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 Wednesday 16 September 2020
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:
(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)
Please submit the above documents to Dr Huw Marsh, Research Manager, sed-research@qmul.ac.uk, by no later than midday on Wednesday 16 September 2020. Please state ‘British Academy PDRF’ in the subject line.
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 it 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 mentor, provisionally agree their support, and get some feedback from them on a draft application.
All outline proposals will be considered by our Directors of Research and those that we give institutional support to will have approximately one month to finalise their online application, due in mid-October 2020 (precise date tbc by the British Academy).
Bad English investigates the impact of increasing language diversity, precipitated by migration, globalisation, and new forms of communication, in transforming contemporary literature in Britain. Considering writers whose work engages experimentally, playfully, and ambivalently with English’s power, while exploring what it means to move between forms of language, it makes the case for literature as the pre-eminent medium to probe the terms of linguistic belonging, and for a diverse and growing field of writing in Britain defined by its inside/outside relationship to English in its institutionalised forms.
Bad English offers innovative readings of writers including James Kelman, Tom Leonard, Suhayl Saadi, Raman Mundair, Daljit Nagra, Xiaolu Guo, Leila Aboulela, Brian Chikwava, and Caroline Bergvall. Drawing on insights from applied linguistics and translation studies as well as literary scholarship, it will appeal to students and academics across these disciplines.
The Comic Turn in Contemporary English Fiction explores the importance of comedy in contemporary literature and culture. In an era largely defined by a mood of crisis, bleakness, cruelty, melancholia, environmental catastrophe and collapse, Huw Marsh argues that contemporary fiction is as likely to treat these subjects comically as it is to treat them gravely, and that the recognition and proper analysis of this humour opens up new ways to think about literature. Structured around readings of authors including Martin Amis, Nicola Barker, Julian Barnes, Jonathan Coe, Howard Jacobson, Magnus Mills and Zadie Smith, this book suggests not only that much of the most interesting contemporary writing is funny and that there is a comic tendency in contemporary fiction, but also that this humour, this comic licence, allows writers of contemporary fiction to do peculiar and interesting things – things that are funny in the sense of odd or strange and that may in turn inspire a funny turn in readers. Marsh offers a series of original critical and theoretical frameworks for discussing questions of literary genre, style, affect and politics, demonstrating that comedy is an often neglected mode that plays a generative role in much of the most interesting contemporary writing, creating sites of rich political, stylistic, cognitive and ethical contestation whose analysis offers a new perspective on the present.
Creative Writing PhD Karina Lickorish Quinn’s debut novel Mancharisqa, or The Dust Never Settles will be published by Juliet Mabey at Oneworld Publications after a competitive auction.
Mancharisqa is an ambitious and formally inventive literary epic about haunting and counterhistories, adopting the traditional Andean concept of cyclical time in a manner reminiscent of One Hundred Years of Solitude, and the novels of Bolaño, suffused with the surreal atmosphere of Ishiguro’s The Unconsoled.
Mancharisqa formed part of Karina’ PhD thesis, which she completed at School of English and Drama at Queen Mary University of London under the supervision of Director of Creative Writing, Professor Patrick Flanery and Head of English, Dr Rachael Gilmour.
Anaïs Echeverría Gest flies to Lima to oversee the sale of her childhood home, La Casa Echeverría. It is a house full of ghosts, literal and otherwise, of her ancestors and of the maid who fell to her death from its balcony, around whom myths circulate and from whom miracles are sought. Everything that happens – in Anaïs’s childhood, her return to the house in the present day, and in all the stories in between – begins to overlap until the stories are all inextricably entwined. The novel ends with a birth, an earthquake, and the discovery of something disturbing beneath that cursed yellow house on the hill – the past will not remain silent and the ancestors demand to be reckoned with.
Juliet Mabey, the acquiring editor at Oneworld, comments, ‘I fell completely and utterly in love with this mesmerising, intense, multi-layered novel as soon as I started reading. The tone is wonderfully mystical and haunting, with echoes of other great Latin American writers without feeling remotely derivative. A stunningly original saga of an expansive, complex, troubled family in Peru, it is conveyed with a lightness of touch that belies its debut status, and I could not be more thrilled to feature Karina’s astonishing writing on my literary fiction list. There is really nothing else like it.’
