Your Advisor: first point of contact for help with your university life. Book an appointment by email or via the scheduler on QMPlus (during the semester). If you don’t know who your advisor is find out here.
QMSU is independent and works for students, it has lots of resources and advocacy and events to help you.
Togetherall is the student mental health platform QMUL subscribes to. Use it to do a course or connect anonymously.
b) In-Crisis & Emergency Support
Emergency numbers: 999 for life or death emergencies and 111 on your phone for urgent health advice. 020 7882 3333 if you need campus emergency team.
Helplines:Samaritans (crisis phone/chat support), Student Minds (tailored mental health support for students) and search for your local council’s mental health support provision. Tower Hamlets for example has a 24 hours crisis line.
Connection: Be the one who reaches out and use real talk to discuss real things going on not just. You’d be surprised how many people respond well to this. There’s still time to join societies, contact old friends and meet new ones.
Exercise: Use the Couch to 5k or other similar apps to get into a routine of exercise that can improve your mood. Move around when studying to different places at home and at university if you need study space.
This is a message for all School of English and Drama UG and PGT students with coursework deadlines falling in January 2021. Yesterday senior staff in the School met with a large group of students who made representations about the distressing and difficult circumstances in which you are all studying, exacerbated by the recently announced national lockdown. I fully appreciate that we cannot expect students to ‘carry on as usual’ in such circumstances and the measures set out below, which we have worked as quickly as possible to put in place, are one recognition of the impact of Covid-19 and this latest lockdown. The student group raised other matters and we are working to see how we can best respond to those.
In making these arrangements, please note that I have also needed to take into account the consequences for the School’s academic and administrative staff, many of whom are also dealing with the changed circumstances that the lockdown brings. Since yesterday I have been working with Christina Perry, the Faculty Dean for Education, Trudy Mason in the Registry, our own Admin team, our Chairs of Examinations and Heads of Department, and others, to see if these measures could be implemented. I am very grateful to all of them for working with me, quickly, at such a difficult time, to make this possible.
With immediate effect, students who submit assignments due in January within 7 days (including Saturday and Sunday) of the original deadline will not be subject to any penalties and will not need to submit an Extenuating Circumstances application.
Students who have already submitted an assignment with a January 2021 deadline but are within the 7-day grace period may resubmit their assignment provided they do so before the grace period ends.
A list of assignments due in January that now have a 7-day grace period can be found here indicating the end of the grace period in each case.
Students who submit assignments due in Januarymore than 7 days late will still need to submit an EC Late Submission claim in order for any late penalties to be removed.
Students who are not able to submit assignments by the final deadline will need to submit an EC Non Submission claim by 24 January 2021.
During the Semester A Examination Period, which starts today, SED will accept any self-certified Extenuating Circumstances application that cites the various social and personal pressures generated by the national lockdown and the context of the pandemic more broadly. Each individual claim can relate to multiple assessments/modules. Further details will follow regarding self-certification.
The deadline to submit any Semester A Extenuating Circumstances claims via MySIS remains 11.30pm on Sunday 24 January 2021.
Queen Mary University of London (QMUL) and the Natural History Museum (NHM) are pleased to announce the availability of a fully funded doctoral grant from October 2021.
This studentship is funded for 3.5 years full time (or part-time equivalent). The project will investigate provenance information for the botanical specimens in the Sloane Herbarium, a foundation collection of NHM, to re-imagine our understanding of its global and imperial dimensions.
The successful candidate will combine archival research and special collections handling with digital methods for structuring humanities data in order to surface hidden histories within the Sloane Herbarium, not least by building a resource that supports future generations of scholars.
A full description of the project objectives and application process is available in the Further Particulars.
This studentship is funded through the AHRC’s Collaborative Doctoral Awards (CDA) scheme via the London Arts & Humanities Partnership (LAHP) of which QMUL is a member. The studentship includes a stipend at the Research Council UK Home / EU rate (£17,609 per annum in 2021/22) plus fees for 3.5 years. The awarded candidate will also be entitled to a £550 per annum stipend top-up. Studentships can be either full or part-time. As a LAHP student, the successful candidate will have full access to the LAHP Doctoral Training Partnership development activities and networking opportunities, joining a cohort of about 90 students per year.
