HUMANITIES RESEARCH CENTRE
Annual Report 2004-2005
Lectures and Seminars
The 2003-2004 HRC Visiting Fellow in June was Lauren Berlant from the University of
Chicago. Her lecture in the Ramphal Building, entitled ‘It’s not the tragedies, it’s the
messes: couples, couplets and Dorothy Parker’, looked at Parker’s work as poet, critic
and screenwriter as a way into considering wider issues concerning the possibilities
and problems of emotional expression in modern culture.
The 13th Donald Charlton Lecture took place in the University Arts Centre and
consisted of an introduction by the eminent Iranian film-maker, Rakhshan BaniEtemad, a screening of her film ‘The May Lady’ and a question and answer following
it, led by the film festival curator Sheila Whitaker (herself a Warwick graduate and
recipient of a Honorary Doctorate at this year’s Graduation). We are especially
grateful to John Gore of the Arts Centre, the International Office and the Iranian
Embassy for their support of this event.
In the course of the academic year, the Centre also organised and supported a
variety of conferences and symposia:
Dialogue With Tradition: Contemporary Writers and Literary Heritage
Organised by Elizabeth Wren – Owens (Italian)
Saturday 5th February 2005
Exploring Critical and Instrumental Approaches in Cultural Policy Research
Organised by Egil Bjørnsen and Jane Woddis (Cultural Policy Studies)
Saturday 19 th Feb 2005
Thinking Space in Early Modern England
Organised by James Brown (History)
Saturday 5th March 2005
Some people are disappointed to only get the film…What is a DVD?
Organised by James Bennett and Tom Brown (Film and TV Studies)
Saturday 23rd April 2005
From the National to the Trans-national: European film and television in transition
Organised by Iris Kleinecke and Anna Maria Mullally (German/Film and TV Studies)
Saturday 7th May 2005
An Uninterrupted Dialogue: Italy and the Classical Tradition
Organised by Dr.Carlo Caruso
(Italian)
12th - 14th May 2005
Parish Clergy and Parish Community
Organised by Dr Beat Kümin, Dr Peter Marshall and Dr Penny Roberts (History)
Saturday 14th May 2005
Literary Migrations: Translation and Adaptation in C18th Britain and Europe
Organised by Dr Jacqueline Labbe (English) and Dr Kate Astbury (French)
Saturday 14th May 2005
Intellectual Diasporas / Departures
Organised by Dr Kate Astbury (French )and Dr Jane Hiddlestone (French)
Tuesday 13th September 2005
Warwick in America
The HRC oversaw the allocation of funds to the Humanities from the current Warwick
in America enterprise. The main tranche of this was awarded to the Centre for
Philosophy and Literature (director: Christine Battersby), which was able to secure the
presence of Judith Butler, who not only gave a sell-out lecture in the Arts Centre
Conference Room, entitled ‘Torture and the Ethics of Photography’, but also
generously participated in a seminar on her work with graduate students. The other
tranche of the Warwick in America fund was awarded to five scholars across the
Humanities at Warwick for research and conference visits to the USA.
The Interdisciplinary Research Seminar
This year’s seminar, organised by Neil Lazarus of the Department of English, focused
on the topic of Diaspora, springing from work across the University and relating to
current AHRC funding initiatives. There were contributions from Warwick staff and
graduate students in English, French, Film Studies and Sociology, as well as the
following visiting speakers: Lesley Marx (University of Cape Town), Andrew Smith
(University of Strathclyde) and Sara Ahmed (University of London)
Doctoral Fellowships
This year, the Centre was able to sponsor four (internal) Doctoral Fellowships. The
Fellows contribute to the life of the HRC by organising a one-day post-graduate
interdisciplinary conference, and are given financial support for their PhD dissertation
research. The four fellowships for 2004-2005 were assigned to:
James Bennett and Tom Brown (Film and TV Studies)
Some people are disappointed to only get the film: What is a DVD?
James Brown (History)
Thinking Space in Early Modern England
Iris Kleinecke and Anna Maria Mullally (German/Film and TV Studies)
From the National to the Trans-national: European film and television in transition
Elizabeth Wren - Owens (Italian)
Dialogue With Tradition: Contemporary Writers and Literary Heritage
These all attracted key national and international figures as speakers as well strong
(mainly capacity) registrations.
Arts Faculty Research Committee
Identities and Cultures: This year, we have strengthened our ties with the faculty of
Social Studies, and laid the foundations for future collaboration. Our joint bid for a
Star Professorship in the area of Identities and Cultures was referred back with an
invitation to resubmit a revised bid in due course. In the meantime, there has been
considerable interest in developing further collaborative initiatives in the area of
Identities and Cultures. The faculty has been award £12 000 from the RDF fund to
meet the cost of a high profile, exploratory seminar series in “Identities and Cultures”,
to be convened by Dr Rashmi Varma, Professor Neil Lazarus and Dr Erica Carter. The
seminar will explore new disciplinary developments in this area, and will act as a
starting point for further developments and funding applications.
