Seminars and Conferences
On this page you will find details of some of the seminars, reading groups and conferences in which staff and students in the Department are involved.
- Department of English Postgraduate Research Seminar
- IHR/IES/Warburg History of Libraries Seminar
- London Eighteenth-Century Reading Group
- London Modernism Seminar
- London Nineteenth Century Studies Seminar
- London-Paris Romanticism Seminar
- Media History Seminar
- Medieval/Early Modern Texts and Contexts
- Queen Mary Centre for Religion and Literature Seminar
- Queen Mary Eighteenth-Century Studies Seminar
- Queen Mary Postcolonial Seminar
The Department of English Postgraduate Research Seminar
This weekly seminar is at the centre of the Department’s vibrant research culture. Organised by a committee of research students, it attracts a large audience of graduate students, staff, and visitors to hear a wide range of papers on topics of interest to the field of English Studies. Papers are delivered by renowned visiting academics, QMUL faculty, and graduate students. The seminar has a tradition of hearing about work in progress, ensuring that it is at the cutting edge of scholarly debate.
Queen Mary Postcolonial Seminar
A seminar series hosted by Queen Mary University of London's Departments of English, Comparative Literature, and History. The seminar brings together scholars from Queen Mary and beyond with interests in postcolonial studies, broadly conceived.
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For more information contact Rehana Ahmed (English) or Chris Moffat (History).
Medieval/Early Modern Texts and Contexts
Medieval/Early Modern Texts and Contexts is run by the Departments of English and History. It covers subjects of interest to those working on aspects of cultural history between c. 1200-1700, and meets at Queen Mary two or three times a year. For further information contact Julia Boffey or Miri Rubin.
Queen Mary Eighteenth-Century Studies Seminar
This interdisciplinary seminar, organized by the Queen Mary Centre for Eighteenth-Century Studies presents invited speakers for six seminars each year, using a variety of formats including work-in-progress and pre-circulated papers. To be added to the circulation list, email Markman Ellis, or follow the QMCECS blog.
London-Paris Romanticism Seminar
The London-Paris Romanticism Seminar is an international research forum devoted to British Romantic literature, its European connections and the broader culture of the Romantic period, 1760-1830. The forum is a collaboration between four colleges of the University of London and a number of Parisian institutions including Université Paris-Sorbonne and the École Normale Supérieure, which hosts a two-day symposium in Paris each spring. The London seminar meets monthly on a Friday afternoon in Senate House and features visiting speakers from across the UK, Europe and beyond. All aspects of Romanticism are covered, including comparative and interdisciplinary topics. For further information, contact the London Director, David Duff, or see the website.
London Eighteenth-Century Reading Group
This reading group is composed of graduate students and staff members from the Department whose research interests fall into the eighteenth century and Romantic periods. We read a wide variety of texts, including historical works alongside key theoretical interventions or recent scholarship. Each semester we collectively choose a topic. In recent years we have covered such themes as piracy and the high seas, walking, Spinoza, natural disasters, Kant, conversation, gardening, and antiquarianism. In addition to these sessions, we also practice other forms of expeditionary and sociable scholarship. For more information contact .
Queen Mary Centre for Religion and Literature Seminar
The Queen Mary Centre for Religion and Literature (QMCRLE) runs the Seminar in Religion and Literature.
London Modernism Seminar
The London Modernism Seminar is an interdisciplinary seminar focusing on all aspects of modernist studies. It provides a forum for established and emerging researchers in the field to present papers on recent projects, and for the discussion of new topics and issues within modernist studies. Previous speakers have included Michael Levenson, Laura Marcus, Dame Gillian Beer, and Geoff Wallace. The seminar meets around once a month at the Institute of English Studies, Senate House and all are welcome to attend. The seminar is sponsored by IES in collaboration with Queen Mary, Birkbeck, Goldsmiths, Royal Holloway and Kent. For more information contact Suzanne Hobson or see the London Modernism Seminar webpage.
Media History Seminar
The Media History Seminar is an interdisciplinary research forum hosted by the University of London’s Institute of English Studies and Institute of Historical Research. Its aim is to bring together scholars working on a range of media including print, radio, film, and digital communications technologies from various time periods and locations. The series is organised by Professor Matthew Rubery (QMUL), Professor Laurel Brake (Birkbeck), and Professor Mark Turner (KCL). See the Media History blog for further details: https://mediahistoryseminar.wordpress.com/.
Conferences
Since 2014, QMUL English researchers have organised 25 conferences and colloquia, including 8 hosted at QM, and at QM-affiliated institutions such as the University of London Senate House. These include:
- British Association for Modernist Studies International Conference (2014)
- Grace in English Literature (2015)
- The Life of Testimony (2016)
- Redefining Allegory (2016)
- New Work in Modernist Studies Postgraduate Conference (2016)
- Tudor Networks of Power (QMUL, 2017)
- Researching and Teaching New Media (QMUL, 2017)
- Intimacy and New Media (Birmingham, 2017)
- Teaching and Researching Contemporary Literature with New Media (2017)
- London Chaucer Conference (2017)
- Innovation and Co-Creation (São Paulo, 2017)
- Co-creation, innovation & challenge-led creative economy research (QMUL, 2017)
- Race at the Juncture (QMUL, 2018)
- Race and Poetry and Poetics in the UK: Legacies of Colonialism (Cambridge, 2018)
- Remembering James Petiver (1665-1718) (Linnean Society, 2018)
- British Association for Contemporary Literary Studies (Loughborough, 2018)
- Of Survival and Struggle: Creative and Critical Responses to Structural and Long-term Violence in the Public Sphere (QMUL, 2018)
- The Heresy Conference (QM, 2018)
- Creative Economy Networks: Research, Policy, and Exchange (2018)
- Romanticism at the Royal Institution (Royal Institution, 2019)
- Reimagining Britain (QMUL, 2019)
- James Berry Memorial Conference (BL, 2019)
- An Island Full of Noises: Writing Britain Now (BL, 2019)
- Brut in New Troy (Notre Dame London, 2021)