CDA grants provide funding for doctoral students to work on a project in collaboration with an organisation outside higher education. They are intended to encourage and develop collaboration and partnerships and to provide opportunities for doctoral students to gain first-hand experience of work outside the university environment. They enhance the employment-related skills and training available to the research student during the course of the award. Collaborative Doctoral Awards are not only a route into academia but also provide hands-on work experience in the cultural sector and transferrable skills.
This project will be jointly supervised by Dr Richard Coulton (QMUL) and Dr Mark Carine (NHM), with further supervisory input from Professor Markman Ellis (QMUL) and Miranda Lowe (NHM). The student will be expected to spend time at both QMUL and NHM, as well as becoming part of the wider cohort of LAHP funded students across the capital.
We want to encourage the widest range of potential students to study for this Collaborative Doctoral Award and are committed to welcoming applicants from different backgrounds. Candidates may come from a variety of disciplinary backgrounds (e.g. archaeology, anthropology, literary or cultural studies, history, heritage studies, natural history, history and philosophy of science, museum studies, archive and information studies). Some experience of historical collections handling and/or digital humanities will be of benefit.
Potential candidates are welcome to contact Dr Richard Coulton (r.x.coulton@qmul.ac.uk) and Dr Mark Carine (m.carine@nhm.ac.uk) before preparing an application.
The successful candidate will commence their PhD in October 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 the Natural History Museum.
Applications must be made in two phases: Firstly to QMUL by 5pm on Friday 29 January 2021 Secondly to LAHP by 5pm on Friday 5 February 2021
You must complete the QMUL process first in order to include your QMUL application ID reference number on the LAHP CDA application form.
INTERNATIONAL DAY OF PEOPLE WITH DISABILITIES – 3 DECEMBER: We are delighted to hear thatAccessibility Consultant, Journalist and Speaker, Emily Rose Yates (English BA, 2013), was recently listed among the Shaw Trust’s Power 100, an annual publication containing the 100 most influential disabled people in the UK.
COLLEGE CLOSURE DAYS: Queen Mary is closed from 18 December 2020-4 January 2021. If you need support please get in touch before this starts.
SEMESTER 2 DATES: 25 January -16 April 2021 / Bank holidays: 2 and 5 April 2021.
You will also get the chance to take part in live subject panel sessions with current students, which will include a Q&A where you can ask questions about your subject of interest. The event will close with our semi-live digital tour, where you will be able to explore our Mile End campus and take part in a text Q&A session to find out more about living and studying at Queen Mary.
ENGLISH – POSTGRADUATE RESEARCH SEMINAR ‘Hear the sledges with the bells- Silver bells! What a world of merriment their melody foretells!’- Santa Poe Join the PGRS team on 10/12 for their PhD panel & ap-POE-priately festive Christmas Quiz! Sign up in teams of up to 4 now and watch here for more soon https://forms.gle/AtYYg3LJByYr1N
LISTINGS
‘Sh!t Actually’ is Backtually3-5 Dec – Rose Theatre and 12-23 at Home Manchester QMUL Drama graduates Sh*t Theatre present their provocative and hilarious festive rework of Love Actually to prove ‘Love Actually is All Around’.
‘Best Alternative Christmas shows’ (Evening Standard). ‘No other alternative Christmas shows’ (Global Apocalypse)
Written and performed by Peggy Shaw and Lois Weaver of Split Britches, it is a series of verbal and physical essays that playfully dances through the dangerous intersections of permanence and impermanence, interdependence and care, knowledge and experience, narcissism and echoes.
Rethinking Darkness Book Launch 10 Dec, Online, 3-5pm BST – Free Our very own Martin Welton presents his work on Theatrical uses of darkness as part of this book launch.
