David Mitchell Conference 2017

This one-day international conference to be held on Saturday 3rd June 2017 brings together 20 speakers from ten countries to discuss the works of author David Mitchell. This sold-out event will also include a visit to Special Collections to see the new collection of his rare works held there, as well as a talk from the author himself.

Bringing together those researching, teaching and studying the author's work, the conference is open to academics, students and interested non-specialist parties alike.

The conference is organised by Rose Harris-Birtill of the School of English and has been made possible through the generous support of the School of English, GRADskills Postgraduate Conference fund and Student Project Fund. Rose will also be guest editing the associated publication following the conference, a special edition of the journal, C21 Literature. See https://davidmitchellconference.wordpress.com/ for full information.

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Celebrating innovation in global popular cinemas

The Institute of Global Cinema and Creative Cultures (IGCCC) at the University of St Andrews invites you two days of celebrating innovation in global popular cinemas, shifting the paradigms of the 'original' and 'the ripoff', and re-imagining the global 'remake'.

'The Rest and The West: RipOff or Resourceful Creativity?' 

Innovation over Imitation in Popular Cinema Beyond the West 

Film screening/discussion+Workshop - 7 to 8 October, 2016 

Institute for Global Cinema and Creative Cultures, University of St Andrews 

We seek to challenge the traditional vantage points of the West as the 'source' of global 'derivatives' with academics from the St Andrews' Department of Film Studies community, such as Prof. Dina Iordanova, Dr Dennis Hanlon and Dr Anjua Jain, guests such as Dimitris Eleftheriotis (Glasgow), Iain Robert Smith (London), Savas Arslan (Istanbul), Ahmet Gürata (Ankara) and Turkish-German director Cem Kaya, as well as the amazingly diverse cohort of our PhD students, including contributions related to the Gulf countries, Japan, South Korea, Thailand, China, Poland, India, Turkey, and more....

7 October 2016, The Arts Lecture Theatre, 6 p.m. 
The event will kick off with a screening of the acclaimed documentary 'Remix, Remake, Ripoff' / 'Motör'(2014), followed by a Q&A session with director Cem Kaya. Cem Kaya's documentary takes us into the heart of the quirky, mysterious, innovative bylanes of the Yeşilçam cinema of Turkey. At once notorious for is "rip-offs" of The Exorcist and Star Wars, yet inherently subversive by using creative means to bypass political censorship, Yeşilçam brought joy, adventure and thrills to generations of Turkish audiences. 'Remix, Remake, Ripoff' is the incredible story of Turkey's popular cinema - 7 years in the making and constructed from hours of archival footage. This screening will be followed by a Q & A with director Cem Kaya.

8 October 2016, Students Union, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.
A day of provocations, interventions and contributions from international scholars and observers, intended to turn the tables and challenge the traditional patterns that rely on the hierarchical positioning of "originals" from the West and "ripoffs" in global cinema cultures. Along with a special focus on Turkish and Indian popular cinemas, we will explore the 'uplifting lifting' found in the hot territories of other traditions of popular cinema, and will foreground innovation over imitation, making important methodological interventions. The full programme can be found at the end of this message.

The event is open to all interested parties. Join us, as we seek to chart the transnational journey that binds global audiences together through cinematic experiences.

Tickets (inclusive of the screening and conference-day refreshments) are available at: http://onlineshop.st-andrews.ac.uk/browse/extra_info.asp?compid=1&modid=2&deptid=29&catid=31&prodid=467


Ticket prices: £10 (Regular) £6 (Unwaged/Student)

For any information or queries, please contact the organisers at: Shruti Narayanswamy (sn52@st-andrews.ac.uk) & Sanghita Sen (ss309@st-andrews.ac.uk)

For event updates on Facebook, please follow the Screening page: https://www.facebook.com/events/306068843104052/ and the Conference page: https://www.facebook.com/events/703610053127247/.

Conference: Emblems of Nationhood

Emblems of Nationhood: Britishness1707–1901 is a multi-disciplinary and truly international conference co-organised by postgraduate students from the Schools of Art History and Modern Languages, and recently graduated students from the School of English. It takes place between the 10th and 12th August in Schools 1–3, United Colleges Quadrangle.

Courtesy of the Lewis Walpole Library.

National identity is a central point of enquiry that is repeatedly called upon in contemporary social and political rhetoric. Our conference will address the roots of this theme by discussing depictions of Britain and Britishness in literature, philosophy, history, and art between the Act of Union in 1707 and the death of Queen Victoria in 1901. Over the course of this multidisciplinary conference, we aim to explore how expressions of nationalism have moulded both critical perspectives on national identity and their creative products.

In addition to our key speakers — Prof. Colin Kidd (Queen’s University Belfast), Dr Emma Major (University of York), Prof. Linda Colley (Princeton University), and Prof. Calum Colvin (University of Dundee) — we have attracted 65 speakers from around the world who will deliver papers discussing Britishness. The conference is also accompanied by an exhibition of artwork which is currently on display in the reception of Art History.

We have attracted significant funding from the following sources: the Paul MellonCentre for Studies in British Art, the Russell Trust, The University of the Highlands and the Islands, Capod, the Schools of Art History, History, English, and Modern Languages, the Scottish Society for Art History, the Society for French Studies, and the Royal Historical Society.