Author Archives: fjm

Seminar series: Charles Forsdick (Liverpool) on 10 March 2016

The University of Kent, Paris
In conjunction with its partner institutions
Cordially invites students and guests to its

Spring Seminar Series

Charles Forsdick
James Barrow Professor of French
University of Liverpool

Locating world literature: monolinguals, multilingualism, translation

The talk opens with a focus on the manifesto, published in Le Monde in March 2007, advocating a literature-monde en français. It explores the (un)translatability of the concepts of world literature/’world-literature in French’/Weltliteratur, understanding these as a series of interlinked terms that have emerged multiply, in a range of different historical, cultural and linguistic contexts. The presentation seeks to outline the complex translation dynamics of a genuinely polyglossic ‘world’ literature, with this ‘world’ increasingly characterized by translingualism, multilingualism – as well as by a more general recognition of a ‘post-monolingual’ condition. As such, it raises questions about the credibility and sustainability of any exclusively monolingual ‘world-literature’, and investigates the ways in which the ‘world’ in ‘world-literature’ often remains a fundamentally divided one.

Thursday, 10 March 2016
18.30
Grande Salle, Reid Hall

Free and open to the public

Please confirm your presence by writing to
paris@kent.ac.uk

Seminar series: David Herd (Kent) on 11 February 2016

The University of Kent, Paris
In conjunction with its partner institutions
Cordially invites students and guests to its

Spring Seminar Series

David Herd
Professor of Modern Literature
University of Kent

Walking with refugee tales

In June 2015 the Refugee Tales project staged a walk in solidarity with refugees, asylum seekers and immigration detainees. Following the route of the old Pilgrims’ Way, the principal aim of the walk was to counter the silence surrounding indefinite immigration detention and in the process to call for the practice to be stopped. Arguing that a policy such as indefinite detention is only sustainable when its human consequences are kept from view, the project set out to communicate the stories of people who have experienced the asylum system in the UK. This talk will reflect on the lessons learned by Refugee Tales. It considers the implications of communicating stories of refugee journeys in a culturally charged landscape such as southern England, and asks why, as the debate around refugees and asylum seekers appears to be shifting, the practice of indefinite detention is so rarely raised.

Thursday, 11 February 2016
18.30
Grande salle, Reid Hall

Free and open to the public

Please confirm your presence by writing to
paris@kent.ac.uk

Seminar series: Nicholas Harrison (KCL) on 4 February 2016

The University of Kent, Paris
in conjunction with its partner institutions
cordially invites students and guests to its

Spring Seminar Series

Nicholas Harrison
Professor of French and Postcolonial Studies
King’s College London

Reading in the original: world literature, translation and ‘research’.

This seminar will explore the relationship between two influential ideas about literary translation. (1) Translations are a legitimate form of creative writing/scholarship/research. (2) Literary texts should be read in the original. Are these ideas compatible, and if so, how do they fit together?

Thursday, 4 February 2016
18.30
Grande Salle, Reid Hall

Free and open to the public

Please confirm your presence by writing to
paris@kent.ac.uk

Ambassador invites Kent MA students to reception at official Residence

University of Kent, Paris students were welcomed by Her Majesty’s Ambassador Sir Peter Ricketts, GCMG GCVO at his official Paris Residence for an evening reception to mark the start of term.
Sir Peter, who is an honorary graduate of the University, enjoyed meeting new MA students as well as staff.
Students were invited on a tour of the Residence, known officially as the Hôtel de Charost, built in the early eighteenth century and once the home of Napoléon Bonaparte’s sister Pauline Borghese. This stately urban mansion was purchased by the Duke of Wellington after Bonaparte’s fall from power, and has been the site of British diplomatic services ever since. The Hôtel de Charost is located just a few doors down from the Presidential Élysée Palace.
Kent guests were invited to tour elegant reception rooms downstairs, and were also offered a rare chance to visit the ambassador’s private study, the Duff Cooper Library, complete with trap door.
After the tour students were invited to a champagne reception hosted by the ambassador and his wife Lady Suzanne Ricketts.
Paris MA students were accompanied by Professor Peter Brown, Academic Director (Paris programmes), Professor Peter Read (SECL), Professor David Welch (History), Professor Catherine Waters (English), Dr Carine Fréville (English), and Dr Derek Ryan (English).

 

Kent Open event at Paris Centre in February 2016

The University of Kent is holding an open house at its Paris Centre for any prospective students interested in our undergraduate or postgraduate programmes offered at our locations in the UK and on the European continent.