“The Fall of the Berlin Wall launched a wave of ecstatic raving and clubbing across Berlin. That wave’s force has carried the city’s clubbing scene right through to today—although it has met an unforeseen break in this year of Covid restrictions. For thirty years, the thump of bass has never gone so silent. In this paper, I’ll put my previous work on ecstasy and melancholy in Berlin around 1989 in dialogue with recent developments, as clubbers, DJs and producers contend with a moment in which collectives and crowds have become sites of anxiety. I’ll consider the attempts to replicate the clubbing experience online, as well as the irrepressible raving energies that have seen illegal parties take place against stringent public health measures.”
News & Links Alumni Profiles this month: Emily Rose Yates(English BA, 2013), Accessibility Consultant, Journalist & Speaker. Nathan Benitez (English BA), founder of afoodible.Creative Skills Academy: Rupert Dannreuther has run 3 online creative skills workshops and 2 in-person drop-ins for students, staff and friends. These will continue in semester 2 on Wednesday afternoons. Thanks to all who have attended so far.
Hari Marini (Admin/Drama)’s performance company PartSuspended is in this #WIP online exhibition, curated by Queer Arts Projects which is on between 15 Oct 2020-15 Jan 2021.
Our very own Caoimhe McAvinchey is part of the research team on this innovative AHRC project around Clean Break Theatre company and working with women in the criminal justice system.
Examine Clean Break’s impact on contemporary British theatre and the lives of the women it works with.
Examine Clean Break as an organisation, run by women for women, with distinctive organisational practices characterised by learning through listening to the voices of those involved in its work. It considers the implications of these practices for management and leadership more widely.
Create opportunities for artists, academics, women with experience of the criminal justice system and those who work with them, to share their expertise through seminars, training, podcasts and teaching resources.
Women/Theatre/Justice is the umbrella title for research and public engagement activities that are part of Clean Break: Women, Theatre, Organisation and the Criminal Justice System (2019-2021). This interdisciplinary Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC) funded project is led by academics in theatre and performance studies and work and employment relations, in partnership with Clean Break theatre company.
Clean Break was initiated by women in HMP Askham Grange (UK) in 1977 and has since become an internationally recognised theatre, education and advocacy organisation that places stories of women, crime and punishment centre stage.
Through seminars, conferences, training, exhibitions, podcasts and publications, the project examines wider issues including: the criminalisation of women; theatre practices with incarcerated women in different cultural contexts; gender, organisation and leadership; worker voice; the role of higher education in partnerships within the criminal justice system; implications of COVID-19 for incarcerated women and the response of arts organisations.
In honour of Trans Day of Remembrance on 20 November James Queay exposes the history of the term ‘trans’ and the importance of protecting trans rights.
In the mass consciousness one may be forgiven for seeing the battle for trans rights being a modern one, or even one that only goes back as Stonewall in 1969. However, the term ‘trans’ was first coined in Berlin in 1910 (though the fight of course can be traced back even further if one looks).
Magnus Hirschfeld was a Physician and Academic who championed queer rights seeking to assert the views of it being a natural occurrence through case studies from every culture he could reach. It should be noted that the ethics of this were in no way up to modern standard, but for the period in time we will let that rest. While his vocabulary was limited compared to today’s vast lexicon of queer terms, his work to identify that trans people were separate from gay people was key in further works.
Hirschfeld led the Scientific-humanitarian committee to gather 5000 prominent signatures to overturn paragraph 175 of the section of the German penal code that, since 1871, had criminalized homosexuality. Despite his works being rejected a number of times he championed this cause making headway until the takeover of the Nazi party. Hirschfeld in his efforts to bring about change and promote queer rights additionally opened the Institute for sexual research under the Weimar Republic (A governing force far more tolerant and liberal than previously experienced). This institution not only educated in queer and heterosexual matters but also offered medical consultations to the People of Germany. Hirschfeld himself lived with his partner Karl Giese in the institute, offering himself up as an openly gay man in a world he wished to better, even when that world was not necessarily ready to hear what he had to say.
