News

Conference Report: PhD & PeerNet Symposium

School of Modern Languages and Cultures, Faculty of Arts Building  

20-22 September 2023

We are pleased to report that the PhDnet & PeerNet Symposium: European and Literary Studies was a great success. We had 27 participants, including postgraduate students, postdoctoral fellows, and junior and senior researchers from seven different European countries, coming together at this symposium.

The two half- and one full-day conference hosted by the School of Modern Languages brought together for the first time in a combined event the members of the transnational PhD training programme, the PhDnet, and the newly established research network in European cultural and literary studies, the PeerNet. Both networks are based at the partner institutions, the Justus-Liebig University Giessen, the University of Graz, the University of Bergamo, the University of Helsinki, the Catholic University of Lisbon, Stockholm University, and the University of Warwick.* This conference was the kickoff event of this initiative and offered a great opportunity for institutional and cross-national exchange that will continue.

The symposium identified intersections between existing projects and developed common ground for collaborative work across the partner universities. Joint funding applications, specific concepts, theories and methodological approaches were discussed on the basis of papers, chapter drafts and project proposals. Individual projects presented in plenary in 10-minute slots on day one provided the participants with an overview of what is happening across the institutions. The second day was devoted to presenting pre-circulated papers, each of which was then commented on by a pre-selected respondent, followed by an open discussion with all panel participants. Two parallel sections ran on day one and two with balanced numbers of postgraduates, junior and experienced researchers in each section. The third day of the symposium was split into two groups again, this time offering a Masterclass to the PhDnet students on time management and productivity, while members of the PeerNet met to co-ordinate and discuss their collaborative research and current and prospective joint funding applications. It was great to have Sam Cole from Research & Impact Services offering this international audience information on the UK’s deal to associate with Horizon Europe, explaining what the deal implies and how it changes the current funding landscape.

The Masterclass was delivered by Warwick/Giessen Alumna of the PhDnet, Dr Anna Tabouratzidis, who also moderated a second event, the PhD/Postdoc/Alumni exchange, attended by members of the PhDnet and also offered to the SMLC and wider Faculty of Arts PGR and Postdoc community. This was a great opportunity for peer networking amongst postgraduates.

A keynote lecture entitled “Nightmares in the Library. Real and Imaginary Books in J.S. Le Fanu's Carmilla (1872) and C.T. Dreyer's Vampyr (1932)” was given by SMLC colleague Fabio Camilletti in plenary but was also open to the SMLC community.

Since colleagues from our six partner universities were visiting the University of Warwick and the Midlands for the first time, we offered a guided City tour on the morning before the conference started and we took our guests on a trip to Stratford-upon-Avon on the last day, after the conference had ended. This visit included a visit at the Royal Shakespeare Theatre in the evening where we watched Macbeth. Participants expressed their excitement about this unique opportunity which further created a sense of community among these researchers, who had worked together intensively for three days.

On the academic side, participants discussed work in progress and reflected on aims, conceptual frameworks and methodological approaches and research foci with their international partners. The symposium fostered cross-cultural communication in European literary and cultural studies, and established new ideas for and standards in project development in this field. 

The intellectual exchange and discussions between peer researchers, but also between junior and senior researchers during the three days of the symposium, created a culture of inclusivity within and across the two networks and proved to be highly productive. PGRs in particular, familiarized themselves with a range of different national academic cultures and traditions while at the same time observing how these manyfold and oftentimes diverse approaches and perspectives complement, speak to and interact with each other, creating a dynamic research culture that implements new ways of thinking and establishes innovative pathways in research. With this outcome, the overall conference’s objective was not only met but exceeded.

The intellectual outcome of this symposium will not be documented in a single volume or any other form of immediate publication, but it has already resulted, and will further materialize, in joint grant applications.

This symposium was one of a series of symposia, workshops, and conferences to follow which will be hosted in alternating order at one of the partner institutions. Two thematic conferences are planned for autumn 2024 and 2026. The outcome of these will be published in the form of conference volumes for which we will consider Warwick’s Series in the Humanities with Routledge as a valuable option.

We would like to thank the Humanities Research Centre and the School of Modern Languages and Cultures for the generous support which made this very successful symposium possible. The event has helped to put research at Warwick on the European map and to foster a vibrant intellectual community and sustainable culture across institutions.

*About the PhDnet and the PeerNet

Members of the PhDnet: European and Literary Studies pursue their doctoral studies at their home institution and one of the six partner institutions, where their projects are jointly supervised. Moreover, they are awarded bi-national degrees. As a complement to the PhDnet postgraduate training programme, the PeerNet offers its members, including researchers at all stages of their career, a platform for innovative forms of research collaboration across cultures, intellectual exchange. Peer-to-peer support is offered in face-to-face interaction in a creative and inclusive atmosphere – as opposed to anonymous peer review or informal exchanges on social media. The mission of the PeerNet is to promote international standards of excellence in the study of literature and culture, to assist its members in developing cutting-edge interdisciplinary research projects, and to foster transnational collaboration among participating individuals and institutions.