Events
Take a look at upcoming events we are running.
Upcoming events
We organise events throughout the semester, usually held online and open to all. If you want to join our mailing list, please contact Dr Charlotte Mathieson (c.mathieson@surrey.ac.uk).
Upcoming events
As we go into a new academic year, the Mobilities in Literature and Culture Research group would like to invite colleagues from across the School to find out more and get involved in our activities.
Anyone interested in questions of mobilities, broadly conceived (including but not limited to globalisation, migration, multilingualism, creative practices and mobilities, technologies and their reception) is welcome to join. Please also pass this invite onto any PGRs who may be interested.
The networking event will be held online on Wednesday, 16th October at 10:30 AM-12 PM on Teams.
More information about our research can be found here, and if you would like to attend or get in touch with any questions, please email Dr Charlotte Mathieson (c.mathieson@surrey.ac.uk ), Dr Gabriele Lazzari (g.lazzari@surrey.ac.uk ) or Dr Lena Mattheis (l.mattheis@surrey.ac.uk)
8 November 2024 at Zero Carbon (Guildford); 18:30–21:00
Landmarking Migrancy, Community and Connection (Being Human Festival)
An evening of readings, performances and short talks celebrating the creativity and insights of migrant authors over the centuries. Reflecting the work of our Centre, this event will focus on how displaced writers integrate themselves into unfamiliar surroundings and societies, establishing new communities and connections.
More information and sign up here.
9 November 2024 at New House Art Space (Guildford); 13:00–15:00
Landmarking Guildford’s Queer History (Being Human Festival)
Are you up for a bit of queer time travel? This event takes you on an immersive audio treasure hunt to meet your LGBTQIA+ elders.
Walk in the footsteps of lesbian and gender nonconforming icon Anne Lister aka Gentleman Jack, explore the love nest of Edward II and Piers Gaviston, hear about the tragic story of Alan Turing, and meet Felix Holling, the trans archaeologist who ran Guildford Museum for many years.
More information and sign up here.
If you would like your own work to be discussed, please get in touch! In the past we have discussed grant applications, article drafts, thesis chapters, and even an exhibition project. This always proves very beneficial and interesting for all involved.
Past events
Introductions. Time to hear about everyone's current and ongoing projects, publications etc.
We will read the attached text, exploring urban mobilities, which we have not discussed for some time: 'The Second City in Literary Urban Studies: Methods, Approaches, Key Thematics'
Queer Second Cities – Challenges, Perspectives, Possibilities. At this digital, free roundtable event, we want to discuss with you and a small group of experts what a queer second city might be. Is it an urban LGBTQIA2S+ space that is not located in a capital city? Could it be any queer space on the periphery on metropolitan locations? Is there a connection between the notion of second cities and Beauvoir's second sex? Please join us to explore the challenges, perspectives and possibilities queerness outside of first cities represents.
Please send us any material you would like to discuss with the group; we will also work on the collaborative article which we started last year on subjectivity in research. If you have contributed a piece, please do try to attend! If you can't please get in touch and we will explore alternative slots.
Joint session with our partners from the University of Padua's Mobility & Humanities Centre for Advanced Studies. We have just signed a Memorandum of Understanding with this very established group and will be exploring our shared interests and future projects.
For this session, we will host Dr Elsa Devienne (Northumbria University) exploring environmental histories of the everyday and everyday mobilities.
From the beach to the school gates: environmental histories of the everyday
Going to the beach and picking up your child at the school gates: these are unremarkable, ordinary behaviours that are rarely fodder for historical research. Yet from an environmental history perspective, both activities can reveal much about an individual's relationship to the environment and, more broadly, how they experience and make sense of their social class, their race or their femininity/masculinity. In this presentation, Dr Elsa Devienne, an Assistant professor in history at Northumbria University, will explore these two mundane activities through the lens of environmental history and the history of the body. Dr Devienne's first book, Sand Rush: The Revival of the Beach in Twentieth-Century Los Angeles is coming out next spring with Oxford University Press. Sand Rush recounts the formidable campaign that transformed Los Angeles into one of the world's greatest coastal metropolises, revealing how the city's man-made shores became the site for the reinvention of seaside leisure and the triumph of modern bodies. It not only uncovers how the Los Angeles coastline was constructed but also how this major planning and engineering project affected the lives of ordinary city-dwellers and attracted many Americans to move to Southern California. The book is a translated and expanded version of the French original publication, which won the 2021 Willi Paul Adams Award given by the Organization of American Historians. Elsa Devienne will also present some of her new research on the history of everyday mobilities in the postwar period. She is particularly interested in the modern ritual of the "school run” in the UK and what it says about car dominance, cultural narratives of class and parenthood, and the politics of air pollution. From the beach to the school gates, this dual presentation will challenge you to think about how political choices have shaped the nature we encounter on our doorsteps.
Discussion of two articles on border abolitionism and queer mobilities.
Joint seminar with our international partner, the Mobilities and Humanities Centre at the University of Padua.
Guest lecture by Chiara Rabbiosi on video-making as a mobilities research pedagogy and discussion.
If you would like your own work to be discussed, please get in touch! In the past we have discussed grant applications, article drafts, thesis chapters, and even an exhibition project. This always proves very beneficial and interesting for all involved.
School of Literature and Languages events
Our researchers contribute to a series of conferences, seminars and annual outreach events held at Surrey or based in the local area.