Cultural Studies and Humanities Good News July

Publications , poems and reviews

Nasser Hussain has recently published two reviews. The first is with Sheffield’s Poetry Business journal, The North, on the American poet Will Alexander’s Pulitzer-prize nominated book Refractive Africa, soon to be released in their upcoming issue number 68.

He’s also reviewed two recent books on the ‘craft’ of writing (For Now by Eileen Myles, and The Craft of Poetry by Lucy Newlyn). This review essay will appear in the next issue of OUP’s journal English.

Nasser has also been asked to contribute new work to the Whitstable Biennale – a poem from his cycle-in-progress about ‘lost cities’ will be printed on a flag, hoisted on a fishing vessel, and will sail in and out of the harbour, as well as printed on the exterior of the Old Bank, as part of the poetry programme at the festival. Thanks to Dzifa Benson (2022 Jerwood Compton Fellow and poet-in-residence for the biennale) for curating this event, and for the invitation.

Emily is also a ‘featured writer’ on the Writers Mosaic writer’s website, which platforms diverse writers across the UK. You can hear and read her poetry and an her interview with Broadcaster and author Colin Grant, read here.

PhD student Stacey Leigh Ross (UAL), who is supervised by Emily Zobel Marshall, has written a blog about the Women in Carnival symposium in California (May 2022). Women in Carnival is an AHRC networking project led by Emily and Cathy Thomas (UCSB). You can read about how the symposium inspired Stacey’s work and her ambitious and exciting ‘carnival of compassion’ project here.

The Women in Carnival California symposium was also reviewed by keynote speaker Professor Kim Vaz-Deville, an expert in the Baby Doll performances in New Orleans Madi Gras.

Dr Dan Kilvington was interviewed by the Belfast Telegraph about his research expertise, British South Asians and football participation. Dan features in this article alongside PFA Player Inclusion Executive Riz Rehman, and former Aston Villa defender Neil Taylor. You can read the article here. 

Writing Retreat

Our subject areas' inaugural Writing Retreat took place between 9 and 14 June. Colleagues from all disciplines joined both the online and in-person groups in good numbers, rousing conversations were had, and thousands of words were written.

The organisers, Rachel Rich and Rob Burroughs, thank all participants for making it work so well. We're taking stock now of how Writing Retreat might be developed and we intend to bring it back in some form next year.

Awards

Alison Taft has recently been awarded Fellowship of Advance HE. Congratulations Ali. 

Mentoring

Finally, Nasser has been invited to be a faculty member at the Banff Centre of the Arts (a world-famous centre for excellence in the arts). He will be mentoring a select group of writers for two weeks alongside one Canada’s most prolific and important writers, Lisa Robertson, in January 2023. Find out more here.

Events and conferences

Kim Vaz-Deville, an expert in the Baby Doll performances in New Orleans Madi Gras, will be speaking at the final Women in Carnival symposium which takes place two days after Leeds West Indian Carnival at Leeds Beckett in August (31st, The Rose Bowl). Find out more here.

Dr Daniel Kilvington attended the ISSA&EASS Conference at the University of Tubingen, Germany, in June 2022. Dan attended with fellow LBU colleague, Dr Thomas Fletcher, and the rest of his research team. The paper, which offered a scoping review of online hate in the context of sport, is the first international conference paper delivered associated with the AHRC Large Grant project, ‘Tackling Online Hate in Football’. The paper is now under review with the journal of Communication & Sport.

Dan hosted the fifth annual Sport & Discrimination Conference in collaboration with the University of Sunderland. After a two year hiatus due to the pandemic, the international conference, which Dan founded with Dr John Price in 2015, returned at the University of Sunderland’s London Campus and welcomed 50 academics, postgraduates, students and practitioners from across the world. The theme of the event was the sport media and Professor Jacco van Sterkenburg provided the opening keynote and discussed mediated representations and framing of racialised athletes. The final keynote panel involved practitioners who explored strategies of making the sport media inclusive across race/ethnicity, gender, sexual orientation, class, etc. One of our attendees, a first year Multimedia Sports Journalism student at UCFB Wembley, wrote a blog post about his experience which can be read here.

And, a team of PhD researchers at Erasmus University Rotterdam wrote about their experiences here. Dan and John are already in talks with several universities about hosting the Sport & Discrimination Conference in 2023 and 2024 and are compiling abstracts for a special edition of a journal based on this year’s conference theme.

Dan also presented the paper, ‘Football and the Problem of Cyber-Racism: Investigating Football’s Response’, at the Sport & Society Conference at Aarhus University, Denmark.

He showcased the findings from his BA Academy Grant which he worked on with Professor Kevin Hylton, Professor Jonathan Long, and Dr Alex Bond. This paper focused on the empirical work with professional football clubs regarding how they deal with online hate directed at their players, and how they support them. Dan’s co-authored paper emanating from the grant entitled ‘Investigating Online Football Forums: A Critical Examination of Participants’ Responses to Football Related Racism and Islamophobia’ will be released in a special edition of the Soccer & Society journal in December 2022.

Henry Irving is collaborating with Leeds Civic Trust and Leeds Museums and Galleries to put on an event for this year’s Heritage Open Days. Heritage Open Days is England’s largest festival of history and culture. Each year has a different theme, which in 2022 is ‘innovation’. 

Henry’s event explores a colourful episode in the history of Waddington’s, the famous Leeds printing firm that brought Monopoly to Britain. He will explain how the firm worked with British Military Intelligence during the Second World War to smuggle hidden escape kits into Prisoner of War camps.

The event will also include a display of related items from the Leeds Museum collection, including a 1940s Monopoly set and playing cards that hid secret maps. 

You can book a place here

NSS Results

Outstanding NSS results for the school in this round were noted, highlighting that the hard work all have put in has been recognised by our Final Year students, and that they have confirmed on a public platform that we are delivering research-informed courses of the highest quality and supporting all students to achieve their academic potential. The outcomes are richly deserved and testament to all we stand for in Cultural Studies and Humanities. This hard work is reflected in this year’s results across domains (particularly noted were high scores for Assessment and Feedback). The outcomes are significant and deeply pleasing, and thanks are given to all colleagues for their hard work. With an overall satisfaction rate of 93.2%, the School is in a very strong position, and Subject Areas have achieved high scores across their courses.