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Friday 27 May 2011

BBC Reel History Experience

Albert Square, Manchester, Saturday 28 May, 10-5

Melvyn Bragg is filming his new BBC Two series, Reel History of Britain, in Manchester. Come along and see the history of Manchester come alive through archive film.

Details here: 

Tuesday 24 May 2011

Summer reading/ What are you reading?

Summer reading - recommendations you might profitably or enjoyably read this summer from members of EAS around the city will be being posted on our Twitter feed @EASManchester over the next week or so, sign up to get some ideas of what to stuff in your suitcase...

Let us know what you are reading over the summer by adding to the comments section below.

Family History at the City Library, 26 May

Come and find out how to trace your long lost ancestors, learn to use Ancestry.com or Find My Past and get help researching your family story. 
 
The Family History Helpdesk is run by the the Lancashire and Manchester Family History Society - they know what they're looking for and they know just where to find it. Drop in anytime between 11am and 2 pm.

The Family History Helpdesk takes place every Thursday in the Manchester Room on the second floor of City Library. It's free!

Thursday 19 May 2011

Trinity College Dublin, Digital Arts and Humanities Programme – Applications Invited for 4-year PhD Studentship

A four-year structured doctoral research-training programme designed to enable students to carry out research in the arts and humanities at the highest level using new media and computer technologies.

Candidates will choose to enter the programme within either the ARTS or the HUMANITIES strands.  In both strands they are required to complete core, training and career development modules, including main modules shared across the consortium and others institutionally-based. The overall aim of the taught modules are threefold: 

1) to introduce students to the history and theoretical issues in digital arts/humanities;
2) to provide the skills needed to apply advanced computational and information management paradigms to humanities/arts research;
3) to provide an enabling framework for students to develop generic and transferable skills to carry out their final research projects/dissertations.  The aim of the research is to enable students to develop and synthesise a PhD dissertation.

DAH students at Trinity College Dublin will be supported by two of the University’s flagship research units, the Trinity Long Room Hub (http://www.tcd.ie/longroomhub/) and the Arts Technology Research Lab( http://www.tcd.ie/drama-film-music/atrl), each with its own bespoke facilities on Trinity's city-centre campus.  Studentships are available for the Schools of Drama, Film and Music, English, Histories and Humanities, Languages, Literatures and Cultural Studies, Linguistic, Speech and Communications Sciences, Religions, Theology and Ecumenics, and the Department of Philosophy.

High-calibre candidates holding, or expecting to receive, a first-class or upper second-class honours degree in an appropriate discipline are encouraged to apply.

Enquiries may be directed to Professor Poul Holm at lrhub@tcd.ie
Applications should be made online at the Postgraduate Application Centre: www.pac.ie/tcd / Course reference code: TRB23 
 
Deadline 18 May but this will be extended.

Renaissance and Baroque in Critical Theory

Renaissance and Baroque in Critical Theory

A panel to be held at the 5th Biennial conference of the Society for Renaissance Studies, University of Manchester, July 9-11, 2012

Proposals are invited for papers making up a panel on representations and appropriations of culture from the mid-1300s to the early 1700s by modern critical theory. Taking ‘critical theory’ broadly to include all those writing in the wake of Marx, Nietzsche, Freud and feminism, this panel seeks discussions of its passing remarks (such as those by Nietzsche and Lacan), sustained analyses (Bakhtin, Foucault, Kristeva), and more multifarious appropriations (Deleuze’s baroque) on and of Renaissance  texts, culture and terminology.

Other welcome topics include the relationship or tension between readings of the Renaissance by critical theory and other differently-motivated forms of scholarship (Benjamin and the Warburg Institute, for instance), and assessments of the intervention critical theory can make in the situation of the study of the Renaissance today, or indeed, vice versa.

Applications of around 400 words should be sent to James Smith at renaissance.drama@manchester.ac.uk by 01/09/11.

