Research and Enterprise
John Williams, Critical Issues - William Wordsworth
Nina Rapi, Collection of Short Stories
Cherry Smyth, One Wanted Thing
Cherry Smyth, The Future of Something Delicate
Nina Rapi, Lovers
Gielgud Theatre, West End Shorts Season
Susan Rowland, Jung - A Feminist Revision
Susan Rowland, Jung as a Writer
This is the first English Language and Literature submission from the University. Previously English was incorporated into CCMS. The core Research Group is: Professor John Williams (Research Group Leader), Dr. Susan Rowland, Reader in English and Jungian Studies, Dr. Jenny Bavidge, Nina Rapi, Cherry Smyth, Dr. Harry Derbyshire (ECR), and Katy Shaw (ECR). Additional (non-RA2) members central to the development of the Research Programme are Dr. Justine Baillie, Dr. Carolyn Brown, Pippa Guard, Dr. Michael Langan, and Heather Lilley. The group combines the experience and leadership of established scholars with the growing achievements of a group of early career researchers. Since the last RAE the English and Performance Studies Department has developed an ambitious cross-disciplinary research programme. Much of this work has International recognition, and makes an important cultural contribution to the University, and to London; conference papers have been delivered in Britain, the USA and South Africa, work has been published in Britain, the USA, Greece, and Russia, and Rowland’s work has set-text status in the USA. The Group has established four interrelated research areas:
- Contemporary Studies on London
- Jung Studies and Theory
- Romanticism
- A project combining these areas to promote a study of the Symbiosis of Creative and Critical Work.
The Group has developed its cross-disciplinary culture, promoted publication, and encouraged the contribution of early career researchers through an ambitious programme of International Conferences at Greenwich which reinforce the four research areas named in the Introduction. In 2002 Williams organised `The Persistence of Gothic` Conference, including a multi-media exhibition. With Dr. Wendy Creed, then a PhD student at Greenwich, now an Honorary Research Fellow, he organised the 20th Annual International Conference of the Literature and Psychology group in 2003.
Bavidge organised the `City Visions` Conference (2004) on the work of Iain Sinclair, who delivered the keynote address. Two publications resulted, jointly edited by Bavidge and Robert Bond: City Visions: The Work of Iain Sinclair (Cambridge Scholars Press, April 2007), and a special issue of the online Journal, Literary London. These are the first edited volumes on Iain Sinclair to appear anywhere. In July 2006 the University hosted the Annual Conference of Literary London (involving Bavidge with Kingston and Northampton Universities).
Brown organised the `Urban Imaginary` Conference (2005) at Greenwich in conjunction with the launching of the Literary London MA. In December 2006 she organised the Conference `Fusion Culture: Memory, Migration, [Re]mediation, Mobility`. This brought together literature, creative writing, drama, film, and installation work.
In June 2006 Rowland (the Association’s founding Chair) organised the first academic conference of the International Association for Jungian Studies at Greenwich, sponsored by Routledge. The Association is multi-disciplinary, and dedicated to the exploration and exchange of scholarship that relates to all aspects of the broader cultural legacy of Jung’s work. It actively promotes relating analytical psychology to the arts and humanities. The Conference staged the first English performance of Armando N. Rosa’s play An Oedipus, the untold story. It was performed by University of Greenwich drama students. Rowland and Guard negotiated the first English publication of this play with Spring Journal Books (2006); Rowland wrote the Foreword. The Oedipus project exemplifies ground-breaking cross-disciplinary research activity (involving staff, Postgraduate, and undergraduate students), incorporating practise based research and performance. Routledge will publish two collections of papers from the Conference, one of which, Psyche and the Arts, will be edited by Rowland. The Conference held an art exhibition in the Stephen Lawrence Gallery featuring work from the USA, the Netherlands, and the UK.
Staff Profiles
- John Williams` research focuses on the reception of Wordsworth’s poetry in 19th century Germany. This project combines linguistic and translation theory with historical and political studies. Williams’ research reveals for the first time a wider reception of Wordsworth in Germany than has previously been assumed. He is remapping the nature of the influence of British Romantic poets on the development of German literature and thought from the Frühromantik through to the outbreak of the First World War. Translation theory and practise in 18th/19th century Germany and Britain is linked to the philosophical and political context in a way that exposes the permeability of international European boundaries, and academic disciplinary boundaries then and now. John Williams' full profile
- Susan Rowland combines the study of Jung with literary studies in a way that has actively engaged the psychoanalytical fraternity; this constitutes a unique cross-disciplinary achievement in scholarly work. The 2006 IAJS Greenwich Conference shows her research extending into the domain of the performing arts. Rowland helped to organise the International Association for Analytical Psychology Conference at Texas A&M University (2005), a joint academic event with Jung analysts; she will do the same for the Zurich 2008 IAAP conference. She is currently working on a book on the potential of Jungian ideas in the Humanities (Oneworld Press 2008). Susan Rowland's full profile
- Jenny Bavidge's work encompasses literature and film, focussing on representations of the child in the city. She jointly authored `The Metropolitan Playground: London’s Children` in London from Punk to Blair (Reaktion 2003); she has published `Chosen Ones: Reading the Contemporary Teen Heroine` in Teen TV, Genre, Identity, Consumption (BFI 2004), and `Treasure Seekers in the City: London in the Novels of E. Nesbit` in The Swarming Streets: Twentieth Century Literary Representations of London (Rodopi 2004). Her article `Stories in Spaces: Representing Children’s Geographies` was published in Children’s Geographies in 2006. Her book, Theorists of the City (Benjamin, Lefebvre, De Certeau) is published in the Routledge Critical Thinkers series (November 2007). Jenny Bavidge's full profile
