Ravenstein Winter School ‘New Perspectives on the Novel: Histories, Forms, Representations’

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Utrecht, 18-20 January 2023

Organizers: Dr Lucas van der Deijl (University of Groningen), Dr Roel Smeets (Radboud University) and Dr Inge van de Ven (Tilburg University)

Open to: PhDs and RMA students; OSL members have first access

Credits: 5-6 ECs. NB: Credits can only be awarded to humanities ReMA and PhD students from Dutch universities.

Registration will open in 28 November 2022 (deadline for registration: 4 January 2023). NB: Should you encounter problems with the registration form, please try emptying your cache and/or signing up via a different browser. If the problem persists, you can register by emailing osl@rug.nl with your name, affiliation, status (ReMA, PhD, other) and research school membership.

The Ravenstein Seminar 2023 offers an exciting program of both Dutch and international scholars specializing in the study of the novel, including confirmed keynotes Richard Jean So (McGill University), Karin Kukkonen (University of Oslo) and Caroline Levine (Cornell University). Besides plenary lectures and panel sessions on the history, form, and politics of novels from various language fields and cultural contexts, the program contains hands-on workshops about research methods tailored for the study of both individual cases and large collections of novels. Particular attention will be paid to digital humanities approaches to close and distant reading.

The full program is now available here: Ravenstein 2023_Program

Call for Proposals: OSL Research Incubator

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About OSL Research Incubator

At OSL, we know that traditional funding schemes do not always meet the current needs of researchers. In this regard, we have decided to create a new blue-sky science annual call that will foster and promote research that is not oriented toward immediate output nor driven toward creating a monetary return. The best example that illustrates why blue-sky science is important is found in the Large Hadron Collider in Switzerland, which was conceived as a project with no clear goal but established under the principles of free scientific inquiry. Likewise, scaled to our OSL community, we aim to provide a similar open space for exploration and experimentation within the boundaries of our institutional mission and actual capacities. 

 

What does the OSL Research Incubator include?

  • 5000 euros budget to spend on expert meetings and joint blue-sky science activities (i.e., travel and accommodation expenses, research support, etc.)
  • OSL support for logistics / organization
  • OSL promotion of the Research Incubator events, meetings and projects

 

Who can apply?

Groups between 5 minimum to 10 maximum OSL members (staff and students) are eligible. Proposals should comprise a good balance between staff and student members; inter-faculty and internationally oriented groups will be prioritized. The Research Incubator will have a life-span of 12 months maximum. The group will have to produce a research incubator log memo (free form) which must be submitted to osl@rug.nl upon completion of the life-span, reflecting the activities and work-in-progress developed at the Research Incubator.

 

How to apply?

If you are interested in applying for this scheme, please submit your application comprising the following information:

 

  • Research Incubator Title
  • 5 Keywords
  • OSL Students and Staff Members Participating (affiliation and email)
  • 400-word max letter of motivation and rationale for applying to the Research Incubator scheme

 

Deadline for submission

30 January 2023 at 14:00 via osl@rug.nl

Forms of Postcolonial and Postsocialist Time: Eternal Presents and Resurfacing Futures

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Location: University of Amsterdam
Dates:22 February + 8 and 22 March + 5 and 19 April 2023, 10:00-13:00
Rooms: Oudemanhuispoort A0.09 (8 February, 8 and 22 March, 5 April); University Library, Belle van Zuylenzaal (22 February); Oudemanhuispoort C 2.23 19 April)
Organizers: Dr Ksenia Robbe (University of Groningen), Dr Sanjukta Sunderason (University of Amsterdam) and Dr Hanneke Stuit (University of Amsterdam)
Contact: osl@rug.nl.
Credits: 5 ECTS

Registration will open on 28 November 2022 (deadline for registration: 4 January 2023). NB: Should you encounter problems with the registration form, please try emptying your cache and/or signing up via a different browser. If the problem persists, you can register by emailing osl@rug.nl with your name, affiliation, status (ReMA, PhD, other) and research school membership.

