Category: Call for papers

Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic Doctoral Conference: Wednesday 19 June 2024

We are pleased to call for contributions in the form of talks and research posters. If you have any queries please email graduateresearchschool@bbk.ac.uk.  This update includes information about:

  • A Call for PGR student talks  
  • Call for PGR Posters  
  • Call for Steering Group Member

Call for PGR student talks

Deadline Tuesday 14 May

Why present a talk?

Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic (BAME) Doctoral researchers are invited to propose a talk to present at the conference. This is an opportunity for you to make your doctoral research visible and gain experience presenting your work. 

What sort of talks are invited?

We intend student talks to be up to 15 minutes in duration including questions but we may need to adjust the timings slightly depending on the number of speakers. 

Suggested talk structure 

If you are unsure about what to present you are invited to consider the following structure for a talk. Please aim to make your talk accessible to a non-specialist. 

1. Introduction (2 minutes)

  • Greeting and Opening: Start by introducing yourself and you could thank those present for the opportunity to speak.
  • Introduce yourself: You could introduce yourself and say which doctoral programme you are enrolled on. It would be interesting to hear why you chose to study a PhD and why you chose Birkbeck. State the focus of your doctoral research and what you aim to prove or discover. 

2. Research Context and Relevance (3 minutes)

  • You could briefly summarise your chosen field of research including why it is of importance to you and to your field of study.
  • Field Overview: Briefly describe how your research fits into the current state of the field related to your research.
  • Gap Identification: Highlight what’s missing in the current research landscape and how your work addresses this gap. Highlight which part of your work you will be speaking about today.

3. Methodology (3 minutes)

  • Research Design: Outline your research design, including the type of research (qualitative, quantitative, mixed methods, etc.) in relation to your talk. You could highlight whether ethical approval was required.
  • Data Collection: Describe how you collected or will collect your data.
  • Analysis Techniques: Briefly mention the analysis techniques used/ to be used, ensuring to clarify any complex methods in a way that non-specialists will be able to understand.

4. Key Findings (3 minutes)

  • Major Results: Present the main findings of the research you are sharing. Use visuals like charts, graphs or images if they help clarify complex data.
  • Interpretation: Provide a brief interpretation of what these findings may mean for your project and/ or for the field.
  • Limitations: Quickly note any limitations of your study to anticipate potential questions.
  • If you haven’t yet reached the stage of research findings you could speak about  some of the questions you hope to answer.

5. Conclusion and Future Research (2 minutes)

  • Bring your talk to a conclusion by summarising key points covered and what further work you plan to do during your doctoral studies.
  • Summary: Recap the main points of your research and your findings.
  • Future Directions: Suggest how your research could be expanded or what future studies could explore further based on your work.

6. Q&A Session (2 minutes)

  • Thank the audience for their attention. One of the event organisers will invite questions from the audience. 
  • You may find it useful to have prepared responses for likely anticipated questions, especially regarding your methodology and your conclusions.

How to submit your proposed talk

You are invited to submit your proposed talk using this brief form. 

Will all talks be selected?

We aim to involve as many contributors as possible but in order to include a balanced range of talks we may need to be selective. We plan to offer parallel sessions in order to accommodate as many talks as possible so please do be encouraged to submit a talk proposal. 

The choice of talks will be decided on by a steering group for the conference which will include doctoral student members. This group will meet soon after the deadline for proposals so that we can confirm arrangements for speakers in the week commencing 22 May.

Call for PGR Posters

Deadline Friday 7th June

The opportunity to present your work through a research poster, practise your communication skills, network with other doctoral researchers and to celebrate your work is available to all BAME Doctoral Researchers at Birkbeck at the Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic Doctoral Conference.

Your research poster should explain your research to a mixed audience of non-subject specialists and should be formatted for printing as A0 in size and in portrait orientation.

Instructions for poster submissions

Please complete this brief form about your research poster.

All poster contributors will be asked to submit their poster as a .pdf file by 7 June so that the BGRS can arrange for them to be printed.

Call for Steering Group Member

Deadline 14 May

We are looking for a self-funded BAME student to join the Steering Group for this conference. 

The group will meet on the week of the May 14th (date TBC) to help decide on which PGR Student talks will be selected for the Conference. This is a great opportunity to be a part of the planning of the first BAME Doctoral Conference as well as helping with arrangements on the day of the event which may include introducing speakers or helping with question and answer sessions.

