SED February 2024 Newsletter



Welcome to your February 2024 newsletter from the School of English and Drama at Queen Mary University of London.

We have a jam packed edition for the new year with lots of events coming up!


Things to Do in February 

Book your place for our next SED Taster Day, Rediscover: Postcolonialism, on 27 March here
Read Queen Mary Global blogger, Ficky, from Indonesia – sharing her experiences of studying English Literature in London at SED.   


News



Queen Mary Wasafiri Writing Prize 2024

For 15 years, the Queen Mary Wasafiri New Writing Prize has awarded some of the most exciting new voices in life writing, poetry, and fiction from around the world. We are pleased to share that 2024 edition of the prize, in the 40th anniversary year of the magazine, is now open for submissions until 5pm BST on 1 July 2024.

This year’s multi-award-winning judges are Margaret Busby CBE (Chair), Cristina Rivera Garza (Life Writing), Meena Kandasamy (Poetry), and Isabel Waidner (Fiction).   

Representing more of the globe than any other prize of its kind, the prize supports writers who have not published book-length works, with no limits on age, gender, nationality, or background. The winners of each category will receive a £1,000 cash prize and publication in Wasafiri magazine, and all winners and shortlisted writers will be published and offered career development support through prize partners, The Literary Consultancy and The Good Literary Agency, and also receive a one-year print subscription to Wasafiri.
Enter Here




Intelligence wins 2024 Women’s prize for Playwriting

QMUL PhD Drama Alum, Sarah Grochala, recently won the Women’s Prize for Playwriting for her play Intelligence, which begins with Victorian computer pioneer Ada Lovelace in the 1840s then moves through a series of unexpected reincarnations.

Grochala, who completed her PhD at QMUL on the politics of dramatic structure in contemporary stage writing (supervised by Prof. Michael McKinnie), now teaches at the Royal Central School of Speech and Drama.
Read more

 

News in brief

Congratulations to Lois Weaver and her partner Peggy Shaw (the writing and performing duo of Split Britches) who won a Lifetime Achievement Award in the 2023 Obies, announced on 27 January.

The New Books Network Podcast on Matthew Rubery’s book “Reader’s Block: A History of Reading Differences” is now available here

The Philip Leverhulme Foundation will be running a profile and highlighting the research of Dr Nil Palabiyik under its ‘Grants in Focus’ section. This is in recognition of her being one of the 30 prize winners for 2023, it is only extended to one or two people per year.

Call for papers from undergraduates, masters and PhD students and researchers – for international conference. Wings of Ink: Manifestations of Fantasy in Literature. Deadline for proposal submission: 15th February 2024.

Calling for submissions for A Season of Bangla Drama 2024 (taking place 1-24 November 2024).  This fantastic festival of theatre will be back in 2024 and once again they are seeking new writing. Please complete the expression of interest form here by 15 February 2024.


Events in February


Fiction and Film as Both Record and Distortion

Seminar (Histories of libraries series) – 6 February 2024, 5:30 – 7:30pm
Bloomsbury Room, G35, Ground Floor, Senate House, Malet Street, London WC1E 7HU


Speaker Alistair Black (University of Illinois) on ‘Fiction and Film as Both Record and Distortion: Kingsley Amis’s Novel That Uncertain Feeling (1955), the Feature Film Only Two Can Play (1962) and the Post-War Public Library in Britain’.

In 1962 Kingsley Amis’s second novel That Uncertain Feeling, published in 1955, was turned into the comedy film  Only Two Can Play , starring Peter Sellers as the Welsh public librarian Amis had created. Both book and film can be used to explore the history of the public library in post-war Britain by examining the extent to which they either serve as a true record and valuable primary source or represent a distortion of reality which in itself, ironically, can provide useful evidence of that history.

Book now



Samuel Takes A Break In Male Dungeon No. 5 After A Long But Generally Successful Day of ToursYard

Theatre Hackney Wick
9 February – 9 March, 7:30pm, 2:30pm Saturday Matinee. Tickets start at £10 discounts for groups

Samuel Takes a Break is a darkly comedic and genre-bending odyssey on the legacy of slavery within Ghana and beyond from debut writer Rhianna Ilube (shortlisted for the Women’s Prize for Playwriting and Soho Theatre’s Verity Bargate Award) and directed by Olivier Award-Winning Director Anthony Simpson-Pike To secure your seats, please email marketing@theyardtheatre.co.uk.

Read more




Corey Fah Does Social Mobility Tuesday 13 February, 6pm on Zoom Isabel Waidner talks about her latest novel, Corey Fah Does Social Mobility, in conversation with Merve Emre (Professor of Creative Writing and Criticism at Wesleyan University).

Described as a novel that celebrates radical queer survival and gleefully takes a hammer to false notions of success.





