On April 21-22nd 2017 CeMoRe will host the inaugural conference of the new Palgrave Macmillan book series, Studies in Mobilities, Literature and Culture.
The series directors – Charlotte Mathieson (University of Surrey), Marian Aguiar (Carnegie Mellon, USA), and Lynne Pearce (Lancaster University and CeMoRe Director for the Humanities) – decided that the best way to advertise the series was to hold a conference, and have been delighted by the positive response.
Over 70 paper proposals have been received from colleagues around the world – many of whom are already well-known to the CeMoRe community. This is, of course, an acknowledgment of the extent to which mobilities scholars based in the social sciences have been working with literary and cultural texts for many years, but what distinguishes this event is that it will also feature presentations by humanities scholars new to the mobilities scene. Mobilities of all kinds feature in the proposals received – with pedestrian and transport mobilities taking their place alongside others on subjects as various as migration and transnationalism, bodies and embodiment, maritime mobilities, science fiction mobilities and mobility aesthetics.
There will also be a strand dedicated specifically to cycling and film convened by Bruce Bennett (LICA, Lancaster)- the fourth member of the conference team – who has recently held a Leverhulme Fellowship in connection with research on this subject. With LICA’s support, Bruce has secured a visit from film director, Andrew Kotting, for the conference’s closing session. Kotting – who has worked alongside Iain Sinclair on a number of films with a mobilities focus – will premiere his new film, Edith Walks (2016), at this event followed by a Q&A with the audience.
The conference’s keynote lectures will be given by Kat Jungnickel, a digital technologies specialist based in the Sociology Department at Goldsmiths London, currently working on a book entitled Bikes and Bloomers: Cycling, Sewing and Suffragette Storytelling, and Marian Aguiar, from the Department of English at Carnegie Mellon, author of Tracking Modernity: India’s Railway and the Culture of Mobility (2011). In addition, there will be a Round Table – with invited guests Peter Merriman (Geography, Aberystwyth), Ruth Livesey (English, University of Warwick), Nick Dunn (LICA, Lancaster)- following the Conference Dinner on Friday night.
Although the CfP for this event is now closed, registration remains open until 31st March 2017 and the conference organisers warmly welcome delegates from across the humanities and social sciences with an interest in the way in which texts of all kinds can inform and extend mobilities research. Charlotte, Marian and Lynne also welcome book proposals – or expressions of interest – from anyone with an interest in the series and look forward to speaking with prospective authors at the conference.
Conference Website: http://moblitcult.wordpress.com/
Book series Website
Conference Email: mobilitiesconf[at]gmail.com
Personal Contact: L.Pearce[at]lancaster.ac.uk
The organisers would like to thank CeMoRe, the Department of English & Creative Writing and LICA for their generous financial support of this event.
Lynne Pearce
Photo: watkinsclassblog.com
