SWIRL

South West Interdisciplinary Romanticism Link

SWIRL

The South West Interdisciplinary Romanticism Link (SWIRL) has three aims: to strengthen a network of scholars working on different aspects of the period 1750-1850, to facilitate debate across the disciplines, and to boost the profile of Romantic studies at our institutions and in the region.  It provides a forum in which academics from the South West can explore the intellectual and professional challenges that currently energise our field.

On 29 October, scholars from the universities of Cardiff, Swansea, Exeter, Southampton, University of the West of England, Bristol, Reading, Glamorgan, and the University of Central England met in Bristol for the first SWIRL symposium.  They came from departments of English, French, German, History, Philosophy, Music, History of Art, Sociology, Hispanic, Portuguese and Latin American Studies, and Pathology and Microbiology.  In a series of round table discussions, they shared their research and began an interdisciplinary conversation that SWIRL aims to sustain in the future.

Our discussions left us convinced that SWIRL could play an important role by promoting collaboration and debate across the region and among the disciplines.  In order to build on the foundation laid by our first symposium, we have set up an email listserv, and hope to extending our activities into a second SWIRL symposium as detailed below.

Anyone interested in joining the SWIRL mailing list should e-mail John Halliwell at the e-mail address above.

South West Interdisciplinary Romanticism Link

Call for Papers: Postgraduate Symposium - Romanticism and History

Friday 26th May

Research on all aspects of Romanticism has benefited from a substantial body of historical scholarship in the past decade. This work has provided fundamental new insights into the political, cultural, economic, and social revolutions of the period, shifting the ground of what constitutes Romantic Studies.  Yet despite the “historical turn” visible across a variety of disciplines, opportunities to discuss and assess the role of history, together with the assumptions and techniques that underlie its use, have rarely been available in an interdisciplinary environment.

With this in mind, the South West Interdisciplinary Romanticism Link (SWIRL) would like to invite postgraduate students working in the field of Romantic Studies to submit proposals for papers that discuss ways in which historical scholarship has led them to reshape, revise, revitalize, or reconceptualize their research in either theoretical or practical terms.

Possible topics might include, but are not limited to:

• Romantic historiography and theories of history

• the boundaries of Romanticism in national literatures eg. French, German, Russian, Italian, Spanish etc.

• Romanticism, history and periodization in non-literary culture eg. Architecture, Art and Music

• post-romanticism and the Romantic afterlife

• History and the construction of narrative

• the emergence of "Romanticism" as a historical category (e.g. in the work of Hegel or the Schlegels)

• the borders between Romanticism and other periods

• historicism and interdisciplinarity

Abstracts of 250 words for 20 minute papers should be submitted electronically to romantic-studies@bristol.ac.uk  in the body of an email or as an attachment in .doc or .pdf format. Please include institutional affiliation in the body of the text.

Deadline for submission, 24 April 2006 

We very much hope that you will be able to come to the symposium, and encourage you to advertise it to postgraduates and colleagues in your department who you think might also be interested in attending.

Benjamin Walton                       John Halliwell

benjamin.walton@bris.ac.uk              jh2860@bris.ac.uk