News and Events
All our current news, conferences and symposia and other events listings and details of our research seminars as well as information about our staff and PhD student successes. Should you need any more details on any of the information contained in these pages, please contact encap@cf.ac.uk
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Drawing on Cardiff Research
A Cardiff academic’s research expertise in the educational use of comics has been used to help cut the spread of HIV/Aids in South Africa.
Whizzkids United (WU) is a small South African charity that educates teenagers about HIV/Aids. Using research by Dr Lisa El Refaie from the University’s School of English, Communication and Philosophy on the educational uses of cartoon and comics, the charity has developed a new training programme where teenagers engage in drawing comics as a means of developing life skills and educating peers.
“My research has found that cartoons offer a good way of helping people grasp complex information and engage with different points of view,” said Dr El Refaie.
Please click here to read the full article
Recognising Academic Excellence
One of the University’s leading social scientists has been awarded one of the highest accolades in his field.
Professor Srikant Sarangi from the School of English, Communication and Philosophy has been appointed Academician of the Academy of Social Sciences for his outstanding contribution to the field of social sciences.
As an Academician Professor Sarangi will help support the Academy’s mission of promoting social sciences for the public benefit by helping to respond to Government consultations on behalf of the social science community, organise events and seminars and sponsor a number of schemes that promote the subject area.
Please click here to read the full article
Staff Publications
Dr Lisa El Refaie’s new book Autobiographical Comics: Life Writing in Pictures, was published in November 2012, by Jackson: University Press of Mississippi.
The book offers a long overdue assessment of the key conventions, formal properties, and narrative patterns of this fascinating genre. The book considers eighty-five works of North American and European provenance, works that cover a broad range of subject matters and employ many different artistic styles.
Dr Melanie Bigold’s new book Women of Letters, Manuscript Circulation, and Print Afterlives in the Eighteenth Century: Elizabeth Rowe, Catharine Cockburn and Elizabeth Carter, tells the stories of these women's writing lives: the social and literary contexts which shaped their allegiance to manuscript circulation; the histories of their successful as well as failed forays into print; and their agency and/or diffidence in regards to their public careers. At the same time, the work also broaches larger thematic issues: the degree and significance of women's involvement in the English republic of letters—particularly in relation to their relevance and engagement in contemporary debates within Christianity; the evidence for a more robust climate of manuscript circulation in the long eighteenth century; and reception history—specifically the notion of print afterlives and the critical tradition.
Written Word in the Digital Age
An electronic street game based on characters from the Gothic thriller Jekyll and Hyde, where players will be wired up to bio-sensors, is one of three Cardiff projects to be funded by REACT, the Bristol-based creative economy knowledge exchange hub.
All three projects take innovative, digital approaches to engagement based upon the written word. Funded by the Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC), the projects champion knowledge exchange, cultural experimentation and the development of innovative digital technologies in the creative economy.
Jekyll 2.0 sees Dr Anthony Mandal of the School of English, Communication and Philosophy working with games company SlingShot to produce a pervasive media adaptation of Robert Louis Stevenson's Jekyll and Hyde, using participants’ bio-data to shape a live game experience. Pervasive media use sensors, mobile and wireless networks to bring audiences content that’s sensitive to their situation – which could be where they are, how they feel, or who they are with. Dr Mandal is a leading expert in Stevenson’s work and in Gothic literature generally.
Please click here to read the full article
PhD Successes
Centre for Critical and Cultural Theory
David Vella
'Narrow Gates, Strait Ways: The Postmodern Sacred and the Icon'
Centre for Language and Communication Research
Jie Liu
‘The Development of Reading Strategies: a longitudinal study on Chinese international Master's students’
English Literature
Dewi Evans
‘Ideas of Books and Reading in English Literature, 1880 – 1914’
Beatrice Fannon
'Virginity and the Patristic Tradition; Spenser's Faerie Queene and the Reformation'
Katie Garner
‘Avalon Recovered: The Arthurian Legend in British Women’s Writing, 1775-1845’
Alun Thomas
‘The Making and Remaking of History in Shakespeare’s History Plays’
Philosophy
Kamrul Ashan
Sustainable Development and Environmentalism: An Ethical Framework for Policy Decision Making in Developing Countries with special reference to Bangladesh
Celebrating Excellence
Congratulations to Dr Heather Worthington winner of the Excellence in Teaching award 2012.
Dr Heather Worthington is described as “a striking example of that modest dedication that so often goes unnoticed in large organisations, except by the students who value her support, encouragement, patience, help, advice, availability, sensitivity and her ability to turn their often ordinary ideas into inspirational enthusiasm”.
Heather’s English Literature modules, especially Children’s Literature and Crime Fiction, are unfailingly popular and successful. Their popularity is evidenced by the number of dissertations she is called upon to supervise; their research integrity by the linkage between her work on Crime Fiction and its research group (CNIC), but also by her successful PhD students who are getting published either in book or article form.
