A blog by and for modern languages PG researchers at Durham University
Talks and Events Monday 5th March IAS Fellow's Public Lecture - On the ‘freedom’ and the ‘liberty’ to distort the human figure: The art of Stanley Spencer as case-study 17:30-18:30, Josephine Butler College, Professor Nigel Rapport (University of St Andrews) In this talk Professor Rapport explores ‘freedom’ and ‘liberty’ as distinct concepts in relation… Continue reading MLAC EVENTS BULLETIN: 5 – 11 March
Talks and Events Monday 26th February IAS Fellow's Seminar - Settlement Scaling Theory and Pre-Roman Central Italy: quantitative and comparative approaches to ancient urbanism 13:00-14:00, Seminar Room, Institute of Advanced Study, Dr Francesca Fulminante (University Roma Tre) From the seminal work of Fustel de Coulanges to the recent monumental study conducted by the Copenhagen Polis… Continue reading MLAC EVENTS BULLETIN: 26 February – 4 March
Durham Center for Visual Arts and Culture is organising two conferences this summer (and one this autumn) and is looking for contributions! VISUAL INTERSECTIONS 3 Leverhulme Durham Doctoral Training Programme in Visual Culture invites scholars and early career researchers to submit their papers for Visual Intersections 3 11-13 of July 2018 in Durham, United… Continue reading Three Durham Visual Arts and Culture CFPs!
Talks and Events Monday 19th February IAS Fellow's Seminar - The Obligation of Self-Management: the social structuring of freedom and its critical appraisal 13:00-14:00, Seminar Room, Institute of Advanced Study, Professor Sverre Raffnsøe (Copenhagen Business School) ”Gleipnir is forged by the footfalls of cats, the beard of women, the roots of the mountain, the… Continue reading MLAC EVENTS BULLETIN: 19 – 25 February
PG Forum: How to write an effective abstract, Part 2 15th February, 17:00-18:00, ER152 Following on the feedback received at the Event "How to write an effective abstract, Part 1" last November, a second workshop on academic abstracts will be held this coming Thursday. It will be run by the English Language Centre, and this… Continue reading PG Research Forum: How to write an effective abstract? (part 2)
Wednesday 14th February MLAC Work in Progress Seminar: Literature and Film with Kerstin Oloff and Stephan Ehrig 12:00, ER152 Kerstin Oloff: Energy, Food and Literature Stephan Ehrig: "Socialist Space? Approaching Modernist Space through German and British Literature and Film" Contact viktoria.ivleva@durham.ac.uk for more information about this event. Evidence in Education: challenges, lessons learnt and… Continue reading MLAC EVENTS BULLETIN: 12th – 18th February
Talks and Events Monday 5th February IAS Fellow's Seminar - Loving Recognition: a proposal for the practical efficacy of love as a public virtue 13:00-14:00, Seminar Room, Institute of Advanced Study, Professor Nigel Rapport (University of St Andrews) Aldous Huxley observed: ‘From solitude in the womb we emerge into solitude among our fellows, and return… Continue reading MLAC EVENTS BULLETIN: 5th – 11th February
Just a post to remind you of our upcoming PG Forum event, the Work in Progress Workshop, which will take place this Wednesday, 31 January at 12am in room ER155. We will listen to two brief presentations (15-20 minutes each) on current research. Our presenters this time around are: Asma Alqunayir, who will speak on… Continue reading PG Event: Research Forum
Talks and Events Monday 29th January IAS Fellows' Seminar - Is philosophy necessary for all thinking and speaking? 13:00-14:00, IAS Seminar Room, Palace Green, Professor Vasilis Politis (Trinity College, Dublin) Plato argues that we humans must attempt to mark-off or define things, and things we cannot directly perceive by the senses, if we want… Continue reading MLAC EVENTS BULLETIN: 29th January -4th February
The MLAC blog is looking for contributors for the coming terms! Are you a postgraduate student in the School of Modern Languages and Cultures? Are you interested in flexing your creative muscles, writing about school events, putting a potted version of your research into the public domain, or reporting on other MLAC-related things? Then you've… Continue reading Call for Bloggers!