Subtexts: Bodies

Wednesday 14 February, 5-7pm
White Box Gallery, BLOC


Open-mic event around the theme of BODIES.  Bring something along to read!

We welcome readings of all work that has any connection to the theme for a 5-minute reading slot.  Pains and chains of the flesh, viscera, monsters, hybrid, identities, embodiments, hauntings, morphings, autonomies, fugitivities, in this world (or others), we want everything and in betweenness.

If you would like to do a reading email Prerana on p.p.kumar@qmul.ac.uk

Otherwise just come along and have a listen!



On Direct Action

14 & 15 February 2024 – Various venues

There is a series of events marking the 130th anniversary of the Greenwich Outrage, to consider the ways that revolutionary pasts can inspire contemporary praxis.

Two days of creative performances, workshops, film screenings and talks will take the 130th anniversary of the Greenwich Outrage as an opportunity to bring organisers, activists, scholars and artists together in order to consider the past, present and possible futures of direct action.

Book here



Martin O’Brien’s DISCHARGE

Saturday 2 March 2024, various times
Ugly Duck, 49 Tanner Street, London SE1 3PL

Tickets £8 – £25

DISCHARGE was a notorious performance art event dedicated to presenting difficult, radical and marginalised performance work. Curated by artist Martin O’Brien it embraced the endless possibilities of the performance space for aesthetic, physical, and political art and experimentation.

Marking the end of Martin’s project ‘An Eternity of Nothingness or The (Im)possibility of Living On’, DISCHARGE returns with a special one-off event making space to think queerly about living and dying.

The talks, conversations and performances reflect on sickness, sex, queerness, death, disability, mourning and (im)mortality.

Sam McBean is speaking at the symposium and Swati Arora will be chairing one of the panels.  Ansuman Bisws and BA and MA alum Pianka Parna are performing.

Book here



Events Round Up

Yoko Ono at Tate Modern, preview Wednesday 14 February 9-10am.  Looking for students to attend the press view and be photographed in the show itself.  The shots would be candid shot of people naturally exploring the exhibition.  This would be an exclusive first view of the show before it opens to the public on Thursday 15 February. If interested email Kadi.Diallo@tate.org.uk by 2 February.

Placing Migrant Histories Centre Stage, Pinter Studio, Arts One, Mile End Campus. Wed, 14 Feb 2024 14:00 – 16:00 GMT. Join us to explore how migrant histories can be represented through theatre and performance. Book here.

Law, Politics, and Literature in the Nineteenth Century, Wednesday 14 February 17:30 – 19:30pm. Room 313, Third Floor, School of Law, Queen Mary University of London, Mile End Road, London E1 4NS. In this in-person roundtable the Law and History Research Group brings together  Professor Pamela ClemitProfessor Georgios Varouxakis , and Postdoctoral Fellow Dr. Charlotte Johann  to present and discuss their recent work in nineteenth century intellectual history. The presentations will be followed by an open Q&A session. The aim is to bring together scholars interested in the relations and intersections between law, politics, and literature in the nineteenth century. Book here 

GRAVY – 20 February 2024, 7pm, Canary Warf (a floating theatre on a converted cargo ship). Poetry performances by Joelle Taylor, Hannah Silva, Abigail Parry, Oluwaseun Olayiwola, Fran Lock, sound artist Reid Dudley Peirson.

Verve Poetry Festival – 24 February 2004, 4 – 5pm, Hippodrome Birmingham. Hannah Silva performs from ‘My Child, the Algorithm‘.



Apologies if we missed any listings or made any errors, do let us know and we can post on social media.

Also if you have any news for our next newsletter please do reply or get in touch.

Best wishes,


Lynn McSweeney

Marketing Manager
sed-web@qmul.ac.uk


Queen Mary University of London
#FutureQMUL

PhD funding applications 2022-3 – Update from Rachael Gilmour

I’d like to say thanks, first of all, to all of you who’ve already been hard at work reading PhD enquiries and proposals, offering your assessments, and working with potential PhD applicants. I’m aware it’s a lot of work, and it is hugely appreciated.  

With that in mind, I’m writing with some important details about PhD funding applications in advance of the upcoming deadlines, which fall in January. 

Applications for PhD funding 

The deadlines this year are 25 January 2023 for Queen Mary Principal’s Studentships (QMPS) and 27 January 2023 for London Arts & Humanities Partnership (LAHP) studentships.

Please note that, for the LAHP scheme, primary supervisors need to submit their Supervisor Statement by that same date, 27 January 2023. Candidates cannot finalise their applications until this statement has been submitted via the online portal.  

Both funding schemes are open to international as well as UK applicants, and both have ring-fenced awards for UK students who identify as coming from a Black, Asian or Ethnic minority background. Do please alert any applicants you’re working with who may be eligible for these.  

