CHASE

Consortium for the Humanities and the Arts South-East England

Day 2

Placements plenary panel

Day 2, 10.00-11.30

ACCA Auditorium

Epping Forest District — Ellis Spicer (University of Kent)

Ellis Spicer is a third year PhD candidate in the School of History at the University of Kent whose research focuses on identity and belonging in Holocaust survivor associations in postwar Britain. In one of her PhD interviews in 2018, a Holocaust survivor mentioned a hostel he stayed in which was ten minutes away from her hometown. Therefore, her placement seeks to create an exhibition with Epping Forest District Museum, which goes live on the 23rd May 2020.

Bridge+ — Elizabeth Morgan (UEA)

Elizabeth is in the third year of her PhD at the University of East Anglia, in the Languages and Communications Department. Her research examines the impact of the policy and practice of interpreting and translation provision on the sense of belonging among migrants in Norwich. In January this year she began a placement at the Bridge Plus+, an organisation in Norwich offering information and advice to ethnic minority individuals. Although she initially planned to stay only 6 months, the placement has now been extended through to the end of the year.

The Mighty Eighth – Hattie Hearn (University of Kent)

Hattie Hearn is a second year PhD researcher at the University of East Anglia. Using archival research and oral history interviews, she is exploring how American 8th Air Force personnel employed processes of placemaking to transform their military bases into wartime homes during the Second World War. In turn, her research assesses how this historical process of meaning-making has influenced the ways in which visitors experience the physical remains of the sites today.

Muscaliet Press – Simon Everett

Simon Everett established Muscaliet Press in 2017 as part of a CHASE placement. Muscaliet is an independent publisher of poetry, short fiction and creative nonfiction. It aims to publish new, innovative work that embodies this approach: bold, interdisciplinary, interweaving, fluid, processual writing, both formal and free-form.

For more information about the press, including recent publications, please see the Muscaliet Press website.

European Graduate School plenary session

Day 2, 11.30 – 12.30

ACCA Auditorium

Kit Ashton (Goldsmiths)

Kit Ashton is in his final year of a PhD in Music at Goldsmiths College, University of London. He is researching the ways in which music can help to safeguard and revitalise endangered languages, with a focus on the critically endangered language of Jèrriais in his home island of Jersey (Channel Islands). In August 2019 Kit attanded a 3-day EGS seminar in Saas-Fee, Switzerland, with eminent philosopher, cultural theorist and musicologist Peter Szendy, entitled: ‘ “Dear Reader, Don’t Read!” The Politics and Erotics of Reading from Plato to Calvino’.

Zoha Zokaei (University of Sussex)

Zoha Zokaei is a British-Iranian award-winning artist and practice-based PhD researcher at the University of Sussex department of Media, Film and Music. Her research in hybrid storytelling for social change resulted in the production of the podcast series titled Price of Secrecy, that has won an award at the 2019 Third Coast/Richard H.Driehaus Foundation Competition. Price of Secrecy is a journey of a reflexive socially engaged creative practice that engages with some of the legal, social, cultural and familial constraints that contribute to the silence around the issue of child sexual abuse in Iran.

Sofia Cumming (UEA)

Sofia Cumming is a third-year PhD Candidate working in the field of modern European intellectual history at the School of Literature, Drama and Creative Writing at the University of East Anglia, where she also tutors and lectures on undergraduate courses in Critical Theory, Literary Criticism and Philosophy. Her research focuses on German-Jewish writer, philosopher and cultural critic Walter Benjamin and his life-long engagement with French literary and aesthetic culture. She was the co-organizer of Benjamin’s Baudelaire: Constellations of Modernity (May 2019), a workshop for early career researchers in affiliation with the Centre for Philosophy & Critical Thought at Goldsmiths.

Academic wellbeing sessions

Day 2, 13.30 – 14.30

Navigating Supervision — Katherine Parker-Hay (University of Sussex)

Gardner Tower, ACCA

On starting your PhD, it’s almost as though you are supposed to know automatically what supervision is and how to make the most of it. Informed by the current research, this workshop aims to demystify some of this process. It will explore the ideals that have informed supervision and how these are changing, what is expected from a supervisee and how to go about tailoring supervision to your own needs. The workshop will be helpful to those starting out with their doctorate or wanting to think about how to navigate their current supervisory dynamic.

