OSL General Meeting and Research Day

Date: January 12, 2016; 14:30 – open end
Venue: University of Amsterdam, Bungehuis (Spuistraat 210, room 4.01); buffet at de Brakke Grond (Nes 45, 1012 KD Amsterdam)

Invitation

We cordially invite all our postgraduate members (PhD-candidates, post-docs and staff members) to the first OSL General Meeting and Research on January 12, 2016 (13:00-18:30, buffet afterwards). The goal of this event is twofold: On the one hand, it is intended as a forum for the discussion and exchange of feedback on upcoming funding applications by OSL members; on the other hand, it is designed to stimulate future collaborations and a culture of synergy and mutual support by literary scholars in times of shrinking resources and fierce competition.

In order to achieve the first goal, we invite all OSL members who intend to submit funding applications for the NWO calls Internationalisering in de geesteswetenschappen (March 2016) and Vrije competitie geesteswetenschappen (April 2016) or other upcoming calls to present their plans of first ideas. For individual scholars and groups who intend to participate in these competitions the gathering will be provide ample opportunity to receive feedback from a selected group of senior OSL researchers on their proposals, acquire new network contacts  and explore possibilities for collaboration with other OSL scholars. (An expert from NWO will also be present to give advice as well.) OSL members who would like to receive feedback on their proposals calls are kindly asked to hand in a brief draft (400 words) by December 15, 2016 to OSL-fgw@uva.nl. NB: It is not our ambition to replace the various supporting services for funding applications offered by the different universities but to provide feedback from within the field and strengthen the team spirit within literary studies.

In order to achieve the second goal, we will set up a part of the meeting as a matchmaking and discussion event where OSL members can learn about each other’s current research interests and discuss the future research agenda of OSL and recent developments in the field.

Programme

14:30     Welcome and general introduction

15:00     Guest lecture prof. Ansgar Nünning (Giessen): “Forms and Functions of Narrative Worldmaking as a Paradigm for Literary (and Cultural Studies) in the 21st Century? Concepts, Frameworks and Modest Proposals”

16:00     Coffee break

16:15     Matchmaking and discussion event

Matchmaking and discussion event (5-6 tables, participants circulate). Topics of the tables (provisional):

  1. What are the research topics that OSL wants to push and how can we achieve this?
  2. Which issues in the sphere of education and society at large do we want to push and how can we achieve this?
  3. Suggestions for the positioning of OSL in the Dutch research landscape
  4. Perspectives for interdisciplinary research; the relation of literary studies to cultural studies, disability studies, urban studies etc.
  5. Perspectives for sociological forms of research and digital humanities
  6. Perspectives for hermeneutics and rhetorical studies

18:00     Roundtable

18:30     Diner (at Brakke Grond)

Registration

Please register for participation in this event by sending an e-mail to OSL via OSL-fgw@uva.nl by December 15, 2016. For questions and suggestions please contact Stephan Besser (s.besser@uva.nl)

  • All participants: Please sign up for 3 of the 6 discussion tables. You are invited to suggest new topics for discussion tables as  well (even before your registration).
  • If you want to present and receive feedback on a research idea/funding appliction please include a brief draft of your project (400 words). Your draft will be handled confidentially.