Screening: Samuel Beckett and Artists’ Cinema
2023-06-23 14:30 - 19:00 (Europe/London) | Minghella Studios, Minghella Building, Whiteknights Campus, RG6 6UR, United Kingdom
Beckett’s work has inspired many contemporary visual artists, but in recent years it has been the area of artists’ film that has seen the clearest impact.
On Friday 23rd of June 2023, The Samuel Beckett Research Centre at the University of Reading will present rarely screened work by several artists. The screenings will be followed by a roundtable discussion and the launch of Samuel Beckett’s Afterlives: Adaptation, Remediation, Appropriation, the recent collection of essays edited by Jonathan Bignell, Anna McMullan and Pim Verhulst.
The programme for the event includes:
Stan Douglas, Vidéo (2007): Introduced by Conor Carville
Stan Douglas’ video installation Vidéo is a reimagining of both Orson Welles’s film “The Trial” (based on Kafka’s novel of the same name) and Beckett’s film “Film”.
John Gerrard, Bone Work (Gulf of Mexico) (2022): Introduced by John Gerrard (Via Zoom).
John Gerrard’s Bone Work (Gulf of Mexico) is a simulation centred on sixteen fragments of dead coral found by the artist on the shores of the Yucatán Peninsula on the Gulf Of Mexico.
Duncan Campbell, o Joan, no…(2006): Introduced by Duncan Campbell.
Duncan Campbell’s o Joan, no…(2006) is a short film drawing on the lighting directions and effects in Beckett’s Play.
Roundtable Discussion on Beckett, Artists’ Film/Installation and Adaptation.
Jonathan Bignell (Reading); Duncan Campbell; David Houston Jones (Exeter); Anthony Paraskeva (Roehampton); Derval Tubridy (Goldsmiths); Jivitesh Vashisht (UCD).
The screenings will begin at 2:30pm in Minghella Studios’s cinema at the University of Reading, with the roundtable discussion beginning at 4:30pm. The event will be followed by a reception at 6:00pm.
The event is free, and all are welcome, but places are limited, so please register here. More details of timings and participants to follow.
Image: Stan Douglas. Vidéo, 2007. High definition video installation, colour, sound (six musical variations. Courtesy the artist, David Zwirner New York/London, and Victoria Miro, London.

IFNH Free Statistics and R Programme Workshops
2023-06-28 09:00 - 2023-06-29 17:00
The aim of the statistics and R training workshops is to support our ECRs and PhD students with their research and for their professional development. The workshops will take place on Wednesday 28th June and Thursday 29th June and below you can find the programme for each course. More information, including link access and location details will follow after your registration.
Please note that your registration using the University of Reading email address is mandatory. The workshops are being organised by the University of Reading’s Institute for Food, Nutrition and Health (IFNH), an interdisciplinary research centre that brings together the University’s world-leading expertise in food, nutrition, agriculture, health and the environment to understand how improvements in food production, processing and nutrition can help deliver better diets and health.

Interdisciplinary Research – information and discussion opportunity
2023-06-28 13:00 - 16:30 | Online
Would you like to learn more about and better understand what interdisciplinary research is, and be inspired to design your research projects accordingly? If so, please join research colleagues and colleagues from Research Services in a short workshop to explore this area, on Wednesday 28th June 13.00-14.30, on Teams.
The session will include:

Exploration of what interdisciplinary research is and isn’t
Case studies – hear about interdisciplinary projects at University of Reading. What worked well, the benefits of the collaborations, and some of the pitfalls to look out for.
Information about the new UKRI cross research council responsive mode pilot scheme https://www.ukri.org/opportunity/ukri-cross-research-council-responsive-mode-pilot-scheme/
Q&A and discussion time

To register your place, please fill out this short form by Monday 26th June (only 2 questions!) https://forms.office.com/e/CHem9ihpcW.
If you cannot attend but would like to be kept informed of future activity in this area, please let us know through the form also.

IFNH workshop: Nutritional Epidemiology Research
2023-06-30 13:00 - 16:00
The workshops are open to anyone with an interest in Nutritional Epidemiology research. Register via Eventbrite.
Agenda:

Introduction to nutritional epidemiology research
Dietary assessment methods and their applications
Study designs and association analyses
Systematic reviews, meta-analysis, and its application
Case of individual studies, evidence synthesis, and policy application
Writing a research paper, peer-review, and post-publication agenda

The workshops are being organised by the University of Reading’s Institute for Food, Nutrition and Health (IFNH), an interdisciplinary research centre that brings together the University’s world-leading expertise in food, nutrition, agriculture, health and the environment to understand how improvements in food production, processing and nutrition can help deliver better diets and health.

Bookshops Online and On the High Street
2023-07-03 - 2023-07-04
The 2nd Annual Bookselling Research Network Conference, in association with the Centre for Book Cultures and Publishing, 3rd-4th July 2023 at the University of Reading, UK.
Jeff Deutsch, in his recent In Praise of Good Bookstores, reflected that because “we no longer need bookstores to buy books…bookstores might well be an inefficient and inconvenient way to buy books in the twenty-first century.” Yet, as he goes on to show, and the industry seems to confirm, “good bookstores” are evident everywhere. The second annual Bookselling Research Network conference looks to discuss both the impact of bookshops in an era of online retailing and how booksellers, the book trade, and book-reading communities use online environments to return people back to the bookshop – wherever in the world these might be. What are the affordances, pitfalls, and challenges of bookselling in a digital era? What innovative, unique, or era-defying practices are evident and thriving? How have changes in bookselling affected literary production and reception? What cultural or political concerns remain prevalent for booksellers? What does it mean to operate a bookshop today?
This conference will be hosted at the University of Reading in association with the Centre for Book Cultures and Publishing, 3-4 July 2023. This event will be held in-person but we will also make remote participation possible.
The Call for Papers can be seen here.
For more information please contact m.chambers@reading.ac.uk

