Heritage & Creativity

Digital Epitaphs Workshop

Digital Epitaphs

A workshop at the University of Reading

Friday 18th May, 11am-12.30pm

Edith Morley 175

‘To afford a subject for heroic poems is the privilege of very few, but every man may expect to be recorded in an epitaph’ — Samuel Johnson, ‘An Essay on Epitaphs’ (1740)

Confirmed participants:

  • Professor Harold Mytum (Archaeology, University of Liverpool)
  • Dr Gabriel Bodard (Digital Classics, University of London)
  • Dr Charlotte Tupman (Digital Humanities and Ancient History, University of Exeter)
  • Dr Giles Bergel (Digital Humanities and History of the Book, University of Oxford).

Epitaphs, or memorial inscriptions, are a rich resource for researchers in a wide range of academic disciplines, including social, intellectual and cultural history, art and architecture, and archaeology. Produced across the British Isles and beyond, by and for non-elite as well as elite social groups, they offer an opportunity to analyse commemorative practices and community values from the middle ages to the present.

One of the barriers to research on memorial inscriptions is that these texts are scattered across thousands of places of worship and graveyards. Local and family history societies have published some transcriptions of monuments in print and online, but the requirements of this user group are different from those of academic researchers. Their data are often geared towards searches on particular names and places, rather than the analysis of broader social and cultural formations.

Digital tools have the potential to transform the data generated by family history societies in ways that could help both community groups and academic researchers. ‘Digital Epitaphs’ is a workshop that brings together researchers from the Universities of Reading, Exeter, Liverpool, and London and collaborators from the Oxfordshire Family History Society and Historic Graves. The aim of the workshop is to explore the ways in which EpiDoc – a set of guidelines and tools developed to encode ancient inscriptions – might be adapted for use with vernacular monuments.

 

Colleagues from across Reading and beyond are very welcome to join us in Edith Morley 175 for a roundtable discussion from 11am-12.30pm. A more focused discussion on funding possibilities will take place in EM 175 from 1.30-3pm. All colleagues interested in the project are welcome to attend this open meeting.

 

To register interest in this meeting, or for more information, please contact Rebecca Bullard (Department of English Literature): r.bullard@reading.ac.uk

 

This workshop is supported by the Early Modern Research Centre and the Archives and Materialities research cluster of the Department of English Literature.

Reading Emotions

Pain is a complex cognitive and emotional experience, which means that understanding the structure of our pain experience is far from easy. Our beliefs and expectations about pain alter perceptual, emotional and behavioural responses and, as such, can play a critical role in adapting to long term pain conditions. The symposium will consider pain’s meaning, how this shapes the experience of the individual in pain and how this, in turn, shapes their interactions with the environment. We will take an inter-disciplinary approach to these questions, drawing from Philosophy, Anthropology, Psychology and Neuroscience. We will also attempt to translate these perspectives into the clinical domain. The second day will be organised as an interactive discussion led by Dr. Salomons, Dr. Ravindran, and Dr. Thacker, examining how our understanding of pain-related beliefs and expectations might be integrated into clinical practice.

Audience:

The symposium is designed to bring together people interested in the philosophical, neuroscientific, and clinical examination of the elements which structure pain experiences, asking how propositional and affective states (e.g. beliefs and feelings) alter the pain experience and how such knowledge should properly inform clinical practice.
You can book tickets here or find out more information about the event on the website, including a full schedule and list of speakers here.

Symposium: Virtual Reality

Virtual technologies have become increasingly prevalent in the modern world. The affordability of such technologies have made them accessible across disciplines and we continue to see a growing interest in using virtual tools and simulated realities, not only in the playground of game-related development but now across several research divisions.

This interdisciplinary symposium will explore applications of Virtual Reality (VR) and Augmented Reality (AR) in various fields across the arts, the humanities, and the social sciences.

There are three main aims for the day:
1) To introduce the concept of VR
2) To explore the value, impact, and contribution of using VR in various fields
3) To provide hands-on and interactive experiences for individuals who are interested in utilising these technologies

 

Entry is free but booking ahead is essential – click here to book tickets

A Celebration of TAEDS

The unique Theatre Arts, Education & Deaf Studies (TAEDS) BA for deaf-hearing integrated student cohorts completes a 32 year history with a swansong to celebrate its unique history, and mark the legacy, of the programme.

The world premiere of Moonbird, an adaptation of the children’s story by the deaf author Joyce Dunbar, will be performed by Handprint Theatre Company, a deaf-hearing integrated company formed by programme alumni.

We intend to further mark the legacy of deaf-hearing integrated theatre with performances by graduating deaf students from the Royal Conservatoire, Glasgow.

Refreshments will be followed by speeches from past and current deaf and hearing staff and students and the Vice Chancellor, Sir David Bell KCB, will also make an appearance.

Book your tickets here: https://alumni.reading.ac.uk/a-celebration-of-taeds

Whiteknights Studio Trail

The Whiteknights Studio Trail was one of the very first art trails in England;  now, participants are preparing for this year’s edition, which will be the 18th annual trail and is set to introduce Berkshire residents to a wide range and breadth of artists and their work.

For more information about the event, keep an eye on the official Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/WhiteknightsStudioTrail/ or the website: http://www.studiotrail.co.uk/?p=home

Admission free. No booking required.

Art Department Degree Show

The Department of Art presents their final year degree show, showcasing exciting work from our talented artists at Reading.

See thoughtful, witty and striking pieces, including paintings, installations, performances and film from graduating students.

Admission free. No booking required.

