Italian biopolitical theory: towards a new materialism is a two day conference dedicated to contemporary Italian thought with a twofold aim.

First, the conference intends to explore the relationship between politics and life as articulated in the recent works of some of the most important Italian thinkers (such as Esposito and Agamben). Secondly, the project proposes to analyse Italian Biopolitical Theory in order to develop a new general idea of philosophy 'beyond' the critical and linguistic turns.

Held in Ljubljana (Slovenia), the conference fosters institutional collaboration between the University of Kent, the University of Salerno and the Institute of Philosophy of Ljubljana.

The Aesthetics Research Group (ARG), which includes staff across SECL and Arts (Philosophy, Film, History & Philosophy of Art and Fine Art), will be hosting Professor Martin Seel as a Visiting Expert.  Professor Seel is a central figure in the current German-speaking renaissance in philosophy of art. His visit to Kent (10-15 March 2013) is a rare opportunity for audiences from philosophy, film, art history and fine art, as well as a broader public, to engage first-hand with his groundbreaking work on the philosophy of images, most of which is not yet translated into English, and so largely inaccessible to English-speaking audiences.

Funded jointly by the British Academy and KIASH, the conference will bring together experts from the UK, Europe and the Americas to discuss the issue of ‘national identity’ in Latin America.  Most studies of national identities in the region have stressed the difference between the colonial subjects and their peninsular masters, failing to note that in fact until the eighteen teens these differences were not so acute. The aim of this study is to look at the impact the wars of independence had on the development of national identities.

This funding supports a pilot study for a large Research Grant application to AHRC in 2013, centred upon the Globe Education Playing Shakespeare production in March 2013. The pilot study is intended to establish proof of principle and to develop a methodology and collaborative relationship between partners on the larger project.  Playing Shakespeare offers 16, 000 free tickets to London school children key stage 3 age (11-14 years) to performances over three weeks. The main aim of this equity, full- scale production is to engage young audiences with Shakespeare for free, and while there are now a few paid performances for adults, Playing Shakespeare engages an established young audience at the Globe. The PI will be involved in the rehearsal and workshop phase of the production, commencing in January 2013, and in the performance weeks in March.  From January to March the data-gathering methods will be designed and implemented, and from March to May the data will be collated and analysed.

The conference is a two-day event, jointly hosted by the Institute of North American Studies at King’s College, London and the School of History at the University of Kent.   The conference also encompasses the annual Historians of the Twentieth Century United States (HOTCUS) symposium.  The theme of the event is “Religion in American Life” and it will be held at King’s College 22-24 February 2013.  This conference brings together established and younger scholars based in the UK, US, and Europe, across a range of disciplines whose work addresses the issue of religion in the United States.  The conference aims to explore the role played by religion throughout American history in shaping US society, politics, and culture.

Funded jointly by the Wellcome Trust and KIASH, the aim of this symposium is to provide a forum dedicated to examining the Mexican Day of the Dead. Mexico is renowned for its communal celebration of the dead on 2 November, a fiesta that blends the indigenous roots of Mesoamerican culture and the Spanish conquest of Mexico by Hernán Cortés, who replaced the Aztec religious effigies with Christian shrines, giving birth to Mexico’s mestizo identity as the synthesis of Indian and Christian beliefs.

The symposium seeks to examine Latin American and Anglophone literary, artistic, and cultural representations that focus primarily on Mexican conceptions of death. This interdisciplinary event will explore the reciprocity between medicine and the arts in their mutual concern with mortality and the human condition. The topics of healing, death, bereavement, and funerary practices will be at the heart of the symposium, and these will be discussed in relation to Anglophone and Latin American art, culture, literature, and film.

‘Contextualising the Fifth Crusade’, a Colloquium on the Crusading Movement in the First Half of the 13th Century.

The Fifth Crusade was undoubtedly an important episode in history, occurring during what was probably the most intensive period of crusading in both Europe and the Holy Land. But this event was much more than a military campaign. To contribute to the recent new directions in crusades studies, this colloquium brings together an international group of scholars from a wide range of historical disciplines who are researching different aspects of the crusading movement around the time of the Fifth Crusade.

This one-day film and cultural festival celebrates the legacy of Audre Lorde. Lorde’s brilliant writings and speeches defined and inspired the American feminist, lesbian, African-American, and women of color movements of the 70s and 80s. On occasion of the 20-year anniversary of her passing, four powerful tribute films will be screened, including a new documentary by scholar, activist and feminist publisher Dagmar Schultz which has been accepted for the world premiere at the 62nd Berlin International Film Festival (2012). In addition to the films, there will be a roundtable with Sara Ahmed and Pratibha Parmar, a Q&A with Schultz, and a reading by Ika Hügel-Marshall, close friend of Lorde and recipient of the Audre Lorde Literary Award.

Creative practices / resistant acts: cultural production and emerging democracies in revolutionary nations

The focus of this one-day symposium is the current and on-going Revolutions and popular uprisings in the Arab world and beyond, looking at their wider political, social and cultural implications. The people’s mobilisation of these globally significant events succeeded in, and is aiming towards, destabilising the state’s power and countering hegemonic narratives of oppression. A crucial aspect of the Revolutions is their nature as creative acts that are serving to reclaim the people’s senses of empowerment, belonging and national identity. People’s peaceful struggle has evoked a proliferation of forms of creative expression and ‘performative’ acts of resistance that transformed public spaces and urban geography as a response to the transformation in people’s attitudes towards the status quo. Demonstrations, marches, various acts of civil disobedience witnessed the formation of ‘alternative communities’ that found a platform for the newly formed narratives of democracy in various mediums and artistic traditions. A diversity of forms have been reclaimed or reshaped; from graffiti to street performance to song and poetry, intervening in the spaces of illegitimate authority and subverting dynamics of aggression.

Evidence and Causality in the Sciences

This conference will examine the relation between causality and evidence. This involves questions about the foundations of the sciences, e.g. what is evidence and how does it contribute to causal knowledge?  But it also involves questions about specific applications, e.g., how should we best deal with the many problems of evidence given by expert witnesses in court; and questions about policy-making, e.g., what constitutes evidence of causation that is relevant to the design of socio-economic and public health policies?  These questions are all of immense current concern.  Pressure on health systems from ageing populations and the obesity epidemic, coupled with severe financial constraints on public policy, means governments are demanding answers with increasing urgency.

KIASH is funding Catherine Richardson in English and Helen Gittos in History (both members of the Canterbury Centre for Medieval and Early Modern Studies) to undertake some preparation for further research into the poorly-understood but widespread practice of deliberately concealing items in domestic buildings, a practice which has endured from the medieval into the modern era. The research draws together Catherine’s interests in clothing and domestic spaces, with Helen’s on ritual practices in their architectural context, and research student Alan Abbey’s work on the practice of concealment itself. The work is designed to facilitate the development of this research under the umbrella of the Faculty’s wider interest in material culture studies and planned MA in Material Culture. The funding will enable the digitization of Northampton Museums and Art Gallery’s [http://www.northampton.gov.uk/museums] internationally renowned collection of records of objects deliberately concealed in buildings, thereby making it accessible for future research.