In addition, the Faculty offers a Stuart Hall Foundation studentship open to applicants who meet one or more eligibility criteria (which include but aren’t limited to: being first generation in family to attend HE; eligibility for free school meals; caring responsibilities for an ill or disabled family member). Applicants who wish to be considered for this will also be considered for the general QMPS awards.  

Detailed information on all PhD funding schemes for English can be found here: 

https://www.qmul.ac.uk/sed/english/postgraduate/phd/funding/

Queen Mary Principal’s Studentships 

QMPS awards are made on the basis of the application to QMUL, if a candidate indicates that they wish to be considered. There is no separate application form for funding. Existing PhD students in their first year are also eligible to apply; they need to apply separately, via the School’s Research Student Administrator, Kat Henley (sed-research@qmul.ac.uk).  

It is vital therefore that the Research Proposal and Statement of Purpose on the admissions application are as strong as possible, to give candidates the best chance in the funding competition. Detailed guidelines on these can be found on the webpages by following the link above.  

Where possible, prospective supervisors should advise candidates on their applications and give feedback on drafts.  

Do also impress upon candidates that the Statement of Purpose is an important part of the application, particularly when it comes to assessing the preparedness of the applicant and the ‘fit’ of the project to the supervisors’ expertise and to the institution. 

The closing date for applications is 25 January 2022 at 5pm. Once all applications have been received, a selection panel will choose which candidates to nominate to the Faculty.  

Across the School as a whole we are allowed to make up to 6 nominations, plus 2 for the BAME awards and 1 for the Stuart Hall Foundation award. This is still only a small fraction of the applications we are likely to receive. 

Supervisors of nominated candidates will be asked to submit a short supporting statement which will be used for the next round of the competition, when the Faculty makes the final selection of awards.  

LAHP Studentships 

These have a separate application route and candidates need to apply directly to LAHP via its online portal. All the relevant information, including the application form and details of the Black and Global Majority studentships, can be found here: 

The guidelines and assessment criteria are roughly similar to those for QMPS but the application form is subdivided differently. It will require some additional work for applicants to revise their proposals to the LAHP format. 

The closing date for applications is 27 January 2023 at 5pm.  

All applicants need to give the names of two supervisors. The lead supervisor (or one of the co-supervisors) must submit a Supervisor Statement by the same date. The candidate cannot finalise and submit their application until this has been received.  

The Supervisor Statement should be submitted via the online portal at the link above. The supervisor is asked to comment separately on the quality of the proposal (200 words), the preparedness of the applicant (150 words) and the feasibility of the research (150 words). 

The website explains the assessment process and the criteria used.  

— 

As you’ll be aware, many candidates apply for both QMPS and LAHP awards (in some cases, for a different institution). Needless to add, some of the best applicants may be offered funding elsewhere and choose not to come to QMUL, which can be frustrating if you have invested time in the application. But we have a good record in supporting and retaining really good applicants and in winning QMPS and LAHP awards, as is evident in our PhD cohort this year. So — thanks again for all the work you put into this important process.  

Please get in touch if you have any questions. 

Best wishes,

Rachael 

—–

Rachael Gilmour (she/her)

Professor of Contemporary Literature and Postcolonial Studies

School of English and Drama | Queen Mary University of London | Mile End Road | London E1 4NS

Webpage: http://www.sed.qmul.ac.uk/staff/gilmourr.html

Latest book Bad English: Literature, Multilingualism and the Politics of Language in Contemporary Britain out now in paperback from Manchester University Press

A Season of Bangla Drama Festival Line Up 2022

Queen Mary University of London is a key partner on this year’s exciting festival which aims to celebrate Bangladeshi heritage in a creative and accessible way.

A few events from the programme

Death of an Orange

Death of an Orange

05/11/2022

The play tells the story of the life and work of the most revered modern Bengali poet, a cult figure Jibanananda Das (1899-1956), born and bought up in Bangladesh, but unfortunately hardly known to the outside world.

Circus

Circus

Date09/11/2022Location: ArtsOne Pinter Studio QMUL Mile End Road E1 4NSA playwright tries to save her theatre with a controversial play. Will it work? YOU get to decide!

How to Make Rice

How to Make Rice

Date11/11/2022Location: Brady Arts and Community Centre 192-196 Hanbury Street London E1 5HUA play, about a seemingly innocuous method to make rice, takes the audience through the Bengal famine 1943-44.

Taking Pride in History

Taking Pride in History

Date13/11/2022Location: ArtsOne Pinter Studio QMUL Mile End Road E1 4NSThe history of 1952s language movement comes alive in a unique craft-making and poetry translation workshop.

