Welcome to your August newsletter from the School of English and Drama at Queen Mary University of London and congratulations to all of our Class of 2022!
Share your summer: Share your adventures by tagging @qmulsed.
Get support for your future: Graduates can get career support from Queen Mary to help your next steps.
Pictured above: Our Alumni Engagement Co-ordinator Nathalie Grey is pictured with Bernardine Evaristo MBE (right) who received an honorary D.Litt at our School of English and Drama graduation ceremony. Below: Some of our procession getting ready in the Green Room.
We are offering bespoke tours and 1-2-1s for clearing applicants, prospective 2023+ students, offer holders and partners over the summer both online and in-person.
Queen Mary Theatre Company at Edinburgh Fringe 2022
13-28 August 2022
CrumbledA new writer’s foray into farce, Crumbled is a play that not only includes evil geese but also has extra layers of irony, queerness and custard.
DIn this piece of new writing, will Daughter be brave enough to cut ties with D, and what will it take?
IneffableDelve into a piece of devised, new writing with elements of physical theatre and join our main character in their attempts to rewrite their life.
A Toe Tale When faced with the drama and indignities of growing up, five toes must contend with smelly socks, ballet injuries and a dose of existential dread in their journey to discover what it means to be a family.
Marissa Landy (Drama, 2018 Graduate) runs Baloney Theatre a company started at QMUL, who have been shortlisted for a LET theatre award this year.
About the Show
This dark comedy follows a day in the life of two ambulance care assistants. Riss and Aadam transport 5 different patients, each with their own unique personalities and amazing stories to tell. ‘A Non-Emergency’ displays the strain on the NHS right now and aims to help raise wages for ACA’s who are earning under living wage.
Gabriel Krauze & Ryan O’Connor: Penned in the Margins – Edinburgh Book Festival
23 August – Northside Theatre, Edinburgh
Gabriel Krauze(BA English Alumnus)’s Who They Was is a visceral semi-autobiographical novel about a man living in the brutal gang world of south London while also studying for a degree. …Today, we welcome two fearless authors whose prose nods to the likes of Irvine Welsh and James Kelman. They speak to Graeme Armstrong.
Isabel Waidner: Matadors, Spaceships and Queer Liberation – Edinburgh Book Festival
24 August – Northside Theatre, Edinburgh Isabel Waidner’s third novel Sterling Karat Gold won the Goldsmiths Prize in 2021. Following a non-binary migrant on a surreal adventure through the streets of London, it offers a satire of the British justice system that reads like a wild update of Kafka’s The Trial. Join Waidner for a unique exploration of how the book’s visions of matadors, spaceships and unicorns illustrate dreams of political empowerment.
Lois Weaver and Peggy Shaw, aka Split Britches, have been awarded the prestigious Ellen Stewart Career Achievement in Professional Theatre Award The Association for Theatre in Higher Education (ATHE) website describes the award: “Honorees are selected on the basis of superlative contributions to the field, sustained excellence during their career, innovative work that has established new frames of reference, support for diversity in theatre, and service and advocacy on behalf of fellow theatre artists.”
Disabled Artist Bursary £1,500 Call-Out from Phakama
For this round, they supporting artists who have never worked with Phakama before and identify as a Disabled/ Deaf/ Neurodivergent Artist. Find out more
Martin O’Brien is interviewed on Staging Decadence about his ‘zombiedom’
“I should be dead but I’m not. […] Now I’m existing in a different time. This is the zombie time, the time of the animated corpse. I feel immortal.” Read more
Nisha Ramayya (Creative Writing/Poetry Lecturer) recently performed at Cafe Oto.
She is currently working on a second poetry collection, tentatively called Now Let’s Take a Listening Walk.
Will Bowers features on Benjamin Zephaniah’s BBC Radio 4 show The Original Dub Poet
Part of Percy Shelley, Reformer and Radical Benjamin meets experts and enthusiasts to discover more about what made Shelley tick and to breathe life into his poetry, showing that it’s as relevant now as it was when Shelley died 200 years ago. Listen now
Jerry Brotton chooses Marie Tharp as probably the most important woman in the mapmaking industry in the 20th century for History Extra ‘She was effectively responsible for the discovery of tectonic plate shift and development of the theory of continental drift – a seemingly heretical theory at the time, which we now accept as absolute truth.’
