Stephanie Obermeier, PhD student in German and Comparative Literature, currently in her writing up year and based at the German Literary Archive in Marbach, has published an article in the prestigious journal German Life and Letters.

The article emerged out of research on Felicitas Hoppe, whose 2012 novel Hoppe forms the basis for one of the case studies in Stephanie’s thesis. Her most recent publication, Prawda: Eine amerikanische Reise, deals with similar issues in terms of authorial posturing, playing with genre and canonical texts, and blurring boundaries between fact and fiction.

Dr Heide Kunzlemann, one of Stephanie’s supervisors, commented: ‘We would like to warmly congratulate Stephanie on the fantastic achievement of placing her first major article in such a prestigious journal as German Life and Letters. The academic community’s interest in the topic bodes very well for the success of her thesis which is about to be completed.’

Find out more about postgraduate programmes in Modern Languages and Comparative Literature.

Dr Alvise Sforza Tarabochia, Head of the Department of Modern Languages and lecturer in Italian, has published ‘The Years of Alienation in Italy’ (Palgrave Macmillan, 2019).

The Years of Alienation in Italy project first took shape in 2014, when the editors began to discuss the possibility of organising a conference on the cultural representations of the notion of alienation in Italy.

The goal was to tackle the notion of alienation in spatial terms, by examining the way in which literary and cinematic depictions of the factory and the asylum frequently blurred the dividing line between industrial alienation and clinical madness; and to investigate the specificities of an Italian approach to alienation by interpreting the ubiquitous presence of the term in social and cultural discourses, in the light of the country’s troubled history in the 1960s and 1970s.

The project took a more concrete form in 2015 when a two-day workshop was co-hosted by the University of Kent (15 May 2015) and the University of Cambridge (22 May 2015). The workshop was financed by the Kent Institute for Advanced Studies in the Humanities (KIASH), the Italian department of the University of Cambridge and the journal Italianist.

The Years of Alienation in Italy is inspired by this exchange and discussion, the focus of which it maintains and expandsThe Years of Alienation in Italy offers an interdisciplinary overview of the socio-political, psychological, philosophical, and cultural meanings that the notion of alienation took on in Italy between the 1960s and the 1970s. It addresses alienation as a social condition of estrangement caused by the capitalist system, a pathological state of the mind and an ontological condition of subjectivity.

Between July and October this year the Estates Department will be conducting a mandatory five year condition survey of its building and engineering infrastructure, on its Canterbury and Medway campuses.  The purpose of these surveys is to collect invaluable data, that will enable us to plan and prioritise our investments for the next five years.

We will require access  to the majority of areas during this period, however the surveys are non-intrusive and we do not anticipate any disruption whilst we undertake these inspections, and operational impact should be minimal.  Once a specific programme  has been agreed with the surveyors we will be in  contact with you nearer the time,  to arrange and coordinate access to your specific areas.

Thank you in advance for your anticipated cooperation whilst we carry out these essential surveys.

If you have any queries regarding this work please do not hesitate to contact Estates Customer Services via email at estatescustomerservices@kent.ac.uk .

Dr Cecilia Sayad, Senior Lecturer in the Department of Film, has just been interviewed for the BBC Bitesize site regarding her expertise on the horror genre.

Bitesize is the BBC’s online support service for students studying GCSE level and equivalents.

The article explores how the film Midsommar (2019) fits into the wider history of horror films, what makes them scary, and how the genre has changed.

‘Having taught horror for many years, I see students have very different reactions to some classics: some find The Exorcist, for example, still very scary. The same applies to Rosemary’s Baby, which for some is still a disturbing horror film.’ However, reactions to certain films have changed, even if the story remains relevant: ‘it would be hard to find someone being too freaked out by James Whale’s Frankenstein, from 1931, but this has more to do with the film’s pace than its theme – which has never been more relevant, now that AI is a much bigger part of our lives.’

To read the article, please see the page here.

In the latest episode of the Nostalgia podcast series, Dr Chris Deacy, Reader in Theology and Religious Studies in the Department of Religious Studies, speaks to Professor Gerard Loughlin from the Department of Theology and Religion at the University of Durham.

In this episode, we find out about Gerard’s earliest memory and his family background, and Gerard reflects on how many of his close friends went to university and the teachers who influenced him. The pair also discuss what it was like to be a student at Lampeter in the late 1970s; theology and film; cockroaches; writing long essays; making, as well as watching, films as a child; the grammar of film-making; watching films in Lampeter’s Arts Hall; student politics; CathSoc; John Hick and religious pluralism; keeping a diary; and whether Gerard is a looking back or a looking forward type of person.

