Author: Harriet Thompson

Engendering the Stage in London

Post author By Harriet Thompson
Post date 17 July 2019

Shakespeare's Globe, London

by Hailey Bachrach and Dr Romola Nuttall, King’s College London

An Apology for Actors: Early Modern Playing Then and Now, King’s College London, Friday 10 May 2019

Research in Action: Engendering the Stage, Shakespeare’s Globe, Monday 13 May 2019.

“Engendering the Stage in the Age of Shakespeare and Beyond” brings together scholars, actors and theatre practitioners to analyse the performance of gender in early modern drama and investigate the effects of women’s performance on the skills, techniques and technologies of the performance of femininity in the drama of Shakespeare and his English and European contemporaries. In May, the project held two events in London at King’s and Shakespeare’s Globe.

The workshop at King’s considered children’s companies and female performers at court as well as professional, more typical, “actors”. The Research in Action event at Shakespeare’s Globe used scenes which include gendered expressions of rage for public performance and audience discussion.

Tags actors, audience, Ben Jonson, early modern drama, Engendering the Stage, femininity, Gender, John Fletcher, King's Men, Nathan Field, performance, performance techniques, Philip Massinger, Research, research in action, Richard Burbage, Shakespeare, Shakespeare's Globe

Interviews

“In a time of chaos, create”: The First Generation Network

Post author By Harriet Thompson
Post date 19 June 2019

Dr Daniel Smith interviews current second-year Rufeida Alhatimy about a new network for King’s students from backgrounds under-represented among university students.

Dr Daniel Smith (DS): So, Rufeida, you and I spent a lot of time last semester talking about wordplay in English Renaissance literature, but now I hear you’re taking on a new challenge, representing the First Generation Network as an officer within the Student Union. I’m particularly interested in this wonderful initiative as I’ve been co-ordinating the English Department’s Widening Participation (WP) programme this year. Can you start by telling me what First Generation Network is?

Rufeida Alhatimy (RA): Studies have shown that students from a first generation background find the transition to higher education and beyond more taxing and challenging, and the network seeks to help tackle the boundaries and barriers that some of these students face. First Generation Network is one of eight “liberation networks” built into the KCLSU structure, run by students for students to promote positive change and representation. We cater to students who are from Widening Participation backgrounds, those in or leaving care, those whose parents didn’t go to university and those from low-participation neighbourhoods to improve their university experience and create a home away from home.

Tags diversity, Edmund Spenser, First Generation Network, inclusion, Peer support, Renaissance literature, student support, The Faerie Queene, welfare, Widening Participation

Interviews

Introducing Intro: A student magazine aimed at demystifying the first-year experience

Post author By Harriet Thompson
Post date 3 June 2019

by Dr Edward Sugden, Lecturer in Nineteenth-Century American Literature, in conversation with third-year student Gabriel Leavey

Tonight sees the launch of Intro, a new magazine written, produced, and designed entirely by third year English students. This magazine will be distributed to new first year English students in September. The aim was to foreground student perspectives on studying English at King’s so that the new cohort would have a ready guide to some of the issues that most concern new arrivals in London: how can you write uni essays? Where are the best places to read? Where do English students go?

As head of the third year, I had the privilege of overseeing the development of the magazine. The entire editorial team have done a fantastic job and created something that is informative, fun, and perceptive. Prior to tonight’s launch, I chatted with Gabriel Leavey, the editor in chief, to learn about how she went about organising the content and her experience of editing it.

Tags BA English, Editorial, Edward Sugden, Freshers' Week, Gabriel Leavey, Intro, King's College London, London, Student advice, Student magazine, Studying, Undergraduate

19th Century Visual and Material Culture

Docks, Ships and Shows: Maritime Cityscapes and Spectacle

Post author By Harriet Thompson
Post date 25 April 2019

Whistler, ‘Limehouse’ (1859)

by Aga Serdyńska. Aga is a Modern Literature and Culture MA student with an avid interest in all things Victorian.

The Shows of London Nineteenth-Century Group brings together academics and postgraduates at King’s and the Courtauld Institute to discuss the literary, visual and audio cultures of nineteenth-century London. In the final research seminar of this term, ‘Docks, Ships and Shows: Maritime Cityscapes and Spectacle’, Joanna Hofer-Robinson (UCC) and Oskar Cox Jensen (QMUL) sparked a thought-provoking discussion about the textual and visual depictions of London docks, which also raised broader questions about methodology in the study of arts and humanities.

Tags 19th Century, Docks, Humanities, Jennifer L. Roberts, John Singleton Copley, London, Maritime Culture, metaphor, Methodology, Nautical industry, Nautical melodrama, Research seminar, River Thames, Shows of London, Spectacle, Textuality, Theatricality, Visual culture

Contemporary Gender and Sexuality Literature, Medicine and Science

Crossings: Reflections on Disability and Intersectionality

Post author By Harriet Thompson
Post date 27 March 2019

Disability+Intersectionality is a fortnightly reading group based at King’s College London where members meet to discuss key texts in critical disability studies, situating them within the broader context of the humanities and social sciences. Each session will focus on a theme and explore how disability intersects with categories such as gender, race, sexuality, and class.

Christina Lee is a second-year PhD student in the Department of English and a co-organiser of Disability+Intersectionality. In this post she reflects on lessons from the reading group and what intersectionality means to her.

At the Intersection

I am terrified of intersections. There is something about the open space in the middle that petrifies me. Once, while I was trying to cross the road, a car suddenly turned right and the driving instructor – sitting next to the learner in the passenger seat – stuck his head out of the window to rail at me for being on the road. I was actually on the pavement a few seconds before and left to cross to the right. I did not go on the pavement because it was too narrow and had poorly cut curbs. He didn’t want to listen and continued to insist I should be on the pavement. Eventually they drove off, though not before he proclaimed that I ought to be run over by a car. This is what I used to think of when I hear ‘disability’ and ‘intersection’.

Pavements, sidewalks, footpaths, are designed for pedestrians, people who use their feet and walk with an easy, steady stride without canes, crutches or prosthetics.

Tags Accessibility, Chronic illness, Critical Disability Studies, Disability, Gender, intersectionality, Judith Butler, Lennard Davis, Non-visible illness, Oppression, Physical impairment, Public spaces, Race, Robert McRuer, sexuality, Sunuara Taylor