No images? Click here
CAMC Curates is the newsletter for the Centre for Arts, Memory and Communities with updates, news and events from our expert and engaged researchers.
News
CAMC is delighted to announce that we will be welcoming Rolando Vázquez, Associate Professor at Utrecht University, as Visiting Fellow in 2022.
We would also like to congratulate the MATUROLIFE team, including CAMC's Professor Louise Moody, as they celebrate the ending of their three year EU-H2020 funded project, Dr Niall Curry on his appointment as Section Editor of the third edition of Elsevier’s Encyclopedia of Language and Linguistics, and Jennifer Dudley on passing her PhD viva with the most minor of amendments.
See below for more information.
Rolando Vázquez - CAMC Visiting Fellow
The Centre for Arts, Memory and Communities is delighted to announce that Rolando Vázquez (Associate Professor, Utrecht University) is CAMC Visiting Fellow from January to April 2022. Vázquez is Associate Professor of Sociology at University College Roosevelt and Cluster Chair at the University College Utrecht. Since 2010, he co-directs with Walter Mignolo the annual Maria Lugones Decolonial Summer School, now hosted by the Van Abbemuseum. The fellowship will focus on decolonial thinking, decolonial aesthesis and decolonial transition within institutions. Activities will include PhD seminars and tutorials, and public talks.
For more information, please contact Carolina Rito (ad3992@coventry.ac.uk)
MATUROLIFE
The 3 year EU-H2020 funded MATUROLIFE (Metallisation of Textiles to make Urban living for Older people more Independent and Fashionable) project drew to a close on 31st May 2021. The project has brought together 20 partners from 9 European countries to develop smart material enhanced assistive technology prototypes to support the well-being of older adults.
The project is led by Professor Andrew Cobley, a material science specialist, with the CAMC team including Professor Louise Moody (CAMC) bringing design and well-being expertise as co-principle investigator, and Danying Yang responsible for the delivery of co-design and user-testing activities. The team would like to thank the wide range of co-creators, stakeholders and expert advisory panel members that have guided the development and testing of the MATUROLIFE prototypes.
You can find out more about the project here.
The project website is available here, and you can follow their Twitter account for further updates.
MATUROLIFE prototypes: assistive footwear, furniture, and clothing.
Dr Niall Curry - Section Editor
Dr Niall Curry has been appointed as Section Editor of the Discourse Analysis, Conversation Analysis and Genre Analysis Section of Elsevier’s Encyclopedia of Language and Linguistics, Third Edition. Niall will be working closely with Co-Editor in Chief, CAMC’s Prof. Hilary Nesi, and will commission 90 entries for the encyclopaedia.
Jennifer Dudley - PhD
Following on from the exciting news that Jennifer Dudley had gained the position of Art Collections Curator at Amgueddfa Cymru – National Museum Wales in February, Jennifer has passed her PhD viva with the most minor of amendments.
Congratulations Jennifer! We wish you well in your future career.
Events and Talks
The latest Black Arts Movement in Coventry talk is now available to watch on YouTube.
Dr Niall Curry gave two talks this past month, one of which, the Cambridge University Press' Insights on Demand, you can watch here.
This month, Carolina Rito will be closing the IAD Interior Speculations Symposium with a keynote entitled Inside-out Practice-Research, presenting the Life Futures project at the AHRC Cities of Culture Network, and speaking at the Practice Research: Interdisciplinary Methodologies in Cultural Institutions and HEIS symposium.
Find out more about these events and talks below.
Talk, available online here.
The latest Black Arts Movement in Coventry talk is now live. Vanley Burke, one of the most prolific Black photographers in the UK, and CAMC PGR Jagdish Patel talk about how it was like to grow up in the Midlands in the 1970s as a Black person; the hostile environment and the generalised racist sentiment; and the artistic movement led by Black young artists navigating this troubled time. Vanley focuses on the role of people who helped organise, archive and support the Black communities in this period, including Eric Pembleton. Pembleton was instrumental for Black young artists in the West Midlands and their practice. Photography was for Vanley the way to capture the stories and experiences of the African Caribbean communities until today.
BAAL's Linguistics and Knowledge about Language and CUP's Insights on Demand
Talks, watch on demand here.
Dr Niall Curry gave two talks to national and international audiences in May.
First, in collaboration with colleagues Sophia Skoufaki (University of Essex), Bojana Petric (Birkbeck University), and Reka Jablonkai (University of Bath), he gave a talk at BAAL’s Linguistics and Knowledge about Language SIG conference at the University of Glasgow on May 7th entitled “Investigating the role of linguistic knowledge in the test-taking strategies used in a test of polysemous academic words”. The paper is part of his ongoing work on polysemy in academic language.
Niall also gave an invited talk on corpus linguistics for language education at Cambridge University Press’ Insights on Demand event. The talk aimed to summarise research on corpus linguistics for language teaching and point to ways in which teachers can develop communities of practice to engage more regularly with corpora. The talk is available online here.
Keynote at IAD Interior Speculation NTU
Over exhibit by Liu Wei. Sketch study by Yen Kang Yeh
Keynote, 3rd June, 7pm. Register here.
Carolina Rito’s keynote Inside-out Practice Research will close the first IAD Interior Speculations Symposium at Nottingham Trent University. The symposium explores the tensions between research and practice in debates on the evolution of the contemporary interior.
Practice Research: Interdisciplinary Methodologies in Cultural Institutions and HEIs Symposium
Symposium, 10th June, 10am-4.30pm. Register here.
