CAMC Curates is the Centre for Arts, Memory and Communities newsletter with suggestions and news from our expert and engaged researchers.

Body Object Space Interest Group

Jill Journeaux, Bodice, Purse, Vine, 2010. Plaster relief, 80 x 100cm

Body Object Space – a cross-centre cluster – has been re-launched. The focus is about how the body interacts with the material culture that surrounds us. This interest group explores practice-based and theoretical research, in areas including embodied understandings, gender, intersectionality, materiality and others.

BOS aims to share and generate research interests; to leverage combined expertise for the purposes of developing projects and applying for external funding; and to hold research events.

If you are interested in being part of this group, please contact Imogen Racz: arx072@coventry.ac.uk. The group meets monthly

Critical Practices Talks #2 with Prof Mel Jordan

In the second Critical Practices Talks, Prof Carolina Rito invites Prof Mel Jordan from the Centre of Postdigital Cultures at Coventry University. In this conversation, Mel Jordan explains the research dimensions of her practice as it concerns the potential of art as a political tool and a form of opinion formation in the public domain. Jordan also touches upon the centrality of the role of artistic practice as research, clarifying the terminology used in the field, from practice-based to practice-led research. While the collaboration between disciplinary fields is seen as a positive tendency, Jordan reminds us that sometimes research collaborations that are generated with artistic practices fail to acknowledge the critical function of art and its relationship to politics.

Prof. Juliet Simpson at ‘Salve Regina’ international conference

CAMC Welcomes ASPiRE Fellows

CAMC is delighted to welcome two ASPiRE Fellows, Sarah Turner and Niall Curry. The Academic Support Programme in Research Excellence (ASPiRE) supports promising early career researchers as they progress toward achieving research independence. Guided by mentors and supported by research activities within CAMC and the Faculty of Arts and Humanities, Sarah and Niall will pursue tailored programmes of training and development. The ASPiRE Fellows join CAMC’s strong, vibrant community of early career researchers.

Sarah Turner is a lecturer in English in the School of Humanities. She is a cognitive linguist, and her main research work involves using linguistic analysis to gain insights into people’s lived experiences through interview studies, with a current focus on the experiences of bereaved parents. She is particularly interested in how individuals use language in creative ways to help them to understand, conceptualise and communicate their experiences, and how such analysis can be used to inform better care. Sarah was attracted to CAMC because of its focus on memory and community, both of which are strong themes in the data with which she works. 

Niall Curry is a Lecturer in Academic Writing at the Centre for Academic Writing. His research is interdisciplinary and centres on the application of corpus and contrastive linguistic approaches to different areas of language study. Among these is a focus on corpus-based studies of academic writing and metadiscourse in English, French, and Spanish, corpus-based contrastive linguistics, corpus-based studies of English language and language change, and corpus linguistics for TESOL and language teaching materials development. He is a co-editor of the Journal of Academic Writing and an international correspondent for Groupe d’Étude et de Recherche en Anglais de Spécialité. Niall research aligns with Centre’s focus on language, cultures, and community.

CAMC PGR Community  

CAMC doctoral practice researcher Carole Griffiths is currently exhibiting her sculptures in the Invasive Species exhibition at RHS Harlow Carr in Harrogate. Griffiths’ work Reciprocal Encounter shows domestic tools formed from plastic hang in balance, forked and split, disrupting the landscape to signify potential harm.

The exhibition investigates ideas around nature, humanity and control and its open until 3 January 2021.

Image credit: Yellow House, by John Devane