Re-reading CFP for Annual PG Conference Research Centre for Comparative Literature and Translation 22-23 May 2025

Re-reading
CFP for Annual PG Conference
Research Centre for Comparative Literature and Translation

22-23 May 2025

 

“I, too, feel the need to reread the books I have already read," a third reader says, "but at every rereading I seem to be reading a new book, for the first time. Is it I who keep changing and seeing new things of which I was not previously aware? Or is reading a construction that assumes form, assembling a great number of variables, and therefore something that cannot be repeated twice according to the same pattern? Every time I seek to relive the emotion of a previous reading, I experience diPerent and unexpected impressions, and do not find again those of before. [...]”

Italo Calvino, If on a Winter’s Night a Traveller

 

If reading and comparing, interpretation and translation are regular keywords in our discipline, re-reading is a concept that goes often unexplored, even though it endows them all with new and enhanced meaning. That ‘re’ necessarily asks us to position that reading and its repetition (or repetitions) within time and space: in the short term, re-reading is essential to any intensive, critical engagement with text; but re-reading in the longer term entails revisiting more than just text – it means an active comparison between now and then, necessarily locating ourselves within that action and renegotiating both cultural and personal awareness. Re-reading can take diPerent forms as it happens over time, sometimes a seasonal or cyclical action to find something familiar – yet never quite the same – sometimes taking the shape of cumulative, palimpsestic reading. And what if we extend that act of reading outside of ourselves, and choose to read and understand with others, inscribing our own interpretive ePort within a history of reading? We become part of an interpretive community where reading and re-reading – across time and space, borders and languages, cultures and media – contribute to a tapestry of meaning. We invite contributions for posters and 15-minute papers that build on the concept of rereading to reflect on themes including, though not limited to, the following:

• material expressions of re-reading

• comparing re-readings of the same text

• fictional representations of re-reading

• re-reading as emotion

• translation and re-translation

• adaptation and transformations of texts across media

• re-appropriation of texts, canons, histories

• intergenerational and diachronic acts of re-reading

• rewriting as re-reading

• re-reading and decoloniality

• dystopia as re-reading

 

Please send proposals of around 200 words to <smlc-pgr-conf@glasgow.ac.uk>, including your name, aPiliation, and a brief biography by 3 March 2025. All participants will be notified by 14 March 2025. Attendance is free and the conference will be hybrid.

A Dialogue Between Industry and Academia on Gaming Glasgow, 5 March 2025, 1- 6 pm (UK time)  

Organised by Yujia Flavia Jin, a PhD researcher in Comparative Literature at the Centre for Comparative Literature and Translation Studies and a former scriptwriter, this event aims to bridge academic research and the gaming industry by fostering interdisciplinary connections and career pathways for Arts and Humanities students and staff.

Bringing together leading scholars and industry professionals—including Brian Baglow (Scottish Games Network & Scottish Games Week), Dr Glaire Anderson (University of Edinburgh), Professor Jerome de Groot (University of Manchester), Dr Timothy Peacock (University of Glasgow), and Dr Raphaël Weyland (Ubisoft Montreal)—the event will explore the role of video games as research resources and career opportunities in game production. One of the highlights of the event is Dr Glaire Anderson (University of Edinburgh) and Dr Raphaël Weyland (Ubisoft Montreal) discussing the development of the Assassin’s Creed: Mirage Baghdad Codex Feature, offering an original and unique insight into the collaboration between historians and game developers in reconstructing historical settings for interactive media.

This event seeks to facilitate interdisciplinary collaboration between academia and the gaming industry while showcasing the College’s active engagement in intermedia studies, SHAPE disciplines, and digital media. It will support postgraduate students’ growing interest in careers in the gaming industry by highlighting relevant research and career development resources, with a roundtable in the end with guest speakers from various backgrounds. Additionally, the event promotes networking and collaboration between universities and the gaming sector, enhancing employability and fostering potential publications and research outputs in video game studies, integrating this field into the broader context of Arts and Humanities.

