Page for Postgraduate Events and Research in English Literature
Great news! The Contemporary Theory group is set to continue for the next three weeks of July, and will instead break through August to resume in September. Next week on the 16th of July we will be reading the first chapter ‘Going, Going’ in Jonathan Bate’s ‘Song of the Earth’. In ‘Song of the Earth’ … Continue reading “Jonathan Bate – ‘Song of the Earth’ – (July 16th 5:15pm)”
Weekly Writing Sessions July-August 2019, University of Birmingham Centre for Digital Cultures Vicki Williams is organising a series of writing sessions throughout the summer, for PGRs in the Centre for Digital Cultures. The sessions will provide an informal setting to share and discuss ideas, whilst coming with set tasks and putting time aside for writing. … Continue reading “Weekly Writing Sessions (Summer 2019)”
For the final session of our six week schedule we will be reading Rebekah Sheldon’s ‘Form/Matter/Chora: Object-Oriented Ontology and Feminist New Materialism’ from the Nonhuman Turn. This session hopes to tie up some of the themes explored over the course of the previous weeks by engaging with Sheldon’s exploration of a ‘newly emergent realism in … Continue reading “Rebekah Sheldon Form/Matter/Chora – July 9th 5:15pm”
In the latest of our regular ‘Works Loved’ sessions, we will each bring and read from and discuss a text that proved foundational to our research.
This week we will be looking at Aria Dean’s ‘Notes on Blacceleration’. An alternative to right and left accelerationisms, blaccelerationism is a portmanteau of black and accelerationism which suggests that ‘accelerationism always already exists in the territory of blackness, whether it knows it or not – and conversely blackness is always already accelerationist.’ Aria Dean’s … Continue reading “Aria Dean, Blacceleration – July 2nd 5:15pm”
We continue reading William Cronon this week, with his short essay “The Trouble with Wilderness”. Cronon explores the historical “taming” of wilderness spaces.
On the 25th of June at 5:15pm in the Westmere Hub we will be exploring Catherine Malabou’s ‘The Brain of History or the Mentality of the Anthropocene‘. In this essay Malabou asks “How is it possible to account for the double dimension of the “anthropos” of the Anthropocene? At once both a responsible, historical subject, … Continue reading “Catherine Malabou – 25th June, 5:15pm”
William Cronon’s essay about ghost towns in “Kennecott Journey: The Paths Out of Town” explores ecology, environmental crisis and the American West. Many thanks to Will Carroll for suggesting our reading this week.
On Tuesday the 18th of June we will be reading Eugene Thacker’s In the Dust of This Planet. Join us at 5:15pm in the Westmere Hub, where we will be considering two chapters of this work: ‘Preface: Clouds of Unknowing’ and ‘1. Three Quaestio on Demonology’. We realise this is a lot to read for … Continue reading “‘In the Dust of this Planet’ – 18th of June”
Continuing our discussion of Lauren Elkin’s Flâneuse, this week we’ll read the book’s introduction, which explores the territorial complexities of walking in the city.