Carolina Rito (CAMC) and Anthony Downey (BCU) are organising a research event with practitioners and researchers in the field of practice research to explore and discuss the challenges and opportunities in developing new methodologies in research-led practices and in collaborations with the cultural sector. The event will foster a conversation between arts professionals—artists, curators, and directors of cultural organisations—and PhD students, early career researchers, and postgraduates to collectively consider how academic research can evolve from “research about” to “research with” cultural organisations and via critical methodologies. This event is in collaboration with the AHRC Midlands4Cities DTP.
Speakers: Bill Balaskas (Kingston), Michael Birchall (Migros Museum für Gegenwartskunst), Anthony Downey (BCU), Mel Jordan (CPC), Emily Pringle (Tate), Carolina Rito (CAMC), Michael Schwab (JAR), Gavin Wade (Eastside Project).
For more details and questions, please email Carolina Rito.
Facilitating Data Inclusion and Empowerment through Arts-Based, Creative and Playful Approaches
Online workshop, 21st June, 9am to 4pm (CEST).
This workshop aims to bring together researchers who are interested in science communication and data dissemination through creative, fun and playful approaches. Our goal is to share different novel methods of science communication and discuss the potential efficacy and implementation of these methods. We also seek to provide an opportunity for researchers to experience art-based data dissemination methods through hands-on sensemaking activities. To participate, please submit a position paper to natasha.tylosky[at]lut.fi. This can be text (minimum 1 page, in any format), sketches, photos, videos, speculative designs or any artefact that you think will demonstrate your interest or existing research related to the theme of the workshop “Data Inclusion and Empowerment through Arts-Based, Creative and Playful Approaches”. You may submit your paper as a link to online content (e.g. video), if appropriate.
Register here.
AHRC Cities of Culture Network
Online event, 24th - 25th June. Register here.
Carolina Rito is at the AHRC Cities of Culture Network to present Life Futures project with Daniele Lorenzini and Federico Testa (Warwick University). The programme will include a series of headline one-hour sessions with an invited list of exceptional presenters. Each presenter will use their knowledge and experience to bring a range of perspectives on cultural mega-events and respond to questions from the audience.
For more information, see the event page here.
Publications
Congratulations to Imogen Racz, Sally Pezaro, CAMC Research student Christopher Lillington-Martin, and Niall Curry on their publications this month.
Find out more below.
Identity and (Not) Belonging
Imogen Racz has a chapter, ‘Identity and (Not) Belonging: Art and the Politics of British-ness in 1980s Britain’, in Art, Borders and Belonging: On Home and Migration, which has just been published.
Art, Borders and Belonging investigates how three associated concepts - house, home and homeland - are represented in contemporary global art. Imogen’s chapter takes a key exhibition of the 1980s – From Two Worlds (1986) – as a starting point to consider notions of identity and belonging in Britain during the 1980s through the prism of art and related institutional structures.
Midwives' insights into the barriers in providing effective perinatal care to women from ethnic minority groups with 'high risk' pregnancies
Image: Mary Seacole
Sally Pezaro's article, "Midwives’ insights in relation to the common barriers in providing effective perinatal care to women from ethnic minority groups with ‘high risk’ pregnancies: A qualitative study", has been accepted for publication in Women and Birth (In Press).
This research was funded by the Mary Seacole Awards programme where CAMC's Dr Sally Pezaro acts as a member of the steering group and as a mentor to awardees. This programme is funded by Health Education England and delivered in association with the Royal College of Midwives, the Royal College of Nursing, Unison and Unite with support from NHS Employers. It is designed to improve the health of people from black and minority ethnic communities. The researchers call for the co-creation of community hubs to improve access to more effective care for childbearing women from ethnic minority groups. A focus on robust anti-racism interventions, continuity of care, staff wellbeing and education along with the provision of orientation and bespoke translation services are also suggested for the reduction of poorer outcomes and experiences.
Turning Traitor: Shifting Loyalties in Procopius' Gothic Wars
This week sees the publication of CAMC Research Student Christopher Lillington-Martin’s article co-authored with Dr. M. E. Stewart, University of Queensland, "Turning Traitor: Shifting Loyalties in Procopius’ Gothic Wars". It explores how dissenting soldiers of Justinian's army had a degree of freedom of speech and action that sometimes allowed them to impose conditions on either their commander or the central government in Constantinople.
It is freely available here.
Niall Curry
Dr Niall Curry has had two articles accepted for publication during the month of May.
The first paper, Recent change in modality in informal spoken British English: 1990s – 2010s, a collaboration with Dr Robbie Love (Aston University), focuses on how modality has changed formally and functionally over a 20-year period in Britain. The paper is part of a special issue on spoken language corpora in English Language and Linguistics and centres on methodological innovations proposed for identifying and grouping modality and tracking changes over time.
The second paper, "Stance nouns in COVID-19 related blog posts: A contrastive analysis of blog posts published in The Conversation in Spain and the UK" with Prof. Pascual Pérez-Paredes (Universidad de Murcia/University of Cambridge), forms part of his ongoing multilingual work on COVID-19 discourse in parascientific communication. The paper is part of the International Journal of Corpus Linguistics’ COVID-19 special issue and offers a perspective on how academics frame their authorial stance when making claims in discourses targeted at non-academic audiences. The paper merges a range of methodological approaches and offers insight into the cultural and linguistic realisation of knowledge of COVID-19 in the UK and Spain.
Image: Yellow House, by John Devane