Bengali History Walk

Bengali History Walk

Date15/11/2022The Banglatown walk and talk is for anybody interested in Bengali migration and settlement in the East End of London.

Use your Words

Use your Words

Date20/11/2022Location: ArtsOne Pinter Studio QMUL Mile End Road E1 4NSUsing their words, young people in Tower Hamlets will commemorate 70 years of the Bangladesh language movement, using their own creative writing skills to mark this anniversary of cultural independence.

Clearing at QMUL: Why join English, Drama and Creative Writing at Queen Mary?

Clearing Entry Requirements are BBB at A-level (equivalents vary please call us on +44(0)800 376 1800)

We have limited availability on our courses for BBB students including the following courses:

Why you should join Queen Mary in Clearing?

Drama

‘Drama at Queen Mary has changed my perspective of what performance can be and the impact it has in a wider contexts.’ Emma Howes – Film and Drama Graduate

  • #2 in UK in Times Good University Guide 2022
  • Ranked #1 for Research in the UK (REF2021)
  • 2 studio theatres & 2 rehearsal rooms
  • 2 cinemas including BLOC our new research cinema & production suite
  • Dedicated technical team to help you make your ideas happen
  • Graduates go into successful careers including theatre makers, PR professionals and business owners

English

‘You have one of the greatest cities in the world on your doorstep and my friends and I made sure to take great advantage of it. London was our very own playground and that’s the way it should be. I’ve made some fantastic friends that have stayed in my life even after university, we simply haven’t left London yet. Two of my very close friends loved the social aspect of the city so much that they bought a pub in Mile End!’ Maximillion Chapman – English Graduate

  • World Top 50 in QS Rankings by Subject 2022
  • High employability rate – 92% graduates in employment or further study and 79% in highly skilled jobs (Graduate Outcomes Survey 19/20)
  • Over 60 specialist staff to help support you on your journey
  • Inclusive curriculum to broaden your horizons and innovative approaches help you develop transferable skills.
  • Access to Senate House Library in Bloomsbury, London’s cultural scene and events on campus.
  • Dedicated employability module, opportunities and societies to get professional experience while you study.

Creative Writing

‘My favourite thing is definitely the inclusivity on campus, there’s a huge diversity of people from across the world…There’s no better place to be I feel like. It’s one of the best decisions I’ve made.Mahima Tyagi, English with Creative Writing (2021)

  • Queen Mary is ranked #6 in the Times Good University Guide 2022 for Creative Writing and team of acclaimed writers teaches students.
  • Our progressive team includes Isabel Waidner whose queer fiction won the Goldsmiths New Fiction Prize in 2022, writing theorist and cultural critic Brian Dillon, Irish novelist Michael Hughes and renowned contemporary poet Nisha Ramayya. The curriculum is unique focusing on critical creative writing and non-fiction as well as traditional forms. Our inclusive modules include ‘Teaching Trans Lives’, ‘Creative Writing Advanced Poetry – The Poetics of Translation’, ‘Creative Writing Nonfiction: Illness and Experience’, ‘Writing and Performance’ and ‘Global Graphic Narratives’.
  • English and Creative Writing students cover a range of skills, techniques and writing styles from writing for performance to non-fiction. Students get careers support through a bespoke module ‘Creative Writing in the Professions’.
  • Students create their own portfolio of work and can work for student publications like PEACH magazine, which focuses on creative submissions, Wonderer – a literary journal and CUB magazine, an arts publication.

Emotional and Practical Support for Students and Staff

From counselling to talk through issues you face to money advice Queen Mary has lots of support on offer and the people who run these services. A first port of call might be to download the QMUL app so you have key services on your device:

Emotional

Students

Advisor Your advisor is here to talk to you about your studies and life at university. How to access: Book a 1-2-1 with your advisor to talk or book a 1-2-1 with another member of staff.

Advice and Counselling Service Free 4 week counselling for students and welfare advisors who can talk housing/money/immigration etc. How to access: Apply on MYSIS

Mental Health First Aiders Trained staff members can help students and staff access How to access: Rupert, Suzi, Afsana and Eszter are based in School office contact us.

SED Student Support Student support queries (for example, when your wellbeing is affecting your studies) Email: sed-studentsupport@qmul.ac.uk

Togetherall A safe, online community where people support each other anonymously to improve mental health and wellbeing.

Staff

Counselling via Workplace Options Employment Assistance Programme. You can ask for counselling sessions through this service for all staff. How to access:

Line Manager & School Management Team: Talk to your line manager about immediate issues or go to Head of Department or Area.

Staff Support Hub A directory of support for staff.

