#birkbeckvoices

Keynote by Maaike Bleeker for the Conventions of Proximity in Art, Theatre and Performance symposium in May 2016 co-hosted by Birkbeck Centre for Contemporary Theatre and Birkbeck Interdisciplinary Research in Media and Culture, and supported by Birkbeck Institute for the Humanities and Birkbeck Institute for the Moving Image. Over a day and a half, artists and writers shared their work on proximity as an idea and as a practice. From the early modern to the contemporary, in examples drawn from southeast Asia to the global north, the symposium explored proximity in relation to a diverse range of topics, including digital networks, architectural design, home, public space, cinema, loneliness, friendship, listening, darkness, museum display, and music.

Dr Jessica Borge discusses her research into the London Rubber Company, the dominant producer of dipped latex products in Britain including Durex condoms, the cultural barriers to selling condoms, and the strategic marketing activity that sought to overcome this. Birkbeck Voices, the podcast series from Birkbeck, University of London, brings you interviews with our academics, students, alumni and wider community. We cover the latest research and inspiring events taking place at the College and find out more about the people who make Birkbeck the place that it is. Listen to the #BirkbeckVoices SoundCloud playlist - https://soundcloud.com/birkbeck-podcasts/sets/birkbeck-voices

In Times of Love and Hate is a new podcast series from Birkbeck Voices. In this episode, Jean Marc Dewaele is talking about communication: in particular, the difficulties that arise in communicating love and hate in a second or foreign language. The episodes in this series are brought to you by academics from Birkbeck’s MA Public Histories, MSc War and Humanitarianism, BA Human Geography, BA Archaeology and Geography, and BA Intercultural Communication and Language. They will explore with you how the turbulent times we live in can be better understood, lived and survived using the tools of investigation and critical enquiry that students and academics alike employ through study and research at Birkbeck.

This is the first session of J. Beverley’s Masterclass organised by the Centre for Iberian and Latin American Visual Studies (CILAVS) during Birkbeck’s Arts Week, May 2017. John Beverley is Distinguished Professor of Hispanic Languages and Literatures at the University of Pittsburgh. That the conjunction of postcolonial struggle and structuralism in the 1960s produces a kind of earthquake in academic knowledge and institutions, particularly in the domain of what the French call the human sciences. The shock effect of that earthquake may be named for sake of convenience "theory," and the disciplinary outcome of theory “studies" (cultural, postcolonial, queer, women's, Africana, Atlantic, global, global Pacific, etc.). The core issue is the relation of culture and politics, or to use Raymond Williams' term "cultural materialism". As the revolutionary vanguardist political formations of the 1960s, epitomized by the armed struggle in Latin America, collapse or are defeated, theory and studies nourish and in

This is the third session of J. Beverley’s Masterclass organised by the Centre for Iberian and Latin American Visual Studies (CILAVS) during Birkbeck’s Arts Week, May 2017. John Beverley is Distinguished Professor of Hispanic Languages and Literatures at the University of Pittsburgh. That the conjunction of postcolonial struggle and structuralism in the 1960s produces a kind of earthquake in academic knowledge and institutions, particularly in the domain of what the French call the human sciences. The shock effect of that earthquake may be named for sake of convenience "theory," and the disciplinary outcome of theory “studies" (cultural, postcolonial, queer, women's, Africana, Atlantic, global, global Pacific, etc.). The core issue is the relation of culture and politics, or to use Raymond Williams' term "cultural materialism". As the revolutionary vanguardist political formations of the 1960s, epitomized by the armed struggle in Latin America, collapse or are defeated, theory and studies nourish and in

This is the second session of J. Beverley’s Masterclass organised by the Centre for Iberian and Latin American Visual Studies (CILAVS) during Birkbeck’s Arts Week, May 2017. John Beverley is Distinguished Professor of Hispanic Languages and Literatures at the University of Pittsburgh. That the conjunction of postcolonial struggle and structuralism in the 1960s produces a kind of earthquake in academic knowledge and institutions, particularly in the domain of what the French call the human sciences. The shock effect of that earthquake may be named for sake of convenience "theory," and the disciplinary outcome of theory “studies" (cultural, postcolonial, queer, women's, Africana, Atlantic, global, global Pacific, etc.). The core issue is the relation of culture and politics, or to use Raymond Williams' term "cultural materialism". As the revolutionary vanguardist political formations of the 1960s, epitomized by the armed struggle in Latin America, collapse or are defeated, theory and studies nourish and in