Young Entrepreneurs Scheme 2023: online briefing
2023-07-03 09:30 - 10:00
YES23 is open for applications! Take part this autumn to gain commercial awareness and business skills from leading entrepreneurs and practitioners.
Your Entrepreneurs Scheme (YES) is open to Master and PhD students, postdoctoral researchers, research fellows and technicians at UK and international universities.
YES will:

Cultivate business acumen
Develop enterprise skills
Communicate research with impact
Network with industry experts
Explore your career options
Enhance your CVs

YES is a hybrid learning experience with a mixture of face-to-face and online delivery.
Please use your university email address to register for this FREE webinar.
YES is organised in partnership with The University of Nottingham’s Haydn Green Institute for Innovation and Entrepreneurship (HGI), BBSRC, GSK, Midlands Innovation – TALENT, Stevenage Bioscience Catalyst and Syngenta.
We will be using the Microsoft Teams platform. Depending on when you register, the link will be sent out each day, four days out from the session and 25 minutes beforehand.
There is also an online briefing being held on 17 July at 12.30.
#UnleashYourIngenuity #YES23 #careers #transferableskills #knowledgeexchange

Summer Workshop in Videographic Research Methods
2023-07-10 - 2023-07-14 | Minghella Studios, Minghella Building, Whiteknights Campus, RG6 6UR, United Kingdom
Following a successful debut in 2022, we are pleased to announce a second Summer Workshop in Videographic Research Methods. Last year’s workshop was advertised to researchers across Reading’s Arts and Humanities disciplines – this time we are inviting expressions of interest from UoR colleagues working in all research areas.
Context
The digital reworking of sound and image is an exciting and rapidly developing research practice. This workshop is designed to make these methods available to researchers at Reading, across a variety of disciplines. A major ambition of the workshop is to develop the skills of researchers beyond film and television studies, where these approaches are now firmly established. We believe there are significant and underexplored opportunities in applying videographic approaches to other subjects.
The workshop
The workshop will take place in Minghella Studios, July 10th – 14th 2023. It will involve:

basic technical training in non-linear editing and related technologies
producing and sharing feedback on a series of exercises in response to briefs designed to engage with different and videographic approaches
discussion of existing video essays and debates in the wider field of videographic scholarship
reflection on videographic analysis and archival material
planning a longer audiovisual essay, with opportunities for feedback later in the vacation
lunch and refreshments.

Participants will nominate and work with an item of audiovisual material or material object relevant to their research, as a means of ‘testing out’ how to develop critical ideas through editing. No prior experience or equipment is required (computers with appropriate software will be available at the workshop).
The workshop will once again be led by Screen Working Group / CFAC Co-Director Adam O’Brien and H&C Research Dean John Gibbs, an audiovisual essayist with several years’ experience of teaching videographic criticism. It will also draw on expertise from colleagues in Special Collections and the wider videographic field.
Applications
If you are interested in taking part, please complete the expression of interest form and return it to adam.obrien@reading.ac.uk by Friday March 3rd.
The form invites you to confirm your availability for the dates and duration of the workshop, to provide information about your research context, and to identify an object of study, indicating what potential there might be for working with it through audiovisual means.
RSVP by Friday March 3rd.
Please contact Screen Work Group Lead Adam O’Brien with any questions (adam.obrien@reading.ac.uk).
Testimonials from 2022
“This was the most productive skills event I have encountered during my almost 15 years of working at the University. Its tight focus, collegiality, mix of academic and practical expertise, and its lecturer-centered approach were especially welcome.”
“Working in cultural studies, I work across a range of different media. The workshop gave me the opportunity to work with audiovisual material in a different way, improving my aesthetic analysis, and also to think about different types of research output I can produce.”
“The workshop surpassed my expectations and enabled me to develop new skills which will be useful in both teaching/research. The atmosphere was very supportive, constructive and encouraging. It was also beneficial to be able to engage with colleagues beyond my department and breakdown the silos that can characterize research at a university.”
Explore videographic methods…
If you are not yet familiar with videographic work, these examples may help to illustrate the exciting potential and variety of the approach:
Pasta as prologue: the Spaghetti House siege on film (Charlie Shackleton): Two different dramatisations of the 1975 siege of a Knightsbridge restaurant by Black British radicals remind us that history also needs its agitators.
The Elephant Man’s Sound, Tracked (Liz Greene): A deep archival dive into sound design, David Lynch and creative-labour politics.
The Mighty Maestro on Screen (Evelyn Kreutzer): A study of gesture, movement and music, through the figure of the on-screen orchestral conductor.
‘Say, have you seen the Carioca?’ (John Gibbs): Moving between film, popular music, histories of dance and cinema exhibition practice; looking afresh at relationships between different historical periods and national cinemas.
Mediated Auscultation (Emilija Talijan): Stethoscopes, bodies, sounds, modernism, still and moving images.