Please join us on Wednesday, 17 February from 17.00-19.00 for a chance to meet staff and find out more about our academic programmes and student life. Please let us know you are planning to attend by booking your place here:

http://www.kent.ac.uk/courses/visit/openday/paris-centre.html

If you have any queries regarding postgraduate programmes in Paris, or would like to visit the Centre on another day, please contact Paris Centre staff directly (paris@kent.ac.uk).

 

British Ambassador to France pays visit to Kent’s Paris Centre

British Ambassador to France Sir Peter Ricketts, GCMG GCVO paid a visit to the University of Kent’s Paris Centre on Wednesday, 1 October. An honorary graduate of the University of Kent, he enjoyed speaking with newly-inducted Paris MA students who will be spending their entire year at the University’s Postgraduate Centre in Paris. He was treated to lunch in the company of staff and students.

On hand to welcome the Ambassador to our Paris Centre was Dean for Europe Professor Roger Vickerman, Paris Academic Director Professor Peter Brown, Dr Carine Fréville, lecturer in Comparative Literature and Dr Alex Preston, lecturer in Creative Writing. Ambassadorphoto1

University of Kent announces Paris lecture series in conjunction with partner universities

The University of Kent, Paris, the University of London Institute in Paris and the American University of Paris are pleased to announce the 2015-2016 Paris Seminar Series:

Politics of Translation – Translation of Cultures

The terrain and processes of translation are changing faster than ever before. New technologies, greater competition and connection between spaces of editorial decision, shifting interfaces between places of textual production: the range of forces at play in the geopolitics of translation is vast and complex, implicating ever more zones and expressions of culture. This seminar series will explore specific instances of transformation and broader trends across this terrain, inviting speakers and their audiences to consider some of the following questions:

  • How do the modalities of funding and distribution of translations shape the production of culture?
  • How are the formal characteristics of contemporary cultural artefacts – texts, audio-visual production, exhibitions – shaped by questions of translatability?
  • What are the spaces of translation today, and how do they function?
  • What are the temporalities of translations and how has that changed?
  • What in translation is irreducible to a politics of translation?
  • Is translation excessive?
  • What is the vitality of translation?

Papers will be delivered in English. The autumn term sessions will be held at the University of London institute in Paris, 9-11 rue de Constantine, 75007 Paris; the spring sessions will be held at The American University in Paris and University of Kent in Paris (Reid Hall). They will take place on Thursdays at 5.30pm. They are open to the public, if you have any questions about access, please write to anna-louise.milne@ulip.lon.ac.uk.

Autumn term dates are available here.

Kent shortlisted for University of the Year 2015

The Times Higher Education’s University of the Year Award, which is open to all higher education institutions in the UK, celebrates exceptional performance in the past academic year and in particular those ‘bold, imaginative and innovative initiatives that have advanced an institution’s reputation’.

This nomination comes towards the end of Kent’s golden jubilee year and during one of the most successful periods in its history – one that has been characterised by its ability to combine excellence in research and teaching, whilst developing the collegiate environment for which it has long held reputation.

The winners will be announced on 26 November 2015.

Kent at Paris hosts summer school in Critical Theory

The University of Kent at Paris is pleased to announce that it will host the inaugural Kent Summer School in Critical Theory organised by the Kent Law School (KLS). This summer institute will run from from 29 June through 10 July at the University’s Paris Centre in the heart of the historic and bustling Montparnasse district. KLS and the Paris Centre are pleased to welcome Professor Peter Goodrich (Cardozo School of Law, USA) and Professor Davide Tarizzo (Salerno, Italy) to lead seminars over the course of the school. We are also delighted to welcome distinguished guests Professor Davina Cooper, Professor Robert Esposito and Professor Geoffrey Bennington who will present master classes to the 2015 participants.

Kent on the Via Francigena

University of Kent postgraduate student Julia Peters left Canterbury on 28 March 2015 for a journey that will take her through four countries (England, France, Switzerland, and Italy) and over 1200 miles (1900 km) to Rome, her final destination–and she’s doing it all on foot.

Julia says that the purpose of her journey is one of personal enrichment, “an initiative to promote The Via Francigena and the Cultural Routes of the Council of Europe, to conduct research on mobility in the Roman Empire and to further links between the European Centres of the University of Kent”. A number of University of Kent students, fellow pilgrims, have joined her along the way – Julia is making stops in 78 towns along the famous pilgrimage route.

Julia’s project received support from KIASH (Kent Institute for Advanced Studies in Humanities, University of Kent), in conjunction with the research of Professor Ray Laurence, in addition to the University of Kent’s European Centres. If you would like to read more about Julia’s project, and be updated on her daily progress, please visit her blog here.