We’ve come a long way but where now? Actions, conversations and more actions to support PGR mental health and wellbeing — John Turnpenny (UEA), Clio Berry (University of Sussex) and Jeremy Niven (University of Sussex)

Auditorium, ACCA

This session continues the previous CHASE Encounters theme around mental health and wellbeing (MHW) among PGRs. We give a flavour of some of the latest initiatives supporting MHW and setting the agenda in this area, as a way in to conversations and expressing your own views about what the main issues are and where improvements could lie. We challenge you to come up with actions that you, other individuals, and institutions such as CHASE could do more (or less) of.

Session aims: 

  • Support students’ wellbeing by encouraging conversations about mental health in academia

  • Give a flavour of the kinds of projects and activities going on

  • Gather ideas for how CHASE can help support and champion PGR wellbeing

CHASE student network breakout sessions

Day 2, 14.30 – 16.00

CHASE Student Committee

Workshop Studio, ACCA

Join the Student Committee to find out who we are and what we do as a Committee to best represent you as the CHASE cohort. Whether you want to raise certain issues, are interested in joining or finding out more about us and our blog, everyone is welcome. We will start with introductions before moving to our aims, long term goals and showcasing our blog which all students are welcome to contribute to.

Diversity in Academic Citizenship

Room BH-235, Bramber House

Diversity in Academic Citizenship strives to promote inclusivity and wellbeing for those within the CHASE cohort. After a successful round table at Encounters in July, at the University of Kent, the group is committed to providing support and advice, as well as a safe point of contact for those with visible and invisible disabilities, including mental health.

This session seeks to build on this progressively, attain new members, develop the rationale for, and fine tune how the group can actively support those in the CHASE community.

All are welcome!

Medical Humanities Network

Cafe bar area, ACCA

We’re establishing a Medical Humanities Network at CHASE in order to facilitate a knowledge exchange between CHASE PGRs working within the medical humanities.

We will begin the session with an introduction to our areas of research, followed by a discussion where we will consider the aims of the network. Our initial idea is to meet as a network around once a month. These meetings will look slightly different each time, taking the format of reading groups, workshops and social events.

Please come along if you’re working within the medical humanities and would like to be involved.

Climate Crisis Action Group

Gardner Tower, ACCA

You are invited to our first open CHASE Climate Crisis Action Group meeting. This is a chance to shape the group’s direction, and discuss how the academic community can respond to the climate emergency. Our aim is to generate sector-wide change, including creating alternatives to the high carbon practices (e.g. flying) on which research relies. We recognise that the climate crisis intersects with many other forms of activism, including feminism, anti-racism, migrant and indigenous rights. We see working with and within these intersections as imperative for Climate Action.

 At the meeting we will:

  • Report on progress and the response from CHASE.

  •  Explore how the climate emergency relates to our research

  •  Discuss barriers to taking action.

  •  Work towards a statement of intent outlining our overarching aims.

  •  Decide on roles, and who will fill them this year.

Writing for Practice Forum

Room BH-243, Bramber House

The Writing for Practice Forum is based in the Mountain of Arts Research (MARs) at Goldsmiths College, and is organised by artists and researchers Kate Pickering and Rowena Harris, and supported by the CHASE Doctoral Training Partnership. The forum is a peer led discursive space to gain valuable feedback on imaginative or experimental approaches with text-based material: (m-a-r-s.online/gatherings/writing-for-practice-forum).

The Writing For Practice Forum will take a special format for the CHASE Encounters conference at the University of Sussex. We will use the forum to think through writing as/ within/ for practice research more broadly. We invite all participants to bring a short excerpt of their own writing (approx. 300 words or less) to discuss in relation to the question: how do we think through a practice of writing? We will read out the excerpts together at the start of the session, along with a short extract from Rootprintsby Helene Cixous (here) that considers writing as an externalisation of the interior self (pre-reading is not mandatory). In addition to bringing an excerpt, please bring a concern or thought in relation to writing as/ within/ for practice. Writer, artist and Professor in Fine Art Kristen Krieder (Goldsmiths) will join us in discussion.