Young Entrepreneurs Scheme 2023: online briefing
2023-07-17 12:30 - 13:00
YES23 is open for applications! Take part this autumn to gain commercial awareness and business skills from leading entrepreneurs and practitioners.
Your Entrepreneurs Scheme (YES) is open to Master and PhD students, postdoctoral researchers, research fellows and technicians at UK and international universities.
YES will:

Cultivate business acumen
Develop enterprise skills
Communicate research with impact
Network with industry experts
Explore your career options
Enhance your CVs

YES is a hybrid learning experience with a mixture of face-to-face and online delivery.
Please use your university email address to register for this FREE webinar.
YES is organised in partnership with The University of Nottingham’s Haydn Green Institute for Innovation and Entrepreneurship (HGI), BBSRC, GSK, Midlands Innovation – TALENT, Stevenage Bioscience Catalyst and Syngenta.
We will be using the Microsoft Teams platform. Depending on when you register, the link will be sent out each day, four days out from the session and 25 minutes beforehand.
#UnleashYourIngenuity #YES23 #careers #transferableskills #knowledgeexchange

Balam and Lluvia’s House: Translating Poetry for Children
2023-07-20 17:00 - 19:00 | Online
The Centre for Book Cultures and Publishing in partnership with Outside in World, the organisation dedicated to promoting and exploring world literature and children’s books in translation, are delighted to announce the latest event in their seminar series on translation for children:
Balam and Lluvia’s House: Translating Poetry for Children
This is event is free and open to all. To register for the zoom link, click here.
Balam and Lluvia are siblings who catch fireflies, bid farewell to their pet fish in the bathroom, and wait for Ratón Pérez to collect their teeth. In Balam and Lluvia’s House, the secret tastes and sounds of the everyday are waiting to be found.
To celebrate the publication of Balam and Lluvia’s House, written by Julio Serrano Echeverría, illustrated by Yolanda Mosquera and translated by Lawrence Schimel (Emma Press, 2023) and a PEN Translates Award winner, we will be talking to the publisher, author and translator. We will be asking them all about the book, how it was written, how it came to be translated into English, and the joys of translating poetry.
Georgia Wall is publishing manager at The Emma Press, an independent publishing house based in Birmingham, UK, which aims to make literature and publishing as welcoming and accessible as possible. The Emma Press was founded in 2021 by Emma Dai’an Wright and specialises in poetry, short fiction, essays and children’s books.
Julio Serrano Echeverría is a Guatemalan writer, poet, filmmaker and multidisciplinary artist of mixed Mestizo, African and Mayan descent. He has held fellowships from the Fundación Carolina, the Iberoamerican Artists Residence FONCA-AECID and the University of Colorado at Colorado Springs in the US, where he has also been artist in residence and lectures regularly on poetry and Latin American culture. His poetry collections include Tierra, Antes del mar, Estados de la materia, Central Ámerica, and his children’s books include En botas de astronauta and Dos cabezas para meter un gol. He was one of the founders of the Quetzaltenango International Poetry Festival. He received the 2022 Premio Gabo, the most prestigious award for Latin American journalism, for his work as co-founder and creative coordinator of Agencia Ocote, an interdisciplinary Guatemalan digital media outlet that views journalism in dialogue with art, historic memory, transitional justice and women’s rights. He has participated in many international poetry festivals, and his work is also translated into Bengali, English, French and the Mayan languages Q´eqchí, K´iche’, and Kaqchikel.
Lawrence Schimel (New York City, 1971) is a full-time author, writing in both Spanish and English, who has published over 130 books in a wide range of genres. His picture books have won a Crystal Kite Award from the Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators, a White Raven from the International Youth Library in Munich, and have been chosen by IBBY for Outstanding Books for Young People with Disabilities (three times), among other honors. His writings have been translated into over fifty languages, including Icelandic, Maltese, Farsi, Kurdish, Basque, Luxembourgish, Changana, Romansch, and Japanese. In addition to his own writing, he is a prolific literary translator, primarily into English and into Spanish, who has published over 150 books. His translations into English have won a Batchelder Honor from the American Library Association, a PEN Translates Award from English PEN (three times), a National Endowment for the Arts Translation Fellowship (with Layla Benitez-James), and was Highly Commended in the CLiPPA, among other honors. He started the Spain chapter of the Society of Children’s Book Writers and illustrators and served as its Regional Advisor for five years. He also coordinated the International SCBWI Conference in Madrid and the first two SCBWI-Bologna Book Fair conferences. He lives in Madrid, Spain.

Your Entrepreneurs Scheme 2023: online briefing
2023-07-25 16:00 - 16:30

AHRC and BBC New Generation Thinkers 2024 applicant webinar
2023-07-26 14:00 - 15:00, 2023-08-30 11:00 - 12:00 | Online event
AHRC and the BBC have announced the latest call for New Generation Thinkers 2024, which offers early-career researchers the opportunity to develop programmes for the BBC. Finalists in the competition will be able to workshop ideas with BBC producers, get media and public engagement training, and a platform for informing and influencing public opinion, policy and practice. 60 applicants will be invited to BBC workshops, from which 10 will be selected as New Generation Thinkers and will then experience a year of focused activity and development from the BBC and AHRC.
Webinars are being run by AHRC for anyone interested in applying to the AHRC and BBC New Generation Thinkers 2024 scheme.
Webinars will take place on the following dates. Please click the links to reserve a space. Once you register, you will be sent joining instructions so you can take part in the webinar.

Wednesday 26 July at 2:00pm UK time
Wednesday 30 August at 11:00am UK time

The webinar will cover:

an overview of the scheme and what to expect
some hints and tips for making your application
how to use the online application system
a chance to ask questions about applying, the scheme, and more.