- Harry Derbyshire's essay, 'Pinter as Celebrity', is published in The Cambridge Companion to Harold Pinter (2001), and has been revised for the second edition (2009). 'Stamping Ground: London as disputed territory in the plays of Harold Pinter' was published in Literary London: Interdisciplinary Studies (2006); 'Pinter and Style' appears in issue 2 of Brand. His interdisciplinary work is illustrated by an article written with Dr. Loveday Hodson, Law Lecturer at Leicester University, 'Performing Injustice: Human Rights and Verbatim Theatre'. Derbyshire’s article on multiculturalism and representation in Fallout by Roy Williams appears in Modern Drama (Fall 2007) and an article on the development of new writing in the theatre appears in the backpages of Contemporary Theatre
Review (Spring 2008). Harry Derbyshire's full profile - Justine Baillie specialises in post colonial theory and African-American writing. `Contesting Ideologies: Deconstructing Race in African-American Fiction` was published in Women, A Cultural Review (2003). `Whiteness, Innocence, and Intertextuality: Toni Morrison’s Tar Baby and James Baldwin’s The Fire Next Time` was published in a special issue of College Literature on the fiction and non-fiction of Morrison and Baldwin (2005). `“Dread and Love”: Tony Morrison’s Playing in the Dark as Postcolonial text`, published in 'Critical Engagements' (ISSN 1754-0984), is an original addition to Morrison's scholarship. She is currently working on a book contracted by Continuum, Language Politics and Literary Tradition in African-American Fiction (2008). Justine Baillie's full profile
- Pippa Guard has published an article in Literature and History (2007), `Pepys, Actresses, and neo-conservatism in Restoration London`; this discusses Pepys and theatrical activity in the first decade of the Restoration in relation to the role of women in the rebuilding of a neo-conservative England. Central to Guard’s research and teaching is the combination of practise based and traditional academic research strategies. Her work with the community through the Greenwich Festival, the Humanities Drama Festival, and in conjunction with the Research Group Conference programme, exemplifies our achievements in relation to our immediate community, and the wider academic community. Pippa Guard's full profile
- Nina Rapi has brought a high degree of experience and expertise into the creative writing team, and to the Group as a whole. She has published plays, short stories, and essays in England, the USA, and Europe. Nine Traces in a Circle: Short Stories was published in Athens by Thahemon Press in 2006. She was the top finalist in the FuturePerfect script writing competition in 2000 with her play Lovers, which was then performed at the Gielgud Theatre (London New Play Festival 2001). Angelstate, a multi-media exploration of Foucault’s Panopticon concept, was developed with the support of an Arts Council Theatre Writing Bursary. Rapi is currently working on a collection of short stories Out Where? supported by a Writing Grant from the Arts Council. Nina Rapi's full profile
- Cherry Smyth has published poetry in many anthologies. Her most recent collection of her own poetry, One Wanted Thing was published by Lagan Press in 2006. The Future of Something Delicate (Smith/Doorstep Press) came out in 2005, When the Lights go Up (Lagan) came out in 2001. Smyth’s 2 year period as Arts Council Writer in Residence at HMP Bullwood resulted in a collection of poetry by herself and inmates, A Strong Voice in a Small Space (Cherry Picking Press 2002). This won the Raymond Williams Community Publishing Prize. Published fiction includes items in The Anchor Book of New Irish Writing (2000), The Diva Book of Short Stories (2002), Tears in the Fence (vol. 35, 2003), and Chroma, Queer Literary Journal (2004). Other work includes `Object`, a ten minute play commissioned by Salon Shorts Gallery. Cherry Smyth's full profile
The Future
The Department is developing research clusters around our nominated four research areas in the following ways:
- The launching of Brand, the Literary Magazine, and a Conference to promote its aims. The Editor in Chief is Rapi, Poetry Editor is Smyth, Drama Editor is Derbyshire, Langan is Managing Editor. Contributing Editors include Ali Smith, Armajit Chandan, Nina Steiger, and Ersi Satiropoulos. Langan and his colleagues in Creative Writing bring planning and fund raising expertise to the Group, enabling us to investigate the way creative writing connects with performance based research and our more traditional book based work. The success of the current Conference programme in generating published material, motivating early career researchers, reinforcing the identity of our Post Graduate community, and in helping to stimulate applications, justifies the outlay. We will integrate our research areas by focussing on the relationships between theatre in the community (Rapi, Guard, Lilley, and Schwietzer), the creative writing of Langan and Smyth, and the role of theoretical and critical work in this sphere, including studies in Jungian theory. This is the primary aim of the Brand 2008 Conference in which all members of the Research Group are involved.
- A Symposium: `The Child and Modernism` 2008/9 (Bavidge). Funding is being applied for jointly between Greenwich, Reading University, and Manchester University. This event will extend our work on Contemporary Studies on London, incorporating in the process engagement with creative work.
- An Anglo-German Cultural Exchange Symposium in 2011/12 (Williams) will include interdisciplinary work on Romanticism and 19th century history, culture, and the city in the context of Western Europe and translation studies. It will enhance the development of the research cluster incorporating the German Studies Research and Enterprise Programme.