Institute of English Studies

Contemporary Fiction Research Seminar - Literature and Pop Music

Literature and Pop Music.  Author and music journalist Cathi Unsworth (Weirdo, Bad Penny Blues) talks to Mark Blacklock about fiction, pop, and the world in between.

Former Melody Maker music journalist, Cathi Unsworth's most recent book was Weirdo, a regional noir set in East Anglia that recalls the work of David Peace and Derek Raymond.  In addition, Mark Blacklock has compiled an 'invisible jukebox' for the evening; a soundtrack of songs inspired by Cathi's writing.  

Further sessions this autumn will consider the relationship between literature and social media, and literature and sport.  

We'd also like to draw your attention to the forthcoming Transitions Comica symposium at Birkbeck on Saturday October 26.  This is currently the only regular academic conference devoted to comics in London, and is now on its fourth year.

Literature and Pop Music

Literature Studies at the School of Advanced Study.

School of Advanced Study

The Humanities Now - Literature and the Public Good

Professor Rick Rylance
(Director of the Institute of English Studies, School of Advanced Study)

Chair: Professor Sir Adrian Smith

Dinah Birch 
(Pro-Vice Chancellor for Research, University of Liverpool; Chair of the last REF Panel for English; Booker Prize judge; Chair of the Advisory Council for the Institute of English Studies. Distinguished scholar especially of Victorian literature)

Jacqueline Norton 
(Chief Commissioning Editor for Literature of Oxford University Press)

Literature and the Public Good is Professor Rick Rylance's new book from Oxford University Press. Reading literature fosters personal development, positive social engagement and contributes to the runaway success of Britain's creative economy, he argues. The book emerges from his 6-year experience of leading the Arts and Humanities Research Council. 

To celebrate its launch, OUP and the School of Advanced Study host a discussion on 'The Humanities Now'. Leading figures from the humanities, policy and publishing sectors will ponder why the humanities, so strong in Britain in reality, are perceived to be in retreat. 

Professor Rick Rylance is Director of the Institute of English Studies in SAS. He was previously CEO of the AHRC and Chair of Research Councils UK. Before that he was Head of the School of Arts, Languages and Literatures at the University of Exeter and Dean of Arts at Anglia Polytechnic University. His research interests include the history of psychology and reading and the brain. He is currently writing the Oxford English Literary History volume covering the period 1930--1970.

The Humanities Now - Literature and the Public Good

Institute of English Studies

The London Beckett Seminar 

Remediating Beckett and the Graven Image

Professor David Houston Jones
(University of Exeter)

The London Beckett Seminar - Remediating Beckett and the Graven Image

Institute of English Studies

The London Beckett Seminar

Beckett and Music

Dr Catherine Laws
(University of York)

The London Beckett Seminar - Beckett and Music

Institute of English Studies

Researching Contemporary Culture

Interpretive Communities

Professor Matt Hills
(Aberystwyth University)

Researching Contemporary Culture is a series of summer workshops for postgraduate and early career researchers. It is organised by Dr Zara Dinnen (University of Birmingham) and Dr Tony Venezia (Birkbeck, University of London), conveners of the Contemporary Fiction Seminar. Researching Contemporary Culture is supported by an AHRC Collaborative Skills Award; with additional support from the University of Birmingham, Birkbeck, University of London, and the Institute of English Studies, University of London. 

Researching Contemporary Culture aims to help researchers in the field address an array of issues that currently define the study of contemporary culture by offering workshops and presentations on: developing the impact of research through exhibition, curation, and the championing of particular artists’/directors’/authors’ work; producing research for open access publications; balancing public engagement and research needs; using online participatory culture as a research tool; conducting sustainable research with ephemeral data.

Literature and Pop Music

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