Raphael – The Drawings, a Leverhulme-funded research project, that was co-organised by Dr Ben Thomas in the Department of Art History with colleagues from the University of Oxford, won a Vice-Chancellor’s Award for Public Engagement with Research in the Project category at the University of Oxford. The prize was awarded at a ceremony earlier this week, Wednesday 10 July 2019.

The two-year research project aimed to transform our understanding of how Raphael drew, employing an innovative multi-disciplinary approach to the close study of his drawings.

An exhibition at the Ashmolean, Raphael: The Drawings, embodied the essential findings and conclusions of the project’s work, bringing together 120 drawings in three strands: invention; orchestration and expression in which Raphael’s experimental approach, visual strategies and graphic language were highlighted. The exhibition attracted 67,000 visitors.

Ben was co-organiser of the project team with Professor Catherine Whistler, supported by the project research assistant Angela Maria Aceto.

The project is detailed on page 10 of the research awards brochure here. 

Several members of School of Arts academic staff will be presenting at the British Society of Aesthetics Annual Conference 2019.

Professor Murray Smith, Professor of Film, Dr Dieter Declercq, Assistant Lecturer in Film and Media, Dr Mark Windsor and Claire Anscomb, Assistant Lecturers in History of Art, and Aurélie Debaene, PhD candidate in History and Philosophy of Art, will present papers at the conference which will take place at St Anne’s College, Oxford, from Friday 6 September 2019 to Sunday 8 September 2019.

The aim of the British Society of Aesthetics is to promote study, research and discussion of the fine arts and related types of experience from a philosophical, psychological, sociological, historical, critical and educational standpoint. As well as holding an annual conference, the BSA’s activities include publication of The British Journal of Aesthetics, Debates in Aesthetics, a newsletter, regional conferences, lecture series, grants to support research in aesthetics, and an essay prize.

Professor Murray Smith will be giving a paper as part of a symposium entitled ‘Filming Time: Film, Philosophy, and the Cinema of Richard Linklater’. Murray’s paper, titled ‘Moving Pictures, Seriality and the Long Durée’, will look at Linklater’s exploration of extended duration – narratives encompassing and films shot over many years – in his Beyond trilogy and in Boyhood. In particular he will be exploring Linklater’s use of natural ageing – shooting performers as they visibly age – as a way registering the passing of time.

Dr Dieter Declercq will give a paper entitled ‘Satire and the Sick World. Coping, not Curing’. Dieter’s talk will reassess the idea of satire as therapy. He challenges the heroic conception of satire as a cure for the ills of the world and instead argues that satire is an aesthetic tool to cope with a sick world beyond full recovery.

Dr Mark Windsor will present a paper entitled ‘Hume’s Standard of Taste: Erasing the Circle’ Mark aims to defend David Hume against two charges that have been brought against his essay, ‘Of the Standard of Taste’. The first is one of circularity – that Hume defines good art in terms of good critics, and he defines good critics in terms of their ability to judge good art. The second is one of infinite regress – that good critics can only be identified as a matter of subjective sentiment.

Claire Anscomb will present a paper titled ‘Photography and the Contact Phenomenon’. Dispute surrounds the realist basis of Kendall Walton’s “transparency” claim, however the claim that viewers may experience a sense of contact with the object of a photograph, remains largely unchallenged. To account then, for this sense of contact, Claire examines the photographic medium and the beliefs of viewers, and proposes a hybrid explanation, based on realist and psychological factors, including the sub-doxastic state of alief.

And finally, Aurélie Debaene will present a paper titled ‘#IWokeUpLikeThis: Demystifying Photogenic Images’. Aurélie will open a discussion of the photogenic by exploring what we mean by ‘photogenic’, how photogenic images are achieved, and some of the implications of their mystification. Identifying a cross-pollination between make-believe and the real as the root of such mystification paves the way for a more informed aesthetic appreciation of these images and the processes behind them.

Registration for the conference is now open, and tickets can be booked here.

In the latest episode of the Nostalgia podcast series, Dr Chris Deacy, Reader in Theology and Religious Studies in the Department of Religious Studies, speaks to Donna Timmiss, Professor in the Department of Theology and Religion at Durham University.

In this episode, Donna and Chris talk about special needs education; the care system; tap dancing; Dollar and Bucks Fizz; going to the cinema for 50p; being hit at the cinema during ‘Rocky IV’; fan fiction; Dirty Dancing; Babylon 5; the role of spirituality in Terry Pratchett; the Durham Miners’ Gala; Jeremy Corbyn; being bullied at school; lifelong friendships; reunions; and why the North East is quite a matriarchal environment.

Future guests include alumna Sarah Blackman, who participated in our Open Day on 6 July, Professor Gerard Loughlin from the University of Durham and our own Professor Jeremy Carrette.