Congratulations to our PGS, Visnja Krstic and Di Wu, who have been awarded full funding on Harvard's prestigious, and very competitive, Institute for World Literature.

Professor Pamela Gilbert will be in residence at Warwick from 9-20 May 2016. We will be hosting the events below during her visit.

11 MAY, 2.30-4.30, H539: DROP-IN CAREER DEVELOPMENT SESSION

For all PhD students, postdoctoral associates and early career colleagues.

Pamela will answer your questions about the development of your early career, including applying for the US and Canadian job market, professionalization (an increasingly important factor in making credible applications to both UK and North American universities), building an early career network, publication and presentation.

As well as being one of the world's most eminent Victorianists and feminist thinkers and researchers in the field of medical humanities, 2009-12 Pamela was Head of the Department of English at UoF; she holds or has held executive positions with MLA and NAVSA, and editorial positions on several refereed journals, US and UK. She founded the professionalisation workshop of BAVS in 2013 and continues to lead this and professionalisation initiatives for other academic associations and projects; she is frequently sought as external member for hiring panels across the US system.

16 MAY, 1-4: INTERDISCIPLINARY WORKSHOP WITH THE INSTITUTE FOR ADVANCED TEACHING AND LEARNING, G.5, MILLBURN HOUSE

1-2: LUNCH (FREE AND OPEN TO ALL)

2-4: DISCUSSION

"Be Afraid! Be Very Afraid!"

[A workshop co-sponsored by IATL, the Department of English and Comparative Literary Studies, the Centre for the History of Medicine, and the Institute of Advanced Study]

Why do we read tragedy, melodrama, and horror fiction, which evoke fear and sadness?

How do we enjoy them?

These are the research questions guiding this interdisciplinary workshop, featuring Professor Pamela Gilbert of the University of Florida in conversation with respondents from different fields at Warwick. Respondents will include Jonny Heron (IATL), Lorenzo More (Life Sciences), Liz Barry (English), Emilie Taylor-Brown (English/IAS). We invite all postgraduate students, early career fellows, and others to join us for lunch, followed by a lively discussion on the relationship between physiology, psychology, neuroscience, art, and literature.

This event is free, and there is no need to register in advance.

Abstract:

The late eighteenth and nineteenth centuries saw the explosion of both literacy and the production of the novel. This period also saw the rise of physiological psychology, in which thinkers interested in affect often turned to literature as a rich field for the contemplation of human emotion; likewise, literary authors had a natural interest in what scientists and philosophers had to say about the experience of art. Recent advances in neuroscience today have given new insight into—and images of—the workings of affect, and a corresponding interest in neuroscientific theories of reading. But, the earlier period had its own scientific theories of reading and reception, not so different from today’s.

One problem that has dogged aesthetic and psychological theorists since at least the days of Aristotle is the aesthetic appreciation of negative affects:
• Why do we read tragedy, melodrama, and horror fiction, which evoke fear and sadness?
• How do we enjoy them?

This workshop will outline some of the theories of the period and how they were reflected in the literature of the time. We will then consider some current theories and research on these questions. I hope that we can then open to a wider discussion of how more recent developments in the arts, media, and the sciences affect our understanding of the appeal of aversive affects and how that appeal reflects on our sense of what is "natural" in "human nature."

18 MAY, 12-2, H.545 (HUMANITIES BUILDING):

RESEARCH SEMINAR WITH PROFESSOR GILBERT ON "FLAYING HISTORY: THE FRENCH REVOLUTION, HISTORICAL PROGRESS, AND MARSYAS."

12-1: BUFFET LUNCH (H.502)
1-2: SEMINAR (H.545.)

This talk is drawn from Professor Gilbert's current book project on skin in the nineteenth century. There is no need to pre-register, and attendance is free.

19 MAY, 12-1: 'GLOBAL FUTURES: BUILDING INTERDISCIPLINARY POSTDOCTORAL RESEARCH CAREERS' IAS SYMPOSIUM, SCARMAN HOUSE

Professor Gilbert will participate in the following session at this IAS symposium:

Session 2 - Building Research Careers

Live testimony from successful young academics and International Visiting Fellows about their experiences building an interdisciplinary research career.

Confirmed Chair: Professor Simon Swain
Confirmed Speakers: Dr James Sprittles, Professor Pamela Gilbert (University of Florida, USA), Professor Sandra Vasconcelos (University of Sao Paulo, Brazil)

More information at http://www2.warwick.ac.uk/fac/cross_fac/ias/activities/symposium/2016

19-20 MAY: WORLD VICTORIANS CONFERENCE
HUMANITIES STUDIO, 1ST FLOOR OF HUMANITIES BUILDING

Professor Gilbert will be delivering a keynote lecture at the 'World Victorians" conference on "The Magnifying Glass and the Telescope: Incommensurability and Complementarity in Nineteenth-century Studies" (19 May, 16.15-17.30).

