Category Archives: Events

Film Studies alumna documentary screened on the BBC

Alumna Ece Ger, who graduated with an MA in Film – including a term at Kent’s at the Paris School of Arts and Culture – in 2015, saw her documentary film Meet Jim, Citizen of the World screened on BBC Scotland last Saturday 17 August 2019.

He dined with The Beatles and shacked up with the Rolling Stones. He rubbed shoulders with soul diva Mama Cass, folk troubadour Leonard Cohen and a fledgling Pink Floyd. He was a figurehead for a new generation of playwrights. After he was stopped at Munich airport with a bag full of blank ‘world passports’, he lectured bewildered German border police about the virtues of ‘world Government’.

Today, at 83, Jim Haynes just won’t slow down: this ‘godfather of social networking’ organises open dinners every Sunday night in the Parisian artist studio that’s been his home for the past 50 years. Total strangers, unknown both to him and to each other, meet in his living room and Jim’s friends show up to cook cheerfully for crowds of 60 or more. It’s simple: you sign up, you come over, you meet Jim. As he once said: ‘My home is a World Government Embassy that never closes.’

The documentary composes an impressionistic portrait of Jim Haynes the man and the cultural phenomenon, as seen by the many and diverse people whose lives have been touched by his. The film is a hymn to the lasting spirit of the 60s, an inspirational living proof of how we can all chose to live on the bright side: to Jim, the choice is ready-made: ‘Life is short: we have a duty to enjoy ourselves.’

The documentary first premiered as Meeting Jim at the Edinburgh International Film Festival last year. It was supported by a crowdfunding campaign that ran in early 2016. For more details on its background, please see the page here.

If you’re in the UK, to view the documentary, please see the page on BBC iPlayer here:
www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/m0007vk1/meet-jim-citizen-of-the-world

Kent-Paris Research Institute hosts first International Research Symposium

The event, titled ‘From London 2012 to Paris 2024: Lessons learned from research into the social legacies of the Olympic and Paralympic games’, took place on Wednesday 12 June in the newly created Kent-Paris Research Institute (KPRI) at Reid Hall, the University’s postgraduate centre in Montparnasse.

Delegates from 10 different countries took part.

The Symposium brought together academics, sports policy makers and sport national governing bodies with the aim of inspiring new research projects and collaborations.  Participants were able to exchange knowledge on the social legacies of the games and discuss the lessons Paris 2024 could learn from London 2012.

The event was co-hosted by Dr Sakis Pappous, from Kent’s School of Sport and Exercise Sciences, in collaboration with the French Olympic Academy, the French Centre for Olympic Studies and the University of Montpellier. Attendees were welcomed by Professor Peter Brown, Academic Director of KPRI, as well as the Presidents of the French Olympic Academy and the French Centre for Olympic Studies.

Following its success this year, the symposium will become an annual event at Reid Hall.

Text by Angie Valinoti

Paris students celebrate the end of term

University of Kent Paris students celebrate the end of the Spring term together over dinner at Pink Mamma. This event was organised by The Paris Society, the student union in Paris.

Find out more about studying and living in Paris: https://www.kent.ac.uk/paris/

Dangerous Ideas Festival and conference: call for papers

The University of Kent Paris School of Arts and Culture‘s annual Paris MA Festival and Conference will take place from 3-7 June 2019 at our centre in Montparnasse and across the city of Paris.

The conference’s keynote speakers are Sarah Churchwell and Lauren Elkin.

Please see the Call for Papers below for more information about how you can get involved in the conference.

Find out more about the festival: www.dangerousideasfest.com. 

Author Deborah Levy gives annual Paris lecture

On Tuesday 5 March, playwright, novelist, and poet Deborah Levy FRSL gave the University’s annual Paris lecture to invited guests in the British Ambassador’s Residence on rue du Faubourg St-Honoré.

Her lecture reflected on her early experiences as a yet-unpublished writer and the determination and perseverance that was born from the rejection of her first story by a literary magazine. She also spoke about the influence of Guillaume Apollinaire on her writing, particularly on the composition of her novel Swimming Home, and his importance as the precursor of surrealism.

Professor Karen Cox, the University’s Vice-Chancellor and President, gave the welcome and introductions.

Guests included: Matthew Lodge, Minister and Ambassador of Great Britain and Northern Ireland to UNESCO; Professor Jeremy Carrette, Kent’s Dean for Europe; Professor Peter Brown, Academic Director of the Paris School of Arts and Culture; current students; alumni; and friends of the University.

This year’s annual lecture was both a celebration of the Paris School of Arts and Culture and Kent’s celebration of ‘20 Years in Europe’ .