The group will consist of:

  • Dr William Ackah (Senior Lecturer, School of Social Sciences)
  • Tim Hoe (Graduate Research School Manager)
  • Sabrina Bowen (CHASE EDI Ambassador)
  • Diversity 100 Doctoral Researcher
  • CHASE Doctoral Researcher
  • Self-Funded Doctoral Researcher

How to express interest:

Please send the following to graduateresearchschool@bbk.ac.uk:

  • A copy of your CV
  • A brief statement outlining why you would like to join the steering group (no more than 150 words)

Two opportunities from The Gardens Trust

ENTRIES ARE INVITED FOR THE
17th ANNUAL MAVIS BATEY ESSAY PRIZE
Closing date for submissions 2nd Oct 2022

Our annual essay competition is intended to encourage vibrant, scholarly writing and new research, especially by those who have not yet had their work published. It is open to any student, worldwide, registered in a bona-fide university or institute of higher education, or who has recently graduated from such an institution. Submissions must be 5,000 to 6,000 words and the only
restriction on subject matter is that it must be of relevance to some aspect of garden history which could include explorations of little known gardens, or an aspect of botany, ecology, horticulture, archaeology, social history, architecture, design, art history or sculpture.


The prize includes an award of £500, free membership of The Gardens Trust for a year and consideration for publication in our peer-reviewed, scholarly journal Garden History. All previous winners have been accepted for publication, and often the best of the non-winning entries are invited to submit to the journal as well.


Submissions or any further enquiries should be sent to essayprize@thegardenstrust.org by 6pm
Sunday 2nd October 2022
For further details and entry forms see :http://thegardenstrust.org/research/prize/

12th New Research Symposium
Saturday 26th November 2022 – Call for papers

The New Research Symposium is an important feature of the Gardens Trust’s programme. It is open to all researchers and scholars, regardless of whether or not they are attached to an academic institution. Launched in 2011, the eleven previous symposia have hosted papers from fifty researchers. Many of these are members of County Gardens Trusts and a third are scholars from
overseas, all of whom we warmly welcome.

Researchers in all fields of activity are encouraged to submit a 200-word proposal for a paper whose subject is as yet unpublished. Any topic relating to Garden History will be considered, for example: explorations of little known gardens, or aspects of botany, ecology, horticulture, archaeology, social history, architecture, design, art history and sculpture.
The paper will be no longer than 20 minutes (approximately 2,000 to 2,500 words) and illustrated with a PowerPoint (or similar) slide presentation. The symposium will be held on-line via zoom.
We’d be happy to answer any questions and even happier to receive proposals via
newresearchsymposium@thegardenstrust.org
closing date 6 pm, Sunday, 2nd October 2022

Call for Papers – Dandelion Special Issue on Creativity as Reparation

Hanna Segal argued that the unconscious driver behind artistic creation is the need to re-create a once loved and once whole, but now lost and ruined object. Creative practice, then, may be driven by an unconscious desire to recreate and reconstitute a ruined internal world and self. How might the act of art making heal a damaged subject? What drives creative impulses? And how can interrogating creative practice be helpful in the wider context of Arts and Humanities?

In tandem with the Wellcome Trust-funded exhibition Mending the Psyche, running at the Peltz gallery between May and July 2022, this special issue of Dandelion seeks submissions on the theme of creativity as reparation. Furthering the scope of the exhibition and programme of events which look specifically at creative practice as a response to grief and mourning, the issue opens the field to other forms of reparation, creative healing and art practice/process as a form of anti-capitalist resistance to productivity culture. 

We welcome papers that address a wide scope of themes within multiple disciplines including but not limited to; the intersection of art and science, literature, psychoanalysis, gender and sexuality, race and decoloniality, philosophy, film, photography, and all forms of creative practice.

This special issue provides an opportunity for an in-depth, interdisciplinary exploration of creativity and artistic practice as a mode of reparation, healing or expression of the subject in process.

Possible topics within this theme may be, but not limited to:

  • The function and process of creative practice or art making as a mode of ‘becoming’ or expression of the human subject in process
  • ‘Overcoming’ difficult experiences or trauma, reclaiming, healing and self-development through creative practice
  • The interrogation of social and cultural expectations of time delimited definitions of grief and mourning
  • Psychoanalytic theory on creative practice
  • Creative expressions of family, family histories, generational trauma
  • Memory, memoir, life-writing, auto-fiction, auto-theory
  • Creative forms of decolonial practice
  • The interrogation of capitalist, patriarchal, neo-liberal, colonial and heteronormative frameworks of creative production, self-development and personal growth.
  • Art making and creative practice as resistance, rebellion, activism
  • Creative and/or theoretical responses to the exhibition and programme of events

Submission guidelines

We welcome short articles up to 2000 words, critical reviews of books, films, performances and exhibitions, particularly creative and critical reflections on the Mending the Psyche exhibition and/or programme of events. We also encourage submissions of artwork including visual art; creative writing; podcasts and video footage (up to 10 minutes). We would be happy to discuss ideas for submissions with interested authors prior to the deadline. Please contact Carly Robinson on crobin16@student.bbk.ac.uk

Please also include a 50-word author biography and a 200-300-word abstract alongside your submission. All referencing and style is required in full MHRA format as a condition of publication and submitted articles should be academically rigorous and ready for immediate publication. Submissions can be made at  www.dandelionjournal.org/  or emailed to crobin16@student.bbk.ac.uk by 29th July 2022.

