Events Newsletter, week 16.11.15

Here is this week’s newsletter.  If you would like to promote an event, please get in touch
(m.ahlers1@ncl.ac.uk).

Research Seminars

Archaeology:
Roman Archaeology Research Seminar
Tuesday 17th November, 6-7:30pm, Armstrong Building, Room 1.06
Nick Hodgson (Tyne and Wear Archives and Museums): ‘WallQuest Community Archaeology and the discovery of the fort baths at Wallsend (Segedunum)’

Classics and Ancient History:
Wednesday 18th November, 5-7pm, Armstrong Building, Room 2.50
Edward Harris (Durham University): ‘Trials in Thucydides and Xenophon’

History:
Wednesday 18th November, 5-7pm, Armstrong Building, Room 1.04
Katrina Navickas (University of Hertfordshire): ‘Protest and the Politics of Space and Place, 1789-1848’

Further School Events

Neolithic and Early Bronze Age Research Student Symposium
20th and 21st November
Keynote lecture by Dr Chris Fowler 20th November, 5:30-7pm, Armstrong Building, Room 1.06 ‘The powers that be’ and powerful events: ontologies in Neolithic and Early Bronze Age Britain and Ireland
Student Symposium on 21st November, 9am – 4:30pm, Armstrong Building, Room 1.06
If you would like to attend either the keynote lecture or the actual symposium please get in touch the with the organisers Lucy Cummings and Mareike Ahlers at nebarss2015@gmail.com
Please find futher information at https://nebarss.wordpress.com/

Newcastle Early Modern Forum Symposium
Wednesday 18th November, 6pm, Percy Building
Italian Exchanges: Venice and Rome in Renaissance English writing and its perception
with
Caitlin Phillips (Durham University): ‘Protest, Magic and the Reformation’
Amy Shields (Newcastle University): ‘Why Venice? Plato Redivivus and the Role of the Noble Venetian’
Megan Holman (Northumbria University): ‘Men may construct things after their fashion: Reading Graphic Novel Shakespeare’

Newcastle University Public Lectures

Wednesday 18th November, 5:30 – 7pm, Curtis Auditorium, Herschel Building
Celebrating Student Research Scholarships and Expeditions 2015

Thursday 19th November, 5:30-6:45pm, Curtis Auditorium, Herschel Building
Amanda Vickery (Professor in Early Modern History, Queen Mary University): Mutton dressed as lamb (British Society for Eighteenth-Century Studies Patron’s Lecture)

Northern Bridge Autumn School – October 2015

A number of our AHRC funded PhD students attended the Northern Bridge Autumn School, hosted by Queens University Belfast.

We set off from Newcastle Airport with the weather forecast to rain, rain, rain, with a little more rain scheduled for Belfast for the next few days. We were pleasantly surprised to land in a slightly grey but DRY Belfast. We had time to wander around the city of Belfast, to see some of the street art, the infamous ’Big Fish’, the Ulster Museum and we even squeezed in a visit to Maggie May’s Café, which was as nice as people had reported, and so we pass on the recommendation (see photo below)!

Belfast side streets & artwork (left & top right); Maggie May's milkshake & ice cream sundae after a trip to the Ulster Museum! (bottom right)
Belfast side streets & artwork (left & top right); Maggie May’s milkshake & ice cream sundae after a trip to the Ulster Museum! (bottom right)

The main aim of the Wednesday timetable was to give this year’s newly funded students a chance to talk and get to know each other, and to hear about their research topics; whilst for the 2014/2015 group it was a chance to catch up with each other’s progress and adventures since the Newcastle event in June 2015.

While the new starters were perfecting their ‘elevator pitch’ (ie. Sell yourself to a prospective boss in the time it takes you to climb 7 floors in a lift!), we spent time reflecting on the advantages of being part of the Northern Bridge partnership. We also highlighted areas in which more could have been made as a new starter, and this was the spark for the afternoon session, which we were to run for the new cohort. This ‘Peer Feedback’ session also included a pitching session for possible training events to be run and organised through Northern Bridge by us, the students. The focus of the afternoon was careers and employability; we heard from a Northern Bridge student who had undertaken a placement that had benefitted her research and provided a possible career path post-PhD. It certainly gave us some food for thought!

The day was concluded with a drinks reception in the wonderful Great Hall of Queen’s University followed by a meal at an Italian restaurant (also followed by a visit to the nearby pubs and bars for some!).

The Great Hall, Queen’s University, Belfast.
The Great Hall, Queen’s University, Belfast.

Thursday’s sessions included thematic-based interdisciplinary group networking, followed by a Keynote lecture by Professor Richard Clay (Newcastle University) titled “from coins to Internet in 45 minutes(ish)”. Professor Clay outlined some interesting ideas about the use of marks, graffiti and prints to change perception and re-code public space using examples through history—from early coinage to modern-day street art.