Early career researchers seeking support for their application to the British Academy Postdoctoral Fellowship scheme are invited to get in contact with us as soon as possible
Early career researchers seeking support for their application to the British Academy Postdoctoral Fellowship scheme are invited to get in contact with us as soon as possible
Deadline for applications: midday on Monday 5 September 2022
The School of English and Drama invites early career researchers seeking support for their application to the British Academy Postdoctoral Fellowship scheme to get in touch by submitting as a single PDF:
(1) an explanation of the reason(s) for your choice of Queen Mary as the host institution (150 words maximum)
(2) an outline of your proposed programme of research (1,500 words maximum)
(3) details of your planned research outputs, e.g. monograph, journal article(s), book chapter(s), digital resources, events, other (please specify) (300 words maximum)
(4) a list of existing publications (1 page maximum)
(5) a CV (2 pages maximum)
(6) a sample of writing. This should be of book chapter length (5,000–8,000 words) and either published or accepted for publication.
Please submit the above documents to sed-fundingapplications@qmul.ac.uk, by no later than midday on Monday 5 September 2022. Please state ‘British Academy PDRF’ in the subject line.
Your application should demonstrate:
that you are eligible according to the BA’s criteria (applicants are expected to have completed their viva voce between 1 April 2020 and 1 April 2023)
the excellence of your research track record and professional track record (where relevant);
your academic record;
the research outputs you propose, how you will structure, pursue, and complete your project in the time frame, and its importance;
the relevance of QMUL SED to your research and vice versa;
who you would like as a mentor and why.
You are strongly encouraged, before submitting your application and time permitting, to find a member of staff in QMUL’s School of English and Drama who will be your nominated mentor, provisionally agree their support, and get some feedback from them on a draft application. Please note this in statement (1).
All outline proposals will be considered by our Directors of Research, and those to whom we give institutional support will be invited to a workshop run by the Queen Mary Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences during the week commencing 19 September.
Finalised applications will be due for submission via the British Academy’s Flexi-Grant system by 5pm on Wednesday 5 October, five working days ahead of the British Academy deadline of 12 October 2022.
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.
Are you interested in gaining real-life work experience via an award-winning* programme? *Voted “Best Student Program” at the EY (Ernst & Young) Global Career Services Summit Awards 2022
Aziz Foundation Journalism Internships for British Muslims
Evening Standard Internship
The Aziz Foundation is delighted to be offering a 6-month paid editorial internship at the Evening Standard for a British Muslim looking to develop a career in journalism.
The Editorial Intern will have the opportunity to gain experience in research, social media and a range of in-depth projects alongside senior journalists. A demonstrable commitment to the media and experience across print and digital platforms is necessary for the role.
The role will be paid at London Living Wage and is a 6-month post. The internship is scheduled to run from 5 Sept 2022- 31 March 2023 (there can be some flexibility for the right candidate).
The successful candidate must be available to attend the office in London regularly during the internship.
We’re offering a 6-month paid editorial internship at The Independent for a British Muslim looking to develop a career in journalism.
The Editorial Intern will work alongside senior journalists and gain experience in research, social media and a range of in-depth projects. A demonstrable commitment to the media and experience across print and digital platforms is necessary for the role. The candidate must also demonstrate knowledge of issues affecting British Muslim communities.
The role will be paid at London Living Wage and is a 6-month post. The internship is scheduled to run from 5 Sept 2022- 31 March 2023 (there can be some flexibility for the right candidate).
The successful candidate must be available to attend the office in London regularly during the internship.
Heritage tours, trails and events from July – November 2022 from the Mayor of London’s Commission for Diversity in the Public Realm. We will be adding new events regularly over the season so make sure you check back and don’t miss out!
British Empire Walking Tour – 1 August
Queer West-End Tour and Routes / Roots Workshop -11 August
Partition 75 Years On – A Very British History – 12 August
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.
Paid Internship for QMUL student/alum: Theatre Management Intern
Tooley Street, London Bridge | 70hrs at £11.05/hour | part-time
Told by an Idiot is a theatre company that makes inclusive, ambitious, and experimental theatre for anyone who breathes. We consistently experiment with what theatre can be and who gets to make it, in doing so our work blurs the line between theatre maker, participant, and audience. We nurture the skills and talents of emerging theatre makers and our work excludes no one. This internship is designed for anyone who has an interest in theatre management or producing and wants to gain experience working within a small team for a touring theatre company. We acknowledge that it can be difficult to gain experience in arts admin and management and want to extend our values of nurturing emerging talents to all aspects of making theatre, including organisational roles.