More information at: http://www2.warwick.ac.uk/fac/arts/english/research/researchgroups/worldvictorians/
Programme at: http://www2.warwick.ac.uk/fac/arts/english/research/researchgroups/worldvictorians/events/program/

Biography: Pamela K. Gilbert is Albert Brick Professor of English at the University of Florida. She is a former chair of the English Department there and a recent recipient of a prestigious Guggenheim fellowship. She received her PhD in English from the University of Southern California in 1994. Her current monograph project is on skin in the nineteenth century.

Professor Gilbert's research interests include gender, the Victorian novel, the body, Victorian cultural and medical history, and medical humanities. Her many distinguished publications include Cholera and Nation (SUNY Press, 2008), The Citizen’s Body (Ohio State University Press, 2007), and Disease, Desire and the Body in Victorian Women’s Popular Novels (Cambridge University Press, 1997). She is the editor of the Companion to Sensation Fiction (Blackwell, 2011), and she currently edits the book series Studies in the Long Nineteenth Century (SUNY Press); she is also co-associate editor of the recent Blackwell Encyclopedia of Victorian Literature.

Professor Gilbert's visit and the above events are sponsored by the Institute of Advanced Study, the Department of English and Comparative Literary Studies, French Studies/the School of Modern Languages and Cultures, and the Centre for the History of Medicine.

For more information, contact Ross Forman, R.G.Forman@warwick.ac.uk, or Emma Francis, E.J.Francis@warwick.ac.uk.

This weekend, 12th to the 13th June 2015, is the conference New Subjectivities, New Emotions, New Politics: Oppositional Politics and Counter-Cultures Across the Iron Curtain to be held at the Center for Interdisciplinary Polish Studies, Europe University Viadrina, Frankfurt/Oder, Germany.

The conference is co-organized by Joachim C. Häberlen (University of Warwick), Mark Keck-Szajbel (European University Viadrina, Frankfurt/Oder), and Kate Mahoney (University of Warwick), and the conference program is available online.

On the 6th & 7th May the University of Warwick held a highly successful first UK Autophagy Network Meeting entitled Autophagy in Health and Disease.

The symposium was organised by Dr Ioannis Nezis of the School of Life Sciences and Professor Sharon Tooze from The Francis Crick Institute and was generously sponsored by the Company of Biologists, British Society for Cell Biology, Science AAAS, Abcam Plc, Enzo Life Sciences and Abgent Ltd.

The delegates discussed the latest advances in Autophagy Research, from basic molecular and cellular mechanisms to pathophysiology of diseases such as cancer, neurodegeneration and other ageing-related diseases, studied in several model organisms (yeast, fruit flies and mice). The programme also included two poster sessions.

A number of collaborations are planned as a result of the meeting, and plans are already in place for a second meeting, possibly in Edinburgh next year.

Around 100 delegates attended from across the UK, including two overseas speakers, Professor Tom Neufeld (University of Minnesota, USA) and Professor Terje Johansen (University of Tromso, Norway).
Other invited UK speakers were Professor David Rubinsztein (University of Cambridge), Professor Katja Simon (University of Oxford), Dr Ian Ganley (University of Dundee), Dr Oliver Florey (Babraham Institute, Cambridge), Dr Rupert Beale (University of Cambridge), Dr Stephanie Kermorgant (Queen Mary University), Dr Sovan Sarkar (University of Birmingham), Dr Michelangelo Campanella (The Royal Veterinary College, University of London), Dr Niccolo Pengo (UCL) and Dr Elaine Dunlop (Cardiff University).

Warwick's Centre for Research in Philosophy, Literature and the Arts (CRPLA) is seeking proposals for speakers and small workshops for AY 2015-2016. We are specifically interested in supporting speakers and events that would be of wide interest to graduate students, and interdisciplinary student-groups from grads in Philosophy, Film, English, Art History and Modern Foreign Languages. The CRPLA welcomes proposals such as those offering to host single speakers (UK based or low-budget travel), a graduate supported forum or seminar, a small panel, or an efficient conference platform. Proposals costing up to£150-£200 (max) may be funded in full. Any proposal involving more than a single funded visiting speaker is likely to require some independent fundraising. This is certainly possible from other University sources (e.g. IAS, HRC and/or Dept budgets) once CRPLA backing is secured, given sufficient lead time. Please make sure that your proposal, besides being interesting and relevant, is realistically and fully costed, and allows time for such further fund-raising if required. Ask yourself how much transport (return train tickets to Coventry, taxis, catering for lunch, dinner and/or tea and coffee, and accommodation, where required, will cost).

Please also note that the CRPLA invites speakers from the UK to present their research during the Autumn and Spring terms. Generally talks do not run past week 3 of the Summer term. We encourage you to suggest interesting speakers for this fortnightly event to speak at Warwick in AY 2015-16.

