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Postgraduate News
ASMCF September 2008 Conference
This year's conference package for postgraduate ASMCF members is £75, which includes everything.
We are holding a postgraduate poster session during one of the breaks on the first day of the conference. This is a great opportunity to display your work, let people know what you are working on and get feedback and ideas in an informal and friendly setting. The act of making a poster can also be beneficial in the process of formulating your thesis. If you would like to present a poster of your PhD work at the conference, please contact PG rep, Helena Chadderton, at h.chadderton@lancaster.ac.uk
Postgraduate Membership
Postgraduates are invited to join the ASMCF for the reduced membership rate of £10.00/$19 on proof of status (normally a letter from your supervisor/department). Postgraduate membership comprises of year's subscription to the journal Modern and Contemporary France, which has a section devoted to postgraduate interests. Postgraduate members are also entitled to reduced rates for attendance at the annual ASMCF conference and other events. Help with travel costs is available to full-time postgraduates attending the annual conference. Postgraduate participation is actively welcomed at the conferences, with postgraduate researchers encouraged to present papers. Finally, ASMCF membership offers eligibility for Association funding for those organising regional events or other approved activities. Specific funds are earmarked for the support of postgraduate events, and the Peter Morris Memorial Postgraduate Prize is awarded annually to a postgraduate research student to assist with travel to undertake research in France.
Enquiries regarding PG membership should be addressed to:
Maggie Allison
Membership Secretary ASMCF
French Placements Tutor
Department of Modern languages
University of Bradford
Bradford
BD7 1DP
or by email: membership@asmcf.org
Peter Morris Memorial Postgraduate Travel Prize
In memory of the late Peter Morris, an award of £250 will be made to a postgraduate student to contribute towards travel costs incurred on a short trip to France.
The terms and conditions of the prize are as follows:
Postgraduates applying for the award should send an outline of their research project and the aims of their research trip to the Association's Hon. Secretary, Emmanuel Godin, at the address below. The deadline for applications is 15 May 2008. The Executive Committee will allocate the award and make known their decision by the end of May. Applications should be submitted in advance of the trip, which may take place at any time in the twelve months following 15 May of any year.
A subcommittee convened to adjudicate the prize will look for evidence that the trip has been well planned and that the student has attempted to maximize the benefits to be drawn from the time in France.
Each student shall be required to provide a letter of support from his or her supervisor.
Bids to other funding bodies either pending or known should be disclosed.
The person to whom the prize has been awarded should provide a brief report on the trip, including details of expenses, no later than three months after return to the UK.
Please send applications to: Hon. Secretary Emmanuel Godin.
The 2007 Peter Morris Prize was awarded to Emelyne Cheney (LSE) for a research trip to Paris to investigate the impact of European integration on the politics of minority nationalism in France. The prize allowed her to complete some archival work and a series of interviews with key actors on this subject.
Postgraduate Study Days
Report on the ASMCF Postgraduate Study Day in London
The third ASMCF postgraduate study day took place on Saturday February 16th 2008 at the Institut Français in London. The day was attended by 32 participants, of which 9 speakers. Maggie Allison as Membership Secretary began proceedings by briefly introducing the association and enumerating the aims and benefits of becoming a member. The morning session was the devoted to practical issues charting the different stages of the PhD journey from start to finish. Ruth Kitchen of Leeds University gave a lively and informative session on 'Starting a PhD' with an excellent summary of the literature surrounding the topic twinned with personal insights and philosophical musings. Mark Sawchuk of the University of Berkeley followed, with a highly personal and amusing account of how to negotiate the French public archives, packed with vital information. Jackie Clarke, the executive editor of MCF then advised on the issue of publishing, covering general points involved in approaching peer-reviewed journals and encouraging copy for MCF! Recently appointed as a lecturer at the University of Lancaster, Charlotte Baker rounded the morning session off with a useful account of the transition period from PhD to first academic job. The afternoon session was dedicated to more traditional academic papers with keynote speakers Nadia Kiwan of the University of Aberdeen and Ruth Cruickshank of Royal Holloway addressing the pertinent and contemporary topic of Paris and cultural representation. Excellently chaired by Owen Heathcote, Nadia concentrated on the city's relationship with transnational artists' networks and Ruth on representation of the city through recent film. After coffee, the final session saw Matthew Moran of UCL speak on the police de proximité and Delphine Grass, also of UCL, give an examination of Charles Fourier and Michel Houellebecq's representations of sexuality. The day concluded just after 4pm and conversations continued and contacts were made over drinks and crêpes in the Kensington Crêperie. This event proved useful and enjoyable for all, with participants expressing their gratitude for a day which combines 'mini-conference' sessions with practical advice. Many thanks to speakers and participants for engaging so enthusiastically and to all those who made the day possible.
Helena Chadderton, 19th February 2008
Report on Leeds Postgraduate Conference, 'Love and Sexuality', for the ASMCF
Conference Report
This conference was held on Tuesday 10th September 2002, and was the first postgraduate conference to be held by the University of Leeds French department. The conference was attended by approximately 40 people, including many of the staff from Leeds French department, past, present, and future postgraduate students, and several students from the local sixth-form college. The 11 papers presented were split into four sessions, entitled: 'The Erotics of Power'; 'Gender Trouble'; 'Discours amoureux' and 'La femme: Redefining the myth'. Please see the attached programme for more details. The speakers came from a wide range of UK universities, including Leeds, Sheffield, Manchester, Kent at Canterbury, Durham, Cambridge, Warwick and Birmingham. All of the papers delivered provoked a great deal of interest, and resulted in several interesting discussions taking place around the issues of both love and sexuality in modern French studies. This was aided by the fact that the papers covered a wide range of topics and specialisms, demonstrating that issues of sexuality are germane to many areas of cultural studies.
As the organisers of the conference, we feel that the event was a great success. In particular, we believe it provided a forum for the discussion of issues of love and sexuality across various disciplines, allowing the cross-fertilisation of ideas, as well as achieving our aim of establishing links between postgraduates at various universities in the UK, which will lead to further communication and co-operation. We have received a great deal of positive feedback from those who attended the conference, and are thus considering attempting to publish the proceedings at some point in the future.
We would like to take this opportunity to thank the ASMCF for their support of the event, without which it would not have been possible.