About AHRC and BBC New Generation Thinkers 2024
To apply for the New Generation Thinkers scheme, you must be:

a UK resident
over the age of 18
currently working or studying at a UK research organisation that is eligible to receive funding from UK Research and Innovation (UKRI) (see ‘your organisation’s eligibility’)
studying a relevant area of research (see ‘your research’)

You must also be either:

currently studying for your first PhD and having made considerable progress on your research, for example within one year of submission
within eight years of the award of your first PhD, excluding any period of career break such as parental leave, caring responsibilities, health reasons, or reasons consequent upon the COVID-19 pandemic
within six years of your first academic appointment at an organisation that is eligible to receive funding from UK Research and Innovation, excluding any period of career break such as parental leave, caring responsibilities, health reasons, or reasons consequent upon the COVID-19 pandemic. This must be a paid contract of employment, either full-time or part-time, which lists research or teaching as the primary function, including research assistantships

You do not need to have a permanent contract of employment to be eligible, provided you meet the conditions at the time of your application.
If you have applied to the scheme before, you may apply again provided you have never been selected as a New Generation Thinker in any given year.
Your research must have a primary focus in the arts and humanities. Your research could be bringing together arts and humanities research with other non-AHRC funded disciplines, provided you can demonstrate suitable links to the world of arts and humanities and that arts and humanities remains a primary focus. The main topic areas are: archaeology; classics; cultural and museum studies; development studies; history; information and communication technologies; law and legal studies; library and information studies; philosophy; political science and international studies; theology, divinity and religion; dance; design; drama and theatre studies; media; music; languages and literature; linguistics; visual arts
The deadline for applications is 3 October 2023 4:00 pm UK time.
For further information, please visit: https://www.ukri.org/opportunity/develop-research-for-bbc-platforms-new-generation-thinkers-2024/

Locus Ludi: Anyone can play!
2023-09-06 - 2023-11-30 | Ure Museum of Greek Archaeology, Department Of Classics, Whiteknights, Reading, Berkshire, RG6 6AA, United Kingdom
The Ure Museum and Classics Department are delighted to announce the launch of its latest major exhibition — Locus Ludi: Anyone can play!—on display at the Ure Museum from 6 September until 30 November, 2023. This exhibition, inspired by the European Research Council funded project Locus Ludi: The Cultural Fabric of Play and Games in Classical Antiquity, led by Professor Véronique Dasen, is an opportunity to explore the rich collections relating to games and play in antiquity that are available not only at the Ure Museum but at other UK museums. We are most grateful to Colchester and Ipswich Museums, Reading Museum, The British Museum and the University of Reading’s Special Collections for the loan of important artefacts from their collections.
Related activities include:

16 September, 10am–4pm: Unwrap ancient games for Heritage Open Days (fun for the whole family; all welcome but please follow the first link to book)
30 September, 12–2pm: Summer Olympots to celebrate National Sporting Heritage Day (bring the children but again, please book via the first link)
6 October, 5pm: More than just fun and games: Why study board games in Roman society? A lecture from Dr Tim Penn (Oxford). Edith Morley G44
16 October, 5pm: Play or cheat? Games in Greek and Roman antiquity. The James E. Gordon Lecture, from Prof. Véronique Dasen (Fribourg). Edith Morley G44

Find the full programme of activities on the Classics at Reading blog.

CBCP Annual Conference: Publishing Anti-fascism
2023-09-11 - 2023-09-12
Call for papers:
This international conference will bring together scholars of anti-fascist publishing activity in the twentieth and twenty-first centuries, from any linguistic or geographical context. Our aim is to broaden the understanding of anti-fascist publishing by drawing attention to previously neglected publications, publishers, and perspectives – from Europe and beyond.
Despite the frequent focus on national contexts, much anti-fascist publishing was transnational in scope. While refugees from fascism crossed borders from one country to another, their anti-fascist texts could appear around the world in multiple translations simultaneously. In the 1930s and 40s, global institutions such as the Communist International and the British Ministry of Information (responsible for propaganda across the whole of the British Empire), gave many anti-fascist texts a truly world-wide reach.
Since the end of the Second World War, anti-fascism has not become superfluous as a movement although it is often misunderstood. As Braskén, Featherstone and Copsey have argued, ‘political myths and misrepresentations of anti-fascist histories are constantly used in contemporary debates’ (Anti-fascism in a global perspective, 2021). Whilst taking a broad approach to the history and legacy of anti-fascist publishing, this conference seeks to fully contextualise these activities in order to understand to what degree they still offer a counterpoint to today’s political right. After all, as Bill V. Mullen and Christopher Vials have pointed out, the USA’s anti-fascist tradition goes back to the 1920s, long before the existence of Antifa (The US Antifascism Reader, 2020).
Though we hope to expand current knowledge of European anti-fascist publishing history and practice, this conference also welcomes contributions which look beyond a white European setting, perhaps exploring the intersections of anti-fascism, anti-racism, and anti-colonialism in publishing cultures. For instance, in 1933, after Nazis ransacked his offices and deported him to England, the Black pan-Africanist journalist George Padmore argued in an editorial for his communist publication, The Negro Worker, that ‘fascism is the greatest danger which confronts not only the white workers, but is the most hostile movement against [black people].’ He also drew an explicit comparison between the Nazis and the Ku Klux Klan, writing that “the fascists in Germany are preaching race hatred and advocating lynch law” (The Negro Worker vol. 3, no. 4-5 [Apr-May 1933]). Yet these historical parallels and continuities are often overlooked in discussions of anti-fascist history.
We invite proposals for 20-minute presentations on the following topics:
– The use and impact of anti-fascist publications and propaganda
– Archival collection and preservation of anti-fascist publishing culture
– Interactions between local presses and national/international organisations
– The translation, editing and marketing of anti-fascist texts
– Anti-fascist journalism (newspapers, magazines, and journals)
– The intersections of anti-fascism, anti-racism and anti-imperialism/anti-colonialism in publishing culture
– Anti-fascist exile and refugee networks
– anti-fascism, anti-Semitism, and the Holocaust
– Underground and ephemeral publishing practices (leaflets, pamphlets, posters)
– Memory and legacy of anti-fascist publishing
– Anti-fascism in contemporary publishing cultures
– Anti-fascist literary works (plays, prose, poetry), and their reception
– Autobiography, memoir, and autofiction by anti-fascist writers

