Scope
CLN is a base for research projects conducted by existing Kingston staff, externally funded research fellows, visiting fellows and professors, Writers, Filmmakers, and Artists in residence and research students from a variety of disciplines. The CLN will have an annual target for external funding applications. These research projects generate an ambitious publication programme based on working in collaboration with academic and trade publishers in book, article and other formats. In addition to the work of MA and PhD students associated with the centre, CLN also hosts and oversees a number of research projects.
Networking across the range of practitioners currently working in the life narrative field will be the third dimension of the CLN's life. CLN comprises a physical and virtual hub and portal for life narrators in the UK and Europe, at which a large number of writers, directors and artists have become linked to Kingston through various degrees of formal and informal links. Those active in the centre include a mixture of permanent contracted colleagues to writers in residence to visiting professors to visiting part-time lecturers to local (London and the South East of England) writers who want to give occasional readings and/or masterclasses or supervise dissertations. CLN also welcomes those who simply want to attend seminars and conferences regularly and to use the physical site of Kingston to meet up with other like-minded professionals for social and professional networking.
Research and networking are fed into and expand postgraduate teaching that is based at the CLN and will be inspired by the work the centre does. Existing MAs at Kingston University in congruent areas in a range of disciplines will be complimented by new programmes and a PhD course with a specific taught element will be developed. There is scope for exploring the design of a MFA two year programme in Life Writing linked to and sponsored by publishers, and the extension of this formula to MFAs in other disciplines within the ambit of CLN.
Industry connections form another dimension of CLN's work, which will be developing an industry presence through joint projects, sponsorships and scholarship programmes. Some work in this area has already begun with discussions for collaborations with the Rose Theatre, the Natural History Museum, the Kurdistan Regional Government, and key editors and literary agents in the area of life writing publishing. CLN will seek to add collaborators from other interested industries (Heritage, Built Environment, Design, Visual Arts, Media) in due course.
Teaching and industry links will also be furthered by a schools' and community outreach programme, beginning with Richard Cohen's interview series at the Rose Theatre, in which academics and writers, filmmakers and artists in residence take the life narrative experience into schools, colleges, theatres and community centres within the Kingston area.