The closing session focussed on ways of disseminating research via the media, discussing ‘being Mary Beard’ – an academic who regularly presents her research interest to the public through documentaries, radio programmes, and her blog, alongside her academic publications. This session also brought up very current issues regarding gender and the representation of academics (women academics, in particular) within the media. It was a short but thought provoking session which raised questions about women in academia and in the media, and how we can move to change these stereotypes. This is obviously an issue which is currently being scrutinised and addressed by academia and the wider public alike.

The autumn conference was a great introduction for the new starters, and provided some food for thought for those of us in stage 2 of our PhD projects – How will we disseminate our work? What road will be taken, an academic or non-academic path? What makes my CV stand out from all the others?

Time to start planning!

-Lucy

Events Newsletter, week 9.11.15

This week’s newsletter, once again!  If you would like to promote an event, please get in touch
(m.ahlers1@ncl.ac.uk).

Research Seminars

Archaeology:
Archaeology Research Seminar
Tuesday 12th November, 6-7pm, Armstrong Building, Room 1.05
Paddy Gleeson (Newcastle): ‘Building kingdoms and ruling landscapes: practices of kingship in the Atlantic World’.

Further School Events

Field trip organised by Dr Susanna Phillippo (please get in touch with her if you are interested)
Sunday 15th November: Hadrian‘s Wall trip (Walltown crags, Thirlwall castle, Greenhead)
• Walltown crags, Thirlwall castle, Green head
• An introduction to the Wall: a circular walk along the highest and one of the most dramatic stretches of the Wall, perched on Walltown Crags, with impressive views (weather permitting!) to Scotland and the Pennines.
• Walk from Greenhead village to ruins of Thirlwall Castle (with its legends of buried treasure and a magical dwarf!) ad past site of the Roman fort of Carvoran/Magnis.
• Visit to Roman Army Museum (also a wet weather alternative!)

Newcastle University Public Lectures

10th October, 5:30-6:45, Herschel Building, Curtis Auditorium
Eric Cross (Dean of Cultural Affairs, Newcastle University):  ‘One hundred years of Bach performances’.

 

Events Newsletter, week 25.10.15

This week’s newsletter is up, folks – to see it in .pdf form, ! If you would like to promote an event, please get in touch
(m.ahlers1@ncl.ac.uk).

Research Seminars

Archaeology:
Roman Archaeology Research Seminar
Tuesday 27th October, 6-7pm, Armstrong Building, Room 1.05
Jane Webster (Newcastle): ‘A dirty window on the Iron Age’? Recent developments in the archaeology of Celtic (and Romano-Celtic) religion.

Classics and Ancient History:
Classics and Ancient History Research Seminar
Wednesday 21st October, 5-7pm, Armstrong Building, Room 2.50
Edith Foster (CWRU): ‘The Paradoxical Battle Narratives of Xenophon’s Hellenica

 

Further School Events

Archaeology Nights Out (For all archaeology Staff and PG)
Thursday 29th October, from 5pm onwards at Bar Loco on Leazes Park Road; for more Information please contact Maria Duggan

 

Newcastle University Public Lectures

27th October, 5:30-6:45, Herschel Building, Curtis Auditorium
Paul Finkelman, (F Sallows Professor of Human Rights Law, University of Saskatchewan):  Fighting slavery and human trafficking: what we can learn from the American abolitionists.

29th October, 5:30-6:45, Herschel Building, Curtis Auditorium
Dr Alexandra Harris, (Senior Lecturer in English Literature, University of Liverpool): ‘Journeys in weatherland.’

 

Events Newsletter, week 19.10.15

Here is the first of our weekly events-newsletters. If you would like to promote an event through our newsletter please get in touch with me (m.ahlers1@ncl.ac.uk).

 

PGF Lunchtime Seminar

Wednesday 21st October, 1-2pm, Armstrong Building, Room 2.50
Xu Hong (UCD): ‘Did Philip intend to invade Italy: A case study of the application of the Realist theories to the Hellenistic international relations’

 

Research Seminars

Archaeology:
Archaeology Research Seminar:
Thursday 22nd October, 4-5pm, Armstrong Building, Room 2.16
Matthew Haysom (Newcastle University): ‘Reconstructing life on Late Bronze Age Crete’

Classics and Ancient History:
Classics and Ancient History Research Seminar
Wednesday 21st October, 5-7pm, Armstrong Building, Room 2.50
Edith Foster (CWRU): ‘The Paradoxical Battle Narratives of Xenophon’s Hellenica’

History:
Wednesday 21st October, 5-7pm, Armstrong Building, Room 1.04
Tim Strangleman (University of Kent): ‘Visualising Work in the Twentieth Century: Guinness and the Life and Death of an English Brewery’

 

Further School Events

Field trip organised by Dr Susanna Phillippo (please get in touch with her if you are interested)
Sunday 25th October: Corbridge/Corstopitum: Roman site and village (afternoon)
•       Corstopitum fort: important ‘crossroads’ settlement in Roman times, predating Hadrian’s Wall: extensive remains and a good museum including the famous ‘Corbridge Lion’; also the chance to walk along a Roman road! (the Stanegate);
•       Corbridge village: one of the Tyne valley’s most attractive, including partly Saxon church creatively reusing Roman stonework (also excellent tea shops and at least one historic pub!)