For further information about attending the SRS conference in 2012:

http://www.rensoc.org.uk/SRSNationalConference2012.htm

For further information on ‘Renaissance and Baroque in Critical Theory’ at the SRS conference 2012:

http://manchester.academia.edu/JSmith
 

Wednesday 18 May 2011

North West Drama Colloquium - registration open

North West

Renaissance Drama Colloquium

Registration is now open for the inaugural

North West Renaissance Drama Colloquium, a one-day event to be held at

 

John Rylands Library, Deansgate, Manchester, Thursday 23rd June 2011

 

A keynote lecture will be given by

Professor Nicholas Royle

(University of Sussex), author of The Uncanny, How to Read Shakespeare, After Derrida and Quilt

 

Admission: £10/£5 for students

 

To express interest, email

Naya Tsentourou and James Smith at:

 

renaissance.drama@manchester.ac.uk
http://nwrdc.blogspot.com/ Registration ends Friday 10th June

 

Tuesday 17 May 2011

Manchester improves performance in Guardian League Tables

The Guardian University League Tables for 2012 have been published, with Manchester rising 10 places to 41st in the UK.

The report points out '... it's the third most targeted by the UK's graduate employers. Manchester's continuing success is due in part to the positive experience that graduates report'.

Furthermore 'You've got access to one of the UK's largest academic libraries, more than 10,000 PCs across campus, e-learning facilities, and excellent teaching resources for both arts and sciences.'

In the detailed report on English the Guardian cited 78% Course Satisfaction and 91% Satisfaction with Teaching. American Studies came 11th in the country with scores of 80% and 91% for Course and Teaching Satisfaction. EAS generally scores poorly on feedback and staff:student ratio, issues we are working hard to improve, but well on graduate employment and funding per student.

Full report:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/education/2009/may/10/universityguide-uni-manchester

Monday 16 May 2011

Sexuality events

The Sexuality Summer School 2011, in conjunction with the Research Institute for Cosmopolitan Cultures, the Centre for the Study of Sexuality and Culture, University of Manchester S.A.G.E., and the English and American Studies John Edward Taylor Visiting Fellowships, presents 3 public events:

17 May 2011—17:00— Public Lecture (followed by wine reception)
John Casken Lecture Theatre, Martin Harris Building, University of Manchester.
Annamarie Jagose (University of Sydney) John Edward Taylor Visiting Fellow
“Queer Times: Heteronormativity and the Simultaneous Orgasm”

18 May 2011—18:30—Film Screening
Looking for Langston dir. Isaac Julien
With an Introduction by Jackie Stacey (University of Manchester)
Cornerhouse, Manchester
Tickets £4 from Cornerhouse

19 May 2011 –17:00—Public Lecture
John Casken Lecture Theatre, Martin Harris Building, University of Manchester
Laura Doan (University of Manchester)
“Disturbing Practices: What’s Queer History For?”

Sunday 15 May 2011

EAS 10k times

Frances 43:51
Barnsley 49:27
Haydon 57:31
de Groot 58:19 (running for the George House Trust)
Huhulea 1:06:39

Final Sponsorship raised for the British Cross by the 10k run - £952.50

Well done everybody! Thanks for the sponsorship!

Wednesday 11 May 2011

Talk on Shakespeare by former EAS student, 17 May

I've arranged for Andy Kesson from the University of Kent to visit and
give a talk to the university LGBT staff network group entitled "'I'll
tell you in plain English who fucks who': rethinking sexuality in
Shakespeare's theatre."

The talk is at 1pm on Tuesday 17th May in 4.206 University Place. All Welcome.

Geoff Blunt

Historicizing Performance in the Early Modern Period The John Rylands Library, Deansgate, Manchester January 20, 2012

Plenary Speakers:
Professor Julie Sanders (Nottingham)
Professor Tiffany Stern (Oxford)
This one-day academic conference aims to bring together scholars working on all aspects of performance in the early modern period (taken broadly to include the fifteenth to the early eighteenth centuries). We intend to interrogate what performance and its related terminologies and practices might have meant to early modern readers, playgoers, and congregations; how performance shaped and/or undermined distinctions between private/public bodies and selves. Although drama is an essential point of reference for this discussion, we encourage that “historicizing performance” be taken as broadly as possible. Topics might include (but are not limited to):

- Plays and play-going
- Music and singing
- Public spectacles, ceremonies and architecture
 - Ritual, devotional expression, spirituality / the sermon as performance