Using digital analysis, Dr Laura Jacobus has revealed that two portraits of an early 14th-century Paduan businessman, created by different artists 25 years apart, had identical underlying bone structures. She shows that the sculptures are the first known examples of portraits using mechanical means to show an exact physical likeness of their subject – something which did not become a standard feature of portraiture until the advent of photography six centuries later. In this podcast, Dr Jacobus talks about the significance of these findings, how the approach taken by Enrico Scrovegni fitted into the broader artistic trends of the time and how this served as an antecedent to today’s portrait-saturated society, where creating an exact physical likeness or a portrait’s subject is the norm. - '“Propria Figura”: The Advent of Facsimile Portraiture in Italian Art'; L Jacobus; Art Bulletin, Issue 2 (2017)http://bit.ly/2iFuSbM - Dr Laura Jacobus http://bit.ly/2vjQCLJ - Department of History of Art http://bit.ly/

In Times of Love and Hate is a new podcast series from Birkbeck Voices. In our first episode, Professor Marina Warner talks about the importance of language, and particularly language woven into stories, which can shape our shared understanding and deepen our abilities to negotiate with one another as we navigate through times of love and hate. The episodes in this series are brought to you by academics from Birkbeck’s MA Public Histories, MSc War and Humanitarianism, BA Human Geography, BA Archaeology and Geography, and BA Intercultural Communication and Language. They will explore with you how the turbulent times we live in can be better understood, lived and survived using the tools of investigation and critical enquiry that students and academics alike employ through study and research at Birkbeck. School of Social Sciences, History and Philosophy - http://bit.ly/2uTrzCA MA Public Histories - http://bit.ly/2uMdTbz MSc War and Humanitarianism - http://bit.ly/2va2ymM BA Human Geography - http://bit.ly/2

For the last fifteen years, both alone and in collaboration with Tim Crouch (An Oak Tree, Adler & Gibb), theatre-maker Andy Smith has been involved in creating a large body of work. He refers to this as a ‘dematerialised theatre’ – a theatre that attempts to do more with less. This is a recording of the discussion that took place after the talk.

For the last fifteen years, both alone and in collaboration with Tim Crouch (An Oak Tree, Adler & Gibb), theatre-maker Andy Smith has been involved in creating a large body of work. He refers to this as a ‘dematerialised theatre’ – a theatre that attempts to do more with less. This talk reviews some of the principles of the practice, and explores some of its origins.

For the last fifteen years, both alone and in collaboration with Tim Crouch (An Oak Tree, Adler & Gibb), theatre-maker Andy Smith has been involved in creating a large body of work. He refers to this as a ‘dematerialised theatre’ – a theatre that attempts to do more with less. This talk reviews some of the principles of the practice, and explores some of its origins. Andy will read and discuss some examples of his work.

Daniel Monk from Birkbeck's School of Law discusses what the law has to say about sibling relationships, including inheritance and care laws. He is currently undertaking the first major study on siblings in law, which will draw on research emerging from a number of disciplines that has highlighted the importance of siblings for children’s development, wellbeing and identity. Daniel will be speaking further on the topic in a free public lecture on 5 July 2017, as part of Birkbeck's Big Ideas series. Find out more and book your free place here: goo.gl/LSfTbx Birkbeck Voices, the podcast series from Birkbeck, University of London, brings you interviews with our academics, students, alumni and wider community. We cover the latest research and inspiring events taking place at the College and find out more about the people who make Birkbeck the place that it is. Listen to the #BirkbeckVoices SoundCloud playlist - https://soundcloud.com/birkbeck-podcasts/sets/birkbeck-voices

The Birkbeck Centre for Nineteenth-Century Studies was proud to host this launch of Professor Isobel Armstrong’s latest publication, Novel Politics. Democratic Imaginations in Nineteenth-Century Fiction (Oxford University Press, 2016).