 

Newcastle University

Public Lecture:
20th October, 17:30-18:45, Curtis Auditorium, Herschel Building
All changed, changed utterly
Clare Marx, President of the Royal College of Surgeons
(free admission, no pre-booking required)

22nd October, 17:30-18:45, Curtis Auditorium, Herschel Building
Culture in question: ‘everyday participation’ and the contest over cultural value
Dr Andrew Miles, ESRC Centre for Socio-Cultural Change, University of Manchester

 

PGF Seminar – Wednesday 21st October 1pm

We are delighted to announce our first PGF seminar will be given by Xu Hong from UCD.
Wednesday 21st October in room 2.50 (Armstrong Building, next to the reading room) at 1pm.
Tea, coffee and biscuits will be available as always – please come along and support our first postgraduate guest speaker.

Xu Hong – ‘Did Philip intend to invade Italy? A case study of the application of the Realist theories to the Hellenistic international relations’

The PGF seminar series is a fantastic opportunity for postgraduate students to deliver papers about their current research or research interests. This has been a great success in past years, so this year we will be developing this series in order to offer more flexibility. Therefore, we offer you the opportunity to present either a 20 minute paper or an extended paper of 30-50 minutes. This could be at lunchtime (usually between 1pm and 2pm on Wednesdays) or perhaps, in the evening (with the opportunity for taking questions in the pub!). If you would like to give a presentation, please do get in touch. If have any other ideas regarding the structure of a seminar or seminar sessions which you would like to do, if you know of postgraduate students from another university you would like to invite to give a paper, or if you have any questions or ideas then please do get in touch – we are open to new thoughts and aim to be as flexible as possible!
We look forward to hearing from you.

Welcome (and welcome back)

The new academic year is about to start. For some of us, this means coming back to work after a bit of time off; for some of us, this means coming to a new start at a new university (and for some of us, this means no change, if, like me, you have just been working through your summer).

This also means a new PGF committee. Some roles have been filled, but there are still opportunities open and available. This is also going to be a good opportunity for current and new students to meet and mix, so whether you are arriving or returning, get yourself down to the Percy Building, room G13, this Monday at 4pm to find out what you can do for the PGF, but also what the PGF can do for you!

12th Edition of our E-Journal – Call for Papers!

Call for Papers

12th Edition of the Postgraduate Forum E-Journal

School of History, Classics and Archaeology, Newcastle University

 Disruptions

The theme of this year’s issue of the PGF E-Journal seeks to reflect on the way in which “disruptions” have shaped historical disciplines and processes.

Studies of history are littered with the disruptions of peoples and places, politics and religion, memory and belief, but the term itself is rarely used. Does the concept of disruption offer any new perspective, and how do we recognise and define these disruptions? Does the term disruption have any genuine utility?  Can we look at disruptions on a macro and micro scale?  How do we deal with disruptions to scholarly narratives when new theories, interpretations, and material are discovered?

We are seeking abstracts for papers of 4000 words. Suggested topics include, but are not limited to:

  • Historiographical Disruptions
  • Material Disruptions
  • Disruptions of Landscape
  • Political Disruptions
  • Social Disruptions
  • Economic Disruptions
  • Ideological/Philosophical Disruptions
  • Religious Disruptions
  • Medical Disruptions
  • Urban or Rural Disruptions
  • Disruption of Memory
  • Natural or Environmental Disruption
  • Textual Disruptions
  • Narrative Disruptions

Please send abstracts of 250-300 words along with a CV to Amy Shields (amy.shields@ncl.ac.uk) by 28th August. If your paper is selected, the deadline for the final paper will the 2nd October.

“Disrupting the Notion”: A Postgraduate Conference

Last Friday (22nd May 2015) saw Newcastle University’s 12th Annual Postgraduate Forum Conference go off with a bang. A really fantastic range of papers and posters were presented from Newcastle and beyond, displaying some really varied research.

The theme of the conference was “Disruptions”, which had taken root from marketing and commercial theory, as chair Amy Shields explained in her introduction. I think it is fair to say that each paper developed and worked with this theme in really varied and fruitful directions.