“I’m thrilled to be joining Oneworld and their list of remarkable, talented authors. I have long admired Juliet Mabey and Oneworld for their commitment to introducing readers to a range of cultures and voices from across the world. And thank you to my wonderful agent, Seren Adams, for believing in me and my work. Mancharisqa could not have found a better home.”
Karina is a bilingual, Peruvian-British writer. She has a BA from Oxford University, an MA from UCL, and recently completed her PhD in Creative Writing here at Queen Mary University of London. Her short fiction is featured in Un Nuevo Sol, the first major anthology of British-Latinx writers, published by Flipped Eye Publishing. Her work has also appeared in Longitūdinēs,The Offing, Asymptote, The Journal of Latina Critical Feminism, and Palabritas. In 2016 she was shortlisted for The White Review’s short story prize.
Dear students studying in the School of English and Drama,
I’m writing to you in response to the recent police killings of George Floyd and Breonna Taylor in the USA and the assault on Belly Mujinga in London, and the feelings of anger, sadness, fear, and distress, among many others, across the USA, and here in the UK, including in our student and staff bodies.
On behalf of the School of English and Drama, I condemn these acts of violence and the structural and institutional racism that underpins them. I fully support the Black Lives Matter movement in challenging all forms of racism and committing to ensuring dignity, safety, liberty, and self-determination for Black, Asian, and other minority ethnic and global majority communities.
Structural and institutional racism is not confined to the USA but is very much present in the UK, and globally, and is a powerful force in preventing equal life opportunities for people of colour. The Covid-19 pandemic, for example, has both exposed and exacerbated the structural inequalities faced by many minorities, most significantly Black, Asian, and disabled people.
Universities have a key role to play in combatting racism and all forms of discrimination. I am committed to this work in the School of English and Drama. This involves continued acknowledgment and work to redress disadvantages experienced variously by our students and colleagues of colour. These manifest, for example, in differences in degree outcomes between our Black, Asian, and minority ethnic/global-majority students and white students, and significantly fewer colleagues of colour in senior leadership roles than white colleagues. It’s important, here, to acknowledge that we also have a majority white staff base in the School, and that many of us, myself included, have benefited from advantages and privileges accorded structurally, socially and culturally to white people, especially with respect to our educational and career development opportunities.
Affirming a commitment to equalities and anti-racist work is vital and action is more crucial still. We have been working to address inequalities in the School, especially in relation to race and ethnicity, through our Equality, Diversity and Inclusion (EDI) Committee, co-chaired by Zara Dinnen and myself; revisions to our curriculum; more extensive student support; a dedicated EDI student representative on our Staff Student Liaison Committees; and a commitment to equality in our research, for example. This is not the time, though, to be individually or collectively self-congratulatory or complacent. Through our work we know there is much more to be done, especially as we address the impact of Covid-19 and the decisions that we’re making for 2020-21 (and beyond) on staff and students.
We stand in solidarity with our students of colour. With my colleagues in the School Management Group, I affirm the School’s ongoing commitment to listening to students and working together across our School community, to address structural racism. This work is carried out though our department, School, Faculty and University governance structures, alongside informal conversations with, and between, staff and students. It is not the responsibility of our Black, Asian, and minority ethnic/global majority colleagues and students to bear the burden of this work. It is, rather, a collective endeavour, led by those of us entrusted with leadership positions.
To celebrate 🎉 our final year students handing in their final projects/dissertations we’re looking for your dissertation selfies 🤳 and memes 🤣.
You could win a £25 Love2Shop voucher for sharing your dissertation selfie or meme.
Give us the a pic with the story of your disso or make a gag-worthy MEME to win!
How to enter…
Email us your picture or MEME, full name and caption to: sed-web@qmul.ac.uk
Tag us @QMULSED on Instagram or Twitter with the hashtag #SEDHallofFame
Message or post to our Facebook Page here
Entry closes on 3 July 2020 at 5pm. Our team will pick the winners on or shortly after 3 July so please get your entry in before then!There will be 2 winners one for selfie and one for meme.We will contact winners via email so keep an eye out on your inbox after 15 June.
