Learning, Remembering, Forgetting
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Photo by Jonas Jacobsson on Unsplash
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ANNOUNCEMENT: CONFERENCE POSTPONEMENT
After careful discussion, we have decided to postpone AWWE’s summer 2020 conference because of current health concerns around coronavirus. The AWWE Committee has decided unanimously that we have a duty of care towards our community that is best served by a delay at this point. We are currently investigating revised conference dates in the latter half of 2020, and will make a further announcement when we are in a position to do so.
Date and Location
The conference will take place at Aberystwyth University's Medrus Conference Centre over dates to be announced in due course.
Call for Papers
I have seen the sun break through
to illuminate a small field
for a while, and gone my way
and forgotten it. But that was the pearl
of great price, the one field that had
treasure in it.
(RS Thomas, ‘The Bright Field’).
Recent months have seen the spread of 'Cofiwch Dryweryn' graffiti across Wales in response to the destruction of the original, much retouched sign, and the brief rise of ‘Yma o Hyd' to the top of the iTunes chart, bringing to the fore the importance of collective memory in the constructions of any community. The process of making nations requires selective memory-making, remembering and forgetting: Pierre Nora refers to lieux de memoire: ‘any significant entity, material or non-material…which has become a symbolic heritage of any community’, whereas Benedict Anderson insists on the role of ‘amnesias’ in ‘all profound changes of consciousness’ from which spring narratives of identity.
This year’s conference invites contributors to engage with Welsh literary and cultural explorations of collective and individual remembering and forgetting, education and learning – distinct but overlapping concepts which call for closer examination as cultural, emotional, political, personal and national ideas. How do texts, artworks, characters, casts, authors, genres and communities construct themselves and others in Welsh writings? What are the tensions, the amnesias, the structures of feeling and changes in consciousness found in the literary and cultural texts we identify as Welsh, or as existing within Wales? What stories are told and retold to define a nation, a class, or any other grouping, and how are hegemonic narratives resisted in Welsh literatures?
Colleagues are asked to propose papers and panels on themes including (but not restricted to):
Proposals for 20-minute papers or multi-contributor panels should be sent to the organisers via the online submission page by Monday 16th March 2020.
Proposals for individual papers should be no more than 300 words long and should include a short biographical note. Proposals for panels should be no more than 500 words long and should include a short biographical note of each participant.
Proposals (either for individual papers or for panels) may be for critical work or for creative-critical crossover work.
We welcome papers from independent, new and emerging scholars.
Please note that the conference will not accept proposals for all-male panels.
to illuminate a small field
for a while, and gone my way
and forgotten it. But that was the pearl
of great price, the one field that had
treasure in it.
(RS Thomas, ‘The Bright Field’).
Recent months have seen the spread of 'Cofiwch Dryweryn' graffiti across Wales in response to the destruction of the original, much retouched sign, and the brief rise of ‘Yma o Hyd' to the top of the iTunes chart, bringing to the fore the importance of collective memory in the constructions of any community. The process of making nations requires selective memory-making, remembering and forgetting: Pierre Nora refers to lieux de memoire: ‘any significant entity, material or non-material…which has become a symbolic heritage of any community’, whereas Benedict Anderson insists on the role of ‘amnesias’ in ‘all profound changes of consciousness’ from which spring narratives of identity.
This year’s conference invites contributors to engage with Welsh literary and cultural explorations of collective and individual remembering and forgetting, education and learning – distinct but overlapping concepts which call for closer examination as cultural, emotional, political, personal and national ideas. How do texts, artworks, characters, casts, authors, genres and communities construct themselves and others in Welsh writings? What are the tensions, the amnesias, the structures of feeling and changes in consciousness found in the literary and cultural texts we identify as Welsh, or as existing within Wales? What stories are told and retold to define a nation, a class, or any other grouping, and how are hegemonic narratives resisted in Welsh literatures?