Both

Tower Hamlets Mental Health Crisis Line The mental health crisis line is available 24 hours a day and callers will be given support and advice from mental health professionals. It has been designed as a ‘first port of call’ for anyone experiencing a mental health crisis and to remove the need for those people to seek help via hospital A&E services. How to access: The 24 hour Mental Health Crisis Line is: Free Phone 0800 073 0003     

Tower Hamlets Talking Therapies Our local How to access: You can call 020 8475 8080 Monday to Friday. Or go to the self-referral section if you would like to make an on-line referral.

Practical

Students

Welfare Advisors via Advice and Counselling Service Free 4 week counselling for students and welfare advisors who can talk housing/money/immigration etc. How to access: Apply on MYSIS

Staff

Workplace Options Employment Assistance Programme:

You can ask for help around practical issues like money with this service for all staff.

Freephone: 0800 243 458 (username and password not required)
Email: assistance@workplaceoptions.com 
Log into the Queen Mary portal using the username ‘queenmary’ and password ’employee’.

School of English and Drama Equality, Diversity and Inclusion Student Initiative Fund

Funds are available for English and Drama Undergraduate and Postgraduate Taught (MA) students in the School of English and Drama (SED) to cover costs associated with the organisation of Equality, Diversity and Inclusion (EDI) initiatives.

EDI ensures fair treatment and opportunity for all. It aims to eradicate prejudice and discrimination on the basis of an individual or group of individuals’ protected characteristics. The SED EDI Student Initiative fund has been made available in response to requests from undergraduate students for support to organise activities that promote inclusivity and challenge ableism, homophobia, racism, sexism, xenophobia, and discrimination based on religion, class or age. We encourage applications from individual students or groups of students who are requesting financial support to design and deliver such activities. Examples of possible activities include:

  • Payment of visiting speakers or mentors (£100 is the usual maximum payment for a salaried visiting speaker; £200 is the maximum for an unsalaried speaker – likely an artist – please note, this is not an hourly rate, but the rate per visit or session by the speaker). Payments can only be made when the speaker has a Right to Work in the UK.
  • Modest hospitality e.g. taking the speaker to lunch, catering for a student event.
  • Reasonable reimbursement of travel expenses incurred by the guest speaker.
  • Materials for performance/practice.
  • Theatre tickets, field trips, gallery or exhibition visits, trips to book launches.

There will be two deadlines for funding to support student-led events planned between 1st March 2022 and 30 June 2022:

  • The first deadline is 11.59 p.m. on Sunday 27 February 2022
  • The second deadline is 11.59. p.m. on Sunday 3 April 2022

To apply for EDI funds of up to £200 please complete this form using your QMUL email account.

Your application will be considered by a small panel comprising: Nadia Atia (SED EDI Co-Chair); Suzanne Hobson (Head of English); Dominic Johnson (Head of Drama); and a student representative from the SED EDI Committee.

If your application is successful, you will be informed within two weeks of the funding deadline(s).

Best wishes

The SED EDI team

QUORUM Drama Research Seminar 20 Oct: There Are Plenty of Businesses like Show Business: Launch Event for ‘Marxist Keywords for Performance’

There Are Plenty of Businesses like Show Business: Launch Event for ‘Marxist Keywords for Performance’

by Performance and Political Economy research group (Jaswinder Blackwell-Pal, Shane Boyle, Ash Dilks, Caoimhe Mader McGuinness, Olive Mckeon, Lisa Moravec, Alessandro Simari, Clio Unger, Martin Young).

20 Oct, 7PM (BST) on Zoom or in person at ArtsOne

How to book: Free tickets but RSVP, please. In person booking: bit.ly/qm2010ip Online booking: bit.ly/qm2010o

Theatre and performance studies is awash with scholarship that examines performance in relation to its labour processes, modes of management, financial infrastructures, and so forth. But there lacks shared critical understanding of what terms such as “value” or “capital” mean and how they can be applied when studying performance forms like theatre, dance, or live art. The range of meanings that performance scholars attach to the word “commodity” or even the seemingly obvious entities of “class” and “the state,” for example, reveals more than a slight degree of imprecision or disagreement. It indicates a lack of systematic thought and, consequently, a need to interrogate the categories used for discussing performance’s political economy. 

Collectively written by nine people, “Marxist Keywords for Performance” (2021) contributes to growing critical attention within theatre and performance studies towards political economy by defining key Marxist concepts and exploring how they can be applied to study performance. Ahead of our project’s publication in a joint issue of The Journal of Dramatic Theory and Criticism and Global Performance Studies: GPS, this presentation introduces our aims in writing the keywords and reflects on the collective research, carried out in the midst of the pandemic, that went into them. As Tithi Bhattacharya (2017) reminds us, the aim of any critique of political economy should be to “restore to the ‘economic’ process its messy, sensuous, gendered, raced, and unruly component: living human beings capable of following orders—as well as of flouting them.” A critique of the political economy of performance, as we understand it, should have this same goal.

