Exploring Liminal States of Mind WorkshopActivities and Events
Workshop series
International Conference:
'Situating and Interpreting States of Mind, 1700-2000'
________________________________________
June 14-16, 2012: The research group hosted a three-day international, cross-period and interdisciplinary conference seeking to situate and interpret states of mind from the eighteenth century to the twenty-first by questioning how space, place and historical context in which mental states are experienced shaped the narratives produced by individuals. Interweaving perspectives from across such disciplines as literature, history, philosophy, art history, performance, fine art, creative writing, psychology and sociology, the conference explored accounts of states of mind including mental illness, dreams, sleep-walking, imaginative states and self-awareness. The conference sought to assess how these varying states of consciousness are expressed and how such narratives are influenced by historical change, continuity or the reconfiguration of these forms of expression.
The conference organisers, Dr Leigh Wetherall Dickson and Dr Anita O’Connell, are editing a special edition of Studies in the Literary Imagination stemming from some of the papers presented at the conference.
________________________________________
Workshop series
________________________________________
The research group hosted three one-day conference workshops, each with a full itinerary of invited guest speakers who are leading research in these areas in the UK:
11 May 2012: '“A Shocking Disease”: A Hypochondria Workshop, 1700 to the present'
16 March 2012: 'Exploring Liminal States of Mind'
23 February 2012: 'Mental Health, Stigma and Narrative'
________________________________________
Invited Speakers
________________________________________
Feb 7, 2012: Deirdre Heddon from University of Glasgow gave a talk about walking, art, gender, autobiography and friendship.
March 20, 2012: Iain Biggs, Reader in Visual Art Practice at the University of West England, gave a talk on issues of memory, place and identity as relating to contemporary art.
May 2011: Members of the Situating States of Mind research group presented a conference panel entitled ‘Consciousness in Culture’ at the Northumbria Research Conference to showcase the research of the group.
February 2011: Professor Ellen Spolsky from Bar Ilan University gave an invited lecture entitled: ‘Women’s Work is Chastity: But What is the Work of Art in the World?.’
________________________________________
News
________________________________________
December 2011: Research group member Tony Williams’ publication All the Rooms of Uncle’s Head (Nine Arches, 2011), which explores mental illness, landscape and incarceration, was chosen as the Poetry Book Society’s Pamphelt Choice for Winter 2011.