“I have had the most amazing time at QM over the last three years. I’ve met some soulmates. Had a few breakdowns. Hit my limit of daily replacement library cards. Spent £49000 on coffee. And had most of the happiest moments of my life. I know that this dissertation doesn’t sum up everything I’ve learnt and everything that I can do now (notably, go to the shop without having a panic attack). But it was definitely one of the hardest things I’ve ever done. And I’m proud of myself for doing it. A huge thank you to every lecturer, advisor, member of staff, and student for helping me through. From helping me choose a dissertation topic to making me a coffee with a smile. Also- to everyone who is still working on their dissertations- you can do this and you will do this. Remember not to compare your own academic achievements to other people’s because yours are just as brilliant and just as important. Okay I’m done now. Gonna go drink, eat, and watch Netflix… Until I have to start the next one.”
Hana Hussein – BA English with Creative Writing
“1 word down 9,999 to go”
Kirsten Murray – BA English
“Standing in the North Sea was not the original dissertation hand in photo I had in mind. Although I am currently some 300 miles from the bustling city of London, my time at Queen Mary has enhanced my passion for literature and developed my personal and academic confidence. The supportive SED staff have even inspired me to continue my studies at the University of Cambridge in a genre, Romanticism, I initially loathed when I arrived in London three years ago.”
Christian Richardson – BA English with Creative Writing
The Duchess of Botany: Mary Somerset, Jacob Bobart, and the Formation of the Oxford Botanic Garden
Queen Mary University of London (QMUL) and the University of Oxford Botanic Garden and Arboretum (OBGA) are pleased to announce the availability of a fully funded doctoral grant from January 2021.
This studentship is funded for 4 years full time (or part-time equivalent). It directly complements attention to OBGA’s heritage in preparation for celebrating the Botanic Garden’s 400th anniversary in 2021 by exploring key aspects of its early history.
Research will examine the material and intellectual networks that supported the development of its plant collections and institutional structures during the later seventeenth century, with a particular focus on two intriguing figures: the elite female botanical collector, Mary Somerset, Duchess of Beaufort; and the Botanic Garden’s second superintendent, Jacob Bobart the younger.
Please note that an earlier recruitment process for this studentship (in February / March 2020) did not conclude due to the coronavirus pandemic and consequent UK lockdown. Previous applicants are eligible to re-apply without fear or favour.
A full description of the project objectives and application process is available in the Further Particulars.
This doctoral training grant is funded through the AHRC’s
Collaborative Doctoral Partnership (CDP) scheme. Collaboration
between a Higher Education Institution and a museum, library, archive, or
heritage organisation is the essential feature of these doctoral training
grants. The doctoral training grant is fully funded (living stipend and tuition
fees) at UKRI rates and is subject to standard AHRC eligibility, rules, and
guidance for the research students whom they fund and support. AHRC’s
minimum stipend rate and indicative fees rate for 2020/21 are detailed on the
UKRI website. This
studentship also offers generous research expenses (including support for travel
between QMUL and OBGA), specialist training, and access to shared working space
at both institutions.
CDP doctoral training grants fund full-time studentships for 4 years (or part-time equivalent), of which 3 years 6 months are to be focused on the project and the remaining 6 months on career development activity. (There is an option to commute up to 3 months of the funded period for career development in order to finance approved training costs, in which case the duration of the studentship is reduced from 48 to 45 months). The award holder will be appropriately embedded for a period on this basis within the education team at OBGA, and will be encouraged to explore possible placements with external partners, including the Natural History Museum in London and University of Padua Botanic Garden.
This project will be jointly supervised by Dr Richard Coulton (QMUL) and Professor Simon Hiscock (OBGA). The student will be expected to spend time at both QMUL and OBGA, as well as becoming part of the wider cohort of CDP funded students across the UK.
Candidates
with interests in the history of science, garden and landscape studies, material
history, exchange networks, and the history of collections will be especially
welcome, as will those with relevant historical interests in heritage
management and museum studies. Potential candidates are encouraged to contact Dr
Richard Coulton (r.x.coulton@qmul.ac.uk) and Professor Simon Hiscock
(simon.hiscock@obg.ox.ac.uk) before preparing an
application.
The successful candidate will commence their PhD in January 2021. They will hold their doctoral training grant in the Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences at Queen Mary University of London, and will work in partnership with University of Oxford Botanic Garden and Arboretum.
