The Festival opens at 11am in the Charles Wilson Building on the main campus.
Fifty of the University's best research students have been chosen to present their work at this year's Festival with presentations covering everything from the use of Roman military bases as social spaces, the search for novel biomarkers of heart failure, examining Saturn’s ‘raining rings’, to the political representation of animals.
Admission is free and everyone is welcome to attend, so book your place online now.
To learn more about our Festival presenters, you can view the presenter profiles for follow the Graduate School's Facebook page.
]]>Showcasing unpublished new research, Dr Phillip Lindley from the University's Department of the History of Art and Film will deliver a trio of compelling lectures entitled ‘Ducal Monuments and Formal Gardens’.
His first lecture will centre on the unusual use of space age science to dismantle and reassemble the great Tudor Renaissance monuments to the Howard family at Framlingham in Suffolk. Dr Lindley’s current research project involves the use of 3D laser scanning.
The second lecture considers the magnificent monuments at Warkton in Northamptonshire by the French sculptor Louis François Roubiliac, arguably the greatest sculptor to work in eighteenth-century England.
The day shall close upon a discussion of Boughton House gardens. Dr Lindley will be considering the gardens’ original layout as well as the present duke’s revivification of the gardens, including his recent project ‘Orpheus’.
Dr Lindley is the Founding Director of the Centre for the Study of the Country House, an innovative joint venture between the Lamport Hall Preservation Trust and the University of Leicester. It exists to promote all aspects of the study of great historic houses and their surroundings, their design, construction and conservation.
He said, "Although I have enjoyed listening to over a hundred lectures at Lamport Hall, this is is the first time that I have myself lectured there to the general public. After eight years as Director, it was high time I stepped up to the lectern!"
Lectures will take place in the Oak Room and the Study Day commences at 10.15am on Tuesday 11 June.
Booking is essential and tickets cost £40, which includes refreshments. To book a place telephone 01604 686272.
]]>Tim Mowl, who has recently been appointed a Professional Research Fellow in the Institute of Humanities at the University of Buckingham, will deliver his lecture ‘From Cartography to Land Art: The Garden Historian as Polymath’ on Monday 20 May.
Formerly Professor of History of Architecture and Designed Landscapes and Director of the Institute for Landscape and Garden History at the University of Bristol, Mowl has published a number of works on landscape gardening and architecture.
‘From Cartography to Land Art: The Garden Historian as Polymath’ will be held at Lamport Hall, Northampton at 10:00am on Monday 20 May.
Places are strictly limited. Admission is by ticket only. Tickets cost £10 and can only be obtained from Lamport Hall on 01604 686272, www.lamporthall.co.uk
]]>The catalogue for the Royal Academy’s “Bronze” exhibition, which ran from September to December 2012, has won this year's Best New Publication Award from the Association for Cultural Enterprises, leading a strong field with 28 other contenders.
Professor David Ekserdjian, Head of the University’s Department of the History of Art and Film, had the initial idea and helped select the 150 bronze works spanning over 5,000 years of history which made up the exhibition, co-curated by Cecilia Treves, Exhibitions Curator at the Royal Academy.
Professor David Ekserdjian also edited the exhibition catalogue, which was described by the Wall Street Journal as “the most beautiful book published anywhere in the world this year”.
]]>As well as highlighting opportunities for further study in the College of Science and Engineering, the College of Arts, Humanities and Law and the College of Social Science will be heavily represented. This is a great opportunity to see what these Colleges have to offer and to find out if postgraduate study is right for you.
As well as asking any questions you might have to departmental representatives and current postgraduate students, the evening will also help you to find out about financial arrangements and support available to postgraduate students.
The Open Evening will be held on Tuesday 19th March 2013 from 4.00pm – 7.00pm in the O2 Academy, Percy Gee Building (Students’ Union). The Open Evening is free and all are welcome to attend.
For more information, or to book a place, please click here.
From advances in scanning techniques and equipment to the provision of 3D images and models on the web, the current and future issues of this innovative field will be explored by experts from a host of disciplines at '3D Scanning: three-dimensional artefacts from the past, for the future'.
Convened by Dr Phillip Lindley from our Department of the History of Art and Film, it will take place on 10 and 11 December at St Catharine’s College, Cambridge and is part of the Representing Re-Formation project. Dr Lindley has had extensive experience in this field, most recently using tools developed in space science to further his research into tomb monuments.
Dr Lindley’s work with the Representing Re-Formation project has also been successful in recently securing Heritage Lottery Funding towards the conservation of monuments by 18th century French sculptor L.F. Roubiliac in Warkton, Northamptonshire.