 - Autobiography and Performative Texts
 - Performing gender/ sexuality/ the domestic
 - Performance and the performative in theory

Please email abstracts (400 words max.) for a 20 minute paper to Michael Durrant and
Naya Tsentourou at: Historicizing.Performance@manchester.ac.uk
Deadline for abstracts: September 23th, 2011
Notifications of acceptance to be sent out by October 14th, 2011

Tuesday 10 May 2011

E. Ann Kaplan Talk/Film Screening & Master Class (June 7th & 8th)

The Research Institute for Cosmopolitan Cultures (RICC) is pleased to be sponsoring two events by Professor E. Ann Kaplan on June 7th and 8th, 2011.

E. Ann Kaplan is Distinguished Professor of English and Comparative Literary and Cultural Studies at Stony Brook University, where she also founded and directs The Humanities Institute. She has written widely on media, cinema, and women's studies, and is the author of numerous books including, most recently, Trauma Culture: The Politics of Terror and Loss in Media and Literature.

1. Public Talk / Film Screening at Cornerhouse (June 7th)
£7.50/5.50 for talk/screening. Tickets via www.cornerhouse.org

Talk: Dystopian Fictions of Trauma Future-Tense: Alfonso Cuaron’s Children of Men, Tue 7 June, 5.00pm

Alfonso Cuaron’s Children of Men touched a scholarly nerve that bypassed P.D. James’ novel from which the film is adapted. In this talk, E. Ann Kaplan looks at this unusual attention to a commercial film, accounting for it through the theoretical issues scholars drew out from the film. She then addresses specific concerns with the film that arise from her research in trauma studies, and from a broader concern with increasing fictions about future human-produced catastrophe.

Film Screening: Children of Men, Tue 7 June, 6.30pm
Dir Alfonso Cuaron / 2006 / 109 mins. Julianne Moore, Clive Owen, Michael Caine.

2. Master Class with E. Ann Kaplan (June 8th)
Wed 8 June 10.00am-12.00pm, G.30/31 Arthur Lewis Building.
All postgrads and postdocs welcome.
Please email caitriona.devery@manchester.ac.uk for the reading materials and to confirm your place.

Monday 9 May 2011

Go on, sponsor them

In less than one week, 4 EAS PhD students - Veronica Barnsley, Liam Haydon, Irene Huhulea and Kathy Frances - are running the BUPA Manchester 10K to raise money for the EAS charity of the year: The British Red Cross. The British Red Cross do amazing work, both overseas and in the UK and we're really proud to be representing the charity, and the deparment at the event!

If you feel you would like to sponsor our effort, then please visit the EAS Just Giving page: http://www.justgiving.com/easredcross

The route takes us from Portland Street, out past Old Trafford, towards Salford and then back to Deansgate for a *triumphant* finish so please feel free to come and cheer on the day too! The event commences 10am on 15th May and Paula Radcliffe as well as many other athletes and celebrities will be taking part!

If you have any further queries, please don't hesitate to get in touch katherine.frances@postgrad.manchester.ac.uk

Best wishes,

Liam, Irene, Ronnie and Kathy

EAS (and Italian) in Washington DC

Photos from 'Teaching the History of the Book', Folger Shakespeare Library, Washington DC:

The eminent group, including Guyda Armstrong (Italian) on left:


Peter Stallybrass (UPenn), Ian Gadd (Bath Spa) and Kathleen Lynch (Folger Institute):
 

Thursday 5 May 2011

Come and support Manchester in the Two Cities Boat Race

Saturday 7 May (from 1.30pm) at Salford Quays

University of Manchester rowing team 2010 
The University of Manchester and University of Salford will compete once more in this traditional rowing event. This year is the event’s 40th anniversary and it will take place at Salford Quays on Saturday 7 May, starting at 1.30pm.

The schedule for the day is likely to be as follows:

Time          Race
1.30pm     Men’s Single Sculls
1.50pm     Women’s Single Sculls
2.10pm     Mixed Alumni VIII
2.25pm     Women’s Novice IV
2.40pm     Men’s Novice VIII
3.10pm     Women’s Senior IV
3.25pm     Men’s Senior VIII
3.40pm     Manchester V Manchester Alumni
5pm         Regatta Presentations

Spectators from The University of Manchester are extremely welcome to come down and show their support.