Thank you for your help!

Best

Hanife Schulte, Carolyn Naish, Gill Lamden, Tobi Poster-Su, Souradeep Roy, and Sam Čermák

QUORUM Committee
Drama Department; Queen Mary, University of London
queenmaryquorum@hotmail.co.uk
https://quorumqmul.wordpress.com/

@QuorumQMUL

Alumni Night at Peopling the Palace Festival – 17 June 2021

Our Alumni Co-ordinator Nathalie Grey has produced an Alumni Showcase which is taking place as part of the Peopling the Palace Festival this evening from 7pm.

The Alumni Showcase features a variety of talented alumni, from spoken word artists, to poets, to writers, to musical performers.


The Showcase will feature:

  • Poet and Spoken Word Artist, Jaspreet Kaur AKA Behind the Netra (History BA, 2013)
  • Author of Booker Prize long-listed novel, Who They Was, Gabriel Krauze (English BA, 2009)
  • Author, Spoken Word Artist and Playwright, Elliott Ajai-Ajagbe Daley AKA Word Play (English and Drama BA, 2008)
  • Band, Project Culture (Gary Hill (English BA, 2019) – Vocals & Guitar, Peter Stanley (English BA, 2020) – Guitar and Vocals, Jamie Richardson (Mathematics BSc, 2019) – Bass, Toby Cashman – Drums)
  • Author of Clytemnestra (Penguin Michael Joseph, Spring 2023), Costanza Casati (English and Film BA, 2019)
  • Poet, Sophia Hussain aka Eleni Sophia (English BA, 2020)
  • Young poet, Sigi X (incoming Medical Genetics student, published under Eleni Sophia’s Perspective Press Global)
  • Poet, Fathima Zahra (Biomedical Science BSc, 2020)
  • Poet, Kim Yudelowitz (Comparative Literature BA, 2019)
  • Actress and spoken-word performer, Efemwenkieke (Efe) Uwadiae (Law and Politics LLB, 2019)
  • Jazz singer, Jennifer Chukwumah (Computing & Information Systems MSc, 2021)

The Showcase will be taking place online and you can book your free tickets here:

Performance Possession & Automation Event Series

Performance, Possession & Automation – a collaborative research project led by Nick Ridout and Orlagh Woods, in collaboration with Dhanveer Singh Brar – invites you to two online conversations.

Possession & Modern Acting

Friday 4th June, 6-8pm (BST)

Online

Shonni EnelowJulia Jarcho and Nicholas Ridout 

Possession: an actor seems to have been taken over by someone else.

Automation: an actor is someone whose actions are not their own.

In this public conversation, Shonni Enelow, Julia Jarcho and Nicholas Ridout explore ideas about possession and automation in relation to 20th and 21st century experiences of acting, theatre and the movies. Do they hold clues to the roles that both possession and automation play in contemporary life, and to how we might think and feel about them.

Click here, to book your place and for further information.

I was born a loser

Friday 11th June, 6-8 pm (BST)

Online

Edward George and Dhanveer Singh Brar 

What occurs when “lose her” is recast as “loser”, and covered over once more to become “winner”? And why in each reversioning does “pride” persist, but never in the same guise? These are questions which arise from listening to the Jamaican essayist of the song form, Alton Ellis.

By losing ourselves in Alton Ellis’s losses and revisions, Edward George and Dhanveer Singh Brar believe it is possible to begin to open up an auditory dimension to the question of spirit in Jamaica, the Caribbean, the diaspora, and in turn, modernity itself, as it was being rendered towards the end of the twentieth century.

Click here, to book your place and for further information.

Performance, Possession & Automation is a research project exploring automation and possession as two ways of thinking about what happens to human subjects who act in ways that they do not themselves fully control. How can making and thinking about performance contribute to thinking about these ideas?

In partnership with Fierce Festival, performingborders and Transform Festival

This project is supported by:

Collaborations Fund of the Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences, Queen Mary University of London (QMUL)
The Centre for Public Engagement, QMUL
Strategic Research Initiative, School of English and Drama, QMUL

Applications for Leverhulme Trust’s Early Career Fellowship Scheme Open [Deadline 12 pm 6 January 2021]

Early career researchers seeking support for their application to the Leverhulme Trust’s Early Career Fellowship scheme are invited to get in contact with us from now [deadline 12 noon, 6 January 2021].

The School of English and Drama invites early career researchers seeking support for their application to the Leverhulme Trust’s Early Career Fellowship Scheme to submit to us:

  • An outline research proposal including title, abstract (100 words), details of past and current research (250 words), a 2-page (A4) project outline, and a statement detailing relevant research being carried out in the School of English and Drama and your reasons for choosing Queen Mary (200 words).
  • An academic CV of not more than 2 pages to demonstrate your research stature.