Professor Brown said: ‘On behalf of the University I would like to thank Deborah Levy for a fascinating lecture. The evening itself was a memorable celebration of the University’s connections with France over the past ten years, bringing together current students at the Paris School of Arts and Culture, alumni, and our partners such as Columbia Global Center.’

Located in Montparnasse, the Paris School of Arts and Culture is one of Kent’s specialist European postgraduate centres (the others are in Brussels, Rome and Athens). It offers advanced humanities degrees, taught in English, including taught programmes that are split between Canterbury and Paris.

Text by Gary Hughes

Paris Society takes up tango

The Paris Society, a student-led group, organise regular cultural events across the city for Paris students.

This week they held a beginners tango workshop, animated by Dr Angela Gallego-Sala (Paris Summer School lecturer) and Professor Peter Brown (Paris Academic Director).

Follow the Paris Society’s events programme here.

 

Sampurna Chattarji appointed to The Paris Writer’s Residency

The University of Kent Paris School of Arts and
Culture, American University of Paris and the Centre Culturel Irlandais (Irish Arts Centre) are pleased to announce that Sampurna Chattarji has been appointed to the Paris Writer’s
Residency for 2019. We look forward to welcoming her to Paris to work with our
students and to join our community of writers.

Sampurna Chattarji is a poet, author, translator and teacher based in Mumbai,
India. She says:

I am utterly delighted and honoured to be awarded the Paris Writer’s
Residency 2019. I hope to capture the capacious, random beauty of the
quotidian in newly disruptive ways as I live and work in Paris for a
month. I also greatly look forward to my interactions with the Creative
Writing students. Having just recently published Over and Underground in
Mumbai & Paris (Context, October 2018), the result of a collaborative
project with the Paris-based poet Karthika Naïr and the artist Joëlle
Jolivet, it seems like one adventure segueing into another. Merçi
beaucoup!

Following on from last year’s inaugural residency, which saw Daniel Hahn step into the role, Sampurna Chattarji will be in Paris from March 19 to April 18, 2019. She keeps an online blog dedicated to her work and tweets @ShampooChats.

The Paris School of Arts and Culture gratefully acknowledges support from the School of English and Dean for Internationalisation, University of Kent.

 

Visiting Dramatist in Paris

Paris students enjoyed a session this week with our Visiting Dramatist, Ana-Maria Bamberger, a multi-award winning playwright based in Paris and Hamburg.

Ana-Maria’s plays have been performed in 16 different countries, as well as on TV and radio. She is also the Artistic Director and co-founder of Magus Theatre Productions. Find out more about her work: http://www.ana-maria-bamberger.com/en/

Students at the University of Kent Paris School of Arts and Culture also receive private workshops with a Visiting Filmmaker and Visiting Artists during the term.

MA in History and Philosophy of Art student exhibits in London

Artistic works by Janise Yntema, who is studying the History and Philosophy of Art MA at the University’s Paris School of Arts and Culture, are being exhibited at the Cadogan Contemporary gallery in London.

Janise Yntema is already regarded as one of the foremost contemporary artists working in the ancient technique of beeswax encaustic, and by using original photography within her work has brought a contemporary platform to this historic medium.

The exhibition at the Cadogan Contemporary is entitled ‘A Sense of Place: Landscape and Identity’ and the works on display question the idea of landscape and truth, obscuring the boundary between photography and painting. Her use of beeswax ensures environmental concerns remain inherent within the works she produces.

The Farmed Land grey concrete by Janise Yntema

The Farmed Land by Janise Yntema

The exhibition runs from Monday 28 February until Friday 15 February at the Cadogan Contemporary, 87 Old Brompton Road, London SW7 3LD.

Janise is originally from New York and received her formal art training at Parson’s School of Design. Her works are found in the collections of several museums including the Museum of Modern Art in New York, Gutenberg Museum in Germany and the National Museum for Women in the Arts in Washington, D.C.

To find out more, please see the gallery page here:
www.cadogancontemporary.com/exhibition/janise-yntema/

by Dan Worth, University of Kent News Centre

February open evening announced in Paris

Admissions and academic members of staff will be present to meet with prospective students and parents on Wednesday, 20 February from 17.00-19.00.

Anyone curious about studying at the University, whether at one of its four postgraduate study centres on the European continent, or in its home county of Kent in the UK are welcome to come along and speak to our admissions representatives. We welcome enquiries for all levels of study: undergraduate, postgraduate, and PhD level.

The open evening will be held at the University’s Paris Centre based at Reid Hall, in the heart of the 6e arrondissement. Light fare will be served.

Guests are invited to book their place here: https://www.kent.ac.uk/paris/contact/visit-us.html.