]]>Carl Vivian from Multimedia Services along with photographer Colin Brooks and Ather Mirza, from the press office, visited the set in the Students’ Union where they met with actors Dharmendra, Sunny Deol and Bobby Deol.
The family franchise movie is being shot at a number of locations at the University including the Library, the Botanic Garden, the Charles Wilson Building and the Fraser Noble Hall.
Dharminder Shoker, Asset Manager at the University of Leicester, spearheaded the logistical arrangements for the various shoots- and has also ended up with a speaking part in the film.
Featuring Bollywood’s biggest film dynasty, a crew of over 100 shooting at different locations over three months.
Students from the Department of History of Art and Film also got the chance to get to grips with technical aspects of film-making as 90% of Yamla Pagla Deewana 2 (Mad Madder Maddest) is shot in the UK.
The film opens in Scotland, travels to Banaras in India and eventually makes its way to UK –and Leicester.
The film is produced by YPD Films Ltd (UK) and Sunny Sounds Pvt Ltd. (Sister Concern of Vijayta Films Pvt. Ltd.)
Follow the film on Twitter: www.twitter.com/ypdofficial
]]>The Lectures are free and open to everyone. They take place at 5.30pm in the Ken Edwards Lecture Theatre 3, University of Leicester.
The series of four lectures will take place every Tuesday for the next month beginning on Tuesday 16 October. The first lecture will see our Dr Phillip Lindley explore the work of John Carter (d. 1817), an obsessive eccentric, but also a great artist and writer, who changed attitudes to the National Heritage through his meticulous drawings and prints and his furiously intemperate journalism.
Dr Ian Roberts from the School of Modern Languages follows on Tuesday 23 October with a talk on ‘Tales of the Past, Visions of the Future: the Filmmaking of Fritz Lang'.
On Tuesday 30 October the University of York’s Professor Helen Hills will speak about ‘The Matter of Miracles: Baroque Architecture, Relics and the Treasury Chapel of San Gennaro, Naples’
On Tuesday 6 November Professor Brendan Cassidy of the University of St Andrews will discuss ‘Revering Raphael: from the Tudors to the Victorians’.
For more information, please contact Gemma Mayo at gaj3@le.ac.uk or 0116 2522866.
]]>Skyfall opens in cinemas across the country on October 26 – 50 years after Sean Connery first played Bond in Dr No.
Professor Chapman, the author of many Bond inspired journals, essays and books, says he expects the latest film will follow a more serious pathway as similarly set by the previous films Casino Royale and Quantum of Solace. However, there will still of course be links to Bond heritage to mark the 50th anniversary.
Professor Chapman further states that the new direction of the most recent Bond films are due to the change in audience tastes and the release of other competing films, such as the Jason Bourne series.
Despite the film makers choosing to pursue a new direction within the Bond films, you can be confident that Bond’s favourite tagline – ‘The name’s Bond, James Bond’ - will always remain.
The crew of Yamla Pagla Deewana 2 will be in the award-winning Percy Gee Building, housing the Students’ Union, on Sunday 14 October. They will film a cocktail party scene and auction scene in the building which require a total of 100 extras.
The stunt scene scheduled for 9 October at the Charles Wilson Building has been postponed.
The crew is taking advantage of Leicester's city and Oadby sites for their filming - the third Bollywood film to do so in just over a decade.
This Bollywood blockbuster is currently being shot utilising various campus locations, which will include the Charles Wilson Building and the Botanical Gardens which have also been the sites for other popular Bollywood hits. In fact, the University is believed to have been the location for the very first Bollywood film that was shot in the East Midlands
University of Leicester has played host to the Indian film industry since 2001's Pyaar Ko Kya Naam Doon ('What name shall I call our love'), which depicted a hero and heroine meeting and falling in love during their time as University Students at Leicester. They filmed popular campus locations, including various catering facilities, the campus lawn as well as in front of the historic original building of the University, the Fielding Johnson Building, which formed the majestic backdrop for a song sequence.
Our video team was on hand that day and you can watch the filming in progress on Youtube:
Later, in 2004 the University campus was used to shoot what was described as a sophisticated Bollywood gangster movie: Raakh (Ashes) starred Sohail Khan, the brother of Bollywood megastar Salman Khan. The film used the beautiful Oadby-based Botanical Garden as a backdrop for many scenes - as you can see in our picture gallery from the shoot.