Application deadline: 5pm on Friday 4 September, 2020
Interview date: TBC (late September / early October)
Dominic Johnson is a Professor of Performance and Visual Culture in our department of Drama. In his profile below, he discusses his research which engages with LGBTQIA+ histories and practices, his work with living artists and his connection with the Pathology Museum.
How long have you worked at Queen Mary?
I’ve been at Queen Mary as a permanent member of staff since 2006. I worked
here for a year before that whilst I was finishing my PhD at the Courtauld
Institute of Art on the artist Jack Smith,
who was a pioneer in queer theatre and performance art in New York in the 60s
and 70s.
Could you tell us about your involvement in LGBT+ History month?
My research engages with LGBTQIA+
histories and practices. I’ve been documenting and historicising the
relationship between performance and visual culture and sexual practices and
sexual identities. I’ve been looking at artists who identify as LGBTQIA+ and whose
work is critical to histories of sexuality and sexual practices. An
example of this is working on an artist who uses S&M practices in his work
and thinking about the ethics and politics of trafficking a sexual practice
into a performance.
I’ve also examined how representations of sexual practices invite contact
with the law. For example, in my book,Unlimited Action: The Performance of Extremity in
the 1970s, there is a chapter on Genesis P-Orridge
who was arrested and convicted for indecency for producing and disseminating
collages featuring the Queen and commercially-produced pornography.
Describe your average day/week
I teach the bulk of the week so I am busy with my students. I set up and
convene the MA
Live Art and I also run postgraduate taught programmes in Drama.
I also do research, which might include working directly with artists for
example through studio visits, as well as work in archives and arts
organisations. I’m a co-founder of the Sexual Cultures Research Group
and we have put on some really exciting events. I’m also on the board of
directors of the Live Art
Development Agency.
In July I’ll be taking over as Head of Drama, so that will be a big change.
What’s the best thing about your job?
I enjoy working with students, especially the MA students as they really
focus in on their aspirations. Teaching works best when it is an active
co-creation of knowledge. When a class goes well, you go in and propose
something you haven’t fully articulated and through the process of presenting
and discussing it, something profound might come about.
I feel really privileged as a researcher as I get to work with and spend
time with artists. For example, I recently worked with the artist Skip Arnold in Marseilles. It was really
exciting to spend time with an artist who has been making important work for a
really long time and to collaborate together: we ended up organising an event
together in London at the Live Art Development Agency – I’m also publishing a
journal article on his work later this year. I find that exciting, thrilling
and joyful. I’ve had similar encounters with a lot of different artists and I
get to see performances all around the world: I recently went on research trips
to Mexico City, Los Angeles and Tokyo.
What do you see as your role in helping the University achieve its
Strategy 2030?
The key strategies in, but also around, the published one have to be about
continuing to increase Widening Participation. Universities such as this one
need to encourage diversity – especially in terms of race and ability – amongst
its staff and students. The other strategy I had a hand in shaping was the Arts
and Culture Strategy, which runs until 2022 and is about encouraging
wellbeing through the arts, enabling access to the arts, and how it enhances
life for all students – and not just those studying courses in the arts and
humanities.
What’s your favourite place on any of our campuses?
My favourite place is the Pathology
Museum. I’ve done a few events with Carla
Valentine, the Assistant Curator, including giving a lecture, and taking
students there on a second year drama module to learn about the archives. I’ve
been working with the Queen Mary archives to acquire live art collections. We
have recently acquired archives for Ian
Hinchliffe and Jon
John. Jon John’s archive includes huge amounts of blood-covered canvases,
piercing instruments, and other surprising materials that remind me of
the specialist artefacts in the Pathology Museum.
If you could tell a prospective student one thing about Queen Mary,
what would it be?
It’s in the East End and that is really crucial. It is such a rich and
diverse environment. Everything is on our doorstep, especially in terms of
performance and live art. You can go to the Whitechapel Gallery down the
road and access gems such as Live
Art Development Agency in Bethnal Green, Toynbee Studios in Aldgate, and Acme Studios across the Mile End Park.
Do you have any unusual hobbies, pastimes outside of work?
I box at a gym called Blok in Clapton twice a week. I’ve been boxing for a
couple of years. I just went to a class one day and totally loved it and I feel
like it’s great to do a form of exercise where you are constantly learning – at
the same time it clears your mind so intensely of all the things I otherwise
have to worry about. It feels deeply primal.