Proposals from graduate students and early career researchers are especially welcome.
Please submit abstracts (up to 200 words) and a short 2-line bio by 16 January 2023 to Dr Ellen Pilsworth at e.m.pilsworth@reading.ac.uk. If you would like to participate virtually, please let us know in your proposal. Talks will be given in English.
Speakers will be notified by mid-March 2023. Special keynotes are tbc. We are excited to offer two additional events as part of the conference. One is a screening of Steve Hatton’s 2011 documentary film, Heilig, about the Austrian anti-Nazi journalist Bruno Heilig, and his son, Gerhard, who came to England as a refugee on the Kindertransport. The film will be introduced by a talk by the filmmaker. The other is a tour of Reading University’s collection of anti-fascist Spanish civil war posters, housed by the Department of Typography and Graphic Communication.
The conference will be hosted by the University of Reading’s Centre for Book Cultures and Publishing, and will take place in Reading. Virtual attendance will also be possible, as the conference will take a hybrid form. There will be minimal or no cost for attendance.
Organising committee at the University of Reading: Ali Brown, Dr Sophie Heywood, Prof Daniela La Penna, Dr Ellen Pilsworth, Dr Marta Simo-Comas, Dr Nicola Wilson, Dr Ute Wölfel.
Image credit: Wisconsin Historical Society, Image ID: 14802. Can be viewed online at https://wisconsinhistory.org/Records/Image/IM148402

Up in Arms: posters for protest, solidarity, engagement and action
2023-09-11 - 2023-12-08 | Department of Typography & Graphic Communication, TOB 2, Earley Gate, Whiteknights Campus, University of Reading, Reading, Berkshire, RG6 7BE, United Kingdom
Up in Arms: posters for protest, solidarity, engagement and action puts posters of protest front and centre.
The exhibition has been curated to align with our annual conference, ‘Publishing Anti-fascism’ convened and organised by Ellen Pilsworth.
The exhibition includes material from the collection of twentieth-century posters from the Lettering, Printing and Graphic Design Collections in the Department of Typography & Graphic Communication. It displays posters from a range of sources, some designed by well-known designers including Robin Fior and David King. The exhibition was curated and designed by Clara Fidler-Brown as part of her experience as a Collections Assistant, with support from Ellen Pilsworth, Emma Minns, Sue Walker and Geoff Wyeth.

The Up in Arms exhibition space in the Department of Typography & Graphic Communication

In the shadow of Hippolytos: Classical studies in honour of Professor Barbara E. Goff
2023-09-22 10:00 - 18:00 | Edith Morley, 127, University of Reading, Shinfield Road, Reading, RG6 6EL
To celebrate the work of our esteemed friend, colleague and Co-head of Department, Prof. Barbara Goff, we have planned a one-day conference in her honour, on the cusp of her retirement, Friday 22nd September 2023. We have assembled an international cadre of her colleagues, collaborators, (former) students and other associates to discuss the diverse range of inclusive and innovative Classical studies on which she herself has contributed so greatly to scholarship in our and related academic fields. The conference’s four themes, which engage with aspects of her teaching and scholarship are the following:

Drama, Theory, History
A Sporting Life
Broad(er) Classics
Re-roo/uting Classics

We are delighted to announce that we will be joined also by Dr Stella Keramida from University of Reading’s Department of Film, Theatre, and Television, who with her students is preparing a performance of (some of) Trojan Women.
Everyone is invited to join us — whether in person or online — to celebrate Prof. Goff on this august occasion, but please sign up here (using the link or this QR code). Please do not hesitate to contact doukissa.kamini@reading.ac.uk for further details or if you have any questions.
Amy Smith, Dania Kamini and Oliver Baldwin
Read the full programme here.

In the Company of Monsters: New Visions, Ancient Myths
2023-09-23 - 2024-01-27 | Reading Museum, Blagrave Street, Reading, Berkshire, RG1 1HQ, United Kingdom
Free exhibition
23 September 2023 – 24 February 2024
Reading Museum
In the Company of Monsters: New Visions, Ancient Myths will be an exhibition of the works of the contemporary artists Eleanor Crook and Paul Reid, alongside objects, texts, and artworks from the University of Reading and Reading Museum. Brought together for the first time, these detailed and striking works share an interest in retelling ancient myths of body difference, diversity, and hybridity. Inspired by the enduring dreams, or nightmares, of bodily ‘otherness’, the weird and wonderful creatures portrayed in this unique exhibition will ask vital questions about humanity’s place in nature, the biological and artistic meanings of diversity and difference, and the vital role that history plays in our understandings of the dynamic workings of natural history.
Eleanor Crook is a British sculptor with a special interest in mortality, anatomy and pathology, who exhibits internationally in fine art and medical and science museum contexts. She studied Classics and Philosophy at Oxford before training in sculpture at Central St Martins and the Royal Academy Schools in the early 90s, where she specialised in wax modeling, lost wax bronze casting and other lifelike media. She pieced together a knowledge of Anatomy from London’s medical museums and the dissection room as a medical artist, finding figurative art to be not in favour at the time; even so, her Classical background meant that communing with statues, and therefore the body, were second nature. Crook considers her work ‘more effigy than statue’, as they are imbued with a convincing sense of life. She has developed close, long-term collaborations with medical museums and historic anatomical wax collections such as the Gordon Museum of Pathology, Guy’s Hospital, Ghent University Museum, and the Vrolik Museum Amsterdam, where she continues wax modeling traditions and combines research through human dissection and studying the history of anatomical model-making. Most recently, she has worked with museum project partners on creating a genre of anatomical Expressionism, uncanny yet rooted in medical investigation, mythology, and the mysteries of the mind. To learn more about Eleanor Crook, her work, and find selected art for sale, visit https://www.eleanorcrook.net