Colleagues are asked to propose papers and panels on themes including (but not restricted to):
- Cultural representation of Welsh education, official and unofficial
- Language and learning
- Welsh childhoods
- Learning to be Other
- Knowledge, Self-Knowledge, Revelation and Forgetting
- Histories and narratives of Institutions, networks, organisations, ‘lieux de memoire’ and emerging identities in Welsh cultures.
- Countercultural Wales
- Contested stories and histories
- Literary and cultural silences, contestations and estrangements
Proposals for 20-minute papers or multi-contributor panels should be sent to the organisers via the online submission page by Monday 16th March 2020.
Proposals for individual papers should be no more than 300 words long and should include a short biographical note. Proposals for panels should be no more than 500 words long and should include a short biographical note of each participant.
Proposals (either for individual papers or for panels) may be for critical work or for creative-critical crossover work.
We welcome papers from independent, new and emerging scholars.
Please note that the conference will not accept proposals for all-male panels.
Bookings
Conference bookings will open in the spring. In the meantime, please see information on conference fees, accommodation, financial support & travel in the section below.
Conference Fees, Accommodation, Financial Support & Travel
Conference fees
Provisional conference fees for 2020 are as follows:
A. Residential bookings (includes accommodation, not en-suite)
Whole conference: £175/£85 (concessions)
Tuesday night only: £90/£45 (concessions)
Wednesday night only: £100/£55 (concessions)
B. Day delegates (does not include accommodation)
Tuesday: £20/£10 (concessions)
Wednesday: £40/£20 (concessions)
Thursday: £25/£12 (concessions)
Concessions: students (undergraduate, postgraduate taught, postgraduate research), as well as those who are either unwaged or on low incomes (annual earning-levels within the standard UK Personal Allowance – i.e. the tax-free income bracket – or anyone in receipt of Working Tax Credit or Universal Credit)
Provisional conference fees for 2020 are as follows:
A. Residential bookings (includes accommodation, not en-suite)
Whole conference: £175/£85 (concessions)
Tuesday night only: £90/£45 (concessions)
Wednesday night only: £100/£55 (concessions)
B. Day delegates (does not include accommodation)
Tuesday: £20/£10 (concessions)
Wednesday: £40/£20 (concessions)
Thursday: £25/£12 (concessions)
Concessions: students (undergraduate, postgraduate taught, postgraduate research), as well as those who are either unwaged or on low incomes (annual earning-levels within the standard UK Personal Allowance – i.e. the tax-free income bracket – or anyone in receipt of Working Tax Credit or Universal Credit)
Accommodation
Accommodation will be provided at the Aberystwyth University Bunkhouse. This accommodation will be included as part of every residential booking made for the conference.
Please note that rooms in the Bunkhouse are not en-suite. If you require en-suite accommodation, we suggest that you investigate accommodation in Aberystwyth's hotels and guest-houses.
Financial Support
Through the kind financial support of AWWE Patrons, a limited number of bursaries will be available to offset travel costs for student, unwaged and low-waged delegates. Please contact the Association Treasurer for more details. We will also consider reducing fees for student, unwaged and low-waged delegates in cases of particular financial hardship. Again, please contact the Association Treasurer for advice.
Travel
Please note that conference fees do not include travel costs.
Accommodation will be provided at the Aberystwyth University Bunkhouse. This accommodation will be included as part of every residential booking made for the conference.
Please note that rooms in the Bunkhouse are not en-suite. If you require en-suite accommodation, we suggest that you investigate accommodation in Aberystwyth's hotels and guest-houses.
Financial Support
Through the kind financial support of AWWE Patrons, a limited number of bursaries will be available to offset travel costs for student, unwaged and low-waged delegates. Please contact the Association Treasurer for more details. We will also consider reducing fees for student, unwaged and low-waged delegates in cases of particular financial hardship. Again, please contact the Association Treasurer for advice.
Travel
Please note that conference fees do not include travel costs.
Conference Organisers
The conference organisation team is being led by Dr Aidan Byrne (University of Wolverhampton).
Latest news and discusssions
For conference news and discussions, we are using the hashtag #awwe20 on Twitter.
Contact
To contact the conference organisers with any queries, please email [email protected]
