagram, pop music & #MeToo. So come and summer with CPT. We promise surprise, excitement and a well-stocked and fully-airconditioned bar. Join us!
A twelve-month paid traineeship where young East Londoners are matched with committed local businesses to experience an entry-level role and produce a creative project.
Through STEP, you’ll get paid a London Living Wage or above salary over a 12-month training programme to develop a range of skills and creative approaches. Get your foot firmly in the creative industries, grow as part of a like-minded peer network, take part in monthly professional development workshops, and get a budget to boost your portfolio with a collaborative creative project.
We’ll also connect you with a specialist industry mentor, provide careers coaching and continue to offer support as part of our creative community after the programme.
Who can apply?
Young people aged 18-30
Residents of Hackney, Tower Hamlets, Newham or Waltham Forest, and went to school or college in the boroughs.
Who’s involved?
This year STEP are offering up to 30 placements in sectors including – museums and galleries, theatre and performance, fashion and design, film, TV, radio and broadcasting.
Cardboard Citizens is starting a new chapter and, following Chris Sonnex’ appointment as Artistic Director and Joint CEO
The programme includes the world premiere of Bangers, a new play by Danusia Samal, touring to hostels, day centres and prisons, ahead of a three-week run at Soho Theatre this summer; Citz Futures, a new paid placement programme; Cardboard Collective, a performing arts collective for 18 to 25-year-olds; and a relaunched Members’ workshop programme featuring guest artists, Emma Baggott, Anna Jordan and Lemn Sissay OBE.
Cardboard Citizens has an incredible history, blazing a trail in the field of arts and social justice, changing lives and challenging perceptions of people affected by homelessness. For the first time in our history, we’re opening up the programme to include people experiencing poverty and inequity, to challenge systemic causes of homelessness in the UK and redress inequality of opportunity in the performing arts industry.
Theatre and art have the most incredible capacity to change things for the better. It can give people a voice, make them feel seen and enable them to imagine new worlds, that inspire hope or rebellion or growth.
However, for people with experience of poverty or homelessness, engaging with or working in theatre for can be daunting. With our new programme, we hope to inspire individuals to access incredible theatre and we pledge to enable a new workforce of theatre professionals, opening the way to more welcoming, diverse, and vibrant industry.
An extravaganza of South Asian LGBTQIA+ performing arts and short films, celebrating wellbeing in the community. Spaces are limited, so advance booking is strongly recommended.
Travel back in time to a notorious 1920s Soho nightclub
Best start practising your Charleston, because it’s time to let loose, Jazz Age-style. For one evening only, The National Archives is bringing one of the most outrageous nightclubs of 1920s London back to life. On Friday 20 May, you’re invited to A Night At The 43.
For this exclusive Late event, The National Archives — a treasure trove of British history in west London — has joined forces with pop-up speakeasy The Candlelight Club to recreate the raucous atmosphere of The 43, which played host to some of Soho’s wildest parties during the 1920s. Get your gladrags on (flapper dresses and pinstripe suits optional, but encouraged) and prepare for a night of live jazz, cabaret and DJ sets, fuelled by curated cocktails and food by Maids of Honour. In short, it’s the bee’s knees!
More than just a party, A Night At The 43 is a chance to learn more about this vibrant era, via glimpses of The National Archives’ ongoing exhibition The 1920s: Beyond the Roar. One of the figures featured in the exhibition is The 43’s infamous owner, Kate Meyrick, who’ll be brought to life during the Late to chat to guests about her time as the ‘Nightclub Queen’ of Soho. Sounds swell, doesn’t it? Get your £12 tickets today, before they’re all gone. Let The Party Begin!
Hackney Wick Community Development Trust – Youth Coordinator
We are looking for someone with experience of inspiring young people (aged 16-24). Someone who cares about the future of Hackney Wick and can work with young people to deliver the circular economy hub and our wider mission of securing space for the community.
It is a freelance role; 2 days a week; £1000 per month for a year.
Also, we are meeting with young leaders (aged 16-24) working and living locally and our partners Rise Up East (part of Hackney CVS and Hackney Quest) to discuss the circular economy plans and the future of the neighbourhood. The meeting is 5pm – 6pm on 25th April at Trowbridge Gardens. If you or any of the young people you work with want to join please contact Justine Kenyon j.kenyon@qmul.ac.uk.
English Teaching Positions in Independent Schools for those with degree in English
We have several English teaching positions with leading independent schools in London and the South East of England from September, 2022. These are permanent positions which would entail teaching English up to A level.
Essential: An excellent academic background including an undergraduate degree in English or related discipline.
Desired: A postgraduate degree in English or related discipline (or in the midst of completing one), a background tutoring, or any experience working with children would be a bonus, however, this is certainly not essential.