Dr Sophia Xiao recently completed her PhD thesis ('Rethinking Binarism in Translation Studies. A Case Study of Translating the Chinese Nobel Laureates of Literature') in Translation Studies in MLAC. We asked her to tell her more about her research, her future plans and her time in Durham. Congratulations on your PhD! Can you tell… Continue reading PhD Success: Sophia Xiao
Just a quick reminder of our upcoming PG Forum event, the Work in Progress Workshop, which will take place this Thursday, 7 December at 5pm in room A56. We will listen to two brief presentations (15-20 minutes each) on current research. Our presenters this time around are: Alexandre Burin, who will speak on “Draft versus… Continue reading PG Research Forum: Works in Progress
Monday 4th December Analysing Breaking Bad 17:30-18:45, ER157, Daniel Grausam, James Smith, Sam Thomas Breaking Bad is commonly regarded to be one of the greatest television dramas of all time. In this seminar Durham researchers will discuss how their current projects intersect with a variety of the show's themes. DANIEL GRAUSAM will discuss… Continue reading MLAC EVENTS BULLETIN: 4th-10th December
Laura Jennings, a PG Student in Translation Studies, was Durham's nominated representative at Translating Europe Forum, a regular EU event which took place in Brussels at the beginning of the month. This year, the event focused on Machine Translation. I was lucky enough to be asked to represent Durham University at the Translating Europe Forum… Continue reading Translating Europe Forum 2017: a report
Dr Marzia Beltrami completed her PhD thesis ('The spatial dimension of narrative understanding. Exploring plot types in the narratives of A. Baricco, A. Camilleri, and I. Calvino') in Italian Studies in June at Durham University, after an MA in Oxford and a BA in Milan. We caught up with her to learn more about her… Continue reading PhD Success: Marzia Beltrami
Monday 20th November IAS Fellow's Seminar - Music and Violence 13:00-14:00, IAS Seminar Room, Palace Green, Professor William Thompson (Macquarie University, Australia) Music with themes of extreme violence is growing in popularity, attracting millions of listeners worldwide. Cannibal Corpse became the all-time top selling death metal band in the United States with albums such… Continue reading MLAC EVENTS BULLETIN: 20th-26th November
The Durham University Creative Writing Society is organising, “Circles of Lectures”, the first in what will hopefully be a series of talks about the practice of Creative Writing. This first session will see three professional writers talk about their different forms of prose fiction (short tale, novel and drama), on the 23rd November at 4:15… Continue reading Circles of Lectures I: A Creative Writing Symposium
PG Forum: How to write an effective abstract, Part 1 15th November, 12:00-13:00, ER145 After a first introductory meeting in October, where new and continuing research students had a chance to introduce themselves and to meet representatives of the School's research groups, the PG Research Forum is back with its first event of the year!… Continue reading PG Research Forum: How to write an effective abstract?