Wednesday 4 May 2011

Become a Peer Mentor!

Peer Mentoring

Peer Support is a student-to-student support programme that has been in existence for over 10 years. Peer Mentoring forms part of this programme whereby higher year students provide help and support to lower year students. Although usually of a social nature, Mentors may provide some academic help to students, e.g. advice on course options, but not academic material.

In EAS Peer Mentoring normally takes place in the first semester during the Academic Development course. Peer Mentors are part of the teaching process and being in the scheme is a good way of being part of the department, seeing how courses work from a different perspective, and, of course, for developing your CV (especially if you would like to teach or be involved in job that involves training or interpersonal skills). If you want to discuss being a Peer Mentor contact the Undergraduate Programme Director, Dr. Alan Rawes, who will put you in contact with Joe White.

If you would like to be involved next year visit: http://www.manchester.ac.uk/studentsaspartners

Peer Mentoring - the key points

Take a look at the supporting Mentor Material online for more information on what to expect from training and mentoring, as well as the benefits of being a Peer Mentor. Here are some of the key points to consider to give you an idea of what being a Peer Mentor entails.

As a good mentor you must:
  • Attend 2 hour training session (and Planning Ahead session where applicable). Book onto a training session using the online sign up (http://goo.gl/6TYaz)    
  • Attend Welcome Week induction—meet and greet event organised by coordinators
  • Sustain contact and communication; with mentees and coordinators
As a good mentor, you will:
  • Contribute to the development of your scheme—working with the coordinator and mentors within your discipline.
  • Help organise events for your mentees—course related or social
What to expect:
  • Regular contact from coordinators 
  • Additional training and support if required 
  • Additional opportunities provided by Students as Partners
Visit manchester.ac.uk/studentsaspartners or follow us on Twitter @SaP_UofM

Feedback on Modules

EAS wants your feedback on our teaching, course design, assessment procedures and library resources

We collect feedback in two different ways, for particular purposes:

1. You will receive EAS-specific feedback forms in your classes this week or next, and we would urge you to take time to think about your responses. These are the forms that we use to calibrate our teaching and our provision in general, and our responses to your comments will be written up and posted online (like this). These forms are also very useful for any GTAs so we can monitor their teaching.

2. University questionnaires are available online for each module. These form part of the data used by the central university to adjudge the quality of teaching in the School.
 
The online questionnaires are here: http://www.studentnet.manchester.ac.uk/

Your opinion counts! Complete your Course Unit Evaluation Questionnaires and have your say!


Remember, if you have specific concerns, you can also talk to your Academic Advisor, your Student Representative, the CUD of the course, the Undergraduate Programme Director (Dr. Alan Rawes), or the Union academic representative Mo Saqib.  

Tuesday 3 May 2011

EAS in China

Robert Spencer, David Alderson and Michael Sanders visit Shanghai to talk about Marxism:





World Day for Cultural Diversity

World Day for Cultural Diversity for Dialogue and Development is annually held on May 21 to help people learn about the importance of cultural diversity and harmony. This day is officially recognised by the United Nations.

The University of Manchester recognises the diverse make up of its staff and students and acknowledges this in Goal 3 of ‘Advancing the 2015 Agenda’. There are a number of strategies for social responsibility which extend to the wider community and commits the University to understand the challenges facing our society.

‘Personally, I am deeply committed to the principles of Equality and Diversity and I am proud to be President and Vice-Chancellor of a University that champions these principles as part of its approach to every aspect of its work.’ (Nancy Rothwell- President & Vice Chancellor)

To celebrate the rich diversity we have at The University of Manchester there will be a number of events between 23 – 27 May.  These will range from ‘Trees of Diversity’ to an ‘International Song Contest’ to a diversity walk of Manchester.  All events are free and open to staff, students and their friends & relatives.

A full timetable can be found on the Equality & Diversity Intranet Pages:

·         Diversity Week Timetable

Come along, join in and celebrate your own diversity!



