Our CCUE representative attended the OGM on Saturday, held in the School of Advanced Legal Study in Central London.
Representatives from English Literature and American Studies departments around the UK were met together to talk about the state of the subject and its future. In particular there was a discussion of 'impact' and how this might affect work in the discipline - how scholars might think about judging the cultural, social and economic import and effect of their research.
John Tusa gave an invigorating lecture calling upon the discipline to fight back against the coming cuts. He argued that the debate was impossible to win and instead of engaging with it the community should put its own points assertively and repeatedly, pointing out the success that the Arts community had had in arguing for continued funding since the late 1990s.
There was a fun panel on interdisciplinarity, pointing out the really good work and potential benefits of working with non-Higher Education Institutions from the Welsh National Assembly to the Royal Institution.
The closure of the English Subject Centre (http://www.english.heacademy.ac.uk/) was lamented and there is a petition to sign - whether you are a undergraduate, postgraduate or staff member this organisation is invaluable and important. Please support it: http://www.ipetitions.com/petition/HEAsubjectcentre
CCUE also agreed to prepare a statement deploring the government attitude to the Arts and Humanities and the ending of the teaching grant.
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