Monday 13th November IAS Fellow’s Seminar – Politics, psychotherapy and the puzzle of dualism 13:00-14:00, IAS Seminar Room, Palace Green, Dr Wahbie Long (University of Cape Town) One of the most contested issues in psychology has to do with the relationship of the individual to the social world. This debate arises repeatedly in the… Continue reading MLAC EVENTS BULLETIN: 13th-19th November
Dr Stefano Evangelista recently completed his PhD thesis (‘The International Reception and the Poetics of Antonio Fogazzaro on the basis of his correspondences with other Contemporary Intellectuals’) in Italian Studies, at Durham University, where he came after his completing no less than three Masters degree in Italy! We caught up with him to know more about his… Continue reading PhD Success: Stefano Evangelista
Monday 6th November IAS Fellow’s Seminar – The Future (and) Value of Ethnography for Education: thinking forward and looking back? 13:00-14:00, IAS Seminar Room, Palace Green, Professor Dennis Beach (University of Gothenburg) Recently, when writing in the new international handbook of ethnography and education, Mats Trondman, Paul Willis and Anna Lund recalled a 1907 debate… Continue reading MLAC EVENTS BULLETIN: 6th-12th November
Leaves are falling, the nights are drawing in, and tea and biscuits are becoming more of a necessity than a luxury. That’s right, it’s postgrad application season! To help you secure the funding you might need to pursue your studies further (if you are a Master's student) or to organise conferences, placements or mount collaborative… Continue reading Finding (and Acquiring) Funding: a PG Workshop
Dr Yifang Wang recently completed her PhD thesis (‘Translating metaphor from both directions: a process-oriented study’) in Translation at Durham University, where she also did her MA, after a BA at Xi'an Jiaotong University in China. We caught up with her to learn more about her research and her post-PhD life. Congratulations on your PhD! Can you… Continue reading PhD Success: Yifang Wang
Monday 30th October IAS Fellow's Seminar - Ptolemy's Disciples and the Nomos of the Earth: The Structure of Geopolitical Space in German Thought (1890-1950) 13:00 to 14:00, IAS Seminar Room, Palace Green, Dr Jörg Kreienbrock (Northwestern University) This paper traces the infamous notion of Germany being a people without space (Volk ohne Raum) as the… Continue reading MLAC EVENTS BULLETIN: 30th October – 5th November
The MLAC blog is looking for contributors for the coming academic year! Are you a postgraduate student in the School of Modern Languages and Cultures? Are you interested in flexing your creative muscles, writing about school events, putting a potted version of your research into the public domain, or reporting on other MLAC-related things? Then… Continue reading Contributors wanted!
Are you planning to organise an event (conference, workshop, etc.) in the coming academic year? IAS Funding Call The IAS has established a small fund available to support research postgraduate researchers/groups who are organising multi-disciplinary events such as conferences or workshops in Durham. Applications for this funding must be received by 30 October 2017. The… Continue reading Event funding opportunities for PG Students
Jack Coopey is a second year PhD student in German with a passion for philosophy. When he is not working on his thesis on the concept of totality in Fredric Jameson’s work under the supervision of Dr Gerald Moore and Dr Caitríona Ní Dhúill, he runs the Durham Theory Reading Group. We met with him… Continue reading The Durham Theory Reading Group
Monday 23rd October IAS Fellows' Public Lecture – Structural Violence: the royal road to the political unconscious 17:30-18:30, Joachim Room, College of St Hild & St Bede, Dr Wahbie Long (University of Cape Town) Since the late nineteenth century, psychologists have committed themselves towards improving the lives of human beings. For critics, however, that early… Continue reading MLAC EVENTS BULLETIN: 23rd – 29th October
Alexandre Burin is only starting his second year of PhD study in Durham, but he is already the co-editor of the first critical edition of Le Sang des Dieux, a poetry collection by fin-de-siècle French author Jean Lorrain. In his thesis (supervised by Dr Catherine Dousteyssier-Khoze and Dr Sam Bootle), Alexandre explores the works of… Continue reading PG Student News: Alexandre Burin’s critical edition of decadent French poet Jean Lorrain
Monday 16th October IAS Fellows' Seminar – The Persistence of Myth and Ritual in the Modern Age 13:00-14:00, IAS Seminar Room, Palace Green Professor Tiziana de Rogatis (Università per Stranieri di Siena) In this seminar, Professor Tiziana de Rogatis will articulate three times of the persistence of myth and ritual in modern and contemporary culture.… Continue reading MLAC EVENTS BULLETIN: 16th – 22nd October
As another academic year nears its end, it's time to recognise the achievements of four MLAC students who have recently completed their PhDs. Congratulations to all of you! Michael Foulkes has successfully defended his thesis “An Analysis of Writing as a Career in Seventeenth-century France Based on a Comparative Study of the Career Histories of Jean racine,… Continue reading PhD Successes
The MLAC events bulletin is now winding down for the year, but don’t miss these exciting events in the department over the next couple of weeks. Remember to send any MLAC-related stories to us here at the blog, using the contact buttons above. Conference: World Literatures and the New Totalitarianism 15th May 2017, 13:00, IMLR/Senate… Continue reading Upcoming MLAC Events
EDITING BEHIND THE SCENES: A MULTIDISCIPLINARY APPROACH 10th March 2017, 10 a.m. – 17:30 p.m. Senate Room, Durham Castle The Institute of Advanced Study (IAS) at Durham University will host a one-day workshop on the topic of Editing in Literature, Theatre, Digital Humanities, Music and Cinema. The concept of editing will be… Continue reading EDITING BEHIND THE SCENES: A MULTIDISCIPLINARY APPROACH – 10th March
The next Durham MEMSA seminar will be taken by Jess Allen, talking about ‘Forgotten Voices: Reconstructing Female Friendships in Renaissance France’. 18:00, Tuesday 14 February (today), in the World Heritage Centre. All are welcome to attend. To find out more about Jess and her research, read her interview with MEMSA here.