Another sign of her excellence is the Learning to Teach project and its resulting module for postgraduate tutors in the School. Developed out of her own Postgraduate Certificate in Teaching and Learning experience, the module helps tutors to develop their professional skills and understanding, giving them not only Higher Education Academy status but also the high quality training they will need to compete in the academic jobs market. At the HEA validation exercise it was clear that this stood out from the other universities for its sophistication and practicality.
The special features of Heather’s relationships with students are her emphasis on the individual; her unfailing support of students with difficulties, often personal and requiring the sort of insight only someone of exceptional calibre can possess; and for many years providing a focus and point of contact for the many women students in English Literature. Heather came late into the profession, initially on a part-time contract, and so provides a role model for mature-aged students in so many ways.
“Teaching, training, tutoring, all carried out with great understanding of the value and needs of the individual in the learning process: such is the contribution of Dr Worthington and its rare excellence”.
Victorian Study Day
In May, Laura Foster, Helen Mckenzie and Michael Goodman successfully applied for a £500 community engagement award to organise a Victorian Study Day for sixth form students. They recruited twenty-two students from six Cardiff-based schools to attend the event held on 9 November in the Glamorgan Building. The event was entitled ‘Reimagining the Victorians’ and, throughout the course of the day, the students took part in four workshops that each focused on a different aspect of Victorian culture and spoke to the overall theme of representation. The students worked in two groups and, in the morning, took it in turns to go to the ASSL for a workshop led by Alison Harvey on SCOLAR’s nineteenth-century print materials. This session gave them the opportunity to see and handle original Victorian texts. The second group of students participated in a session led by Laura Foster which examined constructions of poverty in both the Victorian period and the modern day. They then swapped over with the other group for their own session in the library. After lunch, each group took part in two further workshops. Helen Mckenzie led a session on reading and consumerism, focusing on advertising and sensation fiction. Michael Goodman and Alice Hunter Rowe together led a session on Shakespearean illustration in the Victorian period. All of the students contributed well in the workshops generating lively discussions. In their evaluations forms the students commented that they very much appreciated the opportunity to attend this event and that they had gained new insights into Victorian literature and culture.
Cardiff BookTalk
Maus is a classic of graphic fiction, or graphic autobiography: the text weaves Art Spiegelman's tense relationship with his Auschwitz-surviving father, while retelling his father's experiences in Nazi-occupied Poland.
The discussion will revolve around the complete Maus, which includes both Maus I: My Father Bleeds History and Maus II: And Here My Troubles Began - the complete story of Vladek Spiegelman and his wife, living and surviving in Hitler's Europe. By addressing the horror of the Holocaust through cartoons, the author captures the everyday reality of fear and is able to explore the guilt, relief and extraordinary sensation of survival - and how the children of survivors are in their own way affected by the trials of their parents. Maus is a contemporary classic of immeasurable significance.
The speakers for this session are:
Prof Gerrit-Jan Berendse, School of European Languages, Translation & Politics
Dr Lisa El-Refaie, School of English, Communication & Philosophy
Dr Toby Thacker, School of History, Archaeology & Religion
To book your place on the event, please e-mail publicbookings@cf.ac.uk
PHD Successes
Jie Liu
Thesis title: The development of reading strategies: a longitudinal study on Chinese international Master's students
Date Completed: October 2012.
David Vella
Thesis title: Narrow gates, strait ways: the postmodern sacred and the icon
Date Completed: October 2012.
Cardiff BookTalk
The School is very pleased to be involved in Cardiff University's book group with a difference - BookTalk. We read high-quality fiction and discuss the big ideas in the books as they relate to twenty-first century life.
At the BookTalk event on Tuesday 30th October at 7pm, Professor Ann Heilmann explored Sarah Waters' novel 'The Little Stranger'
'Sarah Waters' masterly novel is...gripping...unnerving and supremely entertaining' Hilary Mantel
After her award-winning trilogy of Victorian novels, Sarah Waters turned to the 1940s and wrote The Little Stranger, a tender and tragic novel.
Set against the backdrop of wartime Britain, The Little Stranger was shortlisted for both the Orange and the Man Booker, and went straight to number one in the bestseller chart.
BookTalk sessions are free and are open to the public.
For more information about this event please click here.
Cardiff BookTalk
Pigeon English: Narrative Voice and the Child Detective, by Dr Tomos Owen
Part of the Cardiff BookTalk explored 'Pigeon English' by Stephen Kelman.
Here, Dr Tomos Owen explores the code-switching of Harri's narrative, and raises questions of identity in this 'detective' story of sorts
Cardiff BookTalk is a forum for discussion of great literature from a variety of perspectives. Visit cardiffbooktalk.co.uk for further information!