 

This course addresses the ways in which literature and art, in their generic capacity for multi-perspective representation, reimagine place and agency within the eternal present inaugurated by the end of the Cold War at the turn of the 1990s. This global discourse of contemporaneity was meant to deconstruct the linear progressive time of modernity that dominated the 20th century. However, arrested within such perceptions of new spatio-temporal fluidities of “the contemporary” were the heterogeneous temporalities of decolonization and democratization in societies that had been negotiating the impacts and afterlives of empire and ideological conflicts of the Cold War across the long 20th century.

Today, we observe a certain “return of history” in calls for decolonization that have come to define militant imperialisms and nationalisms across the globe, as well as activist resistance to nation-statist hegemonies. The war in Ukraine, and continuing conflicts over postcolonial sovereignty across former colonial sites like Hong Kong, Kashmir, or Palestine reveal such circularities of eternal presents and resurfacing futures. These temporalities, while appealing to new calls for liberation, are nonetheless often dominated by nation-state driven essentialist past-orientedness and the wish to preserve the existing hegemony.

Our course will foreground the proposition that postcolonial and postsocialist societies of the past three decades can be approached as repositories of braided temporalities of struggle, affirmation, memorialization, and utopian horizons. We can encounter here new and alternate versions of contemporaneity that materialize the spectre of emancipatory history via aesthetic form and develop ways of engaging with the past that “resurface” futurity.

Full description available here: Eternal Presents_Course description

Laughing Matters: Interdisciplinary Perspectives on Humor and Society

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Dates: 3, 10 and 17 February + 3, 10 and 17 March 2023 (13:00-15:00)

Location: University of Groningen (Harmoniegebouw, 1315:0036 [February 3rd] and 1312.0019 [February 17th and March 10th]) / Leiden University (Lipsius 208 [February 10th, March 3rd and 17th])

Lecturers: Alberto Godioli (University of Groningen) and Yasco Horsman (Leiden University)

Contact: osl@rug.nl

Credits: 5 ECTS

Registration

THE COURSE IS FULLY BOOKED, please send an e-mail with your with your name, affiliation, status (ReMA, PhD, other) and research school membership to osl@rug.nl. We will put you on our waiting list.

What social functions can humor perform, from literary satire to stand-up comedy? How does a society negotiate the cultural, moral or legal boundaries of humor, i.e. what can and cannot be joked about? How is the production and circulation of humor changing, in the age of social media and viral memes? Questions like these can only be effectively tackled from an interdisciplinary perspective – i.e., by combining literary, cultural, sociological and linguistic approaches to the multifaceted nature of humor as a social phenomenon.

This seminar builds on recent cross-disciplinary developments in humor research, with a special emphasis on the contextual dimensions of humorous communication (Tsakona 2020) and the complex roles played by humor in the public sphere (Nieuwenhuis and Zijp 2022; Kuipers 2015). Please find an overview of the sessions below:

 

  • Groningen, 3 February 2023
    Introduction to humor studies
    Guest speaker: Prof. Giselinde Kuipers (KU Leuven)
  • Leiden, 10 February 2023
    Caricature, Calumny and Cartoons
    Speakers: Dr. Yasco Horsman (Leiden University) and Tjeerd Royaards (Cartoon Movement)
  • Groningen, 17 February 2023
    Interpreting Humor: From Social Media to Courts of Law
    Speakers: Dr. Nicholas Holm (Massey University) and Dr. Alberto Godioli (University of Groningen)
  • Leiden, 3 March 2023
    The politics of stand-up comedy and cabaret
    Guest speakers: Marie Koet (University of Groningen) and Dick Zijp (Utrecht University)
  • Groningen, 10 March 2023
    The Comedic Looking-Glass: Rethinking Representations in Stand-up and News Satire
    Guest speakers: Jonas Nicolaï (Antwerp University) and Lucy Spoliar (Radboud University)
  • Leiden, 17 March 2023
    Humor and political resistance
    Guest speaker: Chrisoula Lionis (University of Manchester)

 

Credits

Students can obtain 5 ECTS by attending the sessions, submitting a series of short weekly assignments, and handing in a final paper by 14 April 2023, end of day. For more information, please contact osl@rug.nl.

Organizers

Yasco Horsman is University Lecturer in Film and Literary Studies at Leiden University and Chair of the MA In Media Studies. He published Threatres of Justice: Judging, Staging and Working Through in Arendt, Brecht and Delbo (Stanford 2010) and essays on Law, Literature, Psychoanalysis and the Graphic Novel in The Oxford Art Journal, Law and Literature, Tijdschrift voor Psychoanalyse, Law and Humanities, Patterns of Prejudice and The Senses and Society.