Join us for a divinely decadent bacchanal at IKLECTIK! Begemmed bodies at the end of worlds, empires in the last of their decline – tonight, darling, we dance… Live performances from Oozing Gloop, Sigi Moonlight and Hasard Le Sin With Coco Deville as our esteemed host Films by Miss HerNia And sounds by Gin
Advanced booking is highly recommended as previous events sold out. If tickets are available on the night, they will be available on the door until we reach capacity. Co-produced by Staging Decadence, British Association of Decadence Studies, and Anjali Prashar-Savoie. Flyer design by Okocha Obasi.
Outside QMUL
Applications are currently open for Soho Theatre’s Writers’ Lab and Comedy and Cabaret Labs.
If you’re interested in finding out more, we have lots of playwriting taster workshops and a Q&A coming up, all via zoom. More info on the links below, or you can email the Soho team via engagement@sohotheatre.com.
WorkPath are offering Get Crazy Creative, a 6-week digital skills programme
The programme happens every Thursday and offers young people aged 16-25 the opportunity to learn digital skills to enable them to get into specialist industries, with a focus on Digital Marketing, Social Media and Digital Design.
There will be a 2-hour taster session on 28th of July at WorkPath, 55 Upper Bank Street E14 5GR to find out more. Sign up for the taster day here.
As a Queen Mary student you can get membership to the University of London’s Senate House Library with it’s lovely comfy armchairs and 3 million books to borrow. Pre-register for your membership card here.
Long before Netflix ruled your eyeballs, universities created Box of Broadcasts which is a huge free archive of TV recordings. Login with your QMUL credentials and you’ll get access to movies, TV series and documentaries galore. We’re loving the Films, Mostly Gay and London Films watchlist!
Opening up when you’re feeling low can be the hardest thing, but if you are struggling to cope with life events or need a space to talk openly, our Advice and Counselling team are here to help. They offer a range of free and confidential professional services to all QMUL students including individual counselling, group therapy, specialist drug and alcohol support and much more.
We also offer students access to an online support service called ‘Big White Wall‘ who offer unlimited, 24/7 accessible online support from trained counselors and use other helpful resources – it’s totally free and confidential. Please
Finding a job can seem like a daunting task, but don’t crumble under the pressure! Whether you have a particular job in mind and want advice to help you get there, or are not sure what you want to do next, the Careers & Enterprise Centre provides QMUL students a range of support to help you prepare for your future. You can even book a practice interview with a Careers Consultant.
As a QMUL student, you’re automatically entitled to be a member of Student Central (formerly University of London Union). Membership is free and enables you to get involved with everything they have to offer including sports, societies, online tickets and access into our bars. Find out more here.
Need a room for you and your friends to study? You can book one of our library group study rooms up to one week in advance for up to four hours per week. The Mile End group study rooms contain a touchscreen PC, connectivity for laptop use and a whiteboard. Whiteboard pens are available from the Library Welcome Desk.
You may have a big presentation coming up, or perhaps you’re unsure of how to start that 3000 word essay or you may have serious issues with managing your time effectively – spending way too much time looking at memes while procrastinating . Whatever it may be – if you feel like you need extra guidance to brush up on your study skills you can book a free one-to-one tutorial with our Learning Development team. You can even have your tutorial through Skype if you are unable to come to campus. Find out more about their services here.
Your QMUL library account gives you access to much more than just books. Along with laptops, stationary, videos and DVDs, you also get access to a number of paywall content providers such as The Financial Times. Find out more here.
9. The 339 bus is a local legend
As a QMUL student, you have the added advantage of being at the heart of East London – one of the most diverse and culturally rich areas in the world. Not only can you eat food from virtually anywhere in the world, but the public transport system means you can get around without needing a car – true Londoner style. Also, free Wi-Fi at underground stations – bonus!
Finally, we want our students to have nice things. Come and say hi or tag us @qmulsed to receive some of our SED freebies. We have an awesome range of products including pens, notebooks, bags and postcards. Also, don’t forget to check out our Instagram and Twitter to see the #sedfreebooks we have available!