Paul Marks-Jones
Equality & Diversity Advisor
C28 Sackville Street
0161 306 5878

Recasting the Past: Early Modern to Postmodern Medievalisms

A Conference supported by the Arts and Humanities Research Council AHRC at the University of Exeter7-8 September 2011

In 1649, the radical Digger movement called on the people of England to 'throw down that Norman yoke'; in 1849, at the launch of the periodical the Anglo-Saxon, its British readers were addressed as 'Anglo-Saxons all'; and in 2009, a cover story for Harpers magazine accused American soldiers in Afghanistan of acting 'exactly like the crusaders of 1096'.

This AHRC-supported conference will draw together research examining how, from the Renaissance to the present, historical narratives about Britain's 'medieval' past have been drawn on to foster communal identities; to fuel, legitimate or oppose social and political change; and to resist or moderate the forces of modernity. Confirmed speakers include Rosemary Hill, author of God's Architect: Pugin and the Building of Romantic Britain (2007) and Bruce Holsinger, author of The Premodern Condition: Medievalism and the Making of Theory (2005).

Proposals for individual papers of 20 minutes or 3-paper panels are invited. Possible topics might include:
. The formation of regional and national identities . The politics of Pre-Raphaelitism . Gothic architecture . The reception of historical medieval figures - King Alfred, Richard III, the Black Prince, etc . The social/political agendas of translation and editing projects . The uses of chivalry, monasticism, feudalism, etc in post-medieval thought and praxis . The establishment of medieval-inspired institutions and associations . The social uses of King Arthur, Robin Hood and other medieval myths/legends/folklore Please send proposals of 200-300 words to Dr Joanne Parker, Dr Philip Schwyzer, and Dr Corinna Wagner at medievalisms@exeter.ac.uk by 13 Friday 2011. We will notify delegates of their acceptance by 29 May.

Each year the AHRC provides funding from the Government to support research and postgraduate study in the arts and humanities. Only applications of the highest quality are funded and the range of research supported by this investment of public funds not only provides social and cultural benefits but also contributes to the economic success of the UK. For further information on the AHRC, please go to: www.ahrc.ac.uk.

Lateness and the Modern, THIS FRIDAY 6th May 2011

LATENESS AND THE MODERN

Friday 6th May 2011, 10am - 4.45pm

A one-day conference at the University of Manchseter
Council Chamber, Whitworth Building

A symposium to address the possibilities and limits of notions of 'late style - as discussed by, for example, Theodor W. Adorno and Edward Said - for literature, culture, politics and the history of ideas.


Schedule:

10:00 - 10:30 Registration and coffee
10:30 - 11:45 Gordon McMullan (King's College London): 'Late Style and its discontents'
11:50 - 12:50 Howard J. Booth (Manchester) 'Lateness, modernism and order in Kipling's short fiction'
12:50 - 2:15 Lunch
2:15 - 3:15 Andrew Frayn (Manchester): '"Literary forms do become exhausted, clapped out, as well": Late Modernism and Late Style'
3.15 - 3.30 Tea
3.30 - 4.45 Robert Spencer (Manchester): 'Late Yeats: "Beating upon the wall" of the Irish Free State'

Please note the revisions to the advertised schedule; Michael Bell is unable to join us.

Please feel free to continue invite friends and colleagues. The organisers would appreciate an indication of attendance beforehand by e-mail to lateness@manchester.ac.uk.

Monday 2 May 2011

EAS runs the 10k

On Sunday 15th May, 4 EAS PhD students - Veronica Barnsley, Liam Haydon, Irene Huhulea and Kathy Frances - are running the BUPA Manchester 10K to raise money for the EAS charity of the year: The British Red Cross.

The British Red Cross do amazing work, both overseas and in the UK and we're really proud to be representing the charity, and the deparment at the event!

If you feel you would like to sponsor our effort, then please visit the EAS Just Giving page: http://www.justgiving.com/easredcross

The route takes us from Portland Street, out past Old Trafford, towards Salford and then back to Deansgate for a *triumphant* finish so please feel free to come and cheer on the day too!

If you have any further queries, please don't hesitate to get in touch katherine.frances@postgrad.manchester.ac.uk

Best wishes,

Liam, Irene, Ronnie and Kathy