Alberto Godioli is Associate Professor in European Culture and Literature at the University of Groningen, and program director of the Netherlands Research School for Literary Studies (OSL). His publications include the monograph Laughter from Realism to Modernism (Routledge, 2015) as well as a number of articles and book chapters on humor and satire from an interdisciplinary perspective. He is the principal investigator of the NWO Vidi project ‘Humour in Court‘ (2022-2027), as well as the founder and co-director of ForHum: Forum for Humor and the Law. He recently co-edited a special issue for HUMOR: International Journal of Humor Research, titled ‘Humor and the Law: The Difficulty of Judging Jests‘ (35.3, 2022).

References

  • Kuipers, Giselinde. 2015. Good Humor, Bad Taste: A Sociology of the Joke. Berlin: De Gruyter.
  • Nieuwenhuis, Ivo and Zijp, Dick (eds). 2022. Special Issue: The Politics and Aesthetics of Humour. European Journal of Cultural Studies 25(2).
  • Tsakona, Villy. 2020. Recontextualizing Humor. Berlin: De Gruyter.

International Blended Seminar ‘War in European Memory’

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Online sessions + onsite workshop | October 2022 – April 2023

Credits: 7 ECs. NB: Credits can only be awarded to humanities ReMA and PhD students from Dutch universities.

For info on registration, please contact Dr. László Muntean (laszlo.muntean@ru.nl). Application deadline: 10 October 2022.

 

The international MA seminar with participants from Lucerne, Paris, Cologne, Berlin, Nijmegen and Warsaw focuses on the analysis of practices and narratives of memory in Europe with regard to war. The construction, public usage – politics of history – contestation and transformation of memory of wars over time will be approached by fusing concepts of memory studies and public history, focusing on different agents in the public sphere, especially museums, comme-moration sites, monuments, art, and the media (including social media) will be approached systematically. Against the background of approaches of memory studies (practices, narratives, affects of memory), the seminar aims at an in-depth analytical perspective on past and present constructions of European memories of war and their complex relation to national (and regional) memories. In this perspective, a focus on the present war in Ukraine will be integrated with an eye on how memory is used and produced in this war in Europe.

This international seminar presents a unique opportunity for the collaboration of students from a variety of European countries. Apart from online and live sessions, the exchange of ideas, reflection on texts and analysis of primary sources in small international groups are key elements of the seminar. Working in small groups, students will produce short projects (for example collaboratively elaborated papers, blog posts, online live presentations, videos, podcasts, etc.).

The seminar will consist of weekly online sessions between October 17 and December 19, 2022 and an on-site workshop in Gdańsk from 24 to 26 April 2023 (focusing on the Museum of the Second World War).

  • English is the main language of communication.
  • Participants are in principle MA students in the study programmes of the six partner Universities.
  • Modes of teaching and communication:
    • collaborative work in groups with outputs in various possible formats (papers, videos, podcasts)
    • group discussions in live online seminars
    • two-day workshop in Gdańsk, 24–26 April 2023 (trip and accommodation financed)
  • OSL students will acquire 7 ECTS through active participation and completing all the course-related assignments, including a final paper (approx. 4000 words) on a topic to be negotiated with the instructors.
  • Semester dates: October 17–December 19, 2022.

 

Flyer International Blended Learning Seminar

 

CfP Symposium ‘Lifting the Veil: Science, Superstition, and the Supernatural’

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Amsterdam | 2 February 2023, 9:30 – 17:00 | Oudemanhuispoort 4-6 (OMHP), room A1.18C

Organizers: Bart Mulderij and Marijke Valk (University of Groningen)

Open to: PhDs and RMA students; OSL members have first access.

Credits: 2ECs can be obtained by presenting a paper or submitting the final assignment. NB: Credits can only be awarded to humanities ReMA and PhD students from Dutch universities.

Registration will open on 28 November 2022. NB: Should you encounter problems with the registration form, please try emptying your cache and/or signing up via a different browser. If the problem persists, you can register by emailing osl@rug.nl with your name, affiliation, status (ReMA, PhD, other) and research school membership.

