Tag Archives: London

Interviews

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

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.

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

19th Century, Visual and Material Culture

Docks, Ships and Shows: Maritime Cityscapes and Spectacle

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. Continue reading Docks, Ships and Shows: Maritime Cityscapes and Spectacle →

Contemporary, Life writing, Creative writing and Performance

The soap dish homesick syndrome

by Rabia Kapoor, 2nd year English Literature and Language BA. Featured image via craftybua instagram.

I keep thinking about the soap dish. In Shoreditch, London, during this design festival that my mum took our entire parade to: people I’d met maybe twice in my life coming together for my week-long farewell non-party.

My parents had come to London with me to help me settle in before university started. It was a group of three that kept getting bigger as my parents pulled in all their friends in the vicinity to be a part of the goodbyes. Maybe it was a weird coping mechanism, I don’t know, I didn’t overthink it then. Continue reading The soap dish homesick syndrome →

Contemporary, Culture, Text and History, Interviews, Life writing, Creative writing and Performance

Interview: The Still Point

Following the successful launch of The Still Point Issue 2, we speak with Mariam Zarif, editor-in-chief 2017-2018, about the new team’s vision for the journal. Mariam is a PhD researcher in the Department of English at King’s, writing on New Woman male writers as ‘transvestities’ and the politics of cross dressing in the fin de siècle. She heads up an editorial team composed of PhD researchers at King’s, UCL, Queen Mary, and the School of Advanced Study.

Find The Still Point Journal online, on Facebook and Twitter.

The Still Point Journal

KE: Could you tell us a bit about The Still Point and how it was originally conceptualised? How is it different from other literary journals?

MZ: The Still Point is a medium that celebrates creative and innovative writing and research experiences. Founded by King’s English PhD researcher Francesca Brooks in 2015, the journal was designed to offer research students a space of ‘one’s own’, where they can reflect on their research experiences. Continue reading Interview: The Still Point →

19th Century, Colonial, Postcolonial and Transnational Culture

London is my East: A Reflection on Travel

By Dr Alvin Eng Hui Lim, department alumnus and postdoctoral fellow at the National University of Singapore.

I’m on a British Airways flight from Changi airport, Singapore to Heathrow, London. The cabin crew, a mix of ethnicities, leaves me alone after the initial smiles and courtesies with the inflight entertainment, only punctuating my viewing experience a couple of times to serve me microwaved food – mostly chicken, or vaguely tasting like it.

I’m at Heathrow. A Chinese custom officer chides me in impeccable English for not completing the landing card before I join the queue. I do as told, and my voice struggles to complete a sentence when another custom officer addresses me and stamps my passport.

“What are you here for? What are you studying?”

“PhD. Theatre. At King’s College London.”

Maybe it is my face and how I sound. An inner joke seems to flash across his face as it changes. I am free to go.

Continue reading London is my East: A Reflection on Travel →