Taking place on 5 March 2025 in a hybrid format, this workshop offers a dynamic platform for students and researchers to engage with industry experts and gain insights into the evolving creative landscape. The event takes place at the University of Glasgow (St Andrews Building Room 432). Please stay tuned for updates on networking venues. Alternatively, you can join online via Zoom.

This event is funded by the College of Arts Collaborative Research Awards and the Centre for Comparative Literature and Translation Studies at the University of Glasgow. We extend our sincere thanks for their generous support in making this event possible.

Program Details (UK time):

13.00-13.15 Welcome and registration

13.15-13.20 Introduction from host Yujia Flavia Jin (University of Glasgow).

13.20-13.30 Opening remarks by Professor Louise Harris (Dean of Postgraduate Research, College of Arts and Humanities, University of Glasgow).

 

13.30-14.30 Session One ‘Gaming Industry in Scotland'

Dr Timothy Peacock (University of Glasgow), Introduction to UofGGamesLab and gaming research at Glasgow.

Brian Baglow (Founder of Scottish Games Network), Introduction to the gaming industry in Scotland.

Audience Q&A (10 mins)

 

14.40 – 16.00 Session Two ‘Assassin’s Creed: Mirage Baghdad Codex’

Dr Glaire Anderson (University of Edinburgh), Dr Raphaël Weyland (Ubisoft), Introduction to the Assassin’s Creed: Mirage Baghdad Codex Feature

Audience Q&A

 

Tea/Coffee Break 16.00-16.30 (Venue in Glasgow University Union, coffee and snacks provided)

16.30-17.00 Session Three ‘Public History and Video Games’

Professor Jerome de Groot (University of Manchester), Public History and Video Games

Audience Q&A (10 mins)

 

17.00 – 17. 50 Final Roundtable ‘Building Bridges: Academia, the Game Industry, and Career Path Insights’, including Professor Jerome de Groot, Dr Glaire Anderson, Dr Raphaël Weyland, Brian Baglow, Yujia Flavia Jin

 

17.50 – 18.00 Concluding remarks

 

Pub gathering (at participants’ own expense), DRAM

'On Practice' is a new series of talks and workshops hosted by Centre exploring how practice can inform our research, and vice versa.

 
WHEN: Wednesday 26 February, 3-4pm 
 
 
WHAT:
On Practice - A New Series of Talks and Workshops
Curated by Dr Alessia Zinnari 
Research Centre for Comparative Literature and Translation
 
The goal of this new series of events is to offer a space for academics, artists and interdisciplinary practitioners to reflect on the role that practice has in shaping research, and, vice-versa, to appreciate how artistic production can produce knowledge. The mutual exchange - and sometimes tension - between art practice and more ‘traditional’ forms of research is something that can be productively explored to help both academics and artists/practitioners to inform and deepen their respective practices. This series will therefore explore creative methodologies, practice-based research, artistic practice, but also experimental translation and pedagogy, community engagement, and so on. This intends to be a meeting point for both academics and practitioners to forge new connections and collaborations.
 
Our Centre for Comparative Literature and Translation is the ideal host for this series, as comparative studies are inherently linked to the singularities of our experiential background, while practice could be deemed as ‘comparative’ in nature.
 
WHO:
 
Professor Minty Donald
Drifting and Guddling: Creative practice as/and research
 
In this presentation and discussion Professor Minty Donald will share and reflect on her work as a practice-based researcher and artist working both within and beyond academic contexts. Minty’s practice-research explores interrelationships between humans and the other-than-human environments that they shape, build and inhabit; environments that also mould and permeate them. Her practice takes multiple forms, determined by the context in which she is working, but frequently includes performance, sculpture, participatory events and writing. In her practice, she treats other-than-human matter as a collaborator, acknowledging its liveliness and agency, while also recognising the limits and inequalities of human/other-than-human collaboration. Minty regularly works with (human) collaborator, Nick Millar.
 
***ALL WELCOME - REFRESHMENTS PROVIDED***