Events Programme 2020-21

Frederick Coombes, History

Mapping West Africa: Representations of Power, "Knowledge" and Identity, 1375-2020

 Maps claim to provide an objective overview of a given area in order to navigate, survey, and provide an account of the world, but the territories and terrain of West Africa remained little-known to non-inhabitants until well after their formal division and appropriation by European powers. Efforts to map West Africa from outside have alternated between projections – of riches, adventure and racial Otherness – and instrumental, “need-to-know” views of monolithic coastlines specialising in commercial “trades”, in both products and people. In the session, we will examine a series of cartographic representations of West Africa, from the Cresques map made during the Mali Empire, through to a contemporary “geography of conflict”. Given the huge range of contexts involved here, the focus will be on these sources' purpose, style, and resonances within other areas/fields of study.

This workshop will help participants to develop skills in: critically analysing non- and semi-textual sources; thinking through cross-cultural encounters and ways of knowing over time; and evaluating the relationships between representation and reality in sources, as well as that between knowledge and power in the representation of space. In addition, the workshop will offer a partial introduction to the sweep of West African history, which is often ignored or underappreciated at undergraduate level. While the framing is historical, the workshop aims to appeal to those interested in the representation of non-European spaces, decolonisation of knowledge-production, and how identity and power are constructed together.

Rosie Cousins, History

Presentations: in person and online 

This session will be useful to second-year undergraduates because you will usually be required to give presentations as part of your assessment, and, in your second and final years, may have the opportunity to present your work to different audiences, such as at the UGRE or at an online conference. This academic year, these activities may be online, so it is particularly important that you are equipped with the necessary skills for giving a virtual presentation. My skills session will cover the basics of an effective presentation, including tailoring your presentation to the right audience, and the structure of an effective presentation. We will then explore the differences between an online and an in-person presentation, particularly focussing on presentation software, writing a script, and different audiences. Finally, we will discuss how an online conference might run, including calls for papers, panels, and questions. 

Souad Boumechaal, LCS

Language and Power 

The discussion workshop is an excellent opportunity for UG students to discover new perspectives about how language can be more than a communicative tool. Students will explore the ideological dimension of language and how it can be used to maintain and exert power. They will also discover different forms of power (Repressive power, soft power, and normalising power) and how they operate through language. Examples and practical activities will be provided in the workshop to inspire students with ideas applicable to researching social and political issues. Students will also benefit from the workshop as they learn about how to use language as an analytical tool in their future research project.  

Elisabeth Trischler, History

What is the Value of Arts and Humanities? 

Do you ever wonder what the value of an arts and humanities degree is? Have your friends or family asked why you are pursuing a non-science degree? This session will provide opportunities for you to discuss your current reservations about pursuing a degree in the arts and humanities and discuss how current PGRs find value in their research and how this has been strengthened by the current pandemic. It will also consider how you can pursue non-academic pathways after your Undergraduate degree but still apply the skills acquired during your arts and humanities degree.  

Arththi Sathananthar, English

Mobilising movements through music

We'll be looking at social and political commentary through the power of music and spoken word. We'll discuss how music can be used as a space in which to disrupt and dismantle systematic structures of oppression. In light of recent events this year pertaining to #BlackLivesMatter , we'll reflect critically on issues such as implicit bias, racial profiling and white privilege/complicity. The online session will consist of watching and deconstructing several Youtube videos consisting of music from Gil Scott-Heron, Akala and Dave as well as reading canonical critical essays by Langston Hughes and Audre Lourde. The session will also include group work where students will be split into small groups to discuss and feedback their findings collectively to the seminar. 

Ana Garcia Soriano, English

Planning your Dissertation 

Toby Huelin, Music

Dissertation Preparation: Academic Writing with Confidence 

Lauren Wells, History 

Sex and Masculinity  

In this session we will explore the relationship between sex, sexuality, and masculinity. Beginning by focusing on our own understandings we will discuss what preconceptions about sex, sexuality, and masculinity exist in the present day. We will then move on to look at how these relationships were understood in the very specific historical context of interwar Yorkshire, finishing by comparing the two and trying to account for similarities and differences. 

Preparatory Reading: Chapter 3, ‘Love, Sex, Work and Friendship: Northern, Working-Class Men and Sexuality in the First Half of the Twentieth Century’, Helen Smith in Love and romance in Britain, 1918-1970, edited by Alana Harris and Timothy Jones   

Mark Shearwood, History

Identity: Is One Enough?

 The aim of the workshop is to re-evaluate how we think about identity and how our understanding of identity impacts our research. The workshop will discuss various forms and issues of identity, including constructed identity, fluid identities, imagined identity, imposed identity and multiple identities and how we categorise and label people by a given set of pre-set parameters and will introduce the participants to concepts of identity theory and spatial turn theory. 

James Keeton, LCS

Media Discourse and its use in Academia

This is a broad topic with wide applicability across a range of disciplines. It will be useful to any undergraduate who makes regular use of news media, as it will teach a range of skills related to source analysis and its applicability in constructing an argument in an academic paper.  This topic will cover issues such as stereotyping, "dumbing down", the possibility of misinformation "trickling upwards" in the media food chain, and the poor understanding of foreign language topics in English-language sources. Understanding these limitations will be especially useful to anyone who deals with non-English speaking countries, although the skills are applicable to those dealing with English-language topics as well. While this particular topic is politics-based, the skills can be used across most social science-based disciplines. 

Lizzie Ridley, PCI 

How do you communicate your work?

Talking about your interests to the uninformed is always tricky. In this workshop you will learn about different forms of audiences and understand how to practically summarise your research into a statement that gets your message over clearly.At the end of the workshop you will have a short and middle length description of your research interests (or of anything else) visualised as an interview, a tweet and an instagram post.  

Peter Freeth, LCS

What connects a book, Amazon product descriptions and an Instagram account?
This workshop will look at the ways in which new ideas, technologies and perspectives can shed new light on existing and established fields. 
The workshop is built around an on-going research project looking at the digital marketing of contemporary translated literature, as well as the varied source materials used within this project, including Amazon customer reviews and Instagram posts. 
Through a discussion of these elements, how they interlink and the benefits of a digital approach to a more ‘traditional’ field such as literary studies, the workshop will demonstrate the innovative and exciting opportunities that crossing borders can bring to any work or project.
The workshop will provide an opportunity for participants to think about how they might take such an approach both within an academic and a professional setting.

Tim McConnell, LCS

Participating in Justice 
How can we decide what is just and fair? Whether you are a protester, prime minister or president you may have broken the law, but it is a court that will ultimately decide the consequences. We are so familiar with our own justice system, it can be difficult to imagine how alternatives would functions. 

This workshop will get to the heart of how a justice system is designed, and in the process explore how we can use the experiences of the past. Trial by jury was the ultimate expression of ancient athenian democracy, in which the citizens held all the power. In this interactive workshop we will reenact an ancient trial to get inside the minds and discuss justice. What can we learn about justice from how the ancient Greeks  built lasting justice as a community?

You don't need to know anything about this subject, just come along and get involved! 

James Lester, FAHACS

Making Art Relevant: Interdisciplinary Thinking

Taking examples from current movements such as BLM, Extinction Rebellion and even responses to Covid-19 and the #metoo movement this session will help students to think about how their work is representative of contemporary issues. 

Flávia Pessoa Serafim, Media & Communication

Intersectionality, decoloniality and their relation to each other and to power

The workshop will introduce the concepts of intersectionality and decoloniality and will address the relevance both concepts have in academia and in day-to-day life. It will also address the relationship both concepts have with each other and with the concept of power.