Showing posts with label Bristol. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Bristol. Show all posts

Friday, 29 March 2013

CFP: Romance in Medieval Britain

14th Biennial Conference
12-14th April 2014
Clifton Hill House, Bristol

Papers are invited on all aspects of medieval romance. The conference marks the conclusion of an AHRC-sponsored research project on the Verse Forms of Middle English Romance, and papers that address questions of verse form are particularly welcome.

To propose a paper, please send a brief abstract to one of the two conference organizers, before 31 September 2013:
Dr Judith Jefferson, English Department
Prof. Ad Putter, English Department

Further information about the conference will be made available on the website.

Monday, 6 August 2012

CFP: Devils and Dolls: Dichotomous Depictions of 'The Child'

Wednesday 27 March 2013
University of Bristol, Graduate School of Arts and Humanities

Confirmed plenary speaker: Professor George Rousseau, (Magdalen College, University of Oxford) Co-Director of the Oxford University Centre for the History of Childhood.

Second plenary to be confirmed.

An inter-disciplinary conference open to both postgraduates and academics at any stage of their career, seeking to examine the contrasting images and representations of children as angels or devils, innocent or evil, light or dark in fiction and culture and the field of Humanities. Why are children offered little dimension in representations? What is the significance of representing the child either as innocent or evil – to both the originating discourse and in a wider context? Is such polarization detrimental to our understanding of what it means to be a child and how we respond to real children?

The “humanities” is intended as a fluid term; depictions from any period of history, any social or cultural context, fictional or media representations are encompassed. In light of this, submissions are invited from a range of disciplines and topics may include, but are certainly not limited to, depictions of the child as:

* A devil, demon, monster, wicked/sinful (for instance Heathcliff, Damien from The Omen, the child Sir Gowther)
* As angelic, child-saints or martyrs, innocent (paintings of putti, Romantic child figures, Little Nell)
* Contrasting images of the two in various fields; e.g. philosophical thought, religious doctrine
* The child as “uncanny”
* The child in art (Blake’s illustrations, Millett’s Bubbles, the Virgin and child)
* Televisual, cinematic or dramatic depictions
* The Freudian child as depicted by psychoanalysts or psychoanalytic readings of figures
* The child in horror/gothic fiction
* Monstrous births
* Supernatural children; vampires, werewolves, ghosts, zombies
* Contrasting images as represented in adult fiction and/or children’s literature * Children in Victorian chapbooks – models of religious virtue?
* The sexualised child – innocent or corrupt?
* The child in myths, fairy and folk tales
* The “foreign”, tribal, refugee or postcolonial child
* Media representations of children.

We invite abstracts of 250-300 words for 20 minute (previously unpublished) papers, sent in Word format to the conference convenors by Friday 31st August 2012 with the “subject” of the email as ‘Devils and Dolls abstract’.

Please ensure your abstract appears in the following format:

* Paper title
* 250 – 300 word abstract in plain text
* Name of author and affiliation
* Email address
* Up to ten keywords (these can be compound terms)
* Please also indicate whether, if required, you would be happy to chair a panel.

All abstracts will be acknowledged by email receipt, and you should therefore receive an acknowledgement within 5 working days.

Once the deadline has passed, a panel will review the abstracts anonymously and a draft conference plan will be constructed. We will reply to all submissions to offer both a decision and some feedback. If your paper is not selected at this time, we hope you are still able to attend the conference and contribute to the discussion.

Some papers may be selected to comprise a collection of essays in the first edition of the Bristol Journal of HARTS following the conference.

For more information about the conference, please click here.

Tuesday, 20 September 2011

CFP: Identity and Image

18th Annual Postgraduate Medieval Studies Conference

24th‐25th February, 2012

Centre for Medieval Studies, University of Bristol, UK

The University of Bristol hosts the longest‐running international medieval postgraduate conference in the UK. This annual event offers medievalists the opportunity to present their research and discuss ideas in an interdisciplinary setting. The conference is now in its 18th year, and proposals are invited for papers from postgraduates and early career scholars on the theme of Identity and Image.

The aim of this year’s conference is to explore how identity was formed, expressed and understood in the Middle Ages. We are interested in the way individuals and groups constructed images of themselves and others, and how identity was affected by religious, racial, political and other social factors on an international, national or local scale. The theme ‘Identity and Image’ invites consideration of how, and if, we can interpret medieval notions of identity from the textual, visual, musical and material sources that have survived to the present day. We welcome a wide range of discussion from issues of religious and artistic patronage, devotional practice, language choice and material culture to considerations of how the self or the other is presented in literary and visual culture.

Topics may include but are not limited to:
- Religious identities
- National identity
- Linguistic choice or identity
- Autobiography and biography
- Representation of outsiders
- Artistic and religious patronage
- Architecture
- Material culture
- Images of the self and others

Papers must be no more than 20 minutes long

Abstracts of 250‐300 words should be sent by email (by preference) to:
Hannah Walters or to Hannah Walters, Centre for Medieval Studies, University of Bristol, Graduate School of Arts and Humanities, 7 Woodland Road, Bristol BS8 1TB, UK

Deadline for receipt of abstracts: 10th December, 2012

Registration deadline: 21st January, 2012

For further information please visit our website.

Bursaries may be available for travel.

Sunday, 31 October 2010

Shaping Narratives

CALL FOR PAPERS

17th Annual Postgraduate Medieval Studies Conference
25-26th February, 2011
Centre for Medieval Studies, University of Bristol, UK

Master Class with Professor Karen Pratt, King's College London
'How useful is the concept of genre for the study of medieval romance?
The strange case of Gautier d'Arras's Eracle'

The University of Bristol hosts the longest-running international medieval postgraduate conference in the UK. Each year we offer medievalists the opportunity to present their research, discuss ideas, and foster links bridging disciplinary and geographical boundaries. In 2011 the conference will be in its 17th year, and we are inviting proposals for papers from postgraduates and early career scholars on the theme of 'Shaping Narratives'.

Our conception of the Middle Ages is shaped by the narratives we uncover in the rich range of medieval cultural artefacts that survive (or have failed to survive) to the present day. Narratives - both medieval and modern - can be shaped by religious, political or didactic ideas, by questions of identity, or by constructions of authorship and creation. This interdisciplinary conference will consider the use of narrative in the formation and interpretation of the textual, visual, musical and material cultures of the Middle Ages.

Topics may include but are not limited to:
  • The notion of medieval authors/creators
  • Medieval readers and listeners: interpretation, orality and performance
  • Material and visual narratives
  • Critical interpretations of the past: narrative and genre theory in both contemporary and medieval scholarly discourse
  • Biography, life stories and exempla
  • Narrative through music and lyric
  • Hiding and suppressing political and religious narratives
  • Narratives in manuscript culture: discerning textual communities from miscellanies and compilations

Papers must be no more than 20 minutes long.

Abstracts of 250-300 words should be sent by email (by preference) to Johnny McFadyen.

Johnny McFadyen, Centre for Medieval Studies, University of Bristol, Graduate School of Arts and Humanities, 7 Woodland Road, Bristol BS8 1TB, UK.

Deadline for receipt of abstracts: 10th December, 2011
Registration deadline: 21st January, 2011

For further information please visit our website.