KCL planning meeting, 24 September 2014
Introductions
Agenda:
 a chance to “check in, talk about possibilities, make future plans”
 primary purpose of the meeting will be the KCL exchange
 develop a listserv
Idea/opportunity proposed by Eliza Richards:
 Jo Mcdonaugh is at NHC for 14-15, invite her and other faculty to come and give
talks on their projects (3 other Romanticists and Victorianists, interested in
temporality, deep time, etc; thinking across disciplinary/national boundaries)
 Proposal: Series of talks, next semester
 UNC Faculty who may be asked to extend invitation: Joe Viscomi (on leave),
Jeanne Moskal, Beverly Taylor, Maria Wisdom, John McGowan, Tyler Curtain,
Leslie Frost, David Ross, Jaime Rosenthal
KCL COLLABORATION
 Strong existing exchanges in MEMs, music, history; trying to build English dept.
partnership
 Funding available – mostly for group projects, not individual exchanges
 What have we done?
o UNCommon conference/C19
 Folded in visit from KCL faculty and grad students
 Gave KCL students a chance to present original research, most
panels had KCL/UNC mix
 Faculty gave artifact sessions (Claire Pettit & Janet Floyd)
o Transatlantic symposium gave ideas for the future
 Sidebar: NUS (national university of singapore) partnership, money to bring grad
students/faculty over, Jane emphasizes the importance of international
partnerships for job market/future of the discipline
 October 6th meeting for KCL partnerships
o Representatives from major KCL initiatives (Eliza will attend)
o Bob Miles (dir. of study abroad) to talk in a more general way about
collaborative initiatives
o Medical humanities, MEMS etc. will be in attendance
o Donovan lounge in 3pm
 Plans coming out of last spring’s symposium
o Generally, on-going grad student collaboration that would lead up to a
conference in London in fall 2015 (4 faculty, 4 grad students would
probably be able to attend)
o Developing a writing workshop via “high tech” classrooms/former
American Studies conference room
o Building a website - DH/tech program @ KCL (Tomek Mosokowski(sp?);
Kate Osborne), website builds ideas of common interest;
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o Ideas
 Shared methodology
 Close reading and distant reading/surface reading/statistical
reading
 Thinking about more topical organization
 “Internationalization” & “migration,” networks etc.
 Making use of London as a place
Sources of funding
o IAH-KCL fund
o Global partnership fund – fund out of Global Fedex center
o 3 application moments (Oct, early Feb, early Apr)
o Stronger application if tied to graduate study
 Input on the part of the graduate students - stronger proposal w/
ongoing work in preparation for future projects
o can’t miss funding - get in early for first semester funding deadline
o 3rd source of funding: Dean Matheson, open to giving additional money
but doesn’t want faculty to ask, wants grad students to ask
 In collaboration with other grants, we would approach Matheson
directly by writing up a short explanation/proposal of what is
needed
 Emphasize impact, wide-ranging impact and that the project’s
ongoing & collaborative; how might it impact professionalization
and teaching.
Q&A portion
 Broad areas of action & who is taking point on each:
o Grant writing: Sarah Boyd, Kimmie Farris -> Leslie and Emma will share
their grants, Eliza Richards will share hers (important to build on previous
things), Ian?
o Scholarly (what are topics, what are archives, points of contact in
methodology, etc): table this for now.
o Writing group/collaboration/publicity/community forming (venue for people
to share work; generate interest/form relationships): Emma (in touch with
Tomek), Kym, Vera
 Existing 19th C writing group folded in
o Leadership/administrative (people to be in touch with, etc)
o Website: Lauren, Rae, Carlie in SITES
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Bob Miles as contact person
Make sure that graduate students and faculty don’t bifurcate; on-going
meetings/steering committee
o Should there be a common point of contact? -> shared google docs/website
Jane: Let’s meet again in a more convivial location, libations and refreshments, what
we’re thinking about these days –> combined working group
KCL grad students planning to come again?
Action plan
 skeleton website
 listserv & minutes (Anneke)
 deadlines for funding application (e-mailed to Kimmie, Sarah, Ian)
 plan another meeting - October, Tru
 Lecture series, set up this semester ASAP (Christina and Anneke)
o Planning things to avoid: Critical Speaker Series, Americanists Speaker
Series, 606, Furst Forum