Paul Reid was born in Scone, Perth, in 1975. Between 1994 and 1998, he studied at Duncan of Jordanstone College of Art, Dundee, where he obtained First Class honours in drawing and painting. Since then his work has been part of a number of major exhibitions, in Scotland and northern England in particular, but also in Europe. He has accompanied the then Prince of Wales on visits to Italy, Turkey, Jordan and Canada, drawing and painting the landscapes and people encountered. He is firmly established as an artist who combines technical mastery with striking new visions of ancient myths. On the face of it, Reid’s work is traditional in medium (oil; charcoal), though he has more recently moved into the use of digital technology. Within the traditional aesthetic, however, lies a world of the unexpected: uncanny hybrids of human and animal; juxtapositions of ancient myths with modern landscapes, faces, buildings. Central to every work is storytelling: characters from Greek mythology are caught at tense moments in their narrative, at some point of shocked discovery or on the very edge of violence; or else they pause in strange stillness, allowed a moment’s repose even as the next (perhaps final) act of the mythical drama impends. The seated Minotaur is a perfect example: he sits easily, casually, but the ancient story dictates what is shortly to befall him. To work with ancient myths is to work with stories that have been told and retold for millennia. This is not to say that they cannot be reshaped; they always have been. Reid’s reshapings are subtle, but they leave the viewer in no doubt that ancient men, women, monsters and gods have a place in the modern world as they did in the distant world that first created them.To learn more about Paul Reid and his work, and find selected art for sale, visit: https://www.paulreidart.co.uk/

Workshop on multilingualism in conflict zones
2023-09-28
In the third millennium, issues related to conflict zones and ensuring their security are increasingly important for the whole world. In many of the contemporary conflict situations issues connected to identities are central. More specifically, conflicting arguments pivot around culture, religion, and ethnicity, all of which are organically related to and expressed through language.
This British Academy-funded workshop, which is organised by the Department of English Language and Applied Linguistics (University of Reading), aims to explore the nature of communication in real-life case studies of conflict from a wide range of geographical locations and different scales of engagement.
It will offer a forum for discussion which will unite early career researchers (including PGR) and established academics with overlapping interests in the field. Scholars from different disciplines are invited to disseminate findings from original research and discuss theoretical and methodological challenges when conducting research in conflict or post-conflict zones from an applied linguistic/sociolinguistic perspective. We endeavour that this workshop will highlight the importance of language in promoting peace, social cohesion, collaboration, and trust in conflict-ridden communities.
The objectives of this workshop are:

To share empirical research on multilingualism in conflict and post-conflict zones.
To share methodological and practical challenges in studying multilingualism in conflict and post-conflict zones and discuss possible ways of overcoming these.
To raise awareness about various social, educational, linguistic, psychological, and political issues that are faced by the people who live in communities affected by conflict.
To offer a supportive forum where issues in relation to language and conflict can be openly discussed.
To encourage scholars to come together, get to know each other and interact in positive and constructive ways.
To come up with creative initiatives that can help build trust and promote peace in conflict and post-conflict zones.

The workshop envisions a critical space for stimulating dialogue among scholars working on all aspects of multilingualism and conflict, including (but not limited to) the following themes:

Language and identity
Language policy and planning
Hate speech
Media and social media
Language choice
Linguistic vitality, language maintenance and language shift
Linguistic landscapes
Language attitudes
Language ideologies
Education and language learning
Migration and citizenship
Linguistic rights
Minority languages

Each paper will last for 30 minutes: 20 minutes for presentation; 10 minutes for discussion. The language of the conference is English.

Extreme Science with Dr Nicola Fox
2023-09-28 15:00 - 16:30 | 150 – LLT ICMA Centre
Join NASA’s chief scientist Dr Nicola Fox at the 10th Annual Edith Morley Seminar hosted by the School of Mathematical, Physical and Computational Sciences on 28 September to uncover the secrets of the universe.
The scientist leading NASA’s missions to uncover the secrets of the universe will share her story and experiences as Associate Administrator of NASA’s Science Mission Directorate.
Dr Fox leads a portfolio of around 100 scientific missions for the Agency. From understanding the impact of space hurricanes to exploring the possibility of benefiting from untapped lunar resources, her work seeks to protect and improve life on Earth, and in space.
Originally from the UK, Dr Fox studied Physics at Imperial College London and the University of Surrey. She joined NASA in 2018 as the Science Mission Directorate’s Director of the Heliophysics Division, before being appointed Associate Administrator at the NASA Directorate in February this year.
Find out more and register to attend.