AHRC Diasporas Project: Dr Karen O’Brien gathered information and liased with the
AHRC, and convened a meeting of interested members of the Faculty and of the
Faculty of Social Studies. A number of small bids have now gone forward for the first
round of this project, and it is anticipated that one or two bids will be made for larger
grants in February 2006.
AHRC Collaborative Research Training: The faculty succeeded in a joint bid, with
Bristol University and other institutions, to offer research training to postgraduate
students in the area of colonial and postcolonial studies. Warwick students will be
offered training sessions at the Bristol Empire and Commonwealth Museum and
elsewhere. Warwick has been awarded £3750 to provide two training events at part
of this programme.
The Humanities Research Fund, administered by the Centre, continued to give
support for research projects, conference travel and unusual publication expenses.
The fund that has been in operation since October 2001 has now finished.
HEROBaC
The Arts Faculty's HEROBaC fund was used to produce the 2004-5 edition of the HRC
Newsletter. The Newsletter showcases research being carried out by the arts and
humanities community at Warwick as well as advertising forthcoming HRC events. It is
mailed out to the arts and humanities departments of every major UK HEI as well as
other arts organisations and many overseas institutions.
Future Projects
The Donald Charlton Lecture will be given by Sigrid Weigel on Thursday 16th February
2006.
Forthcoming Conferences include:
Henry Green, 1905 – 73: A Centenary Celebration
Friday 28 – Saturday 29 October 2005
Trouble in Paradise? Ecocritical Responses to the Contemporary Caribbean
Saturday 26 November 2005
Writing The Other America: The estuary of the Americas in the literary imagination of
the Caribbean and Latin America
Saturday 25 February 2006
Writing Class: Representations of Working – Class Spaces in Modern Britain
Saturday 6 May 2006
Next year’s Interdisciplinary Seminar Series organised by Liz Barry (English) and Rachel
Moseley (Film Studies) will focus on the theme of celebrity in historical and
contemporary contexts.
A Cultural History of Celebrity
What is and has been the cultural value of celebrity? This is the question that will be
debated in the HRC seminar series on ‘A Cultural History of Celebrity’ to run in the
coming academic year. It will consider the phenomenon in its many manifestations
from the mid-eighteenth century to the present day. Figures as diverse as Nelson,
Byron, Flaubert, Marlene Dietrich and Sarah Jessica Parker, just some of the public
figures discussed in the series, have all played the high-risk game of exposing
themselves to the cult of celebrity. The series aims to give a historical framework to
the consideration of this much-discussed phenomenon, bringing together ideas of
heroism, fame, genius and the icon in intellectual and cultural life, as well as in
popular culture. Speakers will consider the familiar narrative of the displacement of
heroism (active, socially useful, often masculine) by celebrity (passive, parasitical,
often feminised) in modern life, and to investigate and challenge its assumptions. It
will also examine the impact of celebrity on cultural production, considering the
public figure of the artist and the intellectual and exploring how their renown may not
just follow from their work but also shape and direct it.
The series will begin with a round-table discussion of ‘The Cultural Value of Celebrity’,
involving members from several Warwick departments including Film and Television
Studies, English, French, and German, and papers will follow on topics such as Nelson
and heroism, the cult of Lord Byron, Madame Tussauds and the history of the
waxworks museum, and the phenomenon of Heat magazine.
The 2005-6 Doctoral Fellowships have been awarded as follows:
Erin Somerville (CTCCS)
Trouble in Paradise? Ecocritical Responses to the Contemporary Caribbean
Michael Niblett and Kerstin Oloff (English/CTCCS)
Writing The Other America: The estuary of the Americas in the literary imagination of
the Caribbean and Latin America
Nicola Wilson (English)
Writing Class: Representations of Working – Class Spaces in Modern Britain
Concluding remarks
The HRC has had another most successful year and will continue to foster and
encourage research in the faculty in the variety of ways outlined above.
Next year Professor John King (CAS) will return as Director of the Centre, while Dr
Margot Finn (History) will return as chair of the Arts Faculty Research Committee.
Dr Liese Perrin from the University’s Research Support Services continues to be closely
involved in all our activities and initiatives, providing invaluable support at all levels.
The bedrock of the Centre is our secretary/administrator, Sue Dibben, whose
unrivalled enthusiasm, energy and efficiency ensure the delivery of such a rich
programme.
My good wishes and very grateful thanks to all of them.
Richard Dyer
HRC Director, 2004-2005