MLAC is full of researchers doing exciting things you probably don't know about... yet! In a new series of blog posts, we're giving these people the attention they deserve. This week we're speaking to Rachel Ashcroft, the founder and editor of the new online magazine Renaissance Hub, to find out more about her project... Hi Rachel,… Continue reading Beyond Elvet Riverside: Rachel Ashcroft and ‘Renaissance Hub’
Are you a postgraduate student in the School of Modern Languages and Cultures? Do you fancy some experience getting your words out into the public eye? Then why not write for the MLAC Postgraduate Blog! Get in touch with Catherine Ellis to pitch some ideas - big or small - and talk about what you… Continue reading CALL FOR BLOGGERS
As Michaelmas term draws to a close, we would like to congratulate those students who have recently completed their doctorates here in MLAC. Congratulations to: Joseph North Title: Martyrs on the Silver Screen: Early Church Martyrdom in Italian Silent Cinema (1898-1930) Supervisors: Stefano Cracolici and Caitríona Ní Dhúill Abdulilah Lahmami Title: The Importance of 'Tafsir'… Continue reading MLAC PhD Success
This week, Jess Allen interviews Dr Will McKenzie, a new arrival in Durham and lecturer in French, to give us an idea of what pursuing an academic career actually entails... Hi Will. First of all, can you tell me a bit about your background? I've worked for over ten years in Higher Education, chiefly at… Continue reading An interview with Dr Will McKenzie, French
Hi, I'm Jess and I'm currently undertaking the MA by Research, a one-year course which involves writing a 50,000 word thesis. I'm going to conduct a series of interviews for the MLAC Postgraduate Blog so that potential research students can find out more about life in Durham. I realised that I couldn't and didn't want… Continue reading Future Masters: an interview with our MA by research candidates
Michael Foulkes, who is nearing the end of a PhD in French here at Durham, has just had his article,‘Boursault’s Career Strategies’ published in the journal Early Modern French Studies. It is available to read here. Michael’s thesis is a comparative research study of the careers of seventeenth-century playwrights Boursault, Quinault, and Racine. He is supervised by Dr… Continue reading Michael Foulkes (French) published in ‘Early Modern French Studies’
The MLAC blog is looking for contributors for the coming academic year! Are you interested in flexing your creative muscles, writing about school events, putting a potted version of your research into the public domain, or reporting on other MLAC-related things? Then you've come to the right place. To get involved with the blog, please… Continue reading Aspiring Bloggers Wanted!
Catherine Ellis, who is studying for a PhD in French, has won the prize for best conference paper at the British Society for Eighteenth Century Studies Postgraduate and Early Career Researcher Conference at the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona (30 June - 1 July 2016). Her paper, 'The Alimentary Lifecycle of the Libertine Prostitute', explored the significance… Continue reading Catherine Ellis wins BSECS Postgraduate Conference Prize
Monday 12th March IAS Fellows' Seminar - Towards an Aesthetics of Adaptation 13:00 -14:00, Seminar Room, Institute of Advanced Study, Dr Pascal Nicklas (Johannes Gutenberg University, Mainz) In this seminar, we want to look at the theory of adaptation as a cultural and aesthetic practice. Adaptation today is the dominant practice in culture industry but… Continue reading MLAC EVENTS BULLETIN: 12 – 18 March
