SMLC Research Speaker and Workshop Programme 2018/2019
The five research clusters in SMLC in conjunction with the Stirling Maxwell Centre (Visual Culture, Writing in Transit/Translating Cultures, Critical Editions and Translations, and Histories and Subjectivities, Language Teaching Scholarship) began a fruitful series of research workshops and invited visiting speaker talks this semester. Highlights included seminars by Dr Emma Barron, University of Sydney, 'Women and Magazines: Learning to be Modern in 1960s Italy', co-organised with the Centre for Gender History; Professor David Scott, Trinity College Dublin, 'Thirty-Six Ways of Looking at Marianne: A French National Icon as Illustrated in French Stamps'; Dr Olwyn Alexander, Heriot Watt University, drawing on her editorial experience at the Journal of English for Academic Purposes; Dr Dan Linder, University of Salamanca, 'Chester Himes and Censorship in Spain'; and Professor Simon Dixon, University College London, 'Britain, Russian and Mount Athos in the Nineteenth Century'.
Franco-Scottish Research Network in the Humanities and Social Sciences
Coordinated by the French Institute and the Universities of Glasgow, Edinburgh and St Andrews, the interdisciplinary seminar took place on the 30 November 2018 at the French Institute of Edinburgh with an opening welcome from Emmanuel Cocher, Consul de France and an Introductory Keynote by Virginie Guiraudon (Science Po, Paris). This conference, the topic of which was 'Exile and refuge', included three presentations from three University of Glasgow postgraduate students: Lucy McCormick(SMLC), 'Refuge in Exile: Explorations of the Self in French Interwar Travel Writing'; Disa Persson (History of Art), 'Documents and the Diasporic Object'; and Claire Allison (SMLC), 'From Beur to Beurgeois'. This seminar was coordinated by Alice Béjat (Research and Higher Education Attachée of the French Embassy to the United-Kingdom), Dr Olivier Salazar-Ferrer (SMLC, University of Glasgow) and Marion Schmid (University of Edinburgh).
Memories and Experiences of Migration: The Balkans and Beyond (7-8 November 2018)
This two-day event focussed on visual representations of migration and the role of memory and personal experiences in the understanding of political and social upheavals. It was the first public initiative of a broader networking project on the topic of migration, and a unique opportunity to meet artists and practitioners with experience of documenting migration, and reflecting on their own reasons to engage with 2015 migration crisis along the Balkan route. The first part of this event entitled “Borders and Crossings on Screen: Young Migrants in Europe” was centred around the screening of Nathalie Loubeyre’s documentary film La Mécanique des flux (2016). Generously funded by BEMIS and CCA, this part of the event especially addressed young refugees and migrants from various parts of the world who have found their home in Glasgow, and who may identify with life stories presented in the film. The second part of the event was organised around the topic “Sharing Experiences and Improving Lives: What Can Scotland Learn from 2015 Migrant Crisis Along the Balkan Route.” Igor Čoko’s exhibition 'Trapped – Hell is Around the Corner' showcased a Belgrade-based photographer/visual anthropologist’s experience of recording destinies of Middle Eastern migrants who in the winter of 2017 were temporarily trapped in Belgrade on their way to Western Europe. Samir Mehanović’s film Through Our Eyes (2018) tells a story of the ongoing Syrian conflict from the perspective of an Edinburgh-based film director who himself was a refugee, and who witnessed the destruction of his own country during the 1990s Yugoslav wars. Samir was nominated for a BAFTA award in 2017.
The second part of the event was generously sponsored by Glasgow Knowledge Exchange grant, Columbia University Council for European Studies grant, GRAMNet and CRCEES grants. The organisers were Dr Mirna Solic and Dr Jan Culik with the Histories and Subjectivities Research Cluster.