Call for Articles – Dandelion Journal Special Issue on Intersectionality

A core component of critical race theory, the term intersectionality was coined by American lawyer and academic Kimberlé Crenshaw in 1991 to describe the “multidimensionality” of the Black woman’s experience.

It describes how an individual’s different identities – such as gender identity, race, class, etc – intersect and overlap to create compound, interdependent systems of discrimination or disadvantage. For example, a white woman may experience misogyny and a Black man may experience racism, but a Black woman will experience both misogyny and racism. All three experience discrimination – and, consequently, disadvantaged – but in different forms and to varying degrees.

This special issue of Dandelion Journal asks what role intersectional identities have in the arts (e.g. film, television, journalism, poetry, fine art, photography, literature, etc.), and how they impact on the production, sale and distribution of art/media objects around the world.

  • What impact do intersectional identities have on – and within – the arts, if any?
  • What can we learn from studying lived experiences in the arts through an intersectional lens?
  • How can we approach, understand and/or evaluate decision-making processes in the arts from an intersectional perspective?

We invite postgraduate research students to consider and respond to these questions within their specific disciplines and research foci, and to look forward towards a decolonised future within the arts.

Potential topics for exploration include, but are not limited to:

  • The decolonised newsroom.
  • Intersectional migration narratives.
  • Locating Black women in the history of art.
  • Intersectionality in fiction – contemporary and historical.
  • Decolonising galleries and museums.
  • Intersectionality in contemporary and historical fiction.
  • Language, identity and resistance.
  • Intersectional poetry.
  • Film and television – intersectionality on camera and behind the scenes.
  • The intersectional writer’s room (television).

Articles should be 2000 to 2500 words long. We would also be interested in publishing short works of speculative fiction between 1000 and 3000 words on the theme of intersectionality in the arts. You may also submit works of poetry or visual art pieces, accompanied by a critical reflection on your work of no more than 1500 words. We are happy to take any questions and discuss ideas with interested authors prior to the submission deadline.

Please send completed submissions to nsmith22@student.bbk.ac.uk before 1st June 2022, including a 50-word author biography and a 200-300 word abstract. All referencing and style is required in MHRA format as a condition of publication, and submitted articles should be academically rigorous and ready for immediate publication. Complete instructions for submission can be found at www.dandelionjournal.org.

Call for Interest/Papers – School of Law Annual PGR Conference

Thursday 26th and Friday 27th May 2022

Every year the Birkbeck Law and Criminology community comes together to listen to, discuss, and support PGR research at the School of Law Annual PGR Conference. We are delighted to confirm the dates for this year’s conference and to let you know that it will be taking place in-person at Birkbeck.

We encourage all PhD students within the School to use this opportunity to share their work – no matter what stage it is at! – and to hear and respond to the work of others within our research community. There is no theme to the conference as we would like the event to reflect the wide scope of fascinating and often intersecting topics each of us are working on across the department.

Presenting your work in academic settings is something that all PGR students who are planning to remain in academia need to have done before finishing their research projects, so this is a fantastic opportunity to gain (further) experience, and practice, refine, or experiment delivering your research in a friendly, supportive, and caring setting. Academic staff will be chairing panels and be in attendance, so this is also a useful chance to get some constructive feedback on your work from a wide variety of disciplinary experts.

Each paper should be 20 minutes. First year students are welcome to present shorter papers of 10 minutes if so desired. There will be Q&A sessions after each panel.

If you are interested in presenting, please send your name, a working title, and a few sentences describing the paper to birkbecklaw@gmail.com. This will enable us to organise the panels. However, if you would like to participate but need more time to develop your idea that is absolutely fine – just get in touch. It doesn’t have to be perfect at this stage! 

The deadline for submission is 5pm Friday 29th April 2022. 

We hope that this event will be a lovely chance for the Law & Criminology community to come together in-person for the first time in a while. However, we also acknowledge the many reasons that might make this impossible for some of us and so we are ready to explore hybrid options. If you want to participate but can only do so virtually, please get in touch with us. We are also keen to make the event as accessible as possible, so please let us know of any required adjustments if you are able to. 