The Birkbeck Centre for Nineteenth-Century Studies was proud to host this launch of Professor Isobel Armstrong’s latest publication, Novel Politics. Democratic Imaginations in Nineteenth-Century Fiction (Oxford University Press, 2016).

The Birkbeck Centre for Nineteenth-Century Studies was proud to host this launch of Professor Isobel Armstrong’s latest publication, Novel Politics. Democratic Imaginations in Nineteenth-Century Fiction (Oxford University Press, 2016). Here is a recording of David Feldman's talk at the event

The Birkbeck Centre for Nineteenth-Century Studies was proud to host this launch of Professor Isobel Armstrong’s latest publication, Novel Politics. Democratic Imaginations in Nineteenth-Century Fiction (Oxford University Press, 2016). Here Cora Kaplan introduces the event.

Dr Bruna Seu from Birkbeck's Department of Psychosocial Studies and Glen Tarman, Head of Global Advocacy at CARE International discuss some of the issues raised by Dr Seu's new book, written with Dr Shani Orgad (LSE) Caring in Crisis? Humanitarianism, the Public and NGOs (2017, Palgrave Macmillan). The issues raised by the book include the limitations of the "hit and run" approach to fundraising, where donors are bombarded with traumatic images designed to elicit financial donations without opportunities for further engagement with the issues at play; the challenge of not only increasing the overall value of donations from within the existing part of the British public which donates, but also the propensity of the wider public to become involved at all; and how to best respond to the desire for connectedness with the recipients of aid, which many participants in the research for the book expressed. • Caring in Crisis? Humanitarianism, the Public and NGOs -http://bit.ly/2rUWi1D • Dr Bruna Seu - http://bit.ly

In the concluding session of the conference on ‘Languages of Internationalism’, hosted by the Reluctant Internationalists research group, members of the project both past and present reflect on how language can be a tool of communication, solidarity and unity, as well as a force of division and alienation. Participants included: Jessica Reinisch (Birkbeck), Dora Vargha (University of Exeter), Brigid O’Keefe (Brooklyn College), Johanna Conterio (Flinders University), Ana Antic (University of Exeter), David Brydan (Birkbeck), Heidi Tworek (University of British Columbia), and Elidor Mëhilli (Hunter College). ‘Languages of Internationalism’ aimed to shed light on the centrality of language to people’s pursuit and experiences of internationalism. Language is at the heart of every international enterprise, but as the conference showed, it presents obstacles and dilemmas, as well as opportunities. Many of the papers emphasised frictions and tensions which emerged over the use of languages in international settings

As part of a conference on ‘Languages of Internationalism’, hosted by the Reluctant Internationalists research group, Dora Vargha (University of Exeter), Elidor Mëhilli (Hunter College) and Rachel Applebaum (Tufts University – recorded in discussion only) examine the languages of socialist internationalism. The panel, chaired by Johanna Conterio (Flinders University), addresses languages of health and disease in Hungary, the power of Russian in Albania, and Russian as a foreign language in Cold War Czechoslovakia. ‘Languages of Internationalism’ aimed to shed light on the centrality of language to people’s pursuit and experiences of internationalism. Language is at the heart of every international enterprise, but as the conference showed, it presents obstacles and dilemmas, as well as opportunities. Many of the papers emphasised frictions and tensions which emerged over the use of languages in international settings. Discussions showed how language could be a tool of communication, solidarity and unity, as

As part of a conference on ‘Languages of Internationalism’, hosted by the Reluctant Internationalists research group, Katherine Reischl (Princeton University) and Yuliya Komska (Dartmouth College) examine practices of translating across borders, focusing on the publishing histories of M. Il’in’s The Story of the Great Plan and H.A. and Margret Rey’s Curious George. The panel, chaired by Sophie Heywood (University of Reading), addresses how publishers viewed images and languages as mediums which could be easily translated across borders. ‘Languages of Internationalism’ aimed to shed light on the centrality of language to people’s pursuit and experiences of internationalism. Language is at the heart of every international enterprise, but as the conference showed, it presents obstacles and dilemmas, as well as opportunities. Many of the papers emphasised frictions and tensions which emerged over the use of languages in international settings. Discussions showed how language could be a tool of communication, so