Please send the above to Dr Huw Marsh, Research Manager, at: sed-research@qmul.ac.uk by no later than 12 pm on 6 January 2021.

Full scheme details including eligibility criteria can be found on the Leverhulme Trust’s website: https://www.leverhulme.ac.uk/funding/grant-schemes/early-career-fellowships

All outline proposals will be considered by a School committee and applicants will be notified of the shortlisting outcome in the week of Monday 25 January 2021. Shortlisted candidates will be put forward for approval by the Humanities and Social Sciences Faculty Executive, who will report their decisions by 28 January. Decisions will then be communicated to candidates, and the School will work with successful applicants to finalise their applications. The final deadline for submission of approved applications is 4pm on 25 February 2021.

The School recommends that applicants make clear the following in applications (CVs and proposals):

  • the strength of your academic record (e.g. classifications, awards, time taken to complete your PhD, etc.)
  • the strength of your research record (e.g. publications (including their length; and if forthcoming, where they are at in the process); presentations; research leadership; if you make practice as research, indicate how it is research; etc.)
  • what research you will publish/disseminate through the fellowship
  • the importance of doing your fellowship in the School of English and Drama at QMUL (e.g. synergies with staff and research centres)
  • your proposal’s importance, originality, methods, critical contexts, resources, structure and outputs.

Poetry vs Colonialism Series – Being Human Festival 2020

The events below are part of the series ‘Poetry Versus Colonialism’ which is part of the Queen Mary, University of London Being Human series ‘Navigating New Worlds’.

Many Hands

November 14, 3:00 pm – 6:00 pm

This is an online event. In this online interactive workshop, working with poets and historians, weavers and dancers, unravel the histories of weavers in Bengal and their treatment under British rule. Learn about the complex interwoven Bengali and UK histories of craft and manufacture from Dr Lipi Begum from the London College of Fashion

All That Glisters

November 15, 3:00 pm – 6:00 pm

This is an online event.

All that glisters may be beautiful and seductive but what surprising histories lurk beneath the shiny surface of gold? In this interactive online event, learn about the complex histories of gold mining and artistry in Ghana and the UKs role in importing gold, its use in currency and art, the role of the Goldsmiths Company in the past and future. Hear from academic Dr Pen Woods, meet the Ghanian British artist Efema Cole and try your hand (remotely) at some art work. Work with the poet Nick Makoha to put your response to the beauty and treachery of colonialism and gold into words. Discover how creating poems can help to process and articulate emotions, politics and identity.

This event is part of the series ‘Poetry Versus Colonialism’ which is part of the Queen Mary, University of London Being Human series ‘‘Navigating New Worlds’.

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Smoke Screen

November 21, 3:00 pm – 6:00 pm

This is an online event.

What is the aroma of colonialism? In this event you will be introduced to the pungent history of tobacco cultivation and trade, slavery and colonialism, by academic Professor Nick Ridout from Queen Mary University of London. Learn about the Atlantic Slave Trade and the interlinked histories of tobacco cultivation and export in the USA and the UK. Guyanese and Scottish poets Sandra Agard and Miriam Nash will guide you in an at home smelling workshop. Experience the aromas involved in the brutal tobacco trade and discover how creating poems helps process and articulate complex emotions about identity and our relationship to this aromatic and addictive product with a problematic past and future.

This event is part of the series ‘Poetry Versus Colonialism’ which is part of the Queen Mary, University of London Being Human series ‘Navigating New Worlds’.

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Sugar, Sugar

November 22, 3:00 pm – 6:00 pm

This is an online event.

It may taste delicious and sweet but how sweet is the history of sugar? Learn about the interlinked histories of slavery, sugar plantations, processing, export and consumption from academic Dr Malcolm Cocks, Dulwich College and the University of the West Indies. We’ll consider the taste of sugar in its’ different states in an at home tasting workshop and see what raw sugar cane plants and sugar beet looks like. Appreciate the art of spun sugar and sugar sculptures as created by Bahamian artist Lynn Parrotti. Meet Jamaican British poet Keith Jarrett and work with him to produce responses to the sickly taste of colonialism and dark futures of sugar.

This event is part of the series ‘Poetry Versus Colonialism’ which is part of the Queen Mary University of London Being Human series ‘Navigating New Worlds’.

Book your tickets

Queen Mary Network: Get free eMentoring and meet other QMUL students, alumni & staff

The Queen Mary Network enables you to:

Benefit from careers expertise and advice by directly reaching out to alumni who may work in an industry/ organisation of interest to you.