The successful candidate will be able to convey his/her own enthusiasm, encourage self-motivation, and a genuine love of learning and enquiry to students of all ages. The schools in question would offer support to gain Qualified Teacher Status (QTS), and some of the roles also include assistance with accommodation. Excellent packages are on offer.
If you are enthusiastic about English and would like the opportunity to teach in a top independent school, please forward your CV asap to devra.farhi@harrishill.co.uk or please ask for Devra for an informal chat on: 020 7820 7308 or Mob: 07795 221266.
Join us for our Open House!
Join us on Thursday 21st and Friday 22nd to meet our incoming programming team for this coming year and say goodbye for now to co-Artistic Directors, Niamh and Jo! Blue Elephant’s ethos of supporting bold new work and early career artists remains at the heart of our programming, which will soon be looked after by Guillaume and Alice. After a quiet few months, we can’t wait to be looking to the future more and invite you to come meet us and see if working at the Blue Elephant is for you. Our usual agreements include a 50/50 box office split, bespoke marketing, fundraising and creative support and some free rehearsal space. We champion early career and independent artists, particularly from under-represented backgrounds, and new work. We will rarely programme productions of established scripts or work that has already had significant runs in London. If you’d like to find out more about us, join us on Zoom on Thursday 21st April from 10.30am – 11.30am or come along to the Blue Elephant from 6.15pm on Friday 22nd April.
XBOX are hosting a once in a lifetime opportunity to be mentored by key gaming leaders around the world. This opportunity is aimed at getting women into the gaming industry but the program is for everyone interested.
Spiro Digital needs you content creation skills in their Junior Content Creator role! They are a indie London-based production and marketing agency who have worked with some massive British brands such as Nando’s. Find this role on the Content Page on the ERIC App
Ocean Generation are on the lookout for a new Comms & Content Creator . If you have creative and innovative storytelling skills that can communication environmental and social issues, then this role is for you!
Framestore are accepting applications for the London Launchpad Internship 2022. If you’re ready to take the next steps to your dream job in Film, TV or animation, then this is the perfect opportunity for you.
UNDERSCORE Studios are hosting a free screenwriting workshop on May 10th to teach you how to characters with ‘3D personality’ for a more realistic performance.
Welcome to our latest round up of events, opportunities and schemes that may help you meet collaborators, improve your career prospects or simply broaden your horizons.
There are FOUR lovely shows for you to come see on the 9th & 10th of April! Please join us in Arts One for 6:30 on both nights to check your tickets.
Head over to our SU page (linked in bio) to buy your tickets. Tickets start at £5 for members with evening bundles at £7 (2 shows) and festival bundles for £13.50 (all 4!) Please check show times below and try to come 15 minutes before your show.
Want to see some brilliant Muslim poets perform their work AND donate money to a brilliant cause?
Thawra is running this Spoken Poetry Night in Ramadan to showcase the work of some of the brilliant Muslim poets that have come their way — and new ones! With 50% of ticket sales being donated to Muslim Youth Helpline, we wanted to further give back to one of the many diverse communities that we wish to represent on our platform.
Get ready for an incredible evening of poetry that explores spirituality, identity, socio-politics and highlights the importance of the literary arts!
Head over to Diaspora Speaks (qmsu.org) to buy tickets for the Tina Turner Theatre show. Buy tickets at a discount, prices vary for members and non-members. Students, staff, alumni can all join! DM Diaspora Speaks with any questions on their Instagram. Plain text version: Tina Turner Theatre trip. Date: Wednesday 20.04.2022. Time: 7:30 pm. Location 49 Aldwych London WC2 4DF buy tickets on the QMSU site or through the link in the bio (Instagram).
Event featuring our very own alumna Moa Johansson
with echoes: an open studio sharing moa johannson and an*dre neely We’re really looking forward to hosting moa johannson and an*dre neely for this relaxed afternoon of hanging out, knitting, crocheting, folding, unfolding, stretching and rearranging fabrics, reading out loud, live digital drawing. an* and moa will be sharing fragments and echoes of the last three years of collective research, and the beginning ideas and materials for an upcoming live work.
Please do RSVP to let us know you are coming. Entry (free) is anytime between 2 and 7pm, and audiences can come and go in that time. Saturday 23 April, 2-7pm > more info
Live Art Club monthly open platform “Do you have part of a new idea, an experiment in working with an audience, a way of moving your body, a series of sounds you’re excited by, an unexpected activation of the space, an interruption of tradition, guttural words that want to explode out of you, a re-performance of a forgotten idea or anything else that might look/feel/taste like Live Art?
We want to see it! Share what you’ve been working on with us at our next event on May 1st.”
Live Art Club is a monthly open platform for performance art, taking place on the 1st of the month at VSSL. It is free to attend and free to participate in.