The first panel comprised of Skylar Arbuthnot, Samuel Pearson and Victoria Hughes. Arbuthnot gave us some interesting food for thought in local archaeology by suggesting that the understood disruption of Roman settlement could be rethought if we looked for forts in different places. Pearson followed this with an interesting discussion of Lollards and Lollardy heretics in Elizabethan England, and the evidence for and against familial conversion. Finally Hughes looked at some of the Christian responses to a Pagan emperor in the Roman world, and the disruption they felt it caused to their religion.

This was followed by a quick break and a discussion from our keynote speaker, Harry Dickinson (Edinburgh University) who showed a fantastic range of caricature imagery from Britain during the French Revolution and the comedic responses that disruption caused in this country. He almost caused a disruption of his own when he revealed in a denouement that he is, although local, a Sunderland supporter!

After that was a very posh spread for lunch!

Our second panel was Stephanie Moat, Andrew Marriot and myself, Chris Mowat. Moat took the idea of non-classical art styles being regarded as “inferior” in classical archaeologist scholarship and disrupted it herself with the theory of mimetic practice. Marriott then took us to one of the world’s biggest disruptions, the First World War, and looked at how trench art can actually provide new ways of thinking about the historical, military and social developments and outcomes of the war. Thirdly my own paper looked at dreams in the Roman Republic as not simply a disruption of sleep but also a message of potential disruption to the future, and how gender reinforced structures of importance, even in sleep.

The third panel had John Burke and Anthony Stewart. Burke provided stimulating discussion regarding the ongoing disruption of the island of Cyprus by looking at the ‘ghost-town’ of Famagusta, and Stewart took us into Haiti with a look at the local religion of Vodou and the island’s cultural understanding and treatment of mental illnesses.

The poster session showed off, in particular, some of the varied work being done by Masters students.

The final panel of the day was Steven Server and Ben Morton. Server took us through the political climate of the US in the ‘6os and ‘70s through the lens of risk theory, and the disruptions to society and politics during the period. Finally, Morton brought us back to thinking about the theme as a whole and the way we as historians, classicists and archaeologists look at static movement and disruption.

At the wine reception, the Keith Wrightson and Norman McCall prizes were presented. The runner up prize was presented to Andrew Moat, and the winner for the best paper was Stephanie Moat; for posters, Victoria Bell won the runner up prize, with Stacey Astill being the winner.

I, on behalf of the PGF, would like to give a big thank you to Keith Wrightson and Norman McCall for, as always, supporting our event and taking a keen interest in our postgraduate research community – Thank You.

As well, we would like to thank the speakers and audience through the day for the stimulating presentations and fascinating discussion. The whole day was a great success and a lot of good fun. We would all also like to thank Shields for organising and chairing a fantastic conference – thank you!

See you all next year!

Chris Mowat

PGF Committee Member

Disruptions!

Updated conference programme. We look forward to seeing you all on Friday!

Disruptions!

12th Annual Postgraduate Forum Conference 2015
22nd May 2015
 Research Beehive, Old Library Building

9.00 Tea/Coffee Reception

9.20 Introduction

Panel 1 – Chair: Sam Petty

9.30 Skylar Arbuthnot (Newcastle, PhD) The End of Extramural Settlements in the Hadrian’s Wall Frontier Zone

10.00 Samuel Pearson (Durham, MA) Hereditary Heretics: The Experience of Conversion in Lollard Communities, c​. 1500-1550               

10.30 Victoria Hughes (Newcastle, PhD) “What an evil the Roman world is breeding!” Responses to the Emperor Julian’s Reign

Break

11.15 Keynote Speaker – Harry Dickinson (Edinburgh) British Caricatures and the French Revolution.

Lunch

Panel 2 – Chair: Lauren Emslie

1.00 Stephanie Moat (Newcastle, PhD) Mimetic Practice in Religious Iconography: A Case Study of Roman Britain

1.30 Andrew Marriot (Newcastle, PhD) Disruptive Influences and a Lack of Discipline? World War 1 Trench Art 

2.00 Chris Mowat (Newcastle PhD) Calpurnia and the Disruption of the Roman State

Break

Panel 3 – Chair: Amy Shields

2.45 John Burke (Newcastle, PhD) A Lost City in the Sand: The Memorial Legacy of Conflict through the Greek Cypriot ‘ghost-town’ of Famagusta

3.15 Antony Stewart (Newcastle, PhD) The Disruption of Leonce Joachim, 1934: How the anthropologist’s informant became the subject of an international debate on Haitian psychology, Vodou and mental health             

Break and Poster Session

 Panel 4 – Chair: David Lowther

4.30 Steven Server (Oxford, MSc) Extralaw and Disorder: Disruptions in Political Culture Surrounding State Risk Management, 1964-1976

5.00 Ben Morton (Newcastle, PhD) Disruptions, Scales and the Medieval Village: Questioning the Nucleated-Dispersed Paradigm

5.30 – Conclusion and Thanks

6.00 – Wine Reception – Student Common Room