 

OSL invites paper proposals for ‘Lifting the Veil: Science, Superstition, and the Supernatural’: a one-day symposium on Gothic interpretations of science and the supernatural, taking place in Amsterdam on 2 February 2023. The symposium will feature lectures by two keynote speakers, namely Dr Eleanor Dobson (University of Birmingham), author of Victorian Alchemy: Science, Magic and Ancient Egypt (2022); and Dr Evert Jan van Leeuwen (Leiden University), co-editor of Haunted Europe: Continental Connections in English-Language Gothic Writing, Film and New Media (with M.S. Newton, 2019). In addition, there will be one or two panels with presentations by students and early career scholars.

An increasing amount of scholarly attention is being paid to the interplay between science and the supernatural within fiction, predominantly concerning the emergence of occultism during the Victorian period as a reconciliation between the incomprehensible natural sciences and the familiar religious framework, and the tension between the Victorians’ desire to learn more about the world and being terrified of what they learned. Recent influential works on the topic include Ferguson’s article (2017) on the connection and overlap between the natural and occult sides of the scientific spectrum in Victorian occult fiction; Corcoran’s (2021) contextualization of the rise of spiritualism as a result of the technological advances that occurred during the nineteenth century and its influence on Gothic literature; and Kirland’s book (2021) on the influence of the horror within Gothic literature on modern video games. This growing body of scholarship also highlights promising avenues for future research, including interdisciplinary approaches – as shown by Kirkland’s literature/video games analysis – as well as Gothic and Victorian echoes in contemporary representations of science and the supernatural.

This symposium re-examines the role of occult elements in Victorian occult fiction novels as part of the cultural fear of the supernatural and spiritual. To this end, it intends to provide a new angle on (Victorian) Gothic and occult studies, by using canonical and non-canonical literary works to approach the Victorians’ fear of the natural sciences in a manner that emphasises the Victorians’ desire to control the unknown.

Submission Guidelines

We welcome proposals for papers related to the study of (neo-) Victorian and Gothic science and supernatural in literature and other forms of media from all nations, languages, and periods. All papers should be in English. Each twenty-minute presentation will be followed by a ten-minute Q&A session. Participants are invited to consider topics including, but not limited to:

  • The appeal of Gothic horror for the Victorians
  • Potential comparisons to the Gothic in other continents or regions
  • Comparative reflections on science and the supernatural during the Victorian era
  • The emergence of occult science as a result of a contesting interrelation between natural and occult sciences
  • The influence of the loss of religion on Victorian culture and literature
  • Modern and neo-Victorian interpretations in current media
  • The rise of the supernatural monster in the Late-Victorian period

To submit an individual paper, please provide a 300-word abstract of the paper you are proposing; your name, institutional affiliation, and email address; and a brief statement (no more than 100 words) about your work as well as any relevant publications, presentations, or projects-in-progress.

Interested participants are invited to submit their proposal as a single PDF file to osl@rug.nl by 1 December 2022, end of day. Accepted participants will be notified by 15 December 2022.

Please address any inquiries to osl@rug.nl.

NB: Students can obtain 2ECs by presenting a paper (see guidelines above), or by submitting a critical reflection (1400-1600 words, excl. bibliography) to osl@rug.nl before 28 February 2023, 23:59. In their reflections, students should discuss one of the panels and/or keynote lectures in light of relevant secondary sources (at least five); they are also welcome to elaborate on how the panels relate to their own research interests. Credits can only be awarded to humanities ReMA and PhD students from Dutch universities.

OSL Academic Programme 2022-2023

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The first overview of the OSL academic programme for 2022-2023 is now available! For most of the activities taking place in Semester 1, registration will open on August 31st, 2022 (please click on the respective links for more details). If you have any questions, you are welcome to send an email to osl@rug.nl.

NB: Unless stated otherwise, all events are being planned as onsite.

Semester 1 (September 2022 – January 2023)

 

What Next? Life After Your ReMA/PhD | Amsterdam, 30 September 2022, 14:00-18:00 CET. Organizers: Dr Alberto Godioli (University of Groningen), Kim Schoof (Open University), Clara Vlessing (Utrecht University) and Kaspar Hendrichs (Leiden University)

 

OSL Research Day | Leiden, 7 October 2022, 10:00-18:00. Organizers: Prof. Maria Boletsi and Prof. Frans Willem Korsten (Leiden University).