When Von Papen launched a Coup in 1932 which instated him as the Reich Commissioner the institute stayed open. Papen actively enforced paragraph 175; and in the face of this nigh on further criminalisation of Homosexuality Hirschfeld kept his doors open. However, in 1933 Hindenburg instated Adolf Hitler as the Chancellor. On the 6th May the same year a group of university students belonging to the national socialist student league stormed the institute. They began to smash what they could before the SA (Nazi Storm Troopers) arrived to systematically burn the books. Book burnings had got into full swing months earlier with April featuring the Wartburg festival one of the most prolific book burnings that would occur. Thus, the importance of Nazi suppression of Queer media cannot be overstated. Some reports suggest that the first book burned specifically was Magnus Hirschfeld’s research on Transgender Individuals, and this signifies their importance in the fight against Fascism.
Transgender rights in many ways typify everything that is wrong with Fascism. They promote self-expression, of individuality and the freedom to change and evolve into the best version of one’s self. For fascist ideologies these ideas are dangerous because they draw on how weak Fascism is, it is rigid and restraining, it cares not for its people and incites hatred.
Thus, championing trans rights and queer rights as an extension of that is inexplicably linked with fighting against right extremism. There was no strategic benefit to the Nazi’s for burning Hirschfeld’s work, and he himself was abroad public speaking at the time so he was not silenced. Rather it is that the Nazis and by extension fascists fear acceptance and tolerance as it is only through suppression and manipulation that they are able to maintain control. This evidenced by the extreme lengths in all cases fascists go to, to manipulate their members; whether that is through misinformation, propaganda, or violence.
The furtherment of trans rights is key to queer people without question, but through this link I believe that simply to be on any ethical standing everyone must also believe in its messages.
Therefore, when we remember the long standing fight for queer rights so too must we remember the responsibility we have to those who have upheld that fight before us; the opposition they faced; and most importantly that we carry those opponents with us.
A memorial bench for Catherine Silverstone was installed this morning in the First Floor garden/atrium in ArtsOne. It was organised and paid for by undergraduate students in Drama through a Crowdfunder.
Billy Bray (Drama), Leda Maiello (English) and Gwyn Lawrence (Drama graduate) organised the crowdfunder and carried out the practical work.
The following helped Billy, Leda and Gwyn spread the word and advertise for fundraising:
Rebecca Barton
Niall Loftus
Naz Simsek
Elliot Douglas
Sofia Renzi
Anca-Teodora Stoian
I’m so moved by – and proud of – the students who organised it, and those who crowdfunded it.
Dominic Johnson, Head of Drama
The quote on the plaque is from Catherine’s beautiful article on Derek Jarman. Leda (one of the students) chose it.
Do please visit the bench and think of Catherine when you’re next on campus.
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.
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.
Join a festival of free online events including coming of age poetry by local young people, a cook-a-long, community panels and eye-opening plays that explore the British-Bengali perspective. QMUL is a key partner and sponsor.
DR CATHERINE SILVERSTONE: Head of the School of English and Drama and a longstanding colleague in the Department of Drama at Queen Mary University of London, tragically passed away on Sunday 4th October 2020 at King’s College Hospital. Our thoughts are with her partner Julia, her family in New Zealand and her friends. We all loved and will miss Catherine more than we can ever say. Read more and leave a message of remembrance
LOCKDOWN SUPPORT: We would like to remind students and staff that there is emotional support for you at the college from Mental Health First Aiders to counselling services.
A SEASON OF BANGLA DRAMA: This year the biggest British-Bengali theatre goes online online with performances from east London as well as West Bengal, India and Sylhet Bangladesh.
English Peer Assisted Study Support (PASS) 11 Nov, Online, 3pm BST – Free The next virtual English PASS drop-in session for First Year students takes place on Wednesday at 3pm (Week 8) via Blackboard Collaborate. Follow this link to access the module page and join the webinars: https://qmplus.qmul.ac.uk/course/view.php?id=13405. Week 8’s webinar is an open session – feel free to drop-in at any point to ask for any advice relating to your assignments or modules.
Artists had been referred to by corporations as the ‘perfect worker’, finding enjoyment and drive in their work despite the often-long hours and low pay. Now we are moving to a world where we are being encouraged to retrain, up-skill and evolve. TAF have invited independent performance maker and curator Xavier de Sousa and Professor Gerard Hanlon from the Centre for Labour and Global Production at Queen Mary University of London to discuss, from their own viewpoints, the idea of WORK & UTOPIA. They will be working through ‘what matters’. To them, to you, and what we should be thinking about in building strategies for change in a post-COVID world.