Dr Rebecca Menmuir (Queen Mary) and Hannah Armstrong (York)
When you hear the word forgery, what do you think of? Perhaps your thoughts jump to counterfeit artwork, heist films, the BBC’s Fake or Fortune; or to the Turin shroud, The Pardoner’s Tale and debates surrounding the authenticity of religious artefacts; or maybe to something else entirely.
Part of the appeal of studying forgeries and imitations are their breadth and universality. Colin Burrow writes in the preface to his 2019 Imitating Authors that one of the pleasures of writing the book was that almost everyone had something to say about the concept of imitation. Similarly, anxiety about forgery is not new, with ‘Fake News’ as only its latest iteration in the popular consciousness. The spurious has existed alongside the genuine through ever-changing definitions of ‘spurious’ and ‘genuine’, and its malleability and persistence is both perplexing and fascinating.
It’s against this backdrop that we—Rebecca Menmuir, a British Academy Postdoctoral Fellow in SED at Queen Mary, and Hannah Armstrong, a PhD candidate at York—decided to organise a workshop to ask some closer questions about forgeries and imitations. Our research projects approach the same topic, imitations and the medieval, from different angles. Rebecca works on forgeries and imitations of the Roman poet Ovid produced during the medieval period; and Hannah works on imitations and reimaginings of Old Norse sagas in 19th–21st century literature. We realised that we were circling around the same topics and asking the same questions, but the strict periodisation of literary studies meant that we rarely crossed paths. Nor had we been able to meet art historians, archaeologists, theologians, or the many scholars in other disciplines who were likely to have something to say about how we should be studying ideas of medieval forgeries.
The idea was there: we started to plan how to bring together a small group of academics working on some aspect of forgeries, imitations, or appropriations, either produced during the medieval period or which forged ideas of the medieval in some way. The result was a one-day workshop, held on Friday 10th June: ‘Medieval Forgeries / Forging the Medieval’.
We were incredibly fortunate to be able to use the Museum of London as our venue, which itself raised lots of pertinent and timely questions about how we curate and present the past. There we were joined by eleven other co-investigators, all scholars who work in one form or another on medieval forgeries or post-medieval imitations. The range of experience in the room was one of the strengths of the event, with researchers whose work might normally sit within Classics, History, or Modern Languages presenting side by side with English Literature scholars whose period expertise stretched from the late antique to the late 20th century. We also represented many different career stages, from PhD students to Postdoctoral researchers and Professors.
The Workshop
In the first of our two morning slots, six of the participants gave short (5–7 minutes) presentations on their research into medieval forgeries. The examples ranged from forgeries of classical authors to fraudulent monastic charters, and our discussions between papers highlighted just how foundational and intrinsic forgery was to medieval textual culture, across different forms of media (from documents such as charters and diplomas to literary works). This naturally also led to questions of morality: did medieval people think of forgery as a negative act, and in turn, what kind of language should we as scholars use or not use?
Our second session pivoted to focusing on post-medieval imitations and appropriations of the Middle Ages. The seven presentations covered topics from 18th century Gothic reimaginings to queer theory and 20th century film, and political appropriations of imagined pasts. The variety represented in this session demonstrated just how generative and intriguing questions of forgery and imitation are, but it also raised issues as to what kind of language we can use to describe it and how do we create space for transhistorical and interdisciplinary dialogue.
It was these challenges we turned to in our third and final session of the day. We were keen from the outset that our workshop be not only a space for presenting and sharing work, but for collaboratively finding new ways of thinking and approaching the topic. With this in mind, we used the third session as an opportunity to break into small groups to brainstorm responses to questions which had been raised earlier in the day. Initially, we had been worried about whether this technique would work—would it feel too close to an undergraduate seminar? But we were delighted to find that it works just as well for researchers, and it helped to dig deeper into the issues whilst also building collegiality.