 

Seminar ‘Eco-Collapse in Transatlantic Perspective’ | Nijmegen, 5 October, 19 October, 9 November, 23 November, 7 December and 21 December 2022. Organizers: Prof. Michael Boyden (Radboud University). 5-6 ECs.

 

Skills Course ‘Fiction: A Practitioner’s Guide’ | Groningen, 29 September, 6 October, 13 October (15:00-17:00) + 27 October, 3 November and 10 November 2022 (14:00-16:00). Organizers: Dr Suzanne Manizza-Roszak and Dr David Ashford (University of Groningen). 5 ECs.

 

Seminar ‘Africa Beyond “Africa”‘ | Amsterdam, 4,11, and 18 October; 1, 8 and 15 November 2022. Organizers: Prof. Margriet van der Waal (University of Groningen) and Dr. Astrid Van Weyenberg (Leiden University). 5 ECs.

 

International Blended Seminar ‘War in European Memory’ | Online + onsite workshop, October 2022 – April 2023. 10 ECs.

 

Workshop ‘Regional Literature in Transnational Contexts’ | Nijmegen, 11-13 January 2023. Organizer: Prof. Marguérite Corporaal (Radboud University). 2 ECs.

 

Ravenstein Winter School ‘New Perspectives on the Novel: Histories, Forms, Representations’ | Utrecht, 18-20 January 2023. Organizers: Dr Roel Smeets (Radboud University), Dr Inge van de Ven (Tilburg University) and Lucas van der Deijl (University of Groningen). 5-6ECs.

 

Semester 2 (February – July 2023)

 

OSL/NICA Seminar ‘Laughing Matters: Interdisciplinary Perspectives on Humor and Society’ | Groningen / Leiden; 3, 10 and 7 February and 3, 10 and 17 March 2023. Organizers: Dr Alberto Godioli (University of Groningen) and Dr Yasco Horsman (Leiden University). 5ECs.

 

Seminar ‘Forms of Postcolonial and Postsocialist Time: Eternal Presents and Resurfacing Futures’ | Amsterdam, 8 February, 22 February, 8 March, 22 March, 5 April 2023. Organizers: Dr Ksenia Robbe (University of Groningen), Dr Sanjukta Sunderason (University of Amsterdam) and Dr Hanneke Stuit (University of Amsterdam). 5 ECs.

 

Symposium ‘Lifting the Veil: Science, Superstition and the Supernatural‘ | Amsterdam, 2 February 2023. Organizers: Marijke Valk and Bart Mulderij (University of Groningen). 2 ECs.

 

Schrijfcursus voor geesteswetenschappers: Framen, schrappen en herschrijven | Utrecht, 27 and 28 March + 3 and 4 April 2023 . Organizer: Prof. Geert Buelens (Utrecht University). 3EC.

 

Seminar ‘Contemporary Debates in Life Writing‘ | Amsterdam, 4, 11 and 18 April + 2 and 9 May 2023, 10:00-13:00 (5 sessions). Organizers: Dr. Marleen Rensen (UvA) and Dr. Babs Boter (VU). 5 ECs.

 

Seminar ‘Computational Literary Studies‘ | Amsterdam / Online | 17 April, 24 April, 8 May and 15 May 2023, 12:00-13:00 (onsite, P.C. Hoofthuis 4.40); 22 May and 5 June 2023, 12:00-15:00 (online). Organizer: Dr Karina van Dalen-Oskam. 3-6 ECs

 

OSL PhD Day | Utrecht, 9 June 2023.

More details will follow soon.

 

Hermes Summer School | Siena (Italy), June 2023.

 

Institute of World Literature Summer Program | Venue TBA, July 2023.

OSL Skills Course: ‘Fiction: A Practitioner’s Guide’

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Groningen | 29 September, 6 October, 13 October (Harmony Building, Collaboratory A, 15:00-17:00) + 27 October, 3 November and 10 November (Harmony Building, room 1315:0036, 14:00-16:00).

Organizers: Dr Suzanne Manizza-Roszak and Dr David Ashford (University of Groningen)

Open to: PhDs and RMA students; OSL members have first access.