Five Bodies 12 Nov, Online, 6.30-8.30pm BST – Free Inspired by moments of unknowingness, invention and imagination, Five Bodies brings together some of the most outstanding British and international poets including our very own Nisha Ramayya to share experiences of contemporary poetry. Poetry vs Colonialism Series – Being Human Festival 14-22 Nov, Online – Free
Explore the histories of gold, sugar, cotton and tobacco with poets, artists, academics & museums. Join the online workshops to discover how poets can help decolonise the world.
Last Gasp WFH 21 Nov, Online – La Mama Experimental Theatre Club
Last Gasp WFH, looks for ways we might catch our breath in these times of global uncertainty, considering our ‘last acts’, whether personal, political or environmental.
Written and performed by Peggy Shaw and Lois Weaver of Split Britches, it is a series of verbal and physical essays that playfully dances through the dangerous intersections of permanence and impermanence, interdependence and care, knowledge and experience, narcissism and echoes.
Caleb Femi (English alumni) has published his book Poor to wide acclaim and coverage from many publications including the Guardian, Hay Festival and New Statesman.
Genna Gardini (Drama PhD)has received the 2020 CASA award to finish my play, Many Scars.
She says: ‘I’ve been working on this thing for the past two years &it’s one of the biggest endeavours of my life – to write a play about MS that is just as strange as this disease is. Thank you, CASA! ‘
CeciliaMuratori (Research Fellow) is featured on History of Philosophy Books in 3 minutes with her book Renaissance Vegetarianism: The Philosophical Afterlives of Porphyry’s On Abstinence.
Rodent (Drama alum) appeared at the online, inclusive and outrageous Queer House Party on 30 October.
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’.
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’.
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’.
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’.
We understand that this year is very strange and confusing time for you – but we want to outline why applying to QMUL is a positive way to end 2021 with a plan.
Here are 21 reasons why you should apply to our English and Drama courses for 2022 entry before the UCAS deadline in January.
1. You can relax and have stress-free holidays without worrying about your university choices. More Netflix time!
Pose (Dominique Jackson and cast) on Netflix
2. You’ll get invited to interview for all of our courses, to help you understand whether the course is right for you and to ask questions.
3. You’ll sometimes get a quicker offer: Your application will be processed ahead of people who apply later.
b) Why English at Queen Mary?
4. Our values of inclusion are at the heart of what we teach.
5. Professional Support & Work Experience: Employability is at the heart of our English courses and you will gain access to more areas of employment by choosing us.
6. Student Support: We’re here to support your learning the whole way through your degree, with a dedicated advisor, peer-assisted study support, writing workshops and professional practice classes.
7. Freedom to be you: Unlike Drama schools we support your to tell your own story.
8. Teaching that pushes the boundaries.
9. Space to create: We have 3 rehearsal rooms, 2 studio theatres, and a dedicated technical team to make your ideas a reality.
d) Why Queen Mary over other Russell Group universities?
10. Our history of fighting for social change and inclusion: Listen to this podcast – featuring our very own Nadia Valman – to get insight into this unique history.
We are dedicated to supporting students with services like counselling, writing support, Mental Health First Aid and more.
12. Our diversity – and how you can make friends with people from around the world and from different socio-economic backgrounds.
e) Why choose to study in 2022?
13. Learn in lockdown and its aftermath.
Make the most of being out of lockdown and learn something interesting with us. You can always choose to add a year abroad in your third year when hopefully travel will be less restricted.
14. Time to reflect.
University gives you time to reflect on the wider world, develop your values and try to change the world.
15. The experience of blended learning is benefiting students.
We work with students to improve our online and in-person teaching as much as we can. Lots of students have told us that some experiences work better online. Activities like meeting an advisor or participating in a text-based English class work really well online, so we will act on this feedback for 2021.
You will have time outside of paid-work and time for internships and other opportunities that may be difficult to fit in around full time work or apprenticeships.
