UCL Special Collections Visiting Fellowship

SANAS Biennial Conference The Genres of Genre: A Conference on Form, Format, and Cultural Formations Nov. 2 and 3, 2018, Lausanne North American Studies have always had an intense but ambivalent relationship to genre, as these narrative patterns have participated in nationalist processes as well as in narratives of resistance. Emerging at the beginning of the twentieth century from concerns about naturalism and realism, American literary scholarship after WWII avoided the politicized post-war atmosphere by making the ‘romance’ the quintessential American novel genre, while cinematic genres such as the musical or the Western contributed to amplifying the mythic dimension of American self-definition. Since then, American Studies scholars have pioneered influential work on melodrama, the American Gothic, the jeremiad and other genres. Concurrently, Canadian literature’s prominent nation-building narratives were framed as documentary tales of regionalism, historical novels and social realism before evolving into dystopian and postmodern fiction, most famously by Margaret […]

Université de Lille 3, UFR LEA, France, 12 octobre 2018 Over the last thirty odd-years, a growing number of film and TV productions have left the confines of Hollywood studios, either to benefit from interesting tax incentives or to find new scenery that can visually surprise audiences. The popular success of some of those ‘runaway’ films or TV series then prompted many fans to walk in the footsteps of Luke Skywalker in Tunisia (Star Wars), of Frodo in New Zealand (Lord of the Rings), of Harry Potter and his friends in Great Britain, of Katniss Everdeen in North Carolina (Hunger Games), of Daenerys or Jon Snow in Ireland or Malta (Game of Thrones), thus significantly increasing the number of visitors to those places and countries. Some of those tourists strongly wish to re-live on site what they saw on screen while others are simply curious to visit the filming locations. […]

TRADITIONS AND TRANSITIONS 28-29 September 2018 SOFIA, BULGARIA   DEPARTMENT OF ENGLISH AND AMERICAN STUDIES SOFIA UNIVERSITY “ST. KLIMENT OHRIDSKI”   Second Call for Papers The Department of English and American Studies at Sofia University “St. Kliment Ohridski” invites scholars to submit proposals for the international conference Traditions and Transitions – to be held in Sofia, Bulgaria. The conference is dedicated to the 90th anniversary of the Department of English and American Studies at Sofia University and the 130th anniversary of Sofia University “St. Kliment Ohridski”. People celebrate anniversaries in order to commemorate what has been achieved so far and to envision what should be achieved in the future. The event aims to look back at a distinguished past, and ahead to a challenging future. The conference seeks to bring together young and established scholars, and professors emeriti from academic institutions in Bulgaria and abroad, giving them a venue to debate and exchange views […]

Death & Culture II Conference 6-7 September 2018, University of York   Registration and abstract submission are now open for the second iteration of the Death and Culture conference taking place in September 2018. Registration fees include food and drink for the two days and a conference meal.   The human response to mortality is a research theme across the arts, humanities and social sciences. As a result, this conference seeks to provide a forum for networking and sharing interdisciplinary death scholarship. We welcome research rooted in empirical studies as well as conceptual and theoretical engagement which focus on cultural responses to death and the ways it has shaped understandings and perspectives on mortality. The conference, in its second iteration, seeks to continue engaging with the study of mortality as an academic enterprise, supported by evidence and framed by theoretical engagement. This truly interdisciplinary event brings together death scholars, including […]

The Institute for Black Atlantic Research (IBAR), (University of Central Lancashire) would like to invite you to a conference co-organised with the Collegium for African American Research (CAAR),  Open Democracy 50.50, the Cornelia Goethe Center (Goethe University, Frankfurt); International Development and Inclusive Innovation, Strategic Research Area (The Open University) and De Gruyter: Women’s Spring: Feminism, Nationalism and Civil Disobedience 21-23 June 2018, University of Central Lancashire, Preston The aim of this conference is to explore the ways in which female activists and artists responded to the resurgence of far-right nationalism and the twin evil of religious fundamentalism. We want to take a closer look at grassroots emancipatory movements, women-led voluntary associations, as well as cultural texts by women – performances, installations, artworks, films and novels – in which authors take a stance against religious bigotry, xenophobia, homophobia, racism and misogyny. But we also invite contributions that focus on women’s endorsement […]