For more information, head to www.reading.ac.uk/art

(Internal event) Collections Research Network meeting

Open to staff and students at the University of Reading only

The Heritage and Creativity Institute for Collections will host the inaugural meeting of the Collections Research Network (CRN) on Friday 27 April 2018, 1pm-2pm . Guest speaker Steph Scholten, Director of The Hunterian, University of Glasgow, will be in conversation with Dr. Paddy Bullard, academic lead for the CRN.

Steph will be discussing the future of historic archives and collections in the modern research-intensive university, and reflect on what the Enlightenment vision of an ‘encyclopaedic’ museum might mean in the twenty-first century.

If you’d like to attend this event, click here to sign up – please note this is an internal event.

The Collections Research Network is a community of practice for collections-based research at the University of Reading, promoting professional collaboration across services, disciplines and schools. It will establish a series of exciting events to raise the profile of archives and collections at the University.

To find out more about the CRN, click here to read their blog.

Steph Scholten joined The Hunterian, University of Glasgow, in 2017, and was previously Director of Heritage Collections at the University of Amsterdam. Steph is an experienced museum director and academic, with over 25 years experience in the cultural sector. He is an art historian by background, with an international reputation and extensive knowledge of museum collections. In The Netherlands, he worked for the Ministry of Education, Science and Culture, for the National Institute for Conservation, at the National Museum of Antiquities and was in charge of the extensive and important collections and museums of the University of Amsterdam.

Whitechapel Girl – Special Lecture

Rediscovering the “Whitechapel Girl”

They are remembered as the “Whitechapel Boys,” a group of writers and artists who came from the Jewish working-class district of London and forged promising careers through the early part of the twentieth century.  Isaac Rosenberg wrote some of the finest poetry to emerge from the First World War.  Mark Gertler and David Bomberg became significant modernist painters.

What tends to get lost is that one of the “Boys” was a “Girl.”  Clare Winsten, born Clara Birnberg, studied at the Slade from 1910 to 1912, and developed a fascinating body of work as a painter and sculptor.  She became good friends with George Bernard Shaw, and illustrated three of his books.

Clara Birnberg became Clare Winsten when she married the writer, Stephen Winsten.  He was imprisoned as a conscientious objector during the First World War, as she gave birth to the first of the couple’s two daughters.  Stephen’s imprisonment led to Clare’s producing a series of haunting illustrations to Oscar Wilde’s The Ballad of Reading Gaol. 

As part of the exhibition, “Colours More Than Sentences: Illustrated Editions of The Ballad of Reading Gaol,” running at the Berkshire Record Office until 8th June, the University of Reading Department of English has invited scholar and curator, Sarah Macdougall of the Ben Uri Gallery, to share her new research on Winsten’s life and career.  Macdougall will be talking about her rediscovery of the “Whitechapel Girl” at a public lecture at the Berkshire Record Office in Reading at 6-15 p.m. on Thursday 19th April.

The lecture and the exhibition are both free, but places for the lecture are limited.  People can register in advance for the lecture by going to www.berkshirerecordoffice.org.uk/ContactUs.

Research Seminar: Encountering Europe on British Stages

Encountering Europe on British Stages: Europe as a Canvas

Speaker: Dr Marilena Zaroulia, University of Winchester

“Since the result of the June 2016 referendum on Britain’s EU membership and the turmoil that the Brexit vote caused in British politics and society, there has been a lot of conversation about the role of theatre before and after Brexit. In this talk, I wish to consider this issue by moving away from the current moment and looking back at the last quarter-century and the ways in which Europe has been imagined and conceptualized on British stages since the fall of the Berlin Wall.

Drawing on research for my current book project which aims to theorise and historicize the shifting relation of Britain with ‘continental’ Europe as manifested in British theatre and cultural policies since 1990,  I will identify patterns of representation of Europe and European identities in British theatre whilst interrogating whether and how such patterns both resonate with and influence wider debates about the place of Britain in Europe and the place and value of Europe within Britain. What can we learn from the British performing arts scene of the last quarter-century about what Europe, as a cultural construct and political formation, means for Britain today? In order to offer some provisional conclusions on this question, I will focus on two plays (David Edgar’s 1994 Pentecost and Anders Lustgarten’s 2016 Seven Acts of Mercy)  which present Europe as a canvas where intricate images of history and nostalgia are painted.”

Marilena Zaroulia is a Senior Lecturer in Drama at the Department of Performing Arts, University of Winchester. Her research focuses on theatre and performance and the cultural politics of post-1989 Europe. She is the co-editor of Performances of Capitalism, Crises and Resistance: Inside/Outside Europe (Palgrave Macmillan, 2015). She is currently working on the monograph Encountering Europe on British Stages for Methuen Drama Engage Series. She is the General Secretary of TaPRA.

Workshop: The Classics in 20th Century British Sculpture

A workshop is being held at the Ure Museum of Greek Archaeology to celebrate the work of acclaimed sculptor Eric Stanford.

The Ure Museum is delighted to present the workshop, which will be on the theme of the Classics in 20th Century British Sculpture, on the occasion of the installation in the Edith Morley Building of two works (on loan from the University’s Art Collection) by the direct stone sculptor, Eric Stanford. They are ‘Helen of Troy’ (located in the Ure Museum) and ‘Protesilaos’ (located in the Department of Classics). The official launch of the installation of the statues follows the workshop.

For more information on the workshop, or to book tickets, please see http://www.reading.ac.uk/Ure/info/Classicsin20thCentury.php

The event is free of charge.