Academic conferences
Commitment to research in the fields of Creative Writing and English Literature is demonstrated by a lively record of conference organisation. The following conferences took place at Kingston University unless stated otherwise:
| Date | Event |
|---|---|
| 6-7 September 2007 | 'Colonial and Postcolonial Spaces' Organisers Brycchan Carey, Andrew Teverson and Sara Upstone |
| 4-6 July 2007 | 'Writing the Spirit of the Age: Debating the Past, Present and Future of Life Writing' Organisers Meg Jensen and Jane Jordan |
| 25-29 June 2007 | 'Gothic N.E.W.S.', eighth biennual International Gothic Association Conference (held at Provence University, Aix-en-Provence, France) Organisers Avril Horner, Sue Zlosnik of Manchester Metropolitan University and Max Duperray of Provence University |
| November 2006 | '"A Question of Truth": Truth Telling in the Writing of Lives' (Life Writing Conference) Organiser Meg Jensen |
| September 2006 | '"Superbia" - The Case for Suburbia' (In association with Audacity) Organiser Nick Hubble |
| September 2006 | 'Iris Murdoch: Morality and the Novel' Organiser Anne Rowe |
| July 2006 | 'Literary London 2006' Organisers Brycchan Carey, Lawrence Phillips, Liverpool Hope University and Jenny Bavidge of Greenwich University |
| May 2006 | Biography and Life Writing afternoon Organisers Meg Jensen and David Rogers |
| March 2006 | Arts in Suburbia symposium (held at Farnham Maltings Arts Centre) (Funded by Arts Council) Organiser Vesna Goldsworthy |
| July 2005 | 'Literary London 2005' (The participation of the Centre for Suburban Studies encouraged a thematic focus on London suburbs) (Attracted BA Conference grant of £839) Organisers Brycchan Carey with Lawrence Phillips of Liverpool Hope University |
| March 2005 | 'Successful Cities, Successful Suburbs' conference with the Guardian newspaper and the London Borough of Barnet (held at Finchley Arts Depot) Organiser Vesna Goldsworthy |
| February 2005 | 'Suburban Regeneration' conference (with Queen Mary College and the London Women and Planning forum) (held at The Women's Library, London) Organiser Vesna Goldsworthy |
| September 2004 | 'Iris Murdoch: A Re-Assessment' Organiser Anne Rowe |
| September 2004 | 'The "Good Life"' Organiser Vesna Goldsworthy |
| July 2004 | 'Gothic Voyages' (held at the Mona Bismarck Foundation in Paris) Organised by Avril Horner and Sue Zlosnik (Manchester Metropolitan University) |
| March 2003 | 'Olaudah Equiano: Representation and Reality' (Attracted BA Conference grant of £930) Organiser Brycchan Carey |
| November 2001 | 'Cultures of Globalisation' Organiser by James Annesley |
| 2001 | 'Discourses of Slavery and Abolition: Writing in Britain and its Colonies, 1660-1838' (held at the Institute of English Studies) Organiser Brycchan Carey |
In addition, Avril Horner was co-convenor of two panels on twentieth-century Gothic Writing for the European Society for the Study of English (ESSE) conference, Zaragoza University (2004) and Erica Longfellow organised an MLA session entitled 'Social and Material Genres in Early Modern Life Writing' (December 2007)
Future conferences include:
| Date | Event |
|---|---|
| January 2008 | 'British Society of Eighteenth-Century Studies Conference' (to be held at St. Hugh's College, Oxford) Organiser Brycchan Carey |
| 2008 | 'Ouida and the Victorian Popular Novel' (to be held at the British Institute, Florence) Organiser Jane Jordan |
| July 2008 | 'The Fantasy of Women in History, 1500-1900' (to be held at Kingston University and Hampton Court Royal Palace) Organiser Erica Longfellow |
| September 2008 | 'Interdisciplinarity, Intertextuality and Iris Murdoch' Organiser Anne Rowe |
| September 2010 | 'Re-reading Iris Murdoch' (2010) Organiser Anne Rowe |
Participation in other conferences
As well as organising their own conferences, English Literature and Creative Writing staff at Kingston University frequently present academic papers on their research topics and their creative work, both in the UK and abroad. They are also regularly invited to give keynote or plenary lectures at major conferences, to give readings at literary festivals and to participate in international research projects. Examples include:
