Angles 2 - More new views on cultural history

Birkbeck is again taking an unconventional look at familiar topics on Saturday 19 June when it hosts the second annual interdisciplinary postgraduate conference on cultural history.

The Angles conference, which started in 2009, presents papers from postgraduate students that deal with cultural practices that may have been neglected by traditional approaches, and is organised by three of Birkbeck’s PhD students: Rachel Richardson, Thomas Turner (History), and James Emmott (English and Humanities).

The 2009 event was hugely successful, attended by over 80 postgraduates from across the UK, Ireland and continental Europe. This year, Angles has been awarded an Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC) Student-Led Initiative Award. The AHRC funding, along with a contribution from the College’s central fund for research training, covers operational costs for another conference, on 19 June, and an online network for research students, in association with the International Society for Cultural History. “The AHRC funds only the highest-quality projects, its support is a real badge of honour,” James says.

The conference will feature opening remarks from Professor Steven Connor (Birkbeck) and Professor Markman Ellis (QMUL) about their own perspectives on cultural history. The rest of the programme is outlined below.

Papers

Observations on the changes to the Tibetan black yak hair tent. Sihao Shen, University of Auckland 'What's happening at home?': Burglary insurance and fear of crime, 1889-1939. Eloise Moss, University of Oxford Looking for cultural identity where it's supposed to be absent: The modern dwelling as a signifier of identity in Cyprus. Ceren Kurum, Katholieke Universiteit Leuven

'The old order changeth': The shift to codification in late Victorian mountaineering. Alan McNee, Birkbeck Head up and heels down: Critical (re)enactment and questioning the centaur. Monica Mattfeld, University of Kent Spinning with spiders' silk: Methods, histories, and seductions. Eleanor Morgan, UCL

The problem with newspaper history: Literary geography and the Soviet press, 1953-1968. Simon Huxtable, Birkbeck The memory of everyday life: A study of Edgar Reitz's Heimat. Pehr Englen, Birkbeck Urban humour in late-nineteenth-century Vienna. Heidi Hakkarainen, University of Turku

Saturday 19 June, 10:00-17:30, B04, 43 Gordon Square.

Free. Register at www.bbk.ac.uk/angles/registration

Supported by

Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC) School of Arts Department of History, Classics and Archaeology London Consortium