A call for abstracts and participants is being launched for an Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC) interdisciplinary event entitled ‘Heritage and Biography: Narrating Pasts, Imaging Futures’, to be held at the University of Kent from 9-10 September 2016.
Under the critical recognition that we become who we are by telling stories about our pasts, and living the stories we tell, this two-day ESRC event aims to bring together interdisciplinary perspectives on the relationship between heritage and biography, drawing on sociology and cultural studies, literary studies, social history, cultural geography and socio-legal studies. We invite doctoral and early career researchers to submit abstracts on heritage’s relationship to personal, community, national, ethnic, gendered and political biographies, bringing a critical focus to heritage as a product and expression of an evolving and dynamic negotiation of past, present and future.
Keynote speakers include Professor Patrick Wright (King’s College London) and Professor Tim Strangleman (University of Kent).
Suggested topics for presenters include, but are not limited to:
- Heritage and cultural memory
- Nostalgia
- Industrial heritage and working class (auto)biography
- Mnemonic objects and collective memory
- Material culture and everyday life
- Generations
- Austerity and national biography
- Oral history and testimony
- Heritage and community
- Place and social change
- Regeneration and gentrification
- Heritage and visual culture
- Political iconography
- Heritage, health and recovery
- Memory studies and research methodologies.
There will be a maximum of 40 delegates and 18 presenters with papers lasting 15-20 minutes, followed by discussion. Abstracts of 250-300 words, together with name, affiliation and email should be sent to heritageandbiography@kent.ac.uk. The deadline for submission is 13 May 2016.
Non-presenting delegates are welcome and are asked to submit a 200-300 word summary of their research.
ESRC-funded students are offered full reimbursement of their travel expenses (excluding accommodation). ESRC researchers who wish to attend, either in a presenting or non-presenting capacity, should declare their funding status when applying for a place. ESRC researchers should also provide a brief outline of their proposed travel-related costs (e.g. train fare to Canterbury). Registration is free and includes refreshments and lunch on both days.
For abstract submissions, place applications and all general correspondence please email: heritageandbiography@kent.ac.uk and include ‘ESRC Heritage and Biography’ in the subject heading.
Further details are available at:
http://southeastdtc.surrey.ac.uk/Training/sedtc_interdisciplinary_event_heritage_and_biography_narrating_pasts_imagining_futures.htm