University’s Centre for Medieval and Early Modern Studies launches new MA programme with a term in Paris

The Centre for Medieval and Early Modern Studies (MEMS) is delighted to announce the launch of a new split-site Paris and Canterbury MA programme in Medieval and Early Modern Studies. From September 2019, our exciting new MA programme will provide the opportunity for in-depth study across a range of disciplines and will allow students to share their year between Paris and Canterbury.

Dr Emily Guerry, convenor of the new MEMS Paris/Canterbury MA commented; “This MA provides graduate students with unparalleled opportunities to study, live, and learn in two European cities steeped in a rich cultural heritage and it is the only one of its kind in the UK. I can’t wait to start teaching more MEMS students in Paris!”

Based on our long-running and highly successful MA, the new Paris/Canterbury MA programme offers a thorough grounding in the essential skills required for advanced academic analysis of the Medieval and Early Modern periods, including Latin, palaeography (the study of old handwriting), codicology (the study of pre-modern books). In addition, there is a fascinating range of optional modules to choose from, shaped by our cutting-edge research in a range of disciplines rooted in periods from the early medieval to the seventeenth-century.

Students will spend their first term in the historic city of Canterbury – an important focus for literary, religious, archaeological and architectural, and documentary scholarship. The spring term is based at Kent’s Paris School of Art and Culture, in the heart of historic Montparnasse. There students will participate in Paris-focused modules, taught in English, taking full advantage of the City’s extraordinary medieval and early modern cultural and material legacy.

Then in the final term students will complete their MA by writing a 12-15,000-word dissertation on a research topic defined in collaboration with their academic supervisors.

We welcome applications from enthusiastic students who want to embrace an interdisciplinary and dynamic pathway towards understanding the pre-modern past. Scholarships are available on a competitive basis. To find our more about the MEMS Paris/Canterbury MA programme and apply online, please see the University of Kent’s online prospectus or email centres@kent.ac.uk

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.

 

British Parisians and London French: Living, Loving, and Lingering in the Neighbour’s City

This week we are hosting a conference which considers who, when, why and how the British make their home in Paris and how the French become Londoners, historically and today.

This conference is open to the public and will be held in the Salle de Conférence. This space is located at the end of the second interior courtyard. Sign up here.

For centuries, and in significant numbers in contemporary Paris and London, the British and the French have crossed the Channel for short, long and indefinite stays in their neighbouring capital cities. These Parisian British and London French citizens occupy a very particular place in the wider native and migrant compositions of the Paris and London metropolises.

This afternoon seminar and early evening public event consider the diverse experiences of the British and the French who made, and continue to make, that crossing to the other’s city. It examines aspects of when, why and how they make their lives there, and what happens when they do. These British Parisian and London French lives incarnate the symbiosis between London and Paris which endures and which transcends the political weather. Speakers and participants are drawn from a range of specialists on Franco-British cultural relations, and from those currently engaged in making a life and a home in the neighbour’s city.

If you have any questions, you are welcome to get in touch at paris@kent.ac.uk.

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

Kent historian uncovers Danny Dyer’s royal ancestry

University historian Dr Emily Guerry, who teaches at the University of Kent’s Paris School of Arts and Culture, will reveal that Danny Dyer is a direct descendant of the French King Louis IX (1214–1270), who was canonized a saint in 1297, in a new TV series.

Dr Guerry, of the School of History and Centre for Medieval and Early Modern Studies(MEMS), helps the EastEnders actor make the discovery during ‘Danny Dyer’s Right Royal Family‘, which airs at 9PM on 23 January on BBC One.

Dr Guerry, a medieval historian, explains to Dyer that his distant ancestor was extremely pious. He pierced the tongues of blasphemers, he prayed like a monk, and when he acquired the relic of the Crown of Thorns, purported to be worn by Jesus Christ at his crucifixion, he led a humble procession through the streets of Paris in honour of its arrival. As part of the programme, Danny Dyer restaged this sacred event by wearing only a linen tunic and walking barefoot through the French capital while carrying a replica of the relic (accompanied by a medieval choir). Dyer also pays a special visit with Dr Guerry to the Sainte-Chapelle, the Gothic chapel designed to contain the Crown relic.

For Dr Guerry, ‘it was an absolute delight to work with Danny Dyer and share my knowledge and intellectual passion for King Louis IX and the Sainte-Chapelle with him. I never imagined that I would meet a direct descendant of Louis (or that this person would be a famous actor) but I’ve enjoyed every minute of working on this project with the BBC.’

In her research, Dr Guerry examines the relationship between religious devotion and artistic representation in the Middle Ages. She is particularly interested in how the veneration of relics influenced Christian iconography in medieval Paris.

Sandy Fleming, 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.

Visiting Artists in collaboration with Kent Paris centre

This week students at the University of Kent Paris School of Arts and Culture visited the studio of Alice Gauthier and Rob Miles, our Visiting Artists.

Alice Gauthier and Rob Miles are a Franco-British couple who work with drawing, painting and print making in Paris. They are well known for their work with stone lithography. They shared their techniques, creative processes and local knowledge of the Parisian art scene with the students. This was following an introductory workshop with the students which took place earlier on in the term.

Alice and Rob met at the Royal College of Art in London, while studying their Masters in Fine Art: Printmaking in 2014. Find out more about their artwork here. They also play music, performing original compositions with their band Rob Miles & Les Clés Anglaises.