The White Review Short Story Prize 2022, sponsored by RCW, is now open for entries.
The White Review Short Story Prize, sponsored by RCW, is an annual short story competition for emerging writers. The prize awards £2,500 to the best piece of short fiction by a writer resident in the UK & Ireland who has yet to secure a publishing deal. It is supported by the RCW Literary Agency.
Free | Booking required | Speech-to-text | Audio described
Watch a high-energy performance that reimagines our world at this time of climate crisis. Join us in this collision of cabaret and storytelling, where we’ll flirt, fight, laugh and cry our way towards a world we want to live in.
Our offer holder days are a great chance to meet students and staff from the course to get a feel for the course and inspiring community you could join.
DateTimeVirtual/on-campus Wednesday 20 April 10:30-15:30 Virtual – Booking Now Live
Free tickets for students: Hannes Schüpbach & Stephen Watts | Explosion of Words
Thursday 7 April 2022 – 6.30-7.45pm – In Person at Nunnery Gallery in Bow Chaired by Nisha Ramayya (Creative Writing at QMUL), join a panel of established speakers, writers, and academics including Stephen Watts, Hannes Schüpbach, Jo Catling, and Chris McCabe as they dig into the significance of Watts’ Bibliography and its crucial place in a full consideration of modern poetry in translation.
Notes on Gesture, Response-ability, and the Interstice – Online
Wednesday 13 April 2022 – Online
Thinking about media such as film, performance, and photography as gestural, Schneider draws on Black Feminist Thought and materialist phenomenology to consider flesh as responsive materiality, given to transposition — the viscous, reverberant, and interstitial substance of our ongoing afterlives in the age of bioeconomic Man. Among artworks and actions addressed may be Glenn Ligon’s Hands, Carrie Mae Weems’s Monument, Laura Aquilar’s Grounded #111, and Schneider’s own daily walk while white to her office through a Triumphal Arch on unceded Narragansett territory. The talk is incomplete, composed of incommensurable parts, and pitched toward discussion.
The Paradis Files Commissioned by The Stables for IF: Milton Keynes International Festival A Graeae Theatre Company production in partnership with BBC Concert Orchestra and Curve Theatre
13-14 April – Southbank Centre
Our QMUL PhD alum Selina Mills has co-written the libretto for an opera named ‘The Paradis Files’, which is touring the UK
An extraordinary blind musician. A family hell-bent on a cure.
In the glittering salons of 18th-century Vienna, Maria-Theresia von Paradis is a star. Pianist, composer, touring musician; this pupil of Salieri and friend (and alleged lover) of Mozart has captivated Europe with her own sensational talent. They call her The Blind Enchantress.
This one-day interdisciplinary workshop on Latin American decolonial and feminist studies brings together doctoral researchers, early career researchers, senior scholars, and activists working on subjects that overlap with this framework in Britain. The workshop will explore both the challenges and the potential of this process, and it hopes to be the basis for the creation of a scholars and activist network.
The event will include simultaneous interpretation into English, Spanish and Portuguese.
Encuentro de Feminismos Decoloniales Lationamericanos
More Than Skin Deep: Inspiring the Foster Carers of the Future
21-26 April – Online
The Verbatim Formula is a university research project for care-experienced young people, which uses creative practices such as performance, film and poetry.
In our current research we are telling positive stories around experiences and journeys of care. We aim to inspire the foster carers of the future. If you are a foster carer, we would love to hear from you.
Want to see some brilliant Muslim poets perform their work AND donate money to a brilliant cause?
Thawra is running this Spoken Poetry Night in Ramadan to showcase the work of some of the brilliant Muslim poets that have come their way — and new ones!
With 50% of ticket sales being donated to Muslim Youth Helpline, Thawra (run by English with Creative Writing grad Asia Khatun) wanted to further give back to one of the many diverse communities that we wish to represent on our platform.
Get ready for an incredible evening of poetry that explores spirituality, identity, socio-politics and highlights the importance of the literary arts!
Buy tickets at the link below before they run out!
Witnessing: Readings and Conversation, with Andrea Brady and Rachel Zolf
Wednesday 27 April – Online via Zoom with Live Captioning
Join us online for readings and conversations about witnessing. Featuring Andrea Brady and Rachel Zolf. Rachel Zolf, in No One’s Witness: A Monstrous Poetics (Duke University Press, 2021), ‘activates the last three lines of a poem by Jewish Nazi holocaust survivor Paul Celan—“No one / bears witness for the / witness”—to theorize the poetics and im/possibility of witnessing.’ Andrea Brady, in The Blue Split Compartments , ‘draws on chatroom logs, military policy manuals, pattern of life archives, and accounts by witnesses around the world to document the consequences of the perpetual and ‘everywhere war.’