Finally, we fed back to the group as a whole and used the final part of the day to consider how we could keep these kind of conversations (interdisciplinary, transhistorical, across different career stages) going in the future… watch this space! You can also find a brief overview of each presentation in a Twitter thread here: https://twitter.com/RebeccaMenmuir/status/1536350623095980032
On Friday 10th @HJP_Armstrong and I ran the workshop “Medieval Forgeries/Forging the Medieval” at @MuseumofLondon, which was a great success! Here’s a celebratory photo of everyone who came, and a thread of talks and topics 🧵 pic.twitter.com/QdMx5Traik
— Dr Rebecca Menmuir (@RebeccaMenmuir) June 13, 2022
Reflections and Lessons Learnt
With the help of a feedback form sent out to the workshop attendees, we met again for a debrief. Overall, we enjoyed the workshop enormously, and the feedback was really positive. One person wrote that the atmosphere was ‘calm, uncompetitive, and yet intellectually challenging’; this is something which we are extremely proud of, particularly given the stress and competitiveness that academia can sometimes promote. Learning about how others approached medieval forgeries and imitations has been genuinely fruitful, and both of us have benefited from following up on reading and resources which were shared and discussed. Rebecca has discovered, perhaps belatedly from a nineteenth-century-ist’s point of view, Rudyard Kipling’s Dayspring Mishandled, a story involving a fraudulent ‘discovery’ of a lost Chaucer manuscript. We have continued that sharing of resources by setting up a collaborative bibliography, where several of the attendees have added key scholarship on medieval forgeries and imitations, and forgeries and imitations of the medieval. (Please contact either of us if you would like a link to this document.)
Aspects of the day had required a sharp learning curve—did the ominous large button in the cupboard switch off one light or the entire building electrics? Why was the clicker not working? Is the camera on?—and we were glad that the AV and events team at the Museum were on hand to help (note: the large button was not the correct button). Before the event, we had questions and concerns which would only be answered on the day: would there be enough discussion to fill the time, or would there be enough time to accommodate discussions? Would the questions we had planned for the third session, which reflected on the day’s presentations and discussions, be relevant to the day’s proceedings? How do you write closing remarks before a workshop has even started? We found that the best approach was to plan for flexibility, such as incorporating a ‘buffer zone’ of time to continue should Q&As be too interesting to interrupt at their allotted end-time. We also scheduled the final session after lunch so that we had time to meet and make any changes during the lunch period. Since several recurring themes and questions had been raised throughout the day, we made several adaptive changes to our prompt questions, including a new question which incorporated a quote from one presentation, on the topic of whether there is such thing as a ‘good’ or ‘bad’ forgery. While the unknown element of any event is worrying in some ways, it was gratifying to see how the workshop developed in ways which we didn’t foresee: there would be little point in organising a workshop to exchange new ideas where we could predict every question, thought, or answer.
We learnt several assorted things from planning the workshop. Firstly, in our opinion it is far more effective (and more fun) to plan an academic event with a co-organiser, whether a new colleague or an old friend: having an interlocuter to encourage the seed of a new idea, or veto impractical suggestions, is extremely helpful. It is essential to leave enough time to plan— ‘enough time’ might be dictated by a funding deadline for a grant, or dependent on your other commitments. We found it helpful to think about the potential outputs and afterlife of the workshop in early planning stages, but we left concrete decisions on any outputs to the workshop and the feedback form, where we could ask the attendees their thoughts.
It was only with institutional and financial support that we were able to plan and run this workshop. Thanks to Queen Mary, University of London (especially the School of English and Drama) and the University of York, who are our host universities and make our research possible. We are extremely grateful for the funding available from the British Academy through their Postdoctoral Fellowship scheme. Finally, we sincerely thank the Museum of London, particularly their events team, catering team, and housekeeping team, all of whom were fantastic.
Please get in touch with us if you want to chat about any aspect of this round-up: r.menmuir@qmul.ac.uk or ha950@york.ac.uk.
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.
Reminder: In Conversation with author Danielle Jawando – 14 July, 6-7pm, B104
Danielle Jawando will read from her work and take part in a Q&A, hosted by Dr Hetta Howes (Former QMUL lecturer & PhD gradaute). 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.
‘My name is En and I’m currently working on a short film called Bibingka. I would like to ask if it would be possible for the drama department to send out the casting call to the students or alumni if they would be interested. It is a paid job and we aim to shoot during the end of September in Milton Keynes.’
