2A. Room 1 | Communities | Panel discussion: Belonging and identity
Sabina Dosani, Martin Munroe, Karítas Hrundar Pálsdóttir | University of East Anglia
We are three students on the PhD in Critical and Creative Writing at UEA and would like to propose a joint themed panel/ roundtable discussion on belonging and identity within three different communities:
Martin Munroe is a former student adviser at Goldsmiths, University of London. A 2018 MA Creative Writing graduate of Royal Holloway. In October 2020 he became a full-time CHASE funded PhD candidate in Creative -Critical Writing under supervision of Professor Tessa McWatt and Professor Alison Donnell at the University of East Anglia. His novel examines themes of black male masculinity, class, colonisation, and family.
The creative project is inspired in part by the number of murders of black teenage boys in London and the rise of black churches in inner London. It is also a comment on the limitations and contradictions of black masculinity and black male sexual identity as expressed in a range of contemporary London locations – across the sexual continuum. The synopsis of the novel: Three black brothers are haunted by their dead father, a Windrush generation immigrant from the Caribbean.
An aspect of the piece examines Caribbean culture, as a hybrid culture of the colonized and in conflict with the culture of the colonizers. It is this aspect that led me to participate in this panel.
Through the medium of short stories, Karítas Hrundar Pálsdóttir’s work explores the phenomenon of reentry, that is sojourners’ readaptation to their homeland after living for a period of time abroad. In her short story collection, focus is put on specific emotions and events, including for example: confusion, sorrow, loneliness, starting a new school, returning to an old workplace, and having a baby. The story presented in the panel tells the tale of a new British mother and her past adventures in Japan, raising questions about the issues of belonging and exile.
When psychiatrist and expert witness, Sabina Dosani, is referred to the recurrent miscarriage clinic after a series of devastating losses, she finds herself undergoing invasive tests and intrusive scans. Sabina starts to scrutinise the medical systems she worked and trained in. What she discovers overturns many things she had taken for granted. Dosani’s memoir explores whether it is possible to be a compassionate, yet emotionally-uninvolved, witness to family tragedy. Weaving professional encounters in the family court, with personal experiences of foetal loss, Flesh and Blood is an exploration of maternal attachment and clinical detachment.
Flesh and Blood takes the reader on journey through a medicalised pregnancy, which unfolds under the bright glare of medical examinations, alongside a parallel, professional journey with families eviscerated by illness, adversity and addictions. Tracking the conflicts, collisions and concerns of medical professionals, social workers and lawyers, Flesh and Blood asks readers to consider what it would mean if clinics and courts were places of greater compassion, or whether too much emotion stalls the difficult and often devastating interventions designed to keep children safe, often leaving mothers in the shadows.
2B. Room 2 | Panel discussion: Doing research in a pandemic
Tim Galsworthy (Sussex), Sarah Smeed (Kent), Kitty Shaw (Birkbeck)
In this roundtable, three researchers will discuss issues connected to “doing research” during a global pandemic – or, more accurately, trying to do research during a global pandemic. The three speakers are Tim Galsworthy (Sussex), Sarah Smeed (Kent), and Kitty Shaw (Birkbeck). Taking turns to offer comments, before engaging in a free-flowing conversation with each other and with attendees, the three speakers will offer insights onto the challenges they’ve faced and the strategies they’ve devised to try and overcome those challenges. Matters discussed will include engaging with archives (especially overseas institutions), remote research, external funding, mental health, and planning. This discussion will cover the practicalities of trying to be an effective researcher during the pandemic, while also considering the mental health difficulties which are part and parcel of this story. Tim and Sarah are third-year researchers, while Kitty is in her first year, meaning the speakers will be able to give differing perspectives on doing research during a pandemic. In particular, Tim and Sarah will be able to be discuss life as a researcher before and after the pandemic began – a shift which may be interesting for other CHASE students to discuss. This panel gives Tim, Sarah, and Kitty – along with other Encounters attendees who take part – the opportunity to talk through difficult but important obstacles we are all facing and trying to navigate.
2C. Room 3 | Works in progress | History | Chair: Mina Radovic
Elizabeth Webb | Open University
Ancient community: illuminating hidden figures in Thucydides’ History of the Peloponnesian War
The fifth century BCE ancient Greek historian Thucydides is best known for his account of the war between Athens and Sparta. His work has been widely used in the field of International Relations and has more recently been considered the foundation for analyses of modern political issues; an example of this is Graham Allison’s contemporary work on ‘The Thucydides Trap,’ in which he applies the paradigm of rivalry between a rising power (China) and an established one (the United States).
However, there is more to Thucydides’ writing than its political dimensions. Although he is considered to be a sparse conceptual writer, his narrative is full of sensory detail and contains episodes which give us insight into communities under the existential pressure of war. Furthermore, in spite of the traditional focus given to prominent figure such as the Athenian politician Pericles, certain episodes illuminate the actions of figures traditionally marginalised in accounts of this conflict, particularly women and enslaved people.
My paper explores how we can draw out the implications of sensory aspects of Thucydides’ narrative to develop a richer understanding of elided figures in communities at war. Moreover, it also challenges the binary polarity which sets Thucydides’ conceptual and political narrative against Herodotus’ more inclusive historiography.
Edward Shepherd | Birkbeck, University of London
John Berger’s ‘Ladder’ and the entangled experience of domesticated sheep, the red fox and humans in Neolithic Britain.
In Britain, the red fox (Vulpes vulpes) is infrequently recovered from the built environment of the Early Neolithic. When encountered, it is either considered ‘intrusive’ (due to its burrowing behaviour) and quickly removed from archaeological histories or is theorized as either technology (fur) or playing a role within human cosmologies (Serjeantson 2011, Pollard 2008). This paper is a creative attempt to move away from what Tim Ingold (1996) terms “culturally perceived” nature (studied by social anthropologists and archaeologists) and instead write archaeological narratives which position at its centre a sense of “really natural” nature (studied by natural scientists). Influenced by the writings of John Berger (1979) and in particular his poem ‘Ladder’, I will move away from the scenario of – human thinks and/or uses fox -, a position which inadvertently implies a ranking of animal species (with human animals at the very top), but instead I will write histories which approach all animal species (here I include human) on level terms, exploring the entangled behavioural relationships between the red fox, sheep and humans during the Early Neolithic in Britain; using extracts from an oral interview (conducted during the Spring 2021 COVID lockdown via Skype) with a working hill shepherd; alongside published research from the natural sciences, ethnozooarchaeology, applied ecology, veterinary science and environmental management.
Edward Shepherd, Department of History, Classics and Archaeology, Birkbeck, University of London, UK. Second-Year CHASE funded PhD candidate
2D. Room 4 | Network event: Gather.town
Marleen Boschen | Goldsmiths, University of London
CHASE Climate Justice Network Session
Accessing the environment works best on Google Chrome*
The CHASE Climate Justice network recently organised its first sharing event ‘(Taking) Care in the Climate Crisis’. For this event we created an environment on Gather.town which was designed and built by artist Andrea Khora. Gather.town is a platform that allows to experiment with creative online gatherings and exhibitions. In this session at Encounters we will share and discuss some of the learnings, let participants wander through the environment as well as talk about future activities of the network, open questions for future discussions and ways to get involved.
Please note that this session will take place in a Gather.town environment accessible via this link: https://gather.town/i/OCsKkck4
Password: Encounters