As part of the “eMentor” service, you could also gain support with the following:

  • CV Review
  • Job application advice
  • Careers related advice by email or telephone
  • Work experience/ Work Shadowing/ Internship and Job opportunities
  • Joining the Network is simple and only takes a few minutes, you can even sync your LinkedIn profile to register.

Join the Queen Mary Network today

Student of the month: Demi Whitnell – BA English

Always got her head in a book, a pen in her hand and her eye behind a camera.

Tell us about your time at QMUL. What have been your highlights?

My hightlights of QMUL has certainly been running CUB magazine on campus as editor-in-chief. I have learnt so many amazing skills through my position as well as having so many amazing opportunities, meeting the brilliant writers behind CUB and the students I would have have come across in my own degree. I found a little family in CUB and it will be so upsetting yo say goodbye in May.

How has your course at Queen Mary helped you to progress into the world outside? What’s next?

My course reinforced my love of writing, I was not an avid poet until second year and now I am published on Amazon as well as online publications. I also found my love of article writing through CUB which led me to my two summer internships with the Daily Telegraph Newspaper. My course showed me how diverse literature can be and I know how silly that sounds but A-levels and GCSE only gives you a small scope of literature and after university I know I will continue to explore the different pathways within literature and continue my studies.

Aside from course content what have been your favourite elements of the experience of studying here as a whole?

I cannot give CUB anymore of a shout out but without joining it in my second year as a writer, I would not be this confident or have this many amazing friends around me. I also would not have run for VP Welfare in the 2020 elections or be able to be this confident at public speaking, it gave me skills I could never have learnt without it. I also discovered how diverse peoples values and viewed can be, I met people from so many amazing backgrounds and faiths that it opened my eyes to new experiences and beliefs of my own!

Tell us about your life outside Queen Mary including any projects, ambitions or jobs you’ve had.

I’ve had several part time jobs throughout university such as bar work or retail. Bar work gave me a boost of confidence which allowed me to stand up for myself in difficult situations and to respect myself ad a woman in a male oriented environment.

What could be improved to enhance future students’ experience at Queen Mary?

Bridging the gap between SU and the students, making a less corporate relationship and more student led.

To give more opportunities to students who (like myself) travel to campus daily meaning we miss out on nights out or parties etc.

Find out more about our BA English

Student of the month: Yue Wang – PhD in English

I am a PhD student and poet.

Tell us about your time at QMUL. What have been your highlights?

It’s fantastic! I love the people, the natural beauty and the adademic events in QMUL. I am so excited to learn from many excellent scholars, which makes me feel so good.

How has your course at Queen Mary helped you to progress into the world outside? What’s next?

I am so grateful to my supervisor Matthew Ingleby who invited me to study here and brought to meet many excellent scholars in 19th century studies seminar held by IES.

I am so lucky to listen to Mark Currie’s lectures in person, whose book I have read before in China. I am so grateful to Professor Scott McCracken and Professor Julia Boffey, whose classes inspire me a lot.

Thanks also to Howard and Hari in the research teamwho helped me a lot during my study. Because of the excellect scholars in English department, my mind was open and my academic net was enlarged. Hopefully I can contribute my academic studies in future and I am willing to be a good bridge between UK and China.

Aside from course content what have been your favourite elements of the experience of studying here as a whole?

I think the academic atmosphere attracts me deeply and the independent thinking spirit and the friendly classmates all make me feel so encouraging and enjoyable.

Tell us about your life outside Queen Mary including any projects, ambitions or jobs you’ve had.

Usually, I take part in some lectures held by Senate House or KCL. And also I join some poetry recital events or watch a drama performance or visit a cultural site. I hope I can travel all the literary sites related my study project in the next 6 months.

What could be improved to enhance future students’ experience at Queen Mary?

Hopefully, there will be more PhD communities, which can encourage exchange and build more social relationships.

Find out more about our English PhD

Student of the month: Abdur-Raheem Modan – BA English Literature and Linguistics (Hons)

I am an avid bibliophile and writer.

Tell us about your time at QMUL. What have been your highlights?

My first year has been very exciting and exhilarating. I’ve greatly enjoyed my course and learning material(s). I’ve also had a wonderful time exploring the myriad opportunities/events student life has to offer.

How has your course at Queen Mary helped you to progress into the world outside? What’s next?

I intend to continue my course to completion. It’s helped me to further explore areas that have long interested me as well as potential careers/roles.

Aside from course content what have been your favourite elements of the experience of studying here as a whole?

I have enjoyed many of the extracurricular activities and events.

Tell us about your life outside Queen Mary including any projects, ambitions or jobs you’ve had.

I am a writer and have self-published before. I continue to write, as well as working within my local community as a Young Advisor.

What could be improved to enhance future students’ experience at Queen Mary?

Perhaps more contact with tutors.

Find out more about BA English Literature and Linguistics