Outside QMUL
Frieze New Writers a free course for aspiring writers and art critics – deadline extended to 24 July
Are you a new writer looking to develop as a critic? Interested in exploring different approaches to writing about art and searching for tips on how to get published? Applications are now open for Frieze New Writers 2022: a free-to-attend, three-day intensive course taking place from Friday 30 September to Sunday 2 October, where a group of aspiring writers will have the opportunity to develop their skills with support from the Frieze editorial team and our wider network of art-world professionals.
Creative Access & Penguin Random House mentoring programme – applications close 11 July
Do you love stories and ideas? Are you looking to gain publishing insights, develop skills and confidence, and build new connections? Sign up now to be matched with a mentor from the world’s number one publisher.
Welcome to your July round up from the School of English and Drama at Queen Mary University of London.
This July be sure to: Come to Raging Sea tonight to celebrate Pathologies of Solitude research project. Register your interest if you’d like to join us through clearing. Apply now for our postgraduate programmes to start in September.Image above is from our 2022 tote bag winner Rosie McNamara (English student). Pick up a bag at our graduation on 29 July.
Free Post-Graduation Celebration for the Class of 2022 on 29 July
Join us for a free goodie bag in the gorgeous new designs plus drinks and nibbles by the canal to celebrate our incredible class of 2022. Please register to attend.
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.
Humanity and technology: In conversation with Jo Guldi Two events with Jo Guldi and Living with Machines
8 July – 15:30 – online and in-person at Queen Mary University of London Living with Machines invites you to join us for two events with Professor Jo Guldi, where you will hear first hand from one of the world’s leading digital humanists. During this event, you will get insights into recently published historical research on global land rights and land reform and understand more about how the humanities is an area of extreme potential for growth in data science.
Event 1: Jo warns of an age of pseudo-history promoted by GPT-3 and easy algorithms, fuelling nationalism and populism. Jo will contrast the naive use of algorithms with “hybrid knowledge,” the exciting domain where data-driven analysis of large-scale textual repositories meets critical thinking from the humanities and social sciences. This event is suited for a cross-disciplinary audience.
Event 2: Jo will present on her latest book, The Long Land War, which tells a story as old as human history: the global struggle over food, water, land, and shelter. The Long Land War focuses on technology and expertise. This event is open to the public. This event is organised by The Alan Turing Institute, Living with Machines and the British Library. This event is virtual and free to attend.
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 third 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 ‘community’. The speakers are: Xine Yao (UCL), Regan Koch (QMUL), Phil Cohen (UEL/Livingmaps Network), and Suzanne Lee (All Change Arts).
This is a free in-person event. Full details and registration via Eventbrite.
30 July 2022 – Online (Zoom) More than skin deep: What is your dream of care? Using dance, music, verbatim, storytelling and sound, care experienced young people will share uplifting and challenging reflections on the care system.
The performance explores the positive potential of foster care through creative practices and hopes to change the stigma and negativity attached to being in care. This is part of a five-day participatory process with care-experienced young adults from Manchester and is led by The Verbatim Formula (project by Queen Mary academics including Maggie Inchley) with a team of artists, researchers, and performers.
SOAS’s Brunei Gallery is pleased to present an exhibition by Pragya Dhital (SOAS) of DIY and decolonial print and the simple duplication technology used to produce it, with focus on the ‘Gestetner’ stencil duplicator.
PGR student Izzy Richardson has published a lovely think-piece on PhD work in LAHP’s online journal Still Point. Read the piece
Nadia Valman spoke about activism in East London at the School of Activism in Hackney Wick on 22 June. Creative Wick and supported by QMUL’s Network Centre. Read more
An Interview with Julia Bardsley has just been published as part of Adam Alston’s AHRC Performing Decadence project
MA students Livonia Ayugi-Okello & Celine Basma join Matt Rubery for their exhibit on projected books at the British Academy Summer Showcase
2 Projected Books: how bedbound WWII veterans were enabled to read After the Second World War, a little-known invention made it possible for thousands of wounded soldiers to read: a compact vertical projector displayed images of microfilmed books on the ceiling to enable recuperating veterans to read while in their hospital beds. In our Lecture Room (which served as a hospital for wounded soldiers in WWI), discover the experience of reading projected books on the ceiling using one of these original vertical projectors and a collection of microfilmed books. Matthew Rubery, Queen Mary University of London
Research award: BA/Leverhulme Small Research Grant 2019-20, with funding from the Department for Business, Energy & Industrial Strategy
Emma Welton has been nominated for the TaPRA Postgraduate Essay Prize 2022 for her essay ‘Let it burn: smell, participation and solidarity in Travis Alabanza’s Burgerz
Emma is also presenting work at the Soho Theatre Cabaret and Drag Lab Sharing on 16 July 2022 at 4pm.
