Jane Austen and the Arts (9/1/16; 3/23-25/17)
Association For Medical Humanities Annual Conference June 28-30 2017
Women’s Studies Group, 1558-1837: ongoing

Association for Medical Humanities 2017

The annual conference of the Association for Medical Humanities 2017 will be held at Keele University, UK, hosted by the Faculty for Humanities and Social Sciences. The overarching theme is that of Critical Stories in the context of both Humanities and Arts research and production. The conference will include three plenary addresses by Dr Ima Jackson from Glasgow Caledonian University, Dr Mike Shooter, President of the British Association fro Counselling and Psychotherapy CBE, and Professor Mark Jackson, Exeter University. The programme will feature a reception, dinner, tour and poetry reading at the renowned and historic Josiah Wedgwood Museum on the first night and a reception and banquet at Keele Hall on the second night. Artistic research, music, performance and collaboration lie at the heart of this year’s conference. One session will take place at the New Vic theatre, the first purpose-built theatre in the round in Europe where there will be an art exhibition by a local art group, Shires’ Artists. The venue is ideal for showcasing music and performances relating to the themes of the conference. The Emergency Poet will be available to all delegates on the final day in her repurposed ambulance outside Keele Hall and will conclude the conference with some of her own poetry inspired by the conference events and informal conversations with delegates.

The conference sessions will focus on stories about health, illness and disability across the age ranges and from different cultures with the aim of enhancing clinical practice and academic discourse. The conference will bring together people from different disciplines including academics from the humanities, social sciences, health and education as well as a range of healthcare practitioners and service-users. Differences and similarities in the culture and experiences of these disciplines will create challenges and opportunities for learning from one another not just in the formal sessions but, equally important, at the social events. For more information, visit https://www.eventsforce.net/amh2017

Announcing the "Jane Austen & the Arts" conference at SUNY Plattsburgh, March 23-25, 2017. Submissions due September 1.

This interdisciplinary conference explores Jane Austen’s engagement with the arts. A gifted pianist who practiced daily, Austen famously used a metaphor from the arts to describe her writing as consisting of “little bits (two inches wide) of ivory on which I work with a fine brush.� Dance, song, piano-playing, theatricals, recitations, novel-reading, needlework, bonnet-making, landscape design and other arts suffuse Austen’s novels. Her characters either engage in the arts or are judged by their apparent failure to do so. Discussions of the role of the arts in structuring Austen’s novels, shaping her characters, or enriching her life are welcome.

All sessions will be plenary sessions. Papers on Friday and Saturday will be given by faculty, but undergraduates and graduate students are invited to submit proposals for dedicated student sessions scheduled for Thursday, March 23. For more information, visit janeaustenandthearts.com.

Women’s Studies Group, 1558-1837

The Women’s Studies Group: 1558-1837 is a small, informal multi-disciplinary group formed to promote women’s studies in the early modern period and the long eighteenth century.  The group meets roughly every other month and features two or three speakers.  The papers are followed by very supportive and informal discussion.  The group meets in Stewart House at the University of London, Russell Square, W1, from 2:00 to 5:00 on Saturdays.  

Papers on any aspect of women's studies within this chronological period, in any field of scholarly or critical enquiry, are welcome.  Any topic connected with women as subjects, authors, characters etc is relevant.  Male writers writing about women or male historical figures who have a bearing on the condition of women in this period are also a potential topic.  Members and non-members, men and women, are invited to give papers.  Papers can be any length from 20 to 45 minutes, and can be formal or informal, or even work-in-progress.  Moreover, the group welcomes papers that have been given at another venue.