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The 9th Biennial Symbiosis 2013 Conference:
Transatlantic Literary & Cultural Relations
A Symbiosis,
BCCW & Reading University event
Venue:
Brunel University, London, UK
Dates:
Thursday 27th June to Sunday 30th June, 2013
Keynote Speakers:
Prof.
Paul Gilroy (King’s College, London); Prof. Peter Robinson (University of Reading);
Prof. Robert Weisbuch (University of Michigan); Dr. Kathleen Wheeler (Darwin
College, Cambridge)
Guest
speaker: novelist Will Self on ‘My American Self’
‘My
visit to this city has been exceedingly gratifying, on account of the freedom I
have enjoyed in visiting such places of instruction and amusement as those from
which I have been carefully excluded by the inveterate prejudice against color
in the United States. Botanic and Zoological gardens, Museums and Panoramas,
Halls of Statuary and Galleries of Paintings, are as free to the black as the
white man in London.’ Frederick Douglass, to William Lloyd Garrison, May 23,
1846.
‘Of
all the British painters, surely Hogarth was the only realist and the only man
who knew his London. Lower London is exactly what it was when he studied it and
hated it.’ —[1902] Willa Cather, Willa Cather in Europe.
Headline conference theme is Transatlantic
London, although proposals on any topic relevant to Transatlantic Studies are
welcome. The event organizers invite submission of:
- 200 – 300 word abstracts for proposed 20-minute conference presentations
- Panel presentations comprising 3 presenters (please submit 200 word abstracts & brief overall rationale)
- Please send by email to both: philip.tew@brunel.ac.uk / t.m.l.scott@reading.ac.uk
SUBMISSION
DEADLINE: Thursday 31st January 2013
The editors of Symbiosis, the Conference Directors, and
members of the Brunel Centre for Contemporary Writing (BCCW) and the Brunel
Gender, Sexuality Research Centre (BGSRC) and the University of Reading Modern
Studies Research Group invite proposals for panels and individual papers of
twenty minute length, which engage a wide variety of transatlantic and/or
transnational topics in the literatures and cultural histories of the Atlantic
world. The conference is certainly not limited to any local concerns, although
papers that treat London (and particularly its suburbs) as a site of Atlantic
cultural exchange and interrelationships are especially welcome, as are those
examining the first twelve years of transatlantic literary and cultural
responses to 9/11, from 2001–2013, and the significance of the hundredth
anniversary of the publication of Pollyanna.
Additionally as ever submissions are actively encouraged from all scholars and students of literary and cultural history
and representation from every period from the earliest settlement right through
to the present. Activities will include a literary event at the Keats House in
Hampstead, London, which will incorporate a poetry reading and tour of significant cultural sites.
Brunel is a well-situated and pleasant
campus university located in Uxbridge, a suburb on the outskirts of west London
very close to Heathrow Airport. Uxbridge town centre has numerous attractive
bars, restaurants and two large shopping centres, and is near walks along
canal-side paths. Central London with its numerous cultural, academic,
scholarly and other facilities and venues can be accessed in under an hour by direct
tube links (29/02/2012 Tfl journey planner estimate: 55 minutes Uxbridge to
King's Cross & St Pancras) from Uxbridge Underground Station, which is
walking distance from Brunel’s campus. London’s West End, the theatre district,
the British Library, the British Museum, and most of its attractions are equally
accessible by underground travel. Accommodation can be booked on campus, in well-appointed
rooms about a three minute stroll from the conference centre and the Symbiosis event.
The conference fee (tba) will include
lunches, teas and coffees, single accommodation (with continental breakfast) if
booked and specified, and a two-year subscription to the journal, Symbiosis.
The conference dinner is additional, and delegates are responsible for their
own evening and other supplementary meals. Double rooms can be booked at a
slightly higher fee. A list of local
hotels and guest houses, if preferred, can be provided.
Submit 200 – 300 word abstract with details
of your academic affiliation and contact details in Microsoft Word attachments
by 31st January, 2013 to the Conference Directors, Prof. Philip Tew (Brunel) and
Dr. Matthew Scott (Reading): Philip.tew@brunel.ac.uk
/ t.m.l.scott@reading.ac.uk. Add ‘Symbiosis
2013 Proposal’ to the subject line of your message, an essential detail since
they will be sorted automatically using this search term.
Earlier inquiries are welcome; early
acceptance may be possible if required for institutional or similar funding to facilitate
attendance. Symbiosis cannot offer bursaries or fee waivers. Further details
will be posted on the Brunel University School of Arts webpage, on the Symbiosis website and its Facebook page.
See variously:
