The History Woman's Blog

Academics with real jobs

Posted in Conferences, Education by thehistorywoman on July 25, 2010

I have been to quite a few academic conferences this month and was shocked to see the conditions under which some of us work. On the surface it all looks perfect. Dr So-and-so from such and such a university giving a paper on his recent research on x, y and z. Their affiliation is perfectly inconspicuous. And then during the break over coffee or lunch, or in the evening at the bar, the truth comes out. Her second one-year contract has run out, and she can’t find a new job. So she is clinging on to her old institution as long as she can while thinking about going abroad. A colleague from southern Europe, despite holding various positions and titles at his institution, is not paid for his teaching at all. He can only hold on to his ‘job’ because his wife brings home the money. Only by the end of the second day of the conference do I find out that he has a ‘real’ job as well that pays at least some of the bills. But he won’t tell me what it is. Academia seems to be the last bastion where ‘money’ is a dirty word. You’re expected to live alone on the love for your subject, and if you can’t , you are somehow inferior to the others. Because it means you are somehow not quite good enough to have made it. (more…)

Advertisements
Tagged with: , , ,

7 comments

Shakespeare, Chaucer and Joyce: A Conference on Medieval and Early Modern Authorship

Posted in Conferences, Early Modern, literature by thehistorywoman on July 3, 2010

If it has never occurred to you that Chaucer might have influenced Joyce as much as Homer then you should read more medieval literature – or listen to Helen Cooper (Cambridge). Even though Joyce decided to name his Ulysses after Homer’s classical Odyssey, Cooper argues, his true ‘poetic father’ in the English language was Chaucer, and the Canterbury Tales served as a model for the chapters in Ulysses, each of which is based on a different character or location, using different language and style.

I must say I have learnt quite a few new things over the past few days in Geneva, where the Second Biennial Conference of the Swiss Association of Medieval and Early Modern English Studies (Samemes) shed new light on aspects of ‘Medieval and Early Modern Authorship’. Colin Burrow (Oxford), for instance, called into question the notion of an emergent ‘individual authorship’ in the early modern period and emphasised the collaborative nature of early modern textual production. In particular, authors worked closely with the editors and printers of their works and thus were close collaborators with the press rather than detached artists.

(more…)

Tagged with: , , , , ,

1 comment

Conference: Medieval and Early Modern Authorship, 30 June-2 July

Posted in Conferences, Early Modern, literature by thehistorywoman on May 2, 2010

Swiss Association of Medieval and Early Modern English Studies

Medieval and Early Modern Authorship

30 June – 2 July 2010, University of Geneva

Authorship has come to the forefront of medieval and early modern English studies in recent years, as is shown by the wealth of important publications in this area. The objective of this conference is to take stock of a duly socialized form of  authorship, which recognizes that while authors have agency, that agency is circumscribed by the multi-faceted social, legal, institutional, and intertextual pressures within which authorship takes place.

Plenary Speakers

Colin Burrow (University of Oxford)

‘Fictions of Collaboration: Authors and Editors in the Sixteenth Century’

Patrick Cheney (Pennsylvania State University)

‘English Authorship and the Early Modern Sublime’

Helen Cooper (Cambridge University)

‘Choosing Poetic Fathers: the English Problem’

Rita Copeland (University of Pennsylvania)

‘Producing the lector’

Katherine Duncan-Jones (University of Oxford)

‘Authorial Impersonation: Three Faces of Henry Chettle’

Robert Edwards (Pennsylvania State University)

‘Authorship, Imitation, and Refusal in Late-Medieval England’

Neil Forsyth (University of Lausanne)

‘Authorship from Homer to Wordsworth via Milton’

Alastair Minnis (Yale University)

‘Ethical Poetry, Poetic Theology: A Crisis of Medieval Authority’

Brian Vickers (School of Advanced Study, University of London)

‘Collocation Matching: A Breakthrough in Authorship Attribution Studies’

For more information go to:  http://home.adm.unige.ch/~erne/authorship2010/

Tagged with: , , ,

leave a comment

CFP: Durham C17th Conference – Ideals and Values

Posted in CFP, Conferences, Seventeenth Century by thehistorywoman on February 3, 2010

Durham University

Centre for Seventeenth-Century Studies

Elvet Riverside, New Elvet, Durham, DH1 3JT, England.

Director:   Professor Richard Maber

Tel: 0191-334 3431      Fax: 0191-334 3421      e-mail: R.G.Maber@durham.ac.uk

THIRTEENTH INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE

DURHAM CASTLE

19-22 JULY 2010

CALL FOR PAPERS

Proposals are invited for the thirteenth Conference of the Durham Centre for Seventeenth-Century Studies, which will focus on the general theme:

Ideals and Values


It is expected that this theme will be approached from a very wide range of disciplinary and methodological perspectives; contributions which span national and disciplinary boundaries are, as always, particularly welcome.  Papers should be of 20 minutes’ reading time.  Each session will have ample time for discussion.  Offers to chair sessions are welcomed from participants who are not reading papers.

Proposals for papers should be of approx. 100-200 words, and should be sent to Prof. Richard Maber (email: r.g.maber@durham.ac.uk) as soon as possible, but no later than 26 February 2010. Proposals for themed panels are also welcomed.

The conference will take place in the magnificent setting of Durham Castle, from Monday 19 to Thursday 22 July.  Residential delegates will depart after lunch on 22 July; it will also be possible to book overnight accommodation for nights before and after the conference if required.

leave a comment