Collaborative projects

Bibliographical Analysis of Medieval Paper Manuscripts of the West Midlands

Funded by The Bibliographical Society, this project investigates the use of paper in the early medieval period and its revolutionary impact on the medieval books containing literature. For further information please contact Dr Orietta Da Rold (odr1@le.ac.uk).

The Leicester Chapbook Project

‘The Leicester Chapbook Project’ is a venture between the School of English and the Centre for Urban History. Chapbooks are small, cheap works that were sold by chapmen and other traders. In the late seventeenth and eighteenth centuries this literature was familiar to a very wide range of social groups and provided common cultural reference points for readers.

The first stage of the project, consisting of a survey of several chapbook collections, was funded by the Bibliographical Society in 2009.

Currently involved are Dr Kate Loveman (English), Prof. Roey Sweet (Urban History) and Dr John Hinks (Urban History). A PhD student, Gervase French, is working on eighteenth-century chapbooks under a scholarship awarded as part of the project.

View notes from a presentation to the Bibliographical Society (PDF)

For more information please contact Dr Kate Loveman: kate.loveman@le.ac.uk

The Sublime Object

Professor Shaw is currently co-investigator on an inter-disciplinary project with Tate Britain, entitled The Sublime Object. Drawing together a wide range of individuals under the umbrella of Tate's collection, the aim of this project is to debate and collaborate on a series of interrelated events and research activities focused on the role of the sublime in our perceptions of the natural world.

Events

• 'Late at Tate', February 2009
• 'The Sublime in Crisis? New Perspectives on the Sublime in British Visual Culture 1760–1900', September 2009
• ''Wrong from the Start': Modernism and the Sublime', November 2009

The Sublime Object website

For more information please contact Professor Philip Shaw: ps14@le.ac.uk

Victoria and Albert, Art and Love

This major exhibition is the first ever to focus on the unique partnership of Queen Victoria and Prince Albert and their shared enthusiasm for art. Victoria & Albert: Art & Love focuses on the period of Victoria’s marriage to Prince Albert, from the time of their engagement in 1839 to the Prince’s untimely death in 1861. The exhibition also challenges the popular image of Queen Victoria – the melancholy widow of 40 years. Through 400 works from across the entire Royal Collection, including paintings, drawings, photographs, jewellery and sculpture, Victoria emerges as a romantic and open-minded young woman.

Professor Richard Foulkes provided expertise for the exhibition and related events.

Victoria & Albert: Art & Love website

Dickens Day

Holly Furneaux is involved, with Birkbeck and the Dickens Fellowship in organising an annual Dickens Day.

She is also on the events committee at the Charles Dickens Museum, and has been involved in organising a range of events from public lectures to cribbage evenings.

For more information please contact Dr Holly Furneaux.

The #Tagginganna Project

The #Tagginganna Project, which is supported by University of Leicester Teaching Enhancement Funding, is an investigation of social commentary on online texts as a support to learning about print narrative fictions. We are currently working with two platforms, one open (digress.it) and one proprietory (a collaboration with Birmingham City University).

The project, which is directed by Mark Rawlinson, Stuart Johnson and Alex Moseley, has three broad goals:

• to test the affordance of technologies;
• to develop learning opportunities;
• to reflect on research methodologies in the field of innovative pedagogy.

For more information please contact Dr Mark Rawlinson: mjr1@le.ac.uk

Contemporary Women's Writing Association

Emma Parker is a founding member of the Contemporary Women's Writing Network, which has recently become the international Contemporary Women's Writing Association, an organisation that promotes contemporary women's writing through its website, journal and regular conferences and networking events. She is currently researching representations of pregnant men.

For more information please contact Dr Emma Parker: ep27@le.ac.uk