18. Meet curious people and make friends for life.
Lots of our students make friends for life on our courses. We are a friendly department and encourage students to talk and socialise outside of the workshop room.
g) Why do a humanities degree at all?
19. Humanities make us human – we need stories, critique and communication to challenge and celebrate the world we live in.
20. Humanities are relevant to so many careers and make you adaptable for jobs that don’t even exist yet.
21. You’ll find it easier to commit to, read and study about something you are passionate about.
Eleni Sophia from SED has made it through to the final of GradVenture, the University of London enterprise pitching competition, with her business Perspective Press Global.
She will be competing Dragon’s Den style against another Queen Mary student and six students from other University of London colleges for a share in the £10,000 prize.
Interested in entrepreneurship but not sure where to start? Join QHack – apply by 18 October 2020
Read how QHack prepared Veerna, a first year undergraduate student, launch her own business.
“QHack helped me feel confident in sharing my idea, as before QHack I used to keep my idea to myself. I was taught that it is not the idea that makes the business, but the person behind it!”
Dates: 31st October / 1st November – 7th / 8th November
Applications close on 18 October 2020, 23:59Apply now
by Magali Kelly Frea Scholtis, MSc Creative Arts and Mental Health
Mad Hearts 2021 is in planning now so please follow us on Twitter to find out when booking opens.
On Friday 19 June 2020, the MSc Creative Arts and Mental Health organised the Second Edition of the Mad Hearts Conference, with the theme ‘Solitude and the Encounter’.
This one-day webinar included a conversation with Professor Femi Oyebode, a Professor of Psychiatry at the University of Birmingham, about the inner self and the function of imagination, drawing insights from Fernando Pessoa’s ‘The Book of Disquiet’. This was followed by Laura E. Fischer, an artist, mental health activist, and survivor-researcher who specialises in trauma. She spoke of reclaiming authorship of the trauma narrative through creative expression and she discussed how healing through art depends on three components: survivor leadership, embodiment and creativity.
The final speaker was John Richardson, a filmmaker (see Simon Says: Psychosis) and podcast presenter (Coffee and Psychosis), who sheds light on the mental health system through his documentary work. He spoke of his encounters with the mental health system, what was helpful and unhelpful to his recovery, and how he strives to be true to his values and remain authentic despite the pressure to conform to corporate views both in mental health and in film-making.
After the talks, three artists were nominated to discuss their creative work, which were submitted to the Creative Enquiry stream of the conference, together with a reflection on the theme ‘Solitude and the Encounter’. The painting ‘Shades of Solitude’ by Grace Catchpole, uses colour to capture the nuances of the experience of loneliness, from a peaceful place to rest to a darker experience of grief. The short film ‘Sound’ by Lorna V. represents the funny side of a missed online encounter, that between a client and her therapist, when the client can’t be heard because of a technological glitch and ends up talking to herself. Finally, the short animation ‘Plastic Bag’ by Harris Nageswaran reveals the power of a plastic bag to carry goods but especially love and care to those isolated in hospitals during the lockdown. The artwork ‘Isolation, a familiar issue disguised differently’, by Muhammad Umer, was chosen as the image for Mad Hearts 2020 for its portrayal of a person seen and not seen by the viewers, through the partly deceptive reflection of a mirror. You can view all submissions on the following website: https://sites.google.com/view/mad-hearts-2020/home.
Plastic Bag by Harris Nageswaran
The Mad Hearts Conference ended with a group discussion that included both participants and speakers. During these conversations, we heard from people from all different backgrounds, such as specialists in mental health, users of mental health services, medical students and students of the MSc Creative Arts and Mental Health. Together we delved into contemporary encounters concerning the arts and mental health, uniting clinical, artistic and research perspectives.
During said discussions, we reflected on the contribution of the arts to mental health practice, the agency in one’s own healing, equality in mental health services and the power of isolation. These conversations are important to encourage re-interpretations of contemporary mental health science and practice. It is thus crucial that we continue these discussions!
Mad Hearts 2021 is in planning now so please follow us on Twitter to find out when booking opens.
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