Have a look at this excerpt from BBC East Midlands Today on 27 September for a glimpse of Bollywood in Leicester, both old and new:
(Provided courtesy of BBC East Midlands Today)
]]>The exhibition, which started last week and will run until December 9, brings together pieces from Asia, Africa and Europe and includes important discoveries as well as archaeological excavations. Many of the pieces have never been seen in the UK. Focuses of the exhibition include: the Human Figure; Animals; Groups; Objects; Reliefs; Gods; Heads; and Busts. The exhibition features stunning Ancient Greek, Roman and Etruscan bronzes, through to rare survivals from the Medieval period.
Efforts have been made to get the best examples from the countries represented in the exhibition. The response has been incredibly enthusiastic, with the Royal Academy having a great reputation for curating exhibitions. The long duration of the 'Bronze' exhibition allows for a wide variety of people to experience it.
]]>A crew of over 100 is scheduled to shoot scenes for Yamla Pagla Deewana 2 (Mad Madder Maddest) at different locations at the University over the next three months.
The film features legendary star Dharmendra along with his two renowned star-sons Sunny Deol and Bobby Deol. It will also feature the University’s name as Sunny portrays a character who studied here.
The story revolves around Paramveer Singh Dhillon (Sunny Deol), a dashing, honest and righteous loan recovery agent with a unique working style. Once again, he crosses paths with his con artist father Dharam (Dharmendra) and brother Gajodhar (Bobby Deol) and thus unfolds a series of hard core conning by the father-son duo with Paramveer hell-bent on ruining every last effort.
Heroines of the movie are Neha Sharma who featured in the film Kya Cool Hai Hum and Aussie model Kristina Akheeva. The film’s director is Sangeeth Sivan who directed Kya Kool Hai Hum and EK, the Power of One, amongst others.
Students from the Department of History of Art and Film will also get the chance to get to grips with technical aspects of film-making.
You can follow progress on the film on Twitter
]]>Despite the enormous popularity of the James Bond entertainment franchise, little scholarship has been written about the cinematic and literary worlds of Bond. Analyzing the Bond phenomenon beyond the surface may seem somewhat unconventional. However, Professor Chapman argues that given Bond’s position at the very core of contemporary British popular culture an understanding of the Bond phenomenon offers a unique perspective on wider culture and society at the time.
For example, Bond, particularly in the early novels and films, can be interpreted as a reassertion of Englishness or Britishness in a world where Britain was suddenly losing its empire and struggling to find a new role. Appreciating the historical context helps our understanding of why the quintessentially British hero exerting his cultural superiority was so popular with the contemporary audience.
The use of brand adverts in early Bond can be seen as an indicator of class. His choices of products and brands not only say a lot about him but about post-war society. His choices are real indicators of social value and cachet, although as society has progressed over the decades these kind of snob value indicators don't have the kind of cultural resonance that they had in the 1960s. Studying the representation of the Bond girl enables one to examine if the sexist view of Bond films has evolved to meets it social and cultural surroundings. Whichever angle you choose to take, there are a host of reasons why Bond should be taken seriously.
Having the opportunity to be taught Bond by the leading author and expert on the subject provides a rich and stimulating learning experience for students in the Department of History of Art and Film. So while it might seem unconventional to some, Professor Chapman’s research and writing offers a way to explore Britain’s cultural icons and society and re-evaluate them in a 21st century context. And whether your passion is Bond, Bosch or Botticelli you’ll discover that the Department of History of Art and Film is a supportive and welcoming place for those bringing new perspectives to established ideas.
What will you discover at Leicester?
]]>Bronze will bring together 150 artworks from across the world, covering the past 5,000 years. "In terms of intellectual thrill the prospect is entrancing," Professor Ekserdjian told the Guardian. "There is nobody in the world who has seen all of these things in the show."
Among the highlights will be:
As well as the artworks, part of the exhibition will look at the complex processes involved in making bronze, enabling visitors to explore how models are made, cast and finished
'Bronze' will run from 15 September to 9 December. A lavishly illustrated book, also called Bronze, written by Professor Ekserdjian and Francesca Brewer will be published on 3 September to accompany the exhibition.
]]>This year is the 50th anniversary of the first Bond film, Dr No, which was released in 1962, nine years after the character made his literary debut in Casino Royale. The 23rd Bond film, Skyfall, is set for release in October.
In the Newsnight report, Stephen Smith investigated the character’s continuing relevance in the modern world and the distinctively British aspects of Bond. Among the interviewees were producer Michael G Wilson, author William Boyd – and Professor James Chapman from our Department of History of Art and Film.
The ten-minute report is viewable on the BBC website. James, whose books include Licence to Thrill: A Cultural History of the James Bond Films, appears at 3’40” and 8’09”.
*He must get so fed up with that…