Salford's "As Yet Impossible: In Human Performance" symposium (9-10/May)

Two images from Mary Oliver's As Yet Impossible: In Human Performance symposium 9th and 10th May, at Lowry Arts Centre, MediaCityUK, convened by the University of Salford.

Left: Dr. Lee Chatfield, Geneticist, UCLAN and Ant Miller BBC Future Media and Technology, in response to a provocation on "Re-finding a sense of Wonder" from Toronto artist Willy LeMaitre, the workshop focused on how we embody the senses.

Right: Hannah Nicklin, Tweeter,  shot this image during a workshop led by Dr. Richard Talbot (Salford) in response to a provocation by Dr. Ellen Poliokoff, Neuroscientist, Manchester University, on "Our changing minds". Also in this shot, Bruno Martelli, Igloo, Professor Helen Bailey, Bedfordshire University, Nick Hunt, Rose Brufor, Dr. Michelle Macau Carnegie Mellon University.

Salford Postgraduate Annual Research Conference (SPARC 2011 ), (7-9/June)

Full programme (talks, panels, meals, CV clinic, drinks, exhibitions, prize ceremonies)... click here!

Paul Gilroy talk (5/July)

Prof Paul Gilroy (LSE) will give a public lecture at the University of Manchester on Tuesday 5th July, 5.15pm on "Multiculture, Cosmopolitanism and Conviviality". 
Prof Gilroy will discuss the politics of race, nation and civilisation in contemporary Europe seen in the context of endless war as a postcolonial phenomenon. 

The lecture will be followed by a wine reception. 

Location: Arts Lecture Theatre, Samuel Alexander Building, University of Manchester. 
The Samuel Alexander Building is no. 67 on the Campus Map. 

Paul Gilroy is the first holder of the Anthony Giddens Professorship in Social Theory. His intellectual background is multi-disciplinary and he has extensive interests in literature, art, music and cultural history as well as in social science. He is best known for his work on racism, nationalism and ethnicity and his original approach to the history of the African diaspora into the western hemisphere.



Some of Prof Gilroy's publications include: Darker than Blue: on the Moral Economies of Black Atlantic culture (2010), Postcolonial Melancholia (2006), After Empire: Melancholia or Convivial Culture? (2004), Between Camps: Nations, Cultures and the Allure of Race (2001), Against Race: Imagining Political Culture Beyond the Color Line (2000), The Black Atlantic (1993), Small Acts: Thoughts on the Politics of Black Cultures (1993). 

Associated Event

This lecture precedes a workshop hosted by the Research Institute for Cosmopolitan Cultures, on Diasporic Conviviality, Cosmopolitanism and Urban Spaces. Please email caitriona.devery@manchester.ac.uk for more details.

 

Please register to attend the public lecture (free).

Gilroy received his Ph.D. from the Centre for Contemporary Cultural Studies at Birmingham University where he was part of the group which collectively produced "The Empire Strikes Back" (Routledge, 1982). After that, he worked at the GLC for a number of years before taking up academic positions at South Bank and Essex where one of his principal responsibilities was teaching on the joint degree in Sociology and Literature. Gilroy moved to Goldsmiths College in 1991 and was appointed Professor of Sociology and Cultural Studies there in 1995. Before joining the LSE in the summer of 2005, he taught at Yale University where he was Charlotte Marian Saden Professor of Sociology and African American studies as well as chair of the African American Studies department.

Casting call: Marina Abramović / Joan Jonas

Call for performers of works by Marina Abramović and Joan Jonas for Manchester International Festival 2011 Manchester-based female performers needed for re-staging of two pieces by seminal artists Marina Abramovid and Joan Jonas.

These pieces are being re-staged as part of 11 Rooms, a group exhibition in the Manchester International Festival 2011, and performances will take place in the Manchester Art Gallery. N.B. Performers will be nude for the duration of the performance.

Marina Abramović is recognised as one of the leading international practitioners of performance art. Described as ‘one of the defining artists of radical performance’, she has transcended the form’s provocative origins and created some of the most important works in the genre. Joan Jonas is a pioneer of groundbreaking video and performance art. Her influences on the art world are extensive. Explorations of gender, identity and the fragmented female image along with women’s shifting roles have fueled her art for over 40 years. 11 Rooms is a group exhibition curated by Klaus Biesenbach (chief curator at MoMA, New York) and Hans Ulrich Obrist (co-director of the Serpentine Gallery, London). The show will bring together 11 of the most interesting artists creating durational encounters to make new and re-imagined work, in a series of specially-created spaces at Manchester Art Gallery.

