IMEMS Newsletter Spring 2016
Dear Colleagues,
Last summer marked a new stage in the development of IMEMS, with the appointment of a new Aberystwyth co-director, Dr Gabor Gelleri, from the Department of Modern Languages. He also co-organised, with Dr Rachel Willie, Dr Rhyn Emlyn and Professor Andrew Hiscock, a highly successful first IMEMS conference, on the topic of ‘Travel and Conflict in the Medieval and Early Modern World’.
The newsletter is composed of two sections: New developments and Reports on ongoing initiatives and projects (click on each heading to read more):
New developments:
- Forging new collaborations by raising members’ profiles
- Marie Sklodowska Curie Post-doctoral fellowship
- New: Stephen Colclough Centre for the History and the Culture of the Book
- Bangor: new Centre for Arthurian Studies
Reports on ongoing initiatives and projects:
If you have any suggestions or ideas for the further development of IMEMS please do not hesitate to get in touch with either the Strategic Alliance office or ourselves.
Warm regards
Prof. Raluca Radulescu and Dr Gabor Gelléri
IMEMS Co-Directors
Newsletter
New developments:
Forging new collaborations by raising members profiles
From 15th May we propose to promote one staff profile from each institution every day for a week and then fortnightly on our website, and our Facebook and Twitter accounts. This is intended as a way to reach out to all our followers and publicise what we do, encouraging them to check your individual webpage but also broader areas of research and collaboration in IMEMS. Our Facebook page has a reach of over 5,000 'likes' worldwide, and the Twitter is linked to it.
We propose starting with the IMEMS co-directors and then alternating between junior and senior profiles, in pairs (one from each institution). These posts could either take the form of 'interviews' or have a brief heading, then linking to your personal website in each institution or a project website you would like us to promote.
Each post would have as a heading 'meet our IMEMS member X’. If you are interested in collaborating with him/her, or want to learn more about IMEMS activities, check [www.imems.ac.uk].'
This form of publicity is, of course, optional, so, given the number of IMEMS members, please alert us if you DO NOT wish to be included. Otherwise, given that all our academic profiles are public, we will just link to them.
Marie Sklodowska Curie Post-doctoral fellowship
A first IMEMS-focused application for a Marie Curie fellowship is in the planning stages. The fellow could be based in Bangor and/or Aberystwyth and work with a number of departments. This opportunity will be advertised on Facebook, Twitter and the IMEMS website, urging potential applicants to contact IMEMS members to establish areas of mutual interest. We shall initially highlight the following areas, although this will not be an exclusive list: travel, material culture (including manuscripts), gender and devotion, history of emotions, time and memory.
Please contact Prof. Radulescu if you know any suitable candidates and would like to be involved in the grant. The deadline is in late summer/September.
New: The Stephen Colclough Centre for the History and the Culture of the Book
A new centre has been founded at Bangor that will bear the name of our late colleague, Dr Stephen Colclough, who was a leading specialist in nineteenth-century book history and publishing. The centre is co-directed by Dr Sue Niebrzydowski (School of English Literature) and Dr Eben Muse (School of Creative Studies and Media). Its first activity has been the Shankland Lectures, a series of public lectures showcasing the rare books and materials in Bangor University Library and Special Collections. The Centre’s future plans include a conference on the book trade, and a second series of the Shankland Lectures. Further details of the Centre will be published on its dedicated webpage that is currently under construction.
Bangor: new Centre for Arthurian Studies
Following last year's series of events (as announced in the previous newsletter), the Bangor Centre for Arthurian Studies has now been formally established. A launch is planned for the autumn. In the meantime, an (already popular) event is in planning - an educational (schools) day in Caernarfon castle (17 June 2016), with more than 400 pupils already signed up. The international Arthurian summer school will also take place in July, and the winner of the Arthurian blog competition (a collaborative initiative from the AHRC project 'The Academic Book of the Future' and Bangor Library and Archives, with the support of the British branch of the International Arthurian Society), will be in residence in late June/early July.
Reports on ongoing initiatives and projects:
Volume based on of the IMEMS conference
An edited volume based on the first IMEMS conference is under preparation for the series “Themes in Medieval and Early Modern History” at Routledge. The publication will be co-edited by Dr Rachel Willie, IMEMS honorary fellow (Bangor) and Dr Gabor Gelleri (IMEMS co-director, Aberystwyth).
Following a management board meeting earlier in the academic year, it has been decided that the new series would include a number of slots dedicated to the exploration of one or two major research themes: a) ‘time and memory’, led by Prof. Tony Claydon (History, Welsh History and Archaeology, Bangor) and b) material culture, with a focus on the written word, led by Prof. Raluca Radulescu (English, Bangor) and Dr Malte Urban (English, Aberystwyth).
Work has been ongoing on updating the website and generating a new interface for easy communication and to highlight ongoing research and new successes in grant capture. A few screen shots are attached; please send your feedback directly to Chris Drew if you have comments and suggestions for improvement. It is hoped that the website will go live in early summer.
Dr. Gabor Gelléri, alongside one of the plenary speakers of the IMEMS conference, Prof. Daniel Carey (NUI Galway), has won a research grant of the Hakluyt Society for their work on a database of dissertations on the art of travel.
More grants and projects will be advertised on the website, Facebook and Twitter pages – please forward your notices to Fiona Eaton at the Strategic Alliance office (enquiries@aberbangorstrategicalliance.ac.uk).