LCAHM Conference 2025: Challenging times

The School of Languages, Cultures, Art History and Music is pleased to announce a PGR-led conference, “Challenging Times,” to be held at the University of Birmingham and online on May 21 2025.

Climate change, war, rapid technological advancements, and clashing ideologies are reshaping our world, presenting us with profound and multifaceted challenges. Global warming is impacting and shaping lives and societies worldwide; the outbreak and escalation of global conflicts, resulting in profound losses and changes, continue to shape political issues; technological developments such as the rise of AI software have prompted discussions on their ethical implications, as well as questions of authorship and artistic originality; while longstanding discourses on race, cultural diversity, and gender equality retain their importance even as the sociopolitical landscapes evolve around them. What is the role of arts and humanities in relation to these challenges?  

The term “challenging” carries a dual meaning: while it can signify a state of being tested or strained, it can also imply an active process of questioning, resisting, and transforming. This duality invites us to reflect not only on the difficulties humanity has faced—whether contemporary or historical—but also on the diverse ways in which individuals, communities, and societies have risen to meet these trials. The theme for this year’s LCAHM conference seeks to inspire a broad and interdisciplinary exploration of how challenges have been experienced, understood, and addressed across cultures and epochs. 

• Zoom link

Programme

9-9:30 Arrival and welcome 

9:30-10:30 “Performing the past, reimagining the present: migration, media, and cultural resistance”

• Daisy Liu (Modern Languages, University of Birmingham): “Performative Times: Re-performing Chaucer in Patience Agbabi’s Telling Tales”
• Sharifa Al Rawahi (Modern Languages, University of Birmingham): “Resistance poetry, activism and translation”
• Nam Huh (Communications and Media, Loughborough University): “Between Realities: Reframing ESEA Migrant Identities through Post-Internet Documentary Practices”

10:30-10:45 Coffee break

10:45-11:45 Sites of contestation: symbolic struggles and the politics of belonging

• Aaron Benson (Modern Languages, University of Birmingham): “Challenging the Far-Right: Spain’s blueprint for resisting populist radical right politics”
• Andrew Nunes (Portuguese Studies, Kings College London): “The Politics of Historical Symbols in Portugal”
• Greice de Nóbrega e Sousa (Department of Social Policy, Sociology & Criminology, University of Birmingham; Department of Languages, UNIFESP): “From Theory to Action: Intercultural Education and Migrant Reception in Brazil”

11:45-12:45 Lunch (food provided)

12:45-13:45 Cutting, stitching, sounding: radical art practices across borders

• Fengyi Guo (History of Art, UCL): “Grievable Spaces: Site, Mourning, and the Political Body in Yoko Ono’s Cut”
• Tamara Newton (Art History, Curating and Visual Studies, University of Birmingham): “The Interplay of Art, Activism, and Indigenous Sovereignty in Marcella LeBeau's Ghost Dance Shirt”
• Theodore S. Gonzalves (Smithsonian National Museum of American History): “Singing Truth to Power: The Global Legacy of Paredon Records”

13:45-14:00 Coffee break

14:00-15:00 Keynote

• Professor Charles Forsdick (Modern Languages, University of Cambridge): "Multilingualism, anglonormativity and bibliodiversity: challenges for academic publishing and research"

15:00-15:15 Coffee break

15:15-16:30 Reconfiguring power in challenging times: art, space, and institutional struggle

• Aurella Yussuf (Art History, Curating and Visual Studies, University of Birmingham): “Black Art in Britain: From Public Funding to Market-Driven Representation”
• Jack Tsai (Art History, Curating and Visual Studies, University of Birmingham): “Top-Down Visions and Bottom-Up Struggles: The Redevelopment of the Eastside 'Sustainable' Cultural Quarter (1990s–2000s)”
• Cindy Evans Torgesen (Filmmaking, Art, and Design, Southern Utah University): “Gruppe Effekt: Student Revolt and the Politics of Participation in 1960s West Germany”
• Holly Gowland (Music, University of Birmingham): “Reconfiguration of Power: Ownership of Sonic Space within Post-Dynamic Mixed Composition”