Dates: You will need to be available for rehearsals from the 2nd- 8th July, and for performances from the 9th- 17th July.

(M.I.F.) is an artist-led, commissioning festival presenting new works from across the spectrum of performing arts, visual arts and popular culture. It was launched in 2007 and takes place biennially in venues across the city.

Manchester International Festival

A fee will be provided.

This is a chance to be a part of Manchester’s most exciting arts festival, and to work with two legendary artists.


Times:  You will need to be available from 9.30am – 5.30pm on the above dates.


For more information about the show, please see: http://mif.co.uk/event/11-roomsbr-group-show/


To apply: please email contact details and brief CV to edie.culshaw@mif.co.uk by 06/06/2011.

Grayson Perry / Jane Austen in E17

A provocative (and free) Grayson Perry exhibition (pottery, art, video, fashion and tat bought from eBay, and the acclaimed canvas "Print for a Politician") currently running at Manchester City Art Gallery, co-curated by The Creative Consultants (all aged 15-18)...


"I was thinking of all the bickering that's been going on in the world and what fun it would be to label everybody socially. I made a long list of all the different groups I could think of off the top of my head and scattered them randomly on the surface. There are minimalists, chauvinist pigs, elitists, parents, fat people, townies, locals, the old, Sunnis, Shias, fantasists, working class, thick people, satanists. Everything. It shows that we can live with this difference."

Pictured: Neo-Austenites Naomi Halligan and friend

Richard Phillips / Lindsay Lohan

Richard Phillip's 98 second Venice Biennale film "Lindsay Lohan" is discussed in today's Guardian.

"... this art film is not rejecting the myths of celebrity, it is fascinated and enraptured by those myths. Phillips gleefully lingers in the same amoral realm as his often provocative paintings."

See it for yourself...

The Guardian's art correspondent, expansive as he is, still seems to have overlooked the rather unmissable allusion to Bergman's Persona:

Martin Amis / Will Self in conversation (4/July)

Manchester University's Centre for New Writing

4th July 2011
Martin Amis Public Event with guests Will Self and Erica Wagner

On American Independence Day, Professor Amis will be joined by novelist Will Self and Literary Editor of The Times Erica Wagner. Together they will explore the influence of America on the literature a
Discover more about Martin Amis Public Event with guests Will Self and Erica Wagner

Link, including ticket info
and
selection of free podcasts, including Amis and Seamus Heaney

Moss Side documentary: preproduction help required

The BBC have been contacted by a local production team who are making a documentary about the Moss Side Riots of 30 years ago.
The production team would really like to engage aspiring filmmakers from the area and will give them the opportunity to get involved in the creative process. The students will be involved in researching interviewees, sourcing contributors, shooting the interviews and also get the chance to see the content crafted in the Edit. They would also like to hear from any budding production coordinators who want to learn more about organising and scheduling on a busy project
If you would like to be considered for a work placement on the project please reply by Friday 3rd June. You need to send a copy of your CV and a short paragraph outlining the skills and ideas you think you can bring to this local project (350 words max). Please make it clear if you want to be considered for a filmmaker or coordinator placement.



Final selection of participants will be done w/c 27th June . Students need to be available to work from 7th July to 13th August.
Please note that this is NOT a BBC work experience opportunity - we are just sending details on behalf of an external production team.
Contact Clare Proffitt [Clare.Proffitt@bbc.co.uk]

Jaws "4D" screening

The 4th Dimension Cinema Presents…

JAWS!!!!!!!!

An immersive cinema and live theatre experience of Spielberg’s classic, we’ll transport you to Amity Island and the sharks hunting ground as you float in our Swimming Pool Cinema and watch the film that made everyone scared of the water.

Only Two Special Screenings:
Saturday 4th June 5:00pm
Sunday 5th June 5:00pm

Time	Saturday, June 4 at 5:00pm - June 5 at 8:00pm
Location	Fit City Broughton Pool Great Cheetham Street West Manchester / Salford M7 2DN

For Tickets Visit:
Saturday : http://www.wegottickets.com/event/119754
Sunday : http://www.wegottickets.com/event/119756

... could the wide-spread implementation of 4D overcome some of the problems Roger Ebert has identified with digital projection?