Life Cycle Assessment of Transportation
2023-09-29 10:00 - 16:00 | Blandford’s, Park House, University of Reading, Reading, RG6 6EF, United Kingdom
You are cordially invited to a dynamic and insightful workshop on “Life Cycle Assessment as a Circular Economy Solution to Transport.” This engaging event, organized in collaboration with University of Reading, Northampton Council, University College London, University of Portsmouth, and the BarcelonaTech (UPC), aims to bring together industries, public organizations, and academics to collectively discuss and explore the innovative potential of Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) in promoting circular economy practices within the transport sector.
During this workshop, we aim to:

Gain comprehensive insights into the current and ideal practices of LCA in road transport.
Facilitate meaningful discussions and knowledge exchange among industry professionals, academics, and public organizations.
Identify innovative approaches and solutions to foster circular economy principles in the transport sector.
Focus on the missing links in LCA carbon accounting, with particular emphasis on consumer behaviour and its impact on carbon emissions.
Address the significance of waste management in the context of LCA, exploring strategies for reducing environmental impact throughout the product lifecycle.

The workshop will feature:

Keynote presentations from industry experts and academics
Panel discussions with Q&A sessions
Interactive workshops and group activities
Networking opportunities to connect with like-minded individuals.

This workshop is designed for professionals and stakeholders involved in:

Life cycle Assessment
Transportation and logistics
Sustainability and environmental management
Circular economy initiatives
Research and academia

Register for free here.
For any inquiries or further information, please reach out to:
Email: n.darvish@reading.ac.uk
Phone: 07952930092
We look forward to welcoming you to this transformative LCA workshop on September 29th at the Blandfords, Park House, University of Reading, RG6 6UR. Free parking will be available at the University Campus.
Let’s shape a sustainable future for the transport industry together!

Climate and Finance Conference
2023-10-05 09:00 - 13:00 | ICMA Centre, Henley Business School
We are pleased to announce a half-day conference on climate and finance to be held at the ICMA Centre – Henley Business School on Thursday 5th October 2023 from 9:00am to 1pm. The aim of this event is to bring together UoR researchers in the area of climate change and finance to foster the development of joint research activities.
The conference will include two plenary sessions and a panel discussion. Speakers will present in person.
Participants can attend in person by registering for free by 25 September 2023 or online via this Teams link.
View the full programme here.

All Eyes on 'My Climate Risk': Q-Storming towards Collective Pathways to Adaptation Action, from Local to Global
2023-10-05 16:00 - 17:30 | Palais des Congrès de Montréal, 201 Av. Viger O, Montréal, QC H2Z 1X7, Canada
From October 2nd to 6th, 2023, over 1,500 members of the climate change adaptation community from more than 80 countries will gather in Montreal to share their cutting-edge knowledge and contribute to the global momentum for adaptation.
With 180 sessions, the 7th edition of the international conference Adaptation Futures will cover several key areas of adaptation research, planning and action.
As one of the appointed World Climate Research Programme (WCRP) ‘My Climate Risk” (MCR) Regional Global Hubs, The Walker Institute will be joining with 3 other WCRP MCR hubs from Nepal, West Africa and Jordan to host a session on Thursday 5th October entitled: All Eyes on ‘My Climate Risk’: Q-Storming towards Collective Pathways to Adaptation Action, from Local to Global.
Find out more and register for the conference on the Adaptation Futures website.

All eyes on ‘My Climate Risk’: Q-storming towards collective pathways to adaptation action, from local to global
2023-10-05 16:00 - 17:30 | Hybrid
The Walker Institute will be attending the conference Adaptation Futures taking place from October 2 to 6 this year. More than 1500 members of the climate change adaptation community from around the world gather in Montreal to share their knowledge on the challenges and opportunities of adaptation.
A new approach that synthesises cross-disciplinary insight and information is needed to address the adaptation challenges of the climate emergency. This requires forward-looking analysis based on integrated data and evidence, and a transformation in how natural and social scientists work alongside counterparts in the government, non-government and community sectors.
Watch this space for updates on upcoming events and presentations.
Side event: All eyes on ‘My Climate Risk’: Q-storming towards collective pathways to adaptation action, from local to global
Session 285 – Governance & Finance
5 October, 16:00-17.30 (EDT) / 21:00-22:30 (BST)
A new approach that synthesises cross-disciplinary insight and information is needed to address the adaptation challenges of the climate emergency. This requires forward-looking analysis based on integrated data and evidence, and a transformation in how natural and social scientists work alongside counterparts in the government, non-government and community sectors.
This hybrid ‘Q-storming’ session is designed to bring together representatives from all these communities, to explore how we can bridge science and socio-political action, addressing multiple risks while responding to local adaptation needs. It will draw on the break-through approach of a new World Climate Research Programme (WCRP) Lighthouse Activity, entitled ‘My Climate Risk’ (MCR).The title reflects the need to embed climate risk within its unique local and social context. Eight WCRP MCR hubs have been established globally and are going ‘broader and deeper’ in their work with local counterparts to assess risk and implement credible and effective climate actions. Examples will be presented as part of the Q-storming session.
Q-storming is designed to come up with well-stated questions and problem formulations, not easy answers. To reach actionable solutions, we need first to identify obstacles, then map out local pathways to overcome them. Our virtual and in-person colleagues will contribute to this process, following short case-study presentations. The session builds on our AF2018 Q-Storm experience and introduces the use of Facilitated Q-Storming Tables using Mural Boards.
Participants

Prof. Rosalind Cornforth, Walker Institute, University of Reading, UK
Dr. Celia Petty, Walker Institute, University of Reading, UK
Prof. Abdou, AGRHYMET, Niger
Dr. Chi Huyen Truong, Himalayan University Consortium, ICIMOD, Nepal
Prof. Amadou Gaye, University of Cheikh Anta Diop University, Dakar
Prof. Iain Stewart, Royal Scientific Society, Jordan
Prof. Ted Shepherd, Co-Chair, “My Climate Risk” Lighthouse Activity, World Climate Research Programme/ Department of Meteorology, University of Reading, UK
Prof. Regina Rodrigues, Co-Chair, “My Climate Risk” Lighthouse Activity, World Climate Research Programme/ Universidade Federal de Santa Catarina, Brazil
Dr. Narelle Van Der Wel, My climate Risk, World Climate Research Programme, Switzerland

Find out more on the Walker Institute website.