We are delighted to announce the winners of our 2022 tote bag competition, which we give away at open days, events and to new students incoming to the School.
Rosie McNamaraMaya OstrowskaNatalie Thorpe
The first people to get the bags will be our graduating students on 29 July 2022.
Our winners...
Bags will be put into production for our 2022 open days and events.
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 your June update from the School of English and Drama at Queen Mary University of London.
We are delighted that the Drama department achieved the highest score* in its unit in Research Excellence Framework 2021:
“I am very proud of this assessment of Drama’s achievements in research, which confirms the vibrancy, necessity, and reach of our work in theatre and performance studies. As a department we affirm that our research is generally collaborative, socially engaged, and engaged with partners and stakeholders across higher education and the cultural industries. We are grateful to all those who support and enable our research.”
Mad Hearts – The Arts and Mental Health Masked/Unmasked
10 June – In-person at QMUL Mile End and 11 June 2022 – Online (Zoom)
A 2 day event exploring arts and mental health with highlights including: Live performance: Theatre Temoin’s work ‘NHS Yarns’ comes to Queen Mary. Keynotes from Dolly Sen and psychiatrist Maria Turri. Panels on autism, resilience, masculinity and a forgotten ‘mad’ artist.
Network: QMUL’s Centre for the Creative and Cultural Economy is co-organising a workshop on ‘Creative Places and Social Territories’.
14 June – Paris
This workshop will be sharing the outcomes of research undertaken by Network and by Labex Industries culturelles et création artistique, Paris, working with a range of creative partners in Hackney Wick and Fish Island and in Saint-Denis. The workshop will be held at the University of London Institute in Paris.
Network: QMUL’s Centre for the Creative and Cultural Economy is co-organising a workshop on 14 June in Paris on ‘Creative Places and Social Territories’.
15 June 2022 – Scape 0.14 – QMUL Mile End
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 first 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 ‘network’. The speakers are: Laura Forster, Oli Mould, Liv Wynter.
There will be two further events in this series – ‘infrastructure’ (Wednesday 29 June) and ‘community’ (Wednesday 13 July) – registration for these will open in due course.
This series of events is funded by the Raphael Samuel History Centre and School of English and Drama, Queen Mary University of London. It is organised by Charlotte Jones, Clare Stainthorp, and Katherine Stansfeld (QMUL).
Performance and State Violence is a 2-day conference with panels focusing on the various ways performance has reacted to, was affected by, or intervened in state violence. The discipline of theatre and performance studies has approached issues of state violence in myriad ways – prison drama projects, the performativity of military displays, and theatrical protests against certain laws, to name a few examples. While these topics come up frequently, the actual role of the state, and how its involvement in questions of performance and theatricality relate to its broader aims, interests, constitution, and reproduction, are often overlooked, sidestepped, and under-theorised. This conference contextualises performance analysis within broader critical theories of the state and will feature two days of panels, keynote lectures from Aylwyn Walsh and Jennifer Doyle, and performances from Vanessa Macaulay and Lucy Beynon & Lisa Jeschka.
Imprisoned Words: London Renaissance Seminar Book Talk
Please do join us for this discussion marking the publication of Andrea Brady (English)’s Poetry and Bondage (CUP, 2021) and Judith Hudson’s Crime and Consequence in Early Modern Literature and Law (EUP 2021). Catherine Bates and Jackie Watson will introduce the two books and we will discuss crime, punishment, freedom, poetry, the law and more.
CLAY Leeds Come to the launch event for new book, Before We Were Trans by Kit Heyam (English). Writer and trans activist, Kit, will give a reading and discuss their book with Gem of Sweep Hill Publishing. Kit will sign copies of their book – it will be available to purchase at the event. After an interval there will be an exclusive Northern premier screening of the Sundance award winning documentary, Framing Agnes followed by a Q&A with the film’s writer, Morgan M Page.
Raphael Samuel Memorial Lecture 2022: Professor Corinne Fowler (University of Leicester) ‘Approaching British Colonial History During the Culture War’
Peston Lecture Theatre – QMUL Mile End
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).