Credits: 5ECs. NB: Credits can only be awarded to humanities ReMA and PhD students from Dutch universities.

Registration THE COURSE IS FULLY BOOKED, please send an e-mail with your name, university and research school to osl@rug.nl. We will put you on our waiting list.

This course will introduce participants to the craft of fiction writing, enabling them to develop or to expand upon their own practice as creative writers. In the first half of the course, participants will study fiction in diachronic perspective from a variety of traditions, from the epistolary genre to semi-autobiographical writing. Over this series of seminars and creative writing workshops, participants will investigate how earlier forms of fiction-writing have been (and might be) adapted for the creation of contemporary fiction.

In the second half of the course, participants will read very recently published flash fiction and short stories with an eye toward specific questions of craft. Can the musicality of the line inform our fiction writing in the same way that it does our poetry? How is dialogue shaped by what we omit as well as what we include? Throughout the block, students will produce creative work of their own that draws on these readings and conversations. A final reflective meta-writing assignment will create space for student authors to consider how their thematic preoccupations and aesthetic choices connect to the reading list, to the writing of their peers, and to a larger body of both earlier and contemporary fiction.

The full programme will be available soon.

What Next? Life After Your ReMA/PhD

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30 September 2022, 14:00-18:00 CET | Amsterdam, Roeterseilandcampus (REC) B2.01 and B2.11 

Organizers: Dr Alberto Godioli (University of Groningen), Kim Schoof (Open University), Clara Vlessing (Utrecht University) and Kaspar Hendrichs (Leiden University)

Open to: PhDs and RMA students; OSL members have first access. Interested (regular) MA students are welcome to participate.

Credits: None.

Registration NOTE: When registering, please indicate your Research and Career interests (for the speed-networking session) at the remarks.

What does life look like after a ReMA or PhD in literary studies / the humanities? How can you find out what professional path is most suitable for you? During this event, OSL ReMAs and PhDs will have an opportunity to discuss these questions with academics at various stages in their careers, as well as OSL alumni working in policy making and the cultural sector.

Programme

14:00-14:15: Walk-in and introduction (REC B2.01)

14:15-15:30: Career perspectives outside academia: Creative industries, policy, education, advertising (REC B2.01; Chairs: Kim Schoof and Clara Vlessing; Speakers: Maarten Gooskens, Rik Kleuver, Annelies van der Meij, Sophie de Ruiter, Grace Vroomen)

15:30-15:45: Coffee break

15:45-16:45: Academic life after your ReMA (REC B2.01; Chair: Alberto Godioli; Speakers: Andries Hiskes, Jilt Jorritsma, Kim Schoof)

15:45-16:45: Academic life after your PhD (REC B2.11; Chair: Konstantin Mierau; Speakers: Jesse van Amelsvoort, Leila Essa, Judith Jansma)

16:45-17:00: Coffee break

17:00-17:30: Speed-networking (REC B2.01 and B2.11)

17:30: Drinks

OSL Seminar: ‘Africa Beyond “Africa”‘

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Amsterdam | 4,11, and 18 October and 1 November 2022 (OMHP E2.01, 15:00-18:00) + 8 and 15 November 2022 (OMHP E0.13, 15:00-18:00).

Organizers: Prof. Margriet van der Waal (University of Groningen) and Dr. Astrid Van Weyenberg (Leiden University)

Open to: PhDs and RMA students; OSL members have first access.

Credits: 5ECs. NB: Credits can only be awarded to humanities ReMA and PhD students from Dutch universities.

Registration will open on August 31st, 2022

Although political, sociological, ethnographical or anthropological perspectives from, on and about Africa are frequently examined and discussed, African artistic domains remain relatively underexposed in the Netherlands. This is remarkable, especially when taking into account that African artistic practices are booming – both at home and around the world. In this course, we will problematize a number of assumptions about Africa and explore how contemporary African literature and film invite us to imagine and rethink Africa as part of the world and the location of the future. The seminar is not meant to represent a general overview of African literature and film, but aims to explore a number of topical issues with regard to contemporary literary and cultural production from and about Africa. We will apply an interdisciplinary perspective, drawing on the knowledge and expertise from different academic fields working on the topic of African literature and film.

The full programme will be available soon.