Who would you invite to your dream dinner party?
I published a book in 2015 called The Art of Living which included long
interviews with 14 artists or groups. I would invite them because the
conversations I had with them were totally thrilling and enjoyable. Three of
them have passed away since – each of them were friends – so it would be really
nice to talk to them again.
This interview was originally published on our staff website Connected.
Applicants who wish to be considered for an AHRC-funded studentship must apply directly to the London Arts and Humanities Partnership (LAHP). The deadline for applications to LAHP is January 31.. Only home and EU applicants are eligible to apply for AHRC funding.
Candidates
who apply to Queen Mary before 19
January 2020 will
automatically be entered for the Queen Mary Principal’s Studentships (QMPS).
Home, EU and international applicants are eligible for the QMPS scheme.
BAME Studentships for UK/EU
candidates
We
encourage applicants from BAME (Black, Asian, and Minority Ethnic) groups who
have been previously under-represented in this process.
For
2020 entry, the Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences will be offering two
fully funded doctoral studentships (tuition fees and stipend of £17,009 per
year, or £8,505 part-time) to UK or EU applicants from a BAME background.
Awards are tenable for up to three years. Applications will also be considered
from students who are currently in the first year of a full-time PhD programme,
or the first two years of a part-time programme.
To
be eligible to apply for these studentships you must be UK or EU permanent
residents from a BAME background, and eligible to pay home/EU student fees.
Candidates
for the BAME studentships must make
an additional application to be considered for these awards. This will consist
of:
Your
ID number from your application to a PhD programme at QMUL
Diversity
monitoring information (via a questionnaire)
A
short statement of no more than 500 words detailing the challenges you have
experienced pursuing your research.
All
these elements should be entered or uploaded to an online application
tool administered by QMUL’s Doctoral College, by 1700 on19 January 2020.
Nadia Valman (English) continues her Leverhulme Research fellowship to produce the first literary history of east London – the site where key national questions such as social mobility, immigration, and urban regeneration are repeatedly contested.
We caught up with Thiago Jesus to talk about a new project discovering the Sacred Cave of Kamulkuwaká as part of an ongoing project with the Xingu tribe.
Background info: In September 2018, as part of PPP’s The Challenge of the Xingu project, an expedition to the sacred cave of Kamukuwaká organised with members of the Wauja community, specialists from Factum Foundation and an independent team of Brazilian anthropologists, found its ancient petroglyphs had been systematically destroyed (https://peoplespalaceprojects.org.uk/en/kamukuwaka/). Chisel marks, a chipped surface and scattered fragments on the ground were all that was left.
The sacred cave of Kamukuwaká, an archaeological site sacred to the Wauja and to the 15 other communities living in the Xingu Indigenous Territory (Brazilian Amazon), was listed as a heritage site in 2010 by IPHAN (Brazil’s National Institute of Historic and Artistic Heritage). The destruction is likely to be a result of the ongoing tensions between indigenous and farming communities in the state of Mato Grosso.
Digitalisation and rematerialisation: In defiance of this tragedy, Factum Foundation’s team (http://www.factumfoundation.org/), employed high-resolution photogrammetry and LiDAR scanning to record the cave. Then, using cutting-edge 3D printing technologies and with reference to previous photographic documentation as well as the collective memory of the Wauja, a forensically accurate digital restoration of the rock carvings was carried out, resulting in a 1:1 facsimile of the entrance to the cave with all the petroglyphs, measuring 8x4x4m (http://www.factumfoundation.org/pag/1289/The-Sacred-Cave-of-Kamukuwak%C3%83)
The event: On the 18-19 October 2019, one year after the vandalism was discovered, Factum hosted a two-day event in their Madrid’s workshop to inaugurate the facsimile of the restored cave. It was unveiled by a leader of the Wauja community, Akari Waurá, oral historian and song carrier, and his son Yanamakakuma Waurá, alongside Takumã Kuikuro, filmmaker from the Kuikuro people, and Shirley Djukuma Krenak, leader of the Krenak people.
During the event, they explained the importance of the cave and its meaning for the preservation of indigenous cultures, and discussed ways in which the facsimile of the cave can best serve the indigenous communities in Brazil. The two-day event was co-produced in partnership with People’s Palace Projects and funded by Factum Foundation, Queen Mary University of London and Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC).