‘Don’t call me resilient again!’: the New Urban Agenda as immunology
2023-10-09 13:00 - 14:00 | Online
Join the Walker Institute for the inaugural session of the My Climate Risk Interdisciplinary Reading Group as part of the WCRP Lighthouse Activity.
Coleen Vogel, University of the Witwatersrand, will present Maria Kaika’s paper: “Do not call me Resilient again”.
Coleen Vogel is a Distinguished Professor at the University of the Witwatersrand. She is a climatologist by training but has increasingly worked in the social dimensions of climate change, focusing particularly on climate change adaptation. She obtained her PhD in the field of climate change in 1994. She currently serves on various local and international boards. She has, for example, chaired and been the vice chair of international global environmental change scientific committees (e.g. IHDP and LUCC and involved in the Earth System Science Programme), groups that preceded the current Future Earth developments. She was also one of the lead contributors to the preparation of the Disaster Management Act in South Africa. She has been Chapter Lead Author and co-author of chapters in the IPCC (4th and 5th assessment reports). She is now also involved as a lead author in the IPBES transformative assessment. She has also received the Burtoni Award for international excellence in adaptation research and received the University of the Witwatersrand Vice Chancellor’s award for excellence in teaching.
Find out more on the Walker Institute website, and register to attend by filling out this form.

Making Mutants: How and Why We Break Genes on Purpose
2023-10-10 18:00 - 19:30 | Reading Museum, Blagrave Street, Reading, Berkshire, RG1 1HQ, United Kingdom
Join Dr Louise Johnson from the Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology at the University of Reading to explore how mutation in genetic research is helping to identify and understand the building blocks of life.

Emotional Labour: provenance, politics and practice
2023-10-13 10:00 - 13:00 | Henley Business School, Room G03, Henley Business School, University of Reading, Reading, RG6 6UD, United Kingdom
Join Professor Jenna Ward (Dean of Coventry Business School) for a workshop seminar on emotional labour as part of Dr Simon Willems (Reading School of Art, Henley Business School) interdepartmental fellowship research project.
With a focus on marginalised voices, Jenna employs innovative arts-based research methods to explore emotionality within organizations and management. Her research spans various sectors and has led to her working with organisations such as the Department of Health, the National Trust, the City of London, NHS, Samaritans and, most recently, England Netball.
Tea & coffee and light refreshments will be available at 9:30 (lunch is included).
View the seminar flyer for more information.
Please contact Simon Willems to RSVP.

UKRI Open Access policy for journal articles
2023-10-24 13:00 - 13:45 | Online
If you are a UKRI funded author your journal articles must be Open Access with a CCBY licence immediately on publication and without embargo, via CentAUR (green Open Access) or published gold Open Access on the publisher’s website. This policy applies to all peer reviewed articles submitted for publication since April 2022. In this short briefing we will help you to:

Check whether a journal is compliant before you submit to it
Use look-up tools, including the journal checker and SciFree
Add a CCBY licence statement to your article when you submit it
Apply to the UKRI block grant to cover Open Access article publishing charges

Register to attend on UoRLearn.

UKRI Open Access policy for books, chapters and edited collections
2023-10-25 13:00 - 13:45 | Online
All UKRI funded authors are required to make books, chapters and edited collections, published on or after 1st January 2024, Open Access with a Creative Commons licence. The final Version of Record or the Author’s Accepted Manuscript must be free to download via an online publication platform, publishers’ website, or repository within 12 months of publication. In this short briefing we explain:

Routes to Open Access
UKRI policy scope and exemptions
How to apply to the central UKRI fund to cover Open Access publishing charges
Finding Open Access publishers for books

Book via UoRLearn

Paying to Publish Gold Open Access journal articles
2023-10-26 13:00 - 13:45 | Online
Publishing your article as Open Access on the publisher’s website usually incurs a fee. This applies for many fully Open Access journals and to hybrid journals unless covered by a Library read and publish agreement with the publisher. We will help you to navigate this complex landscape, to access funds to cover charges and to avoid receiving an unexpected bill. This short briefing will:

Explain which journals are covered by the Library’s read and publish deals
Check whether a journal meets the criteria for the University’s Gold Open Access fund and the UKRI block grant
Show when and how to apply to these funds to cover the cost of an article APC

Register your place on UoRLearn.

Open Access at Reading: All you need to know
2023-10-27 10:15 - 11:00 | Online
This session is intended for new research staff, including early career researchers, and managers and professional services staff needing a general overview of Open Access at the University of Reading. We provide practical information about maximizing the visibility of your research publications for the benefit of both you and the University. Following the session you will be able to:

Recognise the different types and benefits of Open Access
Comply with the key Open Access policies affecting you
Know what to deposit in CentAUR
Apply to the University’s fund to cover Open Access publishing costs
Make informed choices about where to publish
Make informed decisions about sharing networks
Access key bibliometric tools and Altmetric
Register for and populate an ORCiD identifier
