Conflict and Memory

Postgraduate symposium organised by the Cultural Memory Studies Discussion Group in association with the Centre for Modern Studies

The Symposium features a keynote address by an eminent professor in Memory Studies, interdisciplinary research papers by postgraduates working in the field from York and elsewhere, and a reading and discussion by the poet Jane Weir, whose poem ‘Poppies’ was included in Carol Ann Duffy’s recent anthology of contemporary war poetry. It promises to be a great opportunity to hear brand new research in Memory Studies and the offers the chance to sit back and enjoy the work of writer who Carol Ann Duffy has described as one of the best new voices in contemporary poetry. Refreshments, wine and nibbles.

Programme

2.15-3.15 Introductory remarks and keynote address: Professor Antony Rowland (University of Salford) – ‘Poetry as Testimony’

3.15-3.30 Coffee Break

3.30-4.20  Panel 1 – After Catastrophe

• Kayleigh Thornton (University of York) ‘Translating Violence: Literature, Politics and Voice in Post-Genocide Rwanda’
• Emma Hill (University of York) ‘”Where were you?” Memory and Displacement in 9/11 Narratives’

4.20-5.10 Panel 2 – Post-war Identity

• Laura Price (University of York) ‘Industrial and Racial Strife in the Post-war Woollen Textile Industry’
• Emma Miller (Durham University) ‘Memory, Childhood and the Never Never Land of A.S Byatt and Iris Murdoch’

5.20  Jane Weir – Walking the Block – Poetry reading and discussion of a poetic biography based on the lives of Modernist hand-block print designers Phyllis Barron and Dorothy Larcher who worked between the two World Wars.

Followed by wine and nibbles.

Conflict and Memory poster (PDF , 820kb)