LSH Magazine Issue 4 (PDF) - University of Lincoln

InterrogatingMaggie GeeConferenceConference poster design by Anthony Levings6Trauma in theHumanitiesA unique and ground-breaking conferencewas hosted by a team of Humanities staffand English postgraduate studentsover four days last Summer.This innovative event - ‘InterrogatingTrauma in the Humanities’ - wasintended to critically evaluate the rapidlyevolving nature of literary and culturaltrauma studies and their conjunctionwith the new discipline of the MedicalHumanities. This exciting Internationaland Interdisciplinary event boughttogether contributors from academicand clinical backgrounds from as faraway as America and Belarus. Theorganising committee were delightedto welcome as keynote speakers threeof our foremost contemporary traumascholars, Professor Cathy Caruth (Frank.H.T Rhodes Professor of HumaneLetters, Cornell University), Dr. KaliTal (Research Institute for Social andPreventative Medicine, Bern), and Dr.Anne Whitehead, literary trauma theorist2nd International Conference, July 2012, University of Lincoln‘What Happens Now’, the 2ndInternational Conference on 21st centurywriting in English took place betweenthe 16-18 July 2012 at the University ofLincoln. Organised by Siân Adiseshiahand Rupert Hildyard from English in theSchool of Humanities, the conferencewas attended by some ninety delegatesfrom fourteen different countries, includingJapan, South Korea, China, India,Canada, USA, Turkey, Hungary, Italy,Germany and seven delegates came fromSpain (five of whom had come to the firstconference in 2010). Sixty two paperswere given at the conference, includingand Medical Humanist (Universityof Newcastle). The highlight ofthe conference was a RoundTable discussion in which allthree keynotes enthusiasticallyparticipated in a ‘QuestionTime’ style debate regardingthe future of this complexand diverse field in relation tointersections between science and thehumanities. Papers explored divergentareas such as drama, history, literature,film and clinical practice. Selectedpapers will appear in a forthcomingvolume, edited by Catherine and PhilipRedpath from the department of English,to be published by Cambridge ScholarsPress which, it is hoped, will be the firstHumanities based anthology of this kind.six from colleagues and postgraduatesin the School of Humanities, generatinglively debate about what is happeningnow in 21st century literature. Theguest speakers to the conference werethe Scottish poet and writer KathleenJamie, Tishani Doshi from Madras inIndia, and Geoff Dyer one of the mostinnovative prose writers in Britain today.Complementary plenary keynotes weregiven by Professor Peter Boxall of theUniversity of Sussex and Dr Rachel Carrollof Teeside University, the former a wideranging discussion of the future of thenovel in the wake of postmodernism,Trauma delegates at theBishops’ PalaceWhat Happens Now:21st Century Writing in EnglishTishani Doshi giving a reading atthe What Happens Now conferenceand the latter a close study of JulianBarnes’ Booker-winning The Sense ofan Ending focussing on disability asan issue in 21st century literature. Theconference confirmed the vitality of 21stcentury literature and the leading roletaken by Lincoln in research and debateabout this growing area of literary studies.A selection of papers based on theconference presentations will appear in aspecial issue of the journal C21 Literaturein September 2013. A third conferencewill take place in 2014.In August 2012 Dr Caroline Edwards, Lecturer inEnglish, co-organised the two-day international‘Maggie Gee Conference’ with Dr Sarah Dillon at theUniversity of St Andrews. Dedicated to the criticallyacclaimedBritish novelist Maggie Gee, the conferencefeatured keynote papers by Professor Susan AliceFischer from the City University of New York and DrJohn Sears from Manchester Metropolitan University,Weird CouncilAn International Conference on theWriting of China MiévilleThe School of Humanities was also actively involvedin another conference outside of Lincoln in the lastyear. In September 2012, Lincoln co-sponsored‘Weird Council: An International Conference on theWriting of China Miéville’ at Senate House in London.This prestigious two-day international conferenceattracted some of the most significant academics inscience fiction and fantasy scholarship from aroundthe world, including Professor Sherryl Vint (Universityof California, Riverside), Professor Neil Easterbook(Texas Christian University), Professor John Rieder(University of Hawai’i at Manoa), Dr Paul March-Russell (University of Kent), and Dr Joe Sutliff Sanders(Kansas State University), as well as Miéville himself.Delegates discussed the fiction and academicliterature of the multi-award-winning cult British writerChina Miéville, who has been described as ‘one ofthe most influential writers [working] in any genrein the UK.’ Co-organised by Dr Caroline Edwardsand Dr Tony Venezia from Birkbeck, the conferenceBuilding on this influential event in science fictionand fantasy scholarship, the School hosted a similarconference on British science fiction author AdamRoberts in April 2013, titled ‘New Genre Army: AnInternational Conference on the Writing of AdamRoberts.’ Co-organised by PhD student ChristosCallow Jr and Dr Caroline Edwards, New GenreArmy welcomed some of the leading scholars inscience fiction to Lincoln, including Professor FarahMendelsohn (Anglia Ruskin University), Dr Andrewas well as a reading by Gee herself who was presentthroughout all of the academic papers delivered overthe two days. The discussions addressed questionsof genre in Gee’s work, her political and environmentalactivism, gender politics, ethnic identity, and intergenerationalconflict, and a selection of the paperswill be published in 2014 in the edited collectionMaggie Gee: Critical Essays (Gylphi).was a great success andattracted significant onlineattention. In his Guardianarticle dedicated to theevent, Damien Waltersuggested that “WeirdCouncil was remarkablefor many reasons,” arguingthat the conference “offered anexcellent start” in rethinking the literary movementof the “weird” – a movement that Miéville has beeninstrumental in extending in recent years in his crossgenreand fantasy novels. An edited collection ofselected papers from the conference, China Miéville:Critical Essays (Gylphi) co-edited by Dr Edwardsand Dr Venezia, is forthcoming in 2014 and willbe the first scholarly collection on Miéville’s work.Image: ‘Skulltopus’ by China Miéville, used with kind permission.New Genre ArmyAn International Conference onthe Writing of Adam RobertsM. Butler (Canterbury Christ Church University),Professor Edward James (University of Dublin),Niall Harrison (Editor of the leading journal StrangeHorizons), and Damien Walter (the Guardian). Theconference has already been cited in the media as asignificant event and an edited collection of selectedpapers delivered at the conference will be publishedas Adam Roberts: Critical Essays (Gylphi), co-editedby Dr Edwards and Christos Callow Jr.7