We cordially invite proposals to present at the 2020 History Department Postgraduate Conference, to be held in the Wolfson Research Exchange on Thursday 28^th and Friday 29^th May.

In previous years, the conference has served as an invaluable opportunity for postgraduate students to present and discuss their research in a supportive and intellectually stimulating environment. We thoroughly encourage all graduate students to attend and participate.

Submission Guidelines

Papers should be approximately 15 minutes in length. All papers will be organised into panels and will be followed by a further 30 minutes of questions and discussion led by the panel chair.

We welcome proposals from all current postgraduate students. Proposals should include the following information:

• Title
• Abstract: 300 words
• Biographical Statement: 100 words
• Summary: 50 words

Summaries will be used in the conference programme to describe each individual paper. They should briefly describe the main point your paper makes and why you feel this is significant.

All proposals should be submitted to pgconference2020@gmail.com by no later than Monday 23^rd March, 2020. Successful applicants will be informed by the end of April.

Contact

For general queries, please contact the organising committee at: pgconference2020@gmail.com

Synthetic Biology UK: 9-10 December 2019, University of Warwick

Synthetic biology is a convergence of multiple fields that can generate both improved understanding of biological systems as well as cutting-edge biotechnology. The establishment of six UK centres focused on synthetic biology has significantly enhanced growth of this area, and there is accordingly a sizeable community in this country working on a diversity of projects. In addition, there are many companies in the biotech and pharma sectors that are incorporating synthetic biology technologies into their R&D programmes. In response to this growth, the community initiated a series of annual SBUK conferences. These have so far been hosted by the respective Synthetic Biology Research Centres at Edinburgh, Manchester and Bristol.

Warwick Integrative Synthetic Biology Centre (WISB) pursues a diverse and distinctive research programme of synthetic biology research, with strengths in both experimental and computational aspects. We have strong links to other international synthetic biology centres, including in the USA, Germany, Estonia, Denmark, China and Brazil as well as to multiple international companies.

The fourth SBUK, to be held on Warwick campus, will feature a wide range of themes presented by colleagues from the UK and from abroad. It will appeal to researchers from many other fields because of the state-of-the-art technologies and wide range of organisms and challenges that will be discussed. Colleagues are encouraged to look at the programme and to consider joining us at what is expected to be an exciting and informative event.

Find out more and register

Bacterial cell biology researchers from across the world gathered at The Pasteur institute in Paris at the end of September to attend the 6^th biennial Great Wall symposium organised by Professor David Roper and Professor Ivo Boneca (Pasteur). This three day meeting on all aspects of bacterial cell wall biosynthesis was attended by just under 200 interdisciplinary researchers on all aspects of bacterial cell wall microbiology.

Dr Adrian Lloyd from SLS provided an invited talk on his recently submitted research on 'Substrate and stereochemical control of cell wall crosslinking by E. coli PBP1B' as well as a posters from a number of Warwick PhD students from SLS and WMS.

James Piggott, undergraduate student at the Warwick University History Department, has been selected to present at the British Conference of Undergraduate Research this April. James has provided the following information regarding his forthcoming presentation:

My presentation presents two related ideas. Firstly, video-games should be considered a historically-relevant medium, through their capacity to both generate narratives and lessons of the past. Subsequently, the issue of censorship – the doctoring of the past when creating said narratives – is equally detrimental to history within video-games as in alternative formats. The historical significance of censorship within video-games, however, has been largely ignored, due to the ‘trivial’ or ‘ludified’ nature of video-games. As a result, the trivialisation and undermining of the historical practice remains within video-games.

These arguments are covered over three sections. The first unpacks several criticisms of video-games, in turn showing the medium’s historical capacity. The second uses the example of Nazism to describe and explain the presence of censorship within video-games. The final section links these two ideas, discussing the historical impact of censorship within video-games, and why the ‘ludic frame’ of video-games seemingly shadows their equally significant ‘historical frame’.

I hope that, with this paper, video-games will be taken more seriously within academia. I hope to demonstrate their potential utility for the historical practice, and, subsequently, why protecting them from censorship is important. The historical field will be greatly enhanced when developers and historians are not fearful of presenting their novel or controversial arguments. If censorship is abhorrent in alternative historical formats, so should it be in video-games.

This will entail providing a brief 10 minute presentation to a variety of different undergraduate researchers and experts; there will then be time for a short Q&A afterwards to answer any queries or loose ends.

BCUR - the British Conference of Undergraduate Research - is a yearly conference aimed at promoting and sharing undergraduate research in all disciplines. It is a fantastic opportunity to receive feedback and interest in one's work, and to meet with fellow researchers and academics. This year, the conference is being hosted at the University of South Wales, and consists of both oral and poster presentations.

The thirteenth annual meeting exploring the chemistry and biology of natural products will be held at the University of Warwick on 25 June.

Last year’s conference attracted 180 delegates. We believe this meeting will once again be an excellent opportunity for PhD students and PDRAs to present their work to an audience of experts. Registration is £15, including lunch, wine reception, dinner and prizes for best talks and posters. Further details can be found at: warwick.ac.uk/naturalproducts

For any enquires please contact: Matthew Jenner (m.jenner@warwick.ac.uk) or Fabrizio Alberti (f.alberti@warwick.ac.uk).

The Warwick Seminar on Culture of Memory in Latin America for 2018 is a joint initiative of Prof Paulo de Medeiros (English & Comparative Literary Studies) and Prof Alison Ribeiro de Menezes (School of Modern Languages and Cultures) with generous support from the Institute of Advanced Studies and the Global Research Priorities Group on Connecting Cultures. Seminar leader for 2018 is Prof Márcio Seligmann Silva, from UNICAMP, a visiting Fellow of the IAS.

Warwick Seminar on Culture of Memory in Latin America

Graeme Macdonald's Petrocultures event at Glasgow University this month was a huge success, reported on in the media, and with a sell-out Town Hall event. Congratulations to Graeme on a fantastic conference.

Graeme Macdonald's Petrocultures event at Glasgow University this month was a huge success, reported on in the media, and with a sell-out Town Hall event. Congratulations to Graeme on a fantastic conference.

The 5th M4 meeting will be held at the University of Warwick on 13-14 September, 2018.

The Conference will present cutting-edge research on molecular and cellular microbiology. A wide range of topics will be covered, ranging from biofilms, quorum sensing, pathogenicity islands, host-pathogen interactions and antimicrobials.

The goal of this conference is to act as a conduit for fostering collaboration across Midlands and nationally among leading scientists and to promote the exchange of ideas between the next generation of molecular microbiologists. The conference will offer early career researchers an opportunity to present their research and connect with other scientists.

Registration open until 31 August

Speakers will include:

Professor Rita Copeland, University of Pennsylvania

Dr Karin Margareta Fredborg, Institut du Moyen-Âge Grec et Latin, Copenhagen

Professor Lawrence D. Green, University of Southern California

Professor Dr C. G. Meerhoff, University of Amsterdam

Dr Katie Reid, Warburg Institute, University of London

Professor Jennifer Richards, University of Newcastle

Professor Marjorie Curry Woods, University of Texas, Austin

The conference will include a buffet lunch for all participants and a wine reception at the close.

An online registration form is available on the English Department website : https://warwick.ac.uk/fac/arts/english. The registration form will close on 23rd May 2018. For any enquiries, please contact Christiania Whitehead : c.a.whitehead@warwick.ac.uk

Please see the Programme for further details of the day.

The conference is organised and financially supported by the Department of English and Comparative Literary Studies, the Humanities Research Centre, and the Centre for the Study of the Renaissance, University of Warwick