Hartmut Rosa (Jena/Erfurt) and Elisabeth Herrmann (Warwick)

Moderator: Irina Hron (Copenhagen)

Public Event at Jonsered Manor, Gothenburg

Monday, 27th March, 13:00-16:00 (CET)

Abstract

How does social reality come into being? Where do social impulses originate and how do they enter the public sphere?

Imaginaries are at least partly constitutive for what societies are, how they develop, how they are modified and continuously negotiated. Fictional stories, whether in the form of literary texts, visual media, or music and lyrics, can be catalysts for social transformation by reflecting the present from alternative viewpoints, including looking back at the past and imagining possible futures. Fictional stories turn imaginings into possibilities, taking them into the world, bringing them to mind and prototyping possible social realities through images and narration, figures and plots. How do social imaginaries emerge? How does fiction contribute to social transformation – and how are social transformations reflected in social imaginaries? What is social energy and how is it set in motion?

Waswasa - A Soul City Arts Production For the Birmingham 2022 Festival, with contributions by Dr James Hodkinson. Running from Aug 25- Sept 3, this is a multi media spectacle, including film, live physical theatre, immersive sound and graphic arts. The project aims to detoxify and demystify the often misunderstood tradition of Islamic prayer, and uses a blend of high-end digital art and the tactile productions of community arts projects to ensure local voices are at the heart of this internationally renowned project

The Warwick Awards for Public and Community Engagement (WAPCE), like the Warwick Awards for Teaching Excellence (WATELink opens in a new windowLink opens in a new windowLink opens in a new windowLink opens in a new window), and Warwick Awards for Personal Tutoring Excellence (WAPTE), celebrate the very best of Warwick’s staff and students. The WAPCE awards recognise the vital contributions Warwick staff and students make in engaging the public – on an international and national level as well as crucially within our region and local communities – in our learning and discovery, with the goals of sharing and co-producing knowledge, strengthening the role we play in the region and showcasing the role Warwick plays nationally and internationally in making the world a better place.

SMLC is delighted that 2 of our most engaged researchers' work in public and community engagement has been recognised.

James Hodkinson has won a staff award for his work on community events and arts projects designed to facilitate cross-community encounters, enhance public debate, cross-community empathy and more nuanced mutual understanding between Muslim and non-Muslim communities in towns and cities across the UK.

Abigail Coppins won a Postgraduate award for the ways in which her research into Black prisoners of war in Britain during the French Revolution has had a significant impact on the young Black women at the National Youth Theatre who were involved in the R&D of a new play, The Ancestors. Her research has fed into educational resources for NYT and English Heritage and inspired a delegation of Garifuna people to travel from central America and the US to visit Portchester castle where the prisoners were held. Her work has also introduced Black undergraduates and young people from a community of 2nd generation St Vincentians in High Wycombe to the National Archives. She has, therefore, improved knowledge, strengthened networks, engaged with people from non-traditional backgrounds.

Hispanic Studies at the University of Warwick is delighted to be hosting the Annual Conference of ELEUK (Association for the Teaching of Spanish in Higher Education in the UK) on 16-17 June. Find out more about the event here!Link opens in a new window

Head of School and Professor of French Kate Astbury and her PhD student Abigail Coppins welcomed a delegation of Garifuna people to Portchester Castle on Wednesday 8th September 2021 to show them the fruits of Abigail's research into the prisoners of war from the Caribbean held their during the Revolutionary wars. You can watch the BBC South report of the visit here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?app=desktop&v=JOVWmfZuDuU

and read the Portsmouth News article about it here: https://www.portsmouth.co.uk/news/people/descendants-of-banished-caribbeans-visit-portchester-castle-to-find-out-about-revolutionary-heroes-3376145

Over several years, working with Dr Benedict Schofield (KCL) James Hodkinson has curated an important volume of essays that asses the state of German Studies in education, but also in the worlds beyond it. Published by Camden House (Boydell & Brewer), James has written a blog reflecting on the book and its relevance. Read the entry here!

Professor Ingrid De Smet has been admitted as a member of the Academia Europaea (Section of Literary and Theatrical Studies). The Academia Europaea (formed in 1988) is the pan-European academy of science, humanities and letters, with a membership of over 3800 eminent scholars, drawn from all countries of Europe, and all disciplines, nationalities and geographical locations.

Professor Kate Astbury will be on the BBC World Service programme The Forum talking about Napoleon Bonaparte this Thursday 28th March at 9.06am UK time. Hosted by Bridget Kendall, the programme also includes contributions from Annie Jourdan (University of Amsterdam) and Rafe Blaufarb (Florida State University).

Listen to Warwick Undergraduate student podcasts ahead of the visit to Warwick by our writer in residence 2018 Olga Grjasnowa!

A !FREE! poetry reading featuring winners from the Two Chairs Creative Writing Competition, and judges Ian McMillan, Hanan Issa, Momtaza Mehri.

James Hodkinson has won a further £38 K towards his collaborative arts project, which connects his research into Islam in Germany with the lives and experiences of local Muslim communities in the Midlands.

Professor Nick Hewlett is interviewed by the State of Nature Blog on Marx and political violence based on his recent book Blood and Progress. Violence in Pursuit of Emancipation

The Department of German Studies and the School of Modern Languages and Cultures played host to British and Irish-based Germanists of all backgrounds last week, from 5-7 September. A brief preview follows.

Many congratulations to our former student Emily Wagstaffe, now Head of German at Oundle School, who has been awarded a very prestigious German Teacher Award by the German Embassy. The ceremony was on 12 June, and Emily received her prize from the Ambassador Peter Ammon and John le Carré. Click here to read the Embassy's report.

Dr James Hodkinson's touring exhibtion has now opened in schools in Surrey. It will be touring educational institutions in the UK over the next 12-18 months.

The exhibition takes visitors on a journey through representations of Islam in German-speaking culture from the late Enlightenment to the Great War of 1914-1918. Looking at texts and images, it tracks the shifting values and functions attributed to Islam in German and Austrian society, culture, thought and politics, highlighting both the Islamophobia and Islamophilia of the age and asking visitors to reflect on how these patterns are still with us today.