Casting calls, 2011

From Christabel Brown (Salford Student Union): "Don’t know if this is the kind of thing you would put up but 24:7 Theatre Festival in Manchester is putting out casting calls for loads of shows at the moment and it’s a great way for new actors to get a foot in the door. They are adding new shows each week but this is the first lot ..."

         Budding thespians: click here

MadLab: "All the World's a Screen" (28/May)

You are invited to a live telematic performance presented at MadLab Manchester and Hangar.org Barcelona, Saturday 28th May 2011 from 16:00 to 18:00 (17:00 to 19:00 in Barcelona) at MadLab, 36-40 Edge Street, Manchester, M4 1HN in the Northern Quarter (just opposite Common) and simultaneously at Hangar.org in Poblenou, Barcelona as part of their open studios season.

The performance is divised by Salford's own Paul Sermon and Charlotte Gould.

http://madlab.org.uk/
http://madlab.org.uk/content/all-the-worlds-a-screen/



Employing the scenographic techniques of Alfred Hitchcock the artists have created a miniature film set in which the audience can act and direct their own movie, transporting participants into animated environments and sets where they will create their own unique narrative. Participants in Manchester will be transported into this telepresent experience via a blue-box studio to join the ‘players’ in Barcelona within the dramaturgy of the model set.

Haçienda artwork

Gallery homepage

Castles Built in Sand

New video - "Interpretations of a Demonstration" - from the Manchester-based collective now available on their site.

Our friend (and keynote speaker at Salford's Sights and Sounds: Interrogating the Music Documentary conference in 2010) Prof Michael Chanan discusses their work in his blog: documentary as research and video activism.

Eurocultured: 29-30 May

Eurocultured hits the streets of Manchester once again, this Bank Holiday weekend. (They're after volunteers too -- please check the website)

Eurocultured is a series of street festivals and linked projects that celebrate the diversity of European Culture in all its forms. Our street festivals only take place in city centre locations that are to easy to access.
We like the idea of people from different cultures coming together in the streets and getting on with each other as artists paint, sing, dance and perform around them. We want to introduce our audience to new things and to fire their imaginations.
We also deliver projects that lead to the creation of brand new content for our festivals. We invite artists to work with children and young people and with other artists from different countries and different artforms. They work collaboratively and we then showcase the new work they make at our events. This strand is called ‘Eurocollaborations.’

A Sentimental Journey live

Click here for a live recording of Salford PhD student Craig Vear's "A Sentimental Journey" (with support from the Arts Council and Theatre Royal, York)...

"To experience the recording find a WiFi hotspot in a hotel lounge, airport bar, train station, coffee shop in the tourist district - in fact ANYWHERE where there is journeying of some sort occurring. Set up your laptop or smart phone and plug-in the best headphones you could find - then press play."

Talk this Weds (25/May): Technofeminism

This Weds (25th), and for the last session of this academic year, we have:

Dr Yu-Wei Lin on Technofeminism:

In this talk, I will introduce techno-feminism and other related theories around feminist technoscience studies. I will also share my own experience of adopting this analytical approach for the research on women in free/open source software and user participatory cultures.

2pm: 2^nd floor lecture theatre, Adelphi House

We're really thrilled to have Yu-Wei talking about this area, and as an introduction / overview I think it will be a very useful foundation for all humanities subjects. We hope to have a more general discussion of feminism now after the talk.

I'm afraid that Sharif Mowlabocus is unable to deliver his talk this Wednesday ("W**ker: The Cruel Optimism of Pornographic Consumption") -- we'll be scheduling it for the coming academic year.

Slutwalk UK

I'm a film-maker based in Cardiff and Bristol. I'm doing a documentary (currently named Slutwalk: The Documentary) on SlutWalk and the issues the Slutwalks are protesting. I would like anyone involved in campaigns or related organisations, or anyone who has been affected by rape/sexual assault and would be happy to share their personal experiences, to get in touch.

If you're interested or know anyone who is, please contact me via Facebook or email jenniferdrewett@live.com

Info here and here and here and the Twitter account here

Simon Reynolds talks about his new book: Retromania (7/June)

June 7 / Waterstones Deansgate / Manchester. Discussion with John Robb and SR. Details TBA.  (Tickets from Waterstones -- usually a couple of quid, offset against price of the book).

