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.
by Alan Read, Professor of Theatre; Lizzie Eger, Reader Emerita in Eighteenth-Century Literature; Rowan Boyson, Senior Lecturer in Eighteenth-Century Literature; Josh Davies, Lecturer in Medieval Literature; Clare Lees, Professor of Medieval Literature and History of the Language; and Ruth Padel, Poetry Fellow
Six members of the English Department reflect on three events which took place on a single day. The day was Tuesday 10 May 2016. But, as Alan Read suggests, the date itself is of little importance. The variety of connections and conversations remembered below is typical of what might be experienced, should a curious mind find themselves in College with an hour or two spare, a ready ear, and the patience to pinpoint the precious gems among the ineluctable events emails that come with an @kcl.ac.uk email address.
Figure 1: Pablo Neruda, Mario Vargas Llosa (seated), with Roger Caillois and Angel Rama (standing on the right), at a literary meeting at Vina de Mar (1969)
Diagonal Science
On days like this you might imagine you are in a University as it was always intended. Drifting between critical conversations, discussions, presentations, performances, poetry readings and parties, across all levels of the King’s Strand campus, the orthodoxies of subjects fall away, the expectations of expertise are confounded, the surprising connections rather than disciplinary distinctions prevail.
The early nineteenth century architecture of Robert Smirke, a distinguished architect with a somewhat unfortunate name, shimmers where it once stood solid, glimmers with the fireflies of thought and expression dancing across its static surfaces, a disorder of things you could say. Of course, the privilege to wander in this way might be rare, for students and staff alike, deadlines and demands still call. But when a college of colleagues and communities works like this the French Surrealist Roger Caillois would recognise it as a flaring of ‘Diagonal Science’. Continue reading A Day in the Life of the Humanities→
From the Department of English at King's College London