Unexpected Solutions: Inequalities, Policy and the Cultural Sector
30 June – QMUL Mile End How might unexpected solutions lead to policy change locally, nationally and internationally for the arts and culture sectors? This event launches Queen Mary’s Arts and Culture and the Mile End Institute’s unique three-year scheme, establishing a coalition of advocates helping to make the case for the arts and cultural sectors in London and nationally.
17-18 June The British Academy Summer Showcase 2022 including:
Projected Books: how bedbound WWII veterans were enabled to read with our very own Matthew Rubery (English) and MA students Livonia Ayugi-Okello and Celina Basma.
‘A dark pastoral’. Daisy Hildyard’s (English PhD Graduate) new novel Emergency is reviewed in the Guardian. Read the reviewIsabel Waidner (Creative Writing) is a finalist for the Orwell Prize for their novel Sterling Karat Gold. Read more
See Isabel live at this eventPaul Heritage (Drama) was invited by the British High Commission Chennai, India to talk about building resilience through the arts.
Practice-based researcher Julie Rose Bower (Drama) has created accessible sensory space Meridians Meet – five interactive installations for the exhibition WEIRD SENSATION FEELS GOOD: The World of ASMR – now open at the Design Museum This interactive work extends the scope of the original Arkdes exhibition by inviting museum visitors to co-create their experience through performing ASMR triggers while exploring the sensation in an offline space. This work is supported by a grant from QM’s Centre for Public Engagement to create signage supporting the visitor experience. One of Julie Rose’s ASMR videos created for the V&A museum also features in the main arena of this major new exhibition. The exhibition is open 7 days a week until October and – being themed around strangely satisfying sounds, tingling sensations and feelings of relaxation – it is the only exhibition where you are actively encouraged to take a nap.
Dominic Johnson (Drama) has published new article ‘“Kind of Goya-esque or Something”: Charles Ray’s Early Works’ The article has been published in Art History, on the early performance art of Charles Ray. He has large exhibitions on at the moment at the Met in New York and Centre Pompidou in Paris – so quite topical. The article is open access, so accessible to all for free.
News bites Deven Parker and Michael Gamer (English) co-authored an essay for the most recent issue of European Romantic Review entitled “Keats, Incorporated: Social Authorship and the Making of a Brand.” Deven and Michael also have essays forthcoming soon in the volume The Visual Life of Romantic Theatre, ed. Terry Robinson and Diane Piccitto (University of Michigan Press, 2022). Mine’s entitled ‘The Stage in a Page: A Visual Life of Romantic Playbills,’ and Deven’s is called ‘Between Media: Harlequinade and Melodrama in Print.”
Sarah Bartley (Drama PhD graduate) is a lead researcher on Transformative justice, women with convictions and uniting communities a 2 year project funded by Nuffield Foundation.David Duff (English) launches the Prague International Summer School of Romanticism, a collaboration between QMUL and the Charles University, Prague. For graduate students from across Europe. Affiliated to the London-Paris Romanticism Seminar, with other partners Oxford, the Sorbonne and Ghent University.
“My time in Queen Mary was wonderful for my artistic growth, and it was also where I was able to connect with like minded individuals.
I’ve since been working as a producer – our first feature documentary Listen to Britain is having its London premier as part of the UK Asian film festival on the 10th of May. Our film is the spiritual successor to the 1942 original, exploring the vibrant yet tumultuous growth of Britishness over the past century.
The entire crew for this film is made up of recent QMUL graduates from SED and SLLF, and we even had the opportunity to interview a senior lecturer (Ashvin Devasundaram) as part of our documentary.”
Poet Caleb Femi (English alumnus) will read live his ode to a troubled yet enchanted world at Bold Tendencies in Peckham on – “rhapsodic, elegiac … reminiscent of William Blake’s visionary poetic” (Malika Booker).
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!
‘A dark pastoral’. Daisy Hildyard’s (English PhD Graduate) new novel Emergency is reviewed in the Guardian.
Isabel Waidner (Creative Writing) is a finalist for the Orwell Prize for their novel Sterling Karat Gold.
Paul Heritage (Drama) was invited by the British High Commission Chennai, India to talk about building resilience through the arts.
Alumni Round Up
