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Caribbean Research Seminar in the North, Hull, 6 March 2015

Caribbean Research Seminar in the North

In association with the Society for Caribbean Studies

 

Friday 6 March, 2015

 

Wilberforce Institute for the study of Slavery and Emancipation

University of Hull

Oriel Chambers

27 High Street

Hull HU1 1NE

 
 
Programme
 
12.30-13:30 Arrival and lunch
 
13:30-14:20 Natalie Zacek (Manchester), ‘Holding the Whip-Hand: Gender, Slavery, and the Pornography of Pain in Jamaica and New Orleans’
 
14:20-15:10 Jenny Wilson (Leeds), ‘The Return of Liberated Africans from Cuba and Brazil to Africa, 1830-1870’
 
15:10-15:40 tea and coffee break
 
15:40-16:30 Wendy Asquith (Liverpool), ‘Estime’s Extravaganza: Haiti’s “Little World Fair” of 1949-50’ 
 
16:30-17:20 Jim Walvin (York), ‘Slavery in Small Things’
 
For details about WISE, including directions and contact details, see http://www2.hull.ac.uk/fass/wise.aspx
 
Registration is free, but compulsory. To register your attendance, please email Beki Bloomfield: R.bloomfield@hull.ac.uk
 
A reservation will be made at a reasonably priced local restaurant for those wishing to attend dinner after the seminar. Please contact R.bloomfield@hull.ac.uk for booking, and with any other enquiries, including dietary requirements.

Linguistic and Cultural Interchange: Policies and Practices

Linguistic and Cultural Interchange: Policies and Practices

University of Warwick Campus – Room LIB 2

20 February 2015

 This is the first workshop of the AHRC-funded project, ‘Transnationalizing Modern Languages: Mobility, Identity and Translation in Modern Italian Cultures’. The workshop invites both local and international policy-makers, practitioners and leading experts to discuss the activities that local communities, institutions and universities undertake to manage and understand contact zones.

The aim is to map issues that involve the management of cultural and linguistic interchange in relation to mobility. Implications of these initiatives for local, national and international policy, as well as the applications of research within Modern Languages, will also be addressed.

Attendance is free of charge but space is limited. To register for the event or for further information please contact Naomi Wells (Naomi.Wells@warwick.ac.uk) by Thursday 12 February 2015.

The full programme for the day can be found here.

Translating Cultures at Northumbria: @Trans_Cultures @NorthumbriaUni

One of the most satisfying and enlightening elements of the leadership fellowship is the opportunity it affords to visit institutions, talk about the latest developments in ‘translating cultures’ – and, most importantly, to learn more about the projects funded under the theme. I’ve recently been involved in ‘translating cultures’ sessions at Leeds and Kent, and will be going to Edinburgh for one next month.

Yesterday, thanks to Scott McGee and Lesley Twomey, I spent some time at Northumbria University. I was very pleased to have the opportunity to visit Baltic 39, a cultural hub for contemporary art situated in the centre of Newcastle. The home for Northumbria University Fine Art students, the site is also an exhibition space programmed by BALTIC, and the location of a number of artist studios. A consortium between Northumbria and Sunderland was recently designated an AHRC Centre for Doctoral Training (CDT), with funding allocated to support post-graduate studentships that reinforce existing engagement with industry – reinforcing notably  the institutions’ links with BALTIC Centre for Contemporary Art and the National Glass Centre.

An afternoon session on the main campus focused on the ‘translating cultures’ theme, exploring its emergence and current evolution, and also reflecting on the ways in which it fits into current debates across a range of Arts and Humanities disciplines. A useful subsequent discussion covered a variety of areas, including the importance of recognizing the theme’s pre-history in earlier AHRB/AHRC funded projects relating to the broader area of (cultural) translation, and the challenges of integrating practice-based research in ‘translating cultures’ activity (an area in which colleagues in translation studies have already shown considerable interest).

Two presentations by Northumbria colleagues demonstrated the ways in which ‘translating cultures’ is engaging researchers across numerous subject fields. Michael Green  talked about his creative writing project on ‘ficto-critical translation as a means of resisting the appropriations of history and place’, underlining the ways in which the engagement with ‘”translation’ […] conceived in its broadest possible sense and relat[ing] not exclusively to processes that are interlingual but also, for example, to those that are intermedial or intercultural’ allowed him to reflect on the representation of the past in the present, on the intercultural transfer of ideas, on cultural exchange between South Africa and Britain and on modes of cross-disciplinary working. In his overview of ‘Politics, Patriotism and Painting’, Matthew Potter then explored the ways in which ‘translating cultures’ has implications for intercultural approaches to museology and arts history: his project has allowed him to explore the acquisition of British pictures by Australian National Galleries (1860-1949) and to investigate how this contributes to a form of translational dynamics underpinning the formation of a distinct British cultural identity in Australia during the period. I was also pleased to meet Northumbria researchers instrumental in two research networks linked to ‘translating cultures’: Elizabeth Kramer, one of the leaders of the ‘Fashion and Translation: Britain, Japan, China, Korea’ project, and Wessie Ling, co-investigator on ‘Translating and Writing Modern Design Histories for the Global World’.

An illuminating day, which served as an excellent showcase for the diverse research conducted under the theme at Northumbria. It was good to see engagement with ‘translating cultures’ across a range of fields, but also the cross-disciplinary connections that the theme continues to foster. Understanding more about the detail of projects always allows me to uncover connections with other ‘translating cultures’ awards, most notably yesterday in the areas of practice-led research, museology and design, and I’m looking forward to exploring these links further as the theme continues to evolve.

Call for papers: French Cultural Studies — religion and culture in France

Religion and culture in France
Call for papers

The journal French Cultural Studies is planning a Special Issue in 2016, devoted to the role of religion in French culture and society over the past 60 years. Proposals and manuscripts are now invited.

In recent years, France has often been in the headlines for its passionate debates around the principle of laïcité, usually rendered as secularism in English. And recently a UN-sponsored survey ranked France as the fourth most atheistic country in the world. These appear to indicate a widespread turning away from traditional religious beliefs and practices. However, this is not the whole story.

In recent years, some parts of the Christian, Moslem and Jewish communities have found a new assertiveness. There has been an upsurge of interest in non-traditional beliefs, including those from the Far East. And a growing number of avowed atheists are affirming the value of spirituality and espousing religious-style practices.

Looking back over the past 60 years, there have been many shifts in the religious landscape in France, including the development of a strong Moslem presence, the renewal of Catholicism in the wake of the Second Vatican Council, the resurgence of Jewish thought and the emergence of a new atheism. These changes have been both championed and challenged by individuals, groups and institutions, and have been reflected in the cultural life of the country.

French Cultural Studies invites proposals and manuscripts that address the patterns of belief and practice in France and their role in French culture in its broadest sense of creating representations and performing meanings. Articles may take historical or contemporary perspectives and may offer topics and approaches based in any of the disciplines concerned with culture, including literary studies, cultural history, philosophy, theology, media and communications, visual or performing arts, linguistics, ethnography or popular culture.

Proposals should be sent in the form of an abstract and short curriculum vitae to the Editor of the Special Issue, Prof Michael Kelly (University of Southampton): M.H.Kelly@soton.ac.uk, to be received by Monday 16th February 2015. Completed manuscripts will be required by 30 September 2015 and may be submitted in English or French.