Cardiff BookTalk
Dr Julia Jordan on 'The Road' by Cormac McCarthy
Is 'The Road' a redemption narrative? In this talk, Dr Julia Jordan discusses whether critical interpretations of McCarthy's great novel are as accurate as they first appear.
Cardiff BookTalk is a forum for discussion of great literature from a variety of perspectives. Visit cardiffbooktalk.co.uk for further information!
Mythopoeic Scholarship Award for Inklings Studies 2012
Carl Phelpstead's book 'Tolkien and Wales: Language, Literature and Identity' (2011) has won the Mythopoeic Scholarship Award for Inklings Studies 2012. This prize is awarded to books on J.R.R. Tolkien, C.S. Lewis and/or Charles Williams published during the previous three years that make significant contributions to Inklings scholarship.
Profile Page for Professor Carl Phelpstead
Inspiring a generation
A Cardiff student competing in the London 2012 Paralympics has secured a personal best in the final of the 100m T37 race.
Jenny McLoughlin, a student at the University’s School of English, Communication and Philosophy, raced in the final of the athletics event on Sunday 2nd September 2012, finishing 7th overall in a time of 14.48 seconds.
A member of the University’s High Performance Programme, Jenny is also competing in the T37 4x100m relay on Tuesday 4th September and the T37 200m race on Wednesday 5th September 2012.
Please click here to read the full article.
New Translation Launches at Eisteddfod
Professor Katie Gramich launched her new translation of Kate Roberts's novel, Feet in Chains on the National Eisteddfod field on Wed, Aug 8. For more information click here for English and here for Welsh.
PhD Successes
Peter Gyngell was recently awarded a PhD in English Literature at the age of 82. Peter, who is based in Australia, wrote his thesis about the Argentine short-story writer, essayist and poet Jorge Luis Borges. This was his second degree at Cardiff, having completed his first, a BA in Philosophy, in 1953. More information can be found in the University newsletter. A copy of the article can be found here.
Benjamin Clarke
Thesis title: Do patterns of ellipsis in text support systemic functional linguistics' 'context-metafunction hook-up' hypothesis? A corpus based approach.
Wales Book of the Year Awards
The School is delighted to announce that Dr Richard Gwyn, Reader in Creative Writing, won the Creative Non-Fiction award at the Wales Book of the Year awards held on 12 July 2012.
Profile Page for Dr Richard Gwyn
PhD Successes
Aidan Tynan, who received his PhD from the Centre for Critical and Cultural Theory and who has edited a special issue of the Journal Deleuze Studies entitled Deleuze and the Symptom, has published a new book entitled 'Deleuze's Literary Clinic: Criticism and the Politics of Symptoms'.
Deleuze's Literary Clinic: Criticism and the Politics of Symptoms
Staff Publications
Dr Marcelo Svirsky, A Marie Curie Visiting Fellow in the Centre for Critical and Cultural Theory, in association with Simone Bignall has edited a new book ''Agamben and Colonialism'.
Profile Page for Dr Marcelo Svirsky
Is Sport for Losers?
Dr Edgar talks on sport and the media, part of the Cardiff University lecture series at the Hay Festival.
As the countdown to the Olympics continues, Cardiff University's Dr Andrew Edgar asks as part of the Cardiff University lecture series at the Hay festival, whether the reduction of sport to entertainment, and the focus on our potential medal winners, demeans sport?
Click here to read the article from Cardiff News.
Profile Page for Dr Andrew Edgar
Postgraduate Research Award
The School is please to announce that postgraduate researchers Laura Foster, Michael Goodman and Helen McKenzie have been awarded a £500 grant from the University’s Community Engagement Team Small Grant Scheme 2012. Their project is a day of workshops for 'A'-Level students entitled 'Reimagining the Victorians' and is a collaborative activity between postgraduate researchers in English Literature and the University’s Special Collections and Archives.
The project will comprise of a day of workshops exploring the relevance of Victorian literature and culture in the twenty-first century and the day is designed for twenty 'A'-level English Literature Students, selected from several Cardiff-based colleges and 6th forms, who will participate in a series of four 45 minute workshops. In groups of 10 the students will explore a different aspect of Victorian culture led by the postgraduate researchers. The series of workshops have been designed to challenge students in how they think about reading, texts and culture, both in the nineteenth century and today.
Dr Edgar was described as 'incredibly approachable and friendly, truly inspiring everyone he teaches with his love for the subject.'
Enriching Student Life Awards
The School is delighted to announce that Dr Andrew Edgar, Reader in Philosophy, won the 'Most Effective Teacher' award at the second of Cardiff University's annual 'Enriching Student Life Awards' event held on 23 May 2012.
The 'Enriching Student Life Awards', organised by the Cardiff University Students' Union, are an opportunity not only for students to give formal recognition to staff but for the University to endorse the dedication and ingenuity of staff and students across the University. Over two hundred nominations were received this year from students wanting to recognise the difference staff members made to their university experience and we are thrilled at Dr Edgar's success!
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