mortiz070

On Monday 13th July 2015 the Department of Culture will be hosting a one-day symposium focused on our region entitled ‘ The New North East ’. This interdisciplinary gathering - which takes place in the Prospect Building, St Peter's Campus - will bring together scholars and practitioners working in the field of ‘cultural studies’ (broadly understood to include history, literature, linguistics, visual arts and media studies). It is hoped that the forum will allow participants to share developments in their disciplines, especially those which have opened up new avenues of research and/or shed new light on more traditional objects of enquiry in the study of North East England and North East Englishness. We hope the exciting range of talks will attract interest from academics, students and members of the public from across the region. The confirmed speakers are: Professor John Tomaney (Bartlett School of Planning, University College London) Dr Adam Mearns (School of Englis...

The Department of Culture, in conjunction with Scientia , is pleased to announce the launch of a new academic journal. The Journal of Intercultural Inquiry , which is edited by Drs Geoff Nash and Mike Pearce , is a refereed, peer-reviewed publication for scholars, researchers, students, and teachers who are interested in intercultural engagement in a globalized world. The journal offers a forum for critical debate and publication of research in the expanding field of intercultural inquiry. We see the concepts underpinning this area of study as fluid, dynamic and diverse, enlisting a variety of views and perspectives. The approach is interdisciplinary and its remit widely construed to include: language and communications, foreign languages, applied linguistics and translation, literary, historical, cultural and sociological studies, law, political science and international relations. For further information, visit the website or email jiiscientia@sunderland.ac.uk.

Patrick Low (PhD student, Department of Culture) will be giving a paper at Durham University entitled 'Privacy, Punishment and the Press'. His talk takes place at The Centre for Nineteenth Century Studies (CNCS) Postgraduate Research Conversation in the Institute of Advanced Study Seminar Room on 20th November 2014 (4-6pm). Further details can be found here .

Professor Steve Walsh (School of Education, Communication and Language Sciences at Newcastle University) will be giving an English Research Seminar talk on Wednesday 12th November 2014. His topic is 'Analysing university spoken interaction: A corpus linguistics/conversation analysis approach.' The talk begins at 5pm in Priestman 313 and students and staff from all faculties are welcome.

On 11th October 2014 an interview with Dr Kevin Yuill on the subject of euthanasia and assisted suicide was published in the Dutch magazine Trouw . In the interview, Kevin discusses the apparent contradiction - for some - encapsulated in the headline: 'Ik ben humanist en dus tegen euthanasie'. Kevin is the author of Assisted Suicide: The Liberal, Humanist Case Against Legalization (Palgrave Macmillan, 2013).

Sir Syed Ahmad Khan (1817–98) Dr Geoff Nash gave the annual Sir Syed Memorial Lecture to the Aligarh Muslim University Alumni Association (UK) at 41 Fitzroy Sq. London on October 19, 2014. His address was entitled; 'Sir Sayyid Ahmad Khan and the Postcolonial Age'. Geoff discussed the conundrum of this great Victorian Indian thinker, reformer and seminal figure of Islamic Modernism being today well known but little studied. He discussed Sayyid Ahmad's attitudes toward British imperialism and modern Islam in the context of today's religious extremism and the contribution of British Muslims of South Asian origin to multicultural Britain.

In an article co-authored with Dr Michael Higgins (University of Strathclyde), Dr Angela Smith examines forms of political and public engagement to emerge  in Web  2.0.  Focusing on the platform  Twitter, the  authors look at both antagonistic and agonistic  types  of  political engagement. Their article discusses Twitter’s capacity for direct contact with main political party leaders as part of  an antagonistic  public discourse,  geared towards creative expressions of individualised disaffiliation. However, in interventions around @EverydaySexism, the authors find collectivising practices more in keeping with an agonistic public discourse based upon involvement and the tactical use of irony and humour. While showing that the platform provides for new forms  of antagonistic engagement  with  political  elites,  the article therefore offers  support for the view that Web  2.0 gives  rise ...