Brief Encounters Journal

Room BH-255, Bramber House

Join the Brief Encounters Editorial Board to find out more about the journal, its aims and opportunities for you to join the Board and create the next issue. The session will provide you with an overview of the journal, the various roles on the Editorial Board, and the types of submissions that the journal welcomes. The session will be valuable to anyone thinking of publishing in the journal or joining the Editorial Board as the recruitment window opens for the next issue’s Board.

Space, Place and Time Research Group (SPT) 

Room BH-242, Bramber House

SPT is a collective of doctoral researchers funded by the Consortium of the Humanities and the Arts – South East (CHASE) whose projects explore the concepts of space, place and time. The group aims to foster conversation and collaboration between various disciplines that share this research focus. Our members include both practice and theory-based researchers working across the wide range of fields, including literature, sound studies, visual cultures, theatre and performance, media and communications, philosophy and history. Over the course of the 2019-2020 academic year, SPT are running a project ‘Critical Excursions’ – a series of events and expeditions, which will take place in the UK and abroad. Through the method of guided excursions, readings, discussions and workshops undertaken in-situ, we will explore the histories and the legacies of ‘the Troubles’ in Belfast, the residues of post-industrial landscapes across the River Thames, the futures of DYI dance culture in London, the histories of measuring time in Liverpool as well as utopian imaginaries of the Frankfurt School of thought in Naples. We invite CHASE affiliated students to sign up and join our critical expeditions. This adventurous opportunity will provide space for the participants to network, share ideas, form collaborations and produce new collective knowledge.’

Field Research Abroad

Auditorium, ACCA

This session will highlight the necessary practical steps doctoral researchers are required to follow in order to undertake field research outlining the process of obtaining funding from CHASE DTP and the necessary clearances from the home institution regarding risk assessments and travel insurance. In turn we will highlight the importance of ‘research clearance’ when undertaking fieldwork in regarding permits and visas. Secondly, we will show how we adopted two different approaches to data collection in the field through archival research and interviews. Finally, we will emphasize the importance of reflexivity when researching in particular socio-political and cultural environments.

CHASE Feminist Network

Jane Attenborough Studio, ACCA

The CHASE Feminist Network will be providing a session on wellbeing, resistance, and institutional prejudice. As well as discussing problems currently facing social justice in academia we’ll talk about how to balance activism with personal wellbeing and self-care, and offer advice around active bystander intervention. We hope the session will help attendees feel more comfortable and capable pursuing feminist activism and supporting marginalised people within the academy.

Keynote 2 – Rupert Read (UEA)

Research AND Action in the Age of Climate- and Ecological- Breakdown

Day 2, 16.00 – 17.00

ACCA Auditorium

Dr Rupert Read studied PPE at Balliol College, Oxford, and later continued his studies at Rutgers and Princeton, where he completed a Ph.D in a Wittgensteinian exploration of the relationship between Kripke’s ‘quus’ problem and Nelson Goodman’s ‘grue’ problem. He was politically radicalised by his time in the United States, where he saw first-hand the dire cultural and ethical consequences of more or less untrammelled capitalism.

Dr Read lectured for two years at Manchester, before moving to UEA in 1997, where he has stayed for the last two decades, working to grow the philosophy post-grad community, the Department as a whole, and the Wittgensteinian side of the Department in particular. He has published a very substantial number of books and papers, most notably including, ‘The New Wittgenstein’. His latest book, ‘A film-philosophy of ecology and enlightenment’, will be published by Routledge later this year.

In recent years Dr Read has become increasingly involved in politics: he sat as a Green Party councillor in Norwich from 2004-2011, and stood for both national parliamentary and European elections. He is also the current chair of the ecological think tank Green House (https://www.greenhousethinktank.org/). He writes for the Guardian, the Independent, the New Statesman, and Resurgence & Ecologist, and also appears semi regularly on Radio 3, Radio 4 and the World Service on programmes such as ‘Free Thinking’.

Dr Read’s keynote talk will discuss how to use the impact agenda, why academics should be trying to save the world, and the forces that get in the way of this – including our own prejudices as students of the social and human world.

Please see here for further information about his work and activism.

Chaired by Kate Lacey (University of Sussex)