Politician David Lammy MP will learn about the Black African soldiers who gave their lives for Britain during the First World War.
To mark Remembrance Day 2019, Lammy will travel to Africa and see the mass burial sites for the untold heroes.
The hard-hitting documentary will also question the war graves commission for their decision to not individually memorialise countless Black African soldiers and porters.
Seeing the mass burials first-hand, Lammy considers the measures needed to be taken to give these soldiers the same dignity as the soldiers who were given gravestones regardless of background, rank or creed.
Politics and Desire in a Decadent Age: 1860 to the Present — a one-day symposium —Call for Proposals
Hosted by the Department of English
and the Sexual Cultures Research Group
Queen Mary University of London
Friday 15 May 2020
Keynote Speaker: Dennis Denisoff
(McFarlin Chair of English, University of Tulsa,
author of Aestheticism and Sexual
Parody and Sexual Visuality from Literature to Film)
The
symposium committee invites papers from a diverse range of disciplinary
backgrounds, including literature, sexuality and gender studies, history,
visual art, film, and environmental studies, that interpret any aspect of the
symposium theme of ‘Politics and Desire in a Decadent Age’.
Topics
may include (but are not limited to):
Urban sexual communities or conflicts
The sexual imagination and colonial decadence
Sexual identity in mass consumerism
Desires and the environmental humanities
Trans politics
Feminist fantasies
Desires and the decadent movement
Science and medicine of decadence
Gendered and erotic ecologies
·ultural rot
Intersections of race, indigeneity, and gender
Ignored, invisible, and secreted desires
Decadent occultures
Proposals of up to 250 words for 15-minutes papers (along with a 100-word biographical note) should be submitted by 1 February 2020 to Catherine Maxwell: c.h.maxwell@qmul.ac.uk.
A Season of Bangla Drama is back in Tower Hamlets for another
month-long festival of British-Bengali theatre. It is now in its 17th
year and firmly established in the area’s cultural calendar and
includes a magnificent performance of East Side Story in our very own
Great Hall in The People’s Palace.
Nisha Ramayya is reading and speaking at New Suns which explores new and continuing debates in feminist approaches to technology. She will also be reading and speaking at: Exploring Poetry as Disruption (Sat 19 Oct – Southbank Centre) States of the Body Produced by Love (Fri 25 Oct – ICA)
In the first paper in our 2019/20 seminar series, Mark Lee from the University of Oxford explores devotional solitude through the lens of ‘religious insanity’ in the nineteenth century.
What role can literature play in combatting hostile environments? In a
new and exciting collaboration between Wasafiri and London’s Free Word
Centre, Roger Robinson, Winsome Pinnock, Inua Ellams and Bridget
Minamore join forces for readings and debate on writing and
resistance.
QUORUM Drama Research Seminar: Molly McPhee Wednesday 16 October 2019, QMUL Be sure to go to the next QUORUM entitled ‘Miasmatic Performance: Carceral Atmospherics in the Theatre of Clean Break’. Photo: Pests by Vivienne Franzmann. Photo by Jonathan Keenan.
How does philosophy contend with the mysterious and the inexplicable? Can it really be logic all the way down, or might rationality stand on something a little spookier? Our very own Nisha Ramayya is on hand to discuss at the Forum for Philosophy.
Decorating Dissidence, run by our very own Jade French and alumni Dr. Lottie Whalen, invite you to ‘WEAVE IT!’ an exhibition celebrating and challenging 100 years of the Bauhaus women’s weaving workshop. This exhibition considers the legacies of crafting and weaving from modernism to the contemporary, exhibiting textile practitioners who respond in different ways to the Bauhaus and beyond.
The launch night on 1st November will see performances by Rasia Kabir and SED’s Julie Rose Bower, with DJs and drinks. ONGOING
Join Read the Room every Wednesday (beginning 9 October) to gather together and fill the room with poetry. Each week we will read aloud work by a different poet or on a different theme, appreciating the culture of contemporary poetry and a collaborative environment.
Meet other poetry enthusiasts or casual readers, stay on top of poetry events, or just enjoy reading something new. Drop in or just come when you can, Read the Room aims to be an accessible space to have fun with poetry.
Daniel is dyspraxic and is too slow. Frauke has ADHD and is too quick. They are married and have kids.
