17th Annual Conference Programme
(All times are BST)
Friday 19th May 2023, Hybrid
Deciphering Contemporary ‘Europe’: Spaces, Places, People
10:15-10:30 - Welcome & Opening: Imran Hashmi & Marianna Karakoulaki (Co-Chairs, University of Birmingham)
10:30-12:00 – Panel A: Belonging and Unbelonging – Transnational Black and refugee identities in modern Britain
Amirtha Devarajan (IISER Pune) – Borders at the Heartland: A Gendered Reading of Transnational Formations in Bernardine Evaristo's novel Girl, Woman, Other.
Monja Stahlberger (University of London) – ’Ich wollte so sehr englisch sein’: The Construction of Transnational Belonging in Memoirs of Kindertransport Refugees.
12:00-13:15 – Lunch break
13:15-14:45 – Panel B: Colonisation, transnationalism and naturalism – or what it means to be European
Miriam Gartner (University of Birmingham) – Performing Against Borders: Contemporary Transnational Theatre and the Myth of ‘Europe’
Marie Martine (University of Oxford) – Naturalism as a European Movement: A Comparatist’s Dream
14:45-15:15 – Coffee and tea break
15:15-16:00 – Keynote: Dr Katie Tonkiss (Aston University) – Biology and Belonging: International Surrogacy and Citizenship-as-Inheritence in Contemporary Europe
16:00-16:15 – Closing: Imran Hashmi & Marianna Karakoulaki (Co-Chairs, University of Birmingham)
Who is the Graduate Centre for Europe?
The University of Birmingham Graduate Centre for Europe (GCfE), launched in 2005, is a major interdisciplinary initiative involving students and staff from three Colleges in the University. The GCfE has been established to: enable exchanges of ideas on Europe among graduate students, bring together expertise that is currently spread across a wide range of academic disciplines, facilitate collaborative research activities and promote the acquisition of research skills. The GCfE is directed by a steering committee of postgraduates, who represent a range of disciplines. We engage the wider postgraduate community in our work through a range of activities. These include seminars, workshops, and the annual conference.
How can you get involved?
If you would like to get involved with the GCfE or be added to our mailing list, please email gcfe@contacts.bham.ac.uk or to keep up to date with our events and activities follow us on Twitter (@gcfe_bham).