- Adam Baron was a featured author in Oxfam's London Writers promotion in 2006. He was asked to organise a panel on Crime Writing as part of Islington Council's London Crime fortnight in 2005, and he was also an invited guest speaker on three panels at the Manchester crime writing festival 'Dead on Deansgate' in 2003. He gave guest readings as part of the Vox and Roll series of music and literature (London) in 2000, 2001 and 2002
- Matthew Birchwood gave a lecture at the Globe Theatre as part of the Shakespeare and Islam season 'Framing an English Alchoran' (2005)
- Siobhan Campbell was guest reader at the Cuirt International Festival of Literature, Galway (2002); the Poetry Now Festival, Dublin (2003); the Leicester Writers Association (2005); the Troubadour, London (Coffee House Poetry, 2006); the Irish Writers Festival, London Metropolitan University (2006); Oxfam International Summer Reading (May 2007)
- Brycchan Carey gave the following invited lectures: 'Abolitionism and the Classical World' at 'Slavery and the Classics', Royal Holloway (London) (Dec.2007) and 'The Quaker Origins of Antislavery' at the 'Abolition and Freedom' conference, Long Island University, NY, U.S.A. (March 2006). He also gave a number of invited papers including: the American Society for Eighteenth-Century Studies in Las Vegas (2005) and Boston (2004), the International Society for Eighteenth-Century Studies (UCLA; Los Angeles; 2003), Cambridge (2003), Sheffield Hallam (2002), London (2002), Greenwich (2002) and the Handel Museum (London, 2004)
- Norma Clarke gave guest lectures at Keogh Institute for Irish Studies, Notre Dame, Indiana (2007), Edinburgh University, King's College Irish Studies Centre and Chawton House (all 2006), UBC, Vancouver (Inaugural lecture for 19th Century Studies Association, 2005), the Johnson Society (London) and Edinburgh Book Festival (both 2004)
- Vesna Goldsworthy gave plenary lectures at Konstanz University, Germany and the University of Burcharest (Romania) (2007), Södertörn University College, Stockholm and the Monash Centre in Florence (2006), UCL (2003), Birkbeck College (2005, 2003, 2002), Stavanger, Norway (International PEN Conference) and Serbian Academy of Sciences and Arts, Belgrade (2001) Vesna also gave many invited readings from Chernobyl Strawberries in Britain (inc. Royal Festival Hall, Hay on Wye, Edinburgh International Book Festival, the Spit-Lit Literary Festival, the Purcell Hall, Bath Literary Festival) and abroad (inc. book tours in Germany and Austria, 2005 and book festivals in Hamburg and Cologne, 2006); she opened the Belgrade Book Fair in 2005 on behalf of the UK as Guest of Honour and gave series of readings and signings in Serbia and Montenegro under the aegis of the British Council
- Rafey Habib gave invited lectures at the universities of Carthage and Rutgers (2006), Academy of Urdu Studies, Hyderabad (India), Universiti Putra, (Malaysia) and University of Karachi, Pakistan (all 2005)
- Avril Horner gave plenary/invited lectures at the Daphne du Maurier Centenary Conference (Exeter, 2007) and at the universities of Zaragoza (2007 and 2005), Toulouse le Mirail (2003), Roehampton; 2003 and Greenwich (2002)
- Jane Jordan gave invited lectures at: St. Deiniol's Library, the Centenary Colloquium (2006); the Institute of English Studies and BAVS (London 2005); the Parnell Summer School (August 2005); the Women's Library (London, 2002). She also addressed the Josephine Butler Society (London, 2001) and was invited to present research papers at Keele University (2004), Chester University (2004), Liverpool Hope University College (2003) and Portsmouth University (2003 and 2006) and to give two public lectures on Butler in Northumberland (2006) and one on Ouida at the British Institute, Florence (2006)
- Erica Longfellow gave an invited research paper at Princeton University (2004)