All proposals should include a brief summary of the specific theme, its direct relation to the interests of both the CRPLA and its graduate community, and a proposed itinerary and detailed budget, if applicable. The latter must include all possible costs, as listed above. All graduates students, from any of the above named departments, are encouraged to apply. Please send any questions, your suggestions for visiting speakers, and workshop proposals to the CRPLA Graduate Representatives, Johannes Niederhauser and Joseph Shafer, to the following email address, we've set up for this purpose: CRPLAgradreps@gmail.com

The symposium will take place 10–11 September 2015 at University of Warwick, bringing together world-leading researchers on the assessment, prevention and mitigation of geohazards.

The forthcoming Cuban Research Forum Annual Conference at Nottingham University, on the 8th to the 10th September 2014, will feature a special panel to celebrate Alistair Hennessy on the 9th September 2014 from 3:30pm to 5:30pm. Please see the full conference programme for more details of this panel and the other events of the conference.

Alistair Hennessy joined Warwick’s History Department shortly after the University’s foundation and he retired as one of the Department’s longest-serving members. He began his academic career as an historian of modern Europe, but after writing an important book on republicanism in nineteenth-century Spain, his interest in the Hispanic world broadened to encompass the history of Latin America and the Americas more generally. In the course of a dynamic and fruitful career, he made a great contribution to developing Warwick’s reputation for innovative and engaging historical studies, and to widening the scope of American Studies in the UK.

His own special contribution was to engineer the establishment of the School of Comparative American Studies (CAS), a degree course which received its first students in 1974 and continues to flourish today. CAS was his brainchild and favourite venture, reflecting his desire to challenge conventional intellectual and disciplinary boundaries. He rejected Cold War categories which portrayed the world in terms of East and West and called attention to the significance of relations between North and South; he insisted that American history and American Studies had to be more than the study of the United States; he proposed the study of the Americas as whole, comparing where possible the histories and cultures of Latin America, the United States, Canada and the Caribbean; and, last but not least, he looked to the future by launching a degree which was multi-disciplinary and bilingual, with opportunities to learn Spanish, to take courses across departments, and to spend a year studying at a university in the Americas.

Never one to rest on his laurels, Alistair subsequently developed another branch of American studies at Warwick by playing a leading part in founding the Centre for Caribbean Studies, which in turn became a prominent focus for historical and literary work on the Caribbean. The CAS degree, his book The Frontier in Latin American History, his numerous essays and articles on subjects which ranged from the histories of Cuba and Anglo-Argentine relations to Latin American intellectuals and Chicano culture, together with the Caribbean Studies book series which he created and co-edited, all stand as testimony to the intellectual vision, passion and energy for which he will be long remembered.

New Jazz Conceptions: History, Theory, Practice

University of Warwick
Saturday 31st May 2014

In recent years jazz studies has attempted to move beyond the canonical view of jazz as a narrative of great performers within an American context, becoming more interdisciplinary and international in its approach. This one-day conference will bring together Warwick, Midlands and National speakers to discuss current research in jazz, share ideas about methodologies for future study, and explore the link between academics and the practice of jazz in the wider community.

Speakers: Tony Whyton, Catherine Tackley, Andrew Hodgetts, Roger Magraw, Katherine Williams, Adrian Litvinoff, Simon Barber and Sam Fieldhouse (from the National Jazz Archive)

Organisers: Roger Fagge and Nicolas Pillai

Further information and Booking Form: http://www2.warwick.ac.uk/fac/arts/hrc/confs/jazz

12 to 18 April 2013

In celebration of the 125^th year of the Proceedings, we are proud to announce the start of the first ever Online Conference of the Aristotelian Society: a weeklong event featuring classic papers from our back catalogue, commentaries on these papers delivered by contemporary philosophers, and an online-based discussion forum that is open to everyone. We hope that you’ll enjoy participating in the discussion.

In March 2013, and with the support of the British Academy, the Philosophy Department will host a further one-day workshop and one-day conference on the topic of Nietzsche's philosophy of the free spirit.

The dates are March 21 (Thursday) and March 22 (Friday). Speakers include: Rebecca Bamford (Quinnipiac), Jessica Berry (Georgia), Paul Bishop (Glasgow), Christine Daigle (Brock, Canada), and Herman Siemens (Leiden, the Netherlands).

Anyone interested in attending the March 2013 events should contact Dr Simon Scott to register. Places for the workshop are limited, and you are advised to register your interest early.

Registration cost is as follows: £10.00 for single day; £15.00 for both days (payment by cheque, payable to ‘University of Warwick’ or by cash). Send to: Dr Simon Scott, Department of Philosophy (Social Studies), University of Warwick, Coventry, CV4 7AL.