Thursday 28 April – 7pm Chaired by Eddie Nestor with a panel including comedian Suzi Ruffell and our very own Dr Huw Marsh (English). The panel discuss authenticity and humour. As the generation of comics who honed their craft in working men’s clubs move over and stand-up comedy has evolved into huge arenas and big money, is there a danger that working class voices will be squeezed out? Are caricatures like Al Murray’s Pub Landlord who invite audiences to laugh at, rather than with another threat to authentic working-class voices on the circuit. In an era of cancel culture are class jokes only allowed to be told by working class comics?
The White Review features an interview by Zara Dinnen with Zach Balas Artist Zach Blas discusses psychedelics, Silicon Valley futurism and the history of a speculative US military weapon known as the ‘gay bomb’.
Laura Mucklow (English BA, 2014) shares her journey into marketing and what she loves most about working for a company that has a ‘start-up mentality’:
“I studied English Literature which places a big emphasis on research, creativity, and finding evidence to support arguments. My role in Marketing now is a mixture of figures, logic, and creativity so it definitely helped steer me into the role.”
Cathy Hayward (English and History BA, 1997) recently published her debut novel, The Girl in the Maze, and has a second (and third!) novel on the way. In her profile, Cathy talks about the historical and personal influences in her books, her career in journalism and PR, and shares her advice for anyone interested in writing.
Charlie Pullen’s award-winning essay is published in writes for Key Words: A Journal of Cultural Materialism Charlie writes about progressive art teacher Marion Milner (who taught girls in Derby in the 1910s to paint with their eyes shut) and her relationship with modernist culture and the democratisation of arts education is out now in the latest issue of Key Words: A Journal of Cultural Materialism. This was the article he wrote that won the Raymond Williams Society Simon Dentith Memorial Essay Prize in 2019.
People’s Palace Projects Update Recently People’s Palace Project hosted Marcus Faustini Secretary of Culture from Rio de Janeiro and met with many key arts organisations and the Greater London Assembly on climate change and the arts.
We are excited to announce that we have extended our range of funded Queen Mary partner summer school opportunities for GO summer 2022, and are inviting all students to apply using our application form! Taking place around the world, students can take classes in a wide variety of disciplines, immerse themselves in a new culture, and make friends from across the world! If successful, students will get funding for tuition fees, accommodation and travel expenses.
The list of destinations we are able to fund this year, complete with the course dates, are listed below:
In order to apply, please follow this link to our application form. In addition to providing personal details, students will be required to write a personal statement of no more than 400 words, explaining why they wish to attend and how this opportunity will benefit their post-graduation plans. The application deadline is April 25th, and all successful students will be informed by week commencing May 2nd.
We will also be holding a Zoom information session about this opportunity on Wednesday April 13th at 2pm, for students who wishes to find out more information or ask any questions! Students will need to join with their Queen Mary email address in order to gain access to the meeting. The details for this Zoom are as follows:
In the meantime, if you have any other queries, please feel free to email summerschool@qmul.ac.uk or visit the Global Opportunities Office at GC213 in the graduate centre.
Welcome to our latest round up of events, opportunities and schemes that may help you meet collaborators, improve your career prospects or simply broaden your horizons.
Got a short story, poem, or essay you’ve been working on? Enter the 2022 Queen Mary Wasafiri New Writing Prize, offering an incredible mentoring package for 15 shortlistees, and £1000 for three winners, as well as publication in Wasafiri.
You could spend eight weeks on one of our placements and be part of Penguin Random House, the world’s leading trade publisher.
Whether you’re interested in learning about Editorial, Production,Sales or many of our other teams, you’ll gain skills and knowledge that will equip you for wherever you go next.
You’ll be paid London Living Wage, be part of a team and attend key department meetings to get a better sense of what they do and how they work with other departments.
Say Yes to Tess Tue 5 – Sat 16 April Say Yes to Tess is a hilarious and uplifting true story of activism, Yorkshire grit and learning to vote for yourself. More.
But What If You Die? Tue 10 – Sat 14 May Adam Lenson merges gig, memoir and philosophical enquiry in his solo show to explore the lessons we learn when faced with our own mortality (just when it feels like you’re getting started). More.
Block’d Off Tue 17 – Sat 21 May 5 characters live in a cycle of deprivation. Struggling with addiction, an increasing retirement age, and poverty that sits in every corner of their lives. Based on real stories in real locations. More.
Stigma Wed 15 – Sat 18 June A queer kid, a horny mascot, a hairy body in a sauna, a gymnast performing at the Olympics, a Hollywood legend. Luis Amália has one hour to perform them all. More.
A new programme designed to provide a greater understanding of the world of unscripted TV invites attendees to discover the roles available, what constitutes unscripted TV, and how to get a job within it. Book for the following events:
