1869 Conference
As part of the University of Otago’s commemoration activities, the Centre for Research on Colonial Culture (CRoCC) and the Australasian Victorian Studies Association (AVSA) are co-hosting a conference and heritage festival on ‘1869’ from 25-29 September 2019. A call for papers is below. The closing date for abstracts is 1 April 2019.
1869 was a year in which many scientific, political, commercial, cultural and medical milestones were also recorded, including the first issue of Nature, the opening of the Suez Canal, the publication of the Periodic Table, Paul Langerhans’ discovery of pancreatic islets and the appearance of The Subjection of Women by John Stuart Mill.
The organisers welcome abstracts, panel proposals and posters from all disciplines and perspectives, and particularly encourage postgraduate participation.
- The academic programme will feature keynote addresses from Megan Pōtiki (Te Tumu, University of Otago), Dr. Helen Pearson (Chief Magazine Editor, Nature) and Professor Marion Thain (King’s College, London), and will be complemented by a public programme of events featuring invited speakers including:
- novelist, essayist and literary scholar Dr Tina Makereti (Massey University), whose most recent novel, The Imaginary Lives of James Pōneke, was long-listed for the Ockham New Zealand Book Awards;
- Lisa Chatfield, producer of the BBC mini-series The Luminaries and its set decorator, Daniel Birt.
The conference will combine a traditional academic programme with a range of public heritage festival events, special forums and social engagements.
Please circulate the CFP widely and to your research networks.
Family Ties, Literary Kinship and Creative Production in 19th Century Britain
On 12-14 February 2017, the Department of English and Linguistics, University of Otago, will host ‘Family Ties,’ an international symposium exploring literary kinship and creative production in nineteenth-century Britain. The CFP is below.
Plenary Speakers:
Judith Pascoe, University of Iowa
Devoney Looser, Arizona State University
In 1800, poet and playwright Joanna Baillie dedicated her Series of Plays to her physician brother Matthew Baillie for his “unwearied zeal and brotherly partiality”; Matthew himself had recently edited the anatomical research of their uncles, John and William Hunter. At century’s end, Oscar Wilde cited his mother Jane Wilde’s translation of Sidonia the Sorceress (1849) and his great-uncle Charles Maturin’s Melmoth the Wanderer (1820) as his “favourite romantic reading when a boy.” Family played an important role in the literary and artistic productions of the long nineteenth century, from the Burneys to the Brontës, and the Rossettis to the Doyles. Critical approaches ranging from Noel Annan’s “Intellectual Aristocracy” to Bruno Latour’s Actor-Network-Theory have provided useful ways of assessing and contextualising the role of family in the creative production of writers and artists, but still the role of the family remains under explored.
We invite submissions for “Family Ties” focused on British literary and artistic families in the nineteenth century. Topics for 20-minute papers might include:
Interdisciplinary Influences
Collaborations and/or Dissents
Authorial Identity/ies
Communities and Networks
Redefining Family Units
Stages of Life (births, marriages, deaths)
Reimaginings of nineteenth-century families
Families, Creativity, and Empire
Economics of Family Authorship
Literary and Artistic Legacies
Little-known Relations
Generational Influences
Please send abstracts of 250-300 words by 15 November to Dr Thomas McLean and Dr Ruth Knezevich at familyties@otago.ac.nz.
Details of the conference will be posted online here as they become available.
Cowan Symposium: Draft Programme
The draft programme for the forthcoming James Cowan Symposium (21 February at the National Library, Wellington) is now available.
SCHEDULE
9-9.30: coffee, muffins
9.30-10.45: Mihi and welcome followed by a Keynote lecture from Chris Hilliard, University of Sydney
Chair: Annabel Cooper
Coffee
11.00-12.30: Session One (Chair: Paul Diamond)
Robert Joseph and Paul Meredith/On The Maniapoto O&T Report
Te Kenehi Teira/Historic Places on Rangiaowhia/recording sites
David Green /Commemorating Chivalry and Unity?
Lunch
1.30-3.00: Session Two (Chair: David Colquhoun)
Ariana Tikao/ Tales from the Border
Kathryn Parsons/ The Enzed Junior
Jim Frood/ Cowan for Secondary School Students
Coffee
3.15-5.00: Session Three (Chair: Angela Wanhalla)
Roger Blackley/ The Plutarch of Maoriland
Lydia Wevers/ Romance of the Rail
Annabel Cooper and Diane Pivac/ Filmed History: Cowan’s Screen Legacy
Wrap-Up Comments: Tony Ballantyne, University of Otago
5.30 Drinks