Join the couple in the Meadowdrome, their fantastical escapist world. Together you will encounter awkwardly intimate interactive actions, strange dances, sweet and surreal songs, and other off-kilter “grown-up” activities.
This interactive show invites you to explore, converse and play within the neurodivergent realm Daniel and Frauke have created.
Launching an anthology of writings, Turning the Page, by the SBS Survivors’ Group: A literary conversation between two groups of BAME women – published writers responding creatively to the stories of the SBS support group.
Mojisola Adebayo will be presenting The Interrogation of Sandra Bland at the University of Pittsburgh, USA, in October, culminating in a performance by a huge chorus of black / women-of-colour on stage.
Pragya Dhital joined the English department in September as a British Academy Postdoctoral Fellow, with a project on proscribed political pamphlets in colonial India. During the summer she had two articles published: “From ‘Imam ul-Hind’ to Azizul Hind: The ‘One Man Media House’ in Modern India”, South Asia: Journal of South Asian Studies, 42:3, 452-468, DOI: 10.1080/00856401.2019.1596778 “Media satyagraha in the broadcast age: underground literature and populist politics during the Indian internal emergency of 1975–1977”, Interventions: Journal of Postcolonial Studies, 21: 7, 942-958, DOI: 10.1080/1369801X.2019.1585908
Michael Hughes (Creative Writing Lecturer)’s book is reviewed by The New York Times: ‘Hughes’s story proceeds at a breakneck cinematic pace, full of booby traps, double agents and arias promising gruesome revenge.’ Read the full review here
Eleni Sophia (aka English student Sophia Hussain) has published her third book ‘This One’s For You’. The poetry collection is about encouraging young women about the importance of self-love and provides words of encouragement for those going through a tough time.
In July, both Khloe and Kourtney Kardashian shared her poem ‘Her Mindset’ from my first poetry book, ‘Good Morning to Goodnight’ on their Snapchat and Instagram stories.
Susheila Nasta (English Professor) is has edited a collection called Brave New Words: The Power of Writing Now (Out 7 November) an anthology of essays by 15 world writers to celebrate 35 years of Wasafiri but also channels the hot political topics of today. It features work from Bernardine Evaristo, Tabish Khair, Blake Morrison, Mukoma wa Ngugi, Marina Warner and many more.
Pathologies of Solitude project has been awarded a ‘Diversity and Inclusion’ grant by the Wellcome Trust (£21,192) for a project addressing solitude and loneliness as aspects of migrant and refugee experience.
The 18-month project is led by Akshi Singh, postdoctoral fellow on the ‘Pathologies of Solitude’ project, and Nisha Ramayya ( Creative Writing Lecturer at QMUL), and is partnered by Akwaaba, an anti-racist migrant befriending centre in East London.
The project will support six creative arts workshops to be held at Akwaaba, facilitated by BME writers and other diverse artists. Its results will be disseminated through zines made with workshop participants, an exhibition and a public story-telling event.
People Palace Projects’Xingu Encounter has been nominated for a Times Higher Education award for ‘International Collaboration of the Year’. The project explores new ways to work with indigenous people in Brazil to preserve & protect their knowledge & culture.
Mahima Tyagi (English with Creative Writing student) has taken over the School of English and Drama Instagram.
Whilst we try our hardest to make sure listings are accurate we recommend contacting the event organiser or registering before attending as mistakes can be made and we apologise for these.
We’ve just published staff profiles for our inspiring English and Drama Teaching Associates and Teaching Fellows who are working with our students this year.
Click the buttons below to get to know them better and find out about their specialisms.
Seen here with one of Boal’s original Theatre Company Barbara Santos (holding Ali’s book). Ali in turn is holding her own which they are launching in parallel: Theatre of the Oppressed: Roots and Wings (Kuringa). The launch took the form of seminars and workshops in Rio de Janeiro at the headquarters of CTO Rio, Boal’s original company, alongside the devising of street theatre pieces and other interventions across the City protesting the draconian measures currently being proposed by the Bolsanaro Administration and impacting heavily on access to State funded Higher Education.
A similar event will happen as part of this year’s Season of Bangla Drama Festival, of which Ali is a co-Director with responsibility for CPD across the Festival’s 17 theatre companies and 6 venues, of which QMUL is one. The Festival begins on Friday 1st November.