Any questions or concerns, please contact us at birkbecklaw@gmail.com.

All the very best and we look forward to receiving the plans for your papers!

Lizzie, Jenny, and Shomo 

Law & Criminology PGR Reps

Useful Knowledge: Conference

PhD researchers at Birkbeck working on the history of the college are organising a major conference to mark the institution’s 200th anniversary.

Useful Knowledge, to be held at Birkbeck in February 2022 (ahead of the College’s bicentenary in 2023), will feature talks by leading historians and critics including Sir Richard Evans, Sally Alexander, Jerry White and Marai Larasi.

The conference, being organised by Professor Joanna Bourke’s ‘Birkbeck Knowledge‘ research group, is set to focus on the long history of the college, but also on the past, present and future of part-time and mature higher education more broadly.

Further information will be made available shortly and information about the Call for Papers is available below.

Call for papers

Birkbeck Knowledge’s PhD researchers Jonny Matfin and Ciarán O’Donohue have also launched a Call for Papers (CfP), aimed at all academics with an interest in the history of part-time and mature higher education.

“We’re aiming to include as wide a range of academics as possible, to discuss what we believe is a vitally important area of university history.”

Jonny and Ciarán

Deadline for the Call for Papers: 5pm, Thursday 30 September

Call for Papers Download

Women & the Climate Crisis Symposium

Call for proposals

The Birkbeck Students’ Union Women’s Network, in partnership with the SU Environment Society, the Birkbeck Unison Environmental Representative and the Birkbeck UCU Environmental Officer, is organising a symposium to hear from women researchers on the climate crisis, to be held at Birkbeck in early 2021. 

Proposals for papers from researchers in any discipline are encouraged – we want to hear about the innovative and unique ways you can contribute to this discussion, especially those who are not traditionally given space in discussions about the environment but have meaningful contributions to make. 

Topics

To that end, scholars are invited to submit papers on any subject relating to the climate crisis, with a focus on proactive solutions.  

Topics may include but are not limited to:  

  • Feminism/gender & the climate crisis  
  • Intersectional environmentalism  
  • Politics & the climate crisis  
  • Race & the climate crisis  
  • Climate change & the law  
  • Media/journalism & the climate crisis  
  • LGBTQIA+ issues & the climate crisis  
  • Technological approaches to the climate crisis  
  • Ethical investments  
  • Neoliberalism & the climate crisis 
  • Environmental activism 

Length: Individual paper abstracts should be no longer than 500 words. Papers which require the distribution of pre-prepared materials, such as drafts, videos, podcasts, posters, etc, will also be accepted.  

Deadline

Proposals should be sent to naomi.smith2@bbk.ac.uk, no later than 31 January 2021. 

Call for papers: Talking about feelings in gender and sexuality research

Friday 5 June 2020 Birkbeck, University of London


This cross-disciplinary conference provides a forum for researchers in gender and sexuality studies to discuss how we deal with feelings and emotions, including our own.

After a keynote panel discussion and a series of paper presentations, we will gather into smaller groups for discussions. Current research students at Birkbeck are invited to propose a 15-minute paper presentation or a topic for discussion, which might focus on one or more of the following:

  • Theoretical models for perceiving and interpreting emotions;
  • The methods we use to access information about emotions in texts, archives, interviews, and in the field; and how our research methods may have succeeded, failed, and produced unexpected results;
  • The interplay between research ethics and our emotions;
  • The sometimes-radical and emotionally-charged roots of our research areas (including, for example, the women’s movement and the gay liberation movement);
  • Emotionally challenging or affirming/pleasurable encounters and experiences in our research;
  • How it feels to research gender and sexuality in various institutional contexts (including, for example, universities, archives, and libraries), and at different career stages;
  • How the conditions for researching gender and sexuality may have changed over time and may vary between places (for example, national, regional or institutional contexts);
  • The more and less tangible barriers we might face and perceive as researchers in this field.

If you are a current research student at Birkbeck, please send your proposal to Ralph Day (r.day@bbk.ac.uk) by Sunday 15 March 2020.

If proposing a 15-minute paper, please send an abstract of 150-200 words together with a short biographical statement.

If proposing a topic for discussion, please send a brief explanation of the topic together with a short biographical statement. You are invited to lead the discussion session with a short reflection on the topic and to facilitate the discussion.

This conference is funded by the Birkbeck Graduate Research School. There will be no registration fee for this conference, and we expect to be able to cover domestic travel costs for participants delivering paper presentations or leading discussion sessions.