More information at http://retromaniabysimonreynolds.blogspot.com/

new Bureau exhibition / event

A curatorial experiment… A gallery gamble… An exhibition determined by you, the artist, and the public… Without agenda or bias, refuting government and funding criteria, and not driven by the market, current taste or trend in contemporary art.

Link for full info

Shooting Žižek

Global capitalism is fast approaching its end times, says “the Elvis of cultural theory” Slavoj Žižek in his new book, Living In The End Times.

The upcoming zero-point is heralded by these ‘four horsemen of the apocalypse’:

1. ECOLOGY
   Impending ecological catastrophes
2. ECONOMY
   The global financial meltdown
3. BIOLOGY
   The biogenetic revolution and its impact on human identity
4. SOCIETY
   Social divisions leading to the explosion of protest and revolutions worldwide

But from the ashes of the coming crisis, is there opportunity for a new beginning?
To celebrate the launch of Living In The End Times on paperback, Verso Books and The Church of London are inviting filmmakers to submit short films which respond, in creative and innovative ways, to Žižek’s theory of the end times.

Instructions

The film – up to ONE minute in total – can take any format: animation, drama, documentary, stop-motion or other.
The winner will be picked by Žižek himself!
The winning film will screen before an open lecture by Žižek in London later this year and the winner will receive a selection of Verso’s back catalogue, curated by the subversive publishers themselves.
Entries can be uploaded to a video-hosting website, like YouTube or Vimeo, with a link sent to zizekfilm@thechurchoflondon.com by June 30.
NOTE: Although filmmakers will retain ownership over their submissions, Verso Books and The Church Of London will have full permission to feature content across all their platforms.

Salford's Comedy and Conflict conference

Fifth Comedy Conference
Comedy & Conflict
University of Salford
2nd & 3rd June 2011

Key Note Speaker – Leon Hunt
(The League of Gentlemen (BFI TV Classics))
Conference Poster
Conference Programme
Abstracts

This year’s conference promises to be the best yet with speakers from around the globe presenting papers on a wide variety of comedy topics. From North America and Greece, from Italy, Belgium, Rumania, Portugal and Britain, we will be looking at satire, gender, Carry On movies, Charles Dickens’ double acts and The Marx Brothers, to name but a few of the topics up for discussion.

Tickets can be purchased from the University online shop.

You can find information about local accommodation here.

For further information and registration details please contact our conference organizer – Deborah Woodman – d.woodman@salford.ac.uk

Judy Chicago in Person (10/June)

Judy Chicago Lecture & Book Signing
Frida Kahlo: Face to Face

Friday 10 June 2011, 6pm

In her first ever visit to Manchester, artist, author, feminist, educator and intellectual Judy Chicago will discuss her most recent book Frida Kahlo: Face to Face. The event will also include an opportunity for questions, and will be followed by a book signing.
Judy Chicago pioneered Feminist Art and art education in the early seventies, after which she embarked upon her most well-known work, The Dinner Party, executed between 1974 and 1979.

The lecture will be introduced by Dr Patricia Allmer, Senior Research Fellow, MIRIAD, Manchester Metropolitan University.

Info and booking

Take That conference programme

Here's the final programme!

Please note the tie-in Take That exhibition at Manchester's Kraak gallery:
"Take That Fandom before the Internet"

Salford postgrads wanting to chair, please contact Tim (t.e.wise@salford.ac.uk) to arrange.

Anyone at all wishing to attend, please register - everyone welcome!

Earlier blog post with links to media coverage of the event.

Making Things Whole Again:
The Take That Reunion

Conference Programme

Friday 3 June 2011

10:00 – 10:30       Registration and coffee

                                               

10.30 – 10.45       Welcome - Tim Wise

10.45 – 12:15       Panel Session

10:45 – David Sanjek, ‘Boys Will Be Boys: Re-inhabiting the Homosocial Sphere of Take That’

11:I5 – Krystina Nellis: ‘The Economics of Empowerment: the role of fandom in the social empowerment of working women, wives, and mothers and the role of empowerment in financing the pop industry’

11:45 – Michaela Hilbert, ‘When I becomes We: How stereotypically “pop” are a band’s lyrics after one break-up and two reunions?’

                                               

12:15 – 1:15         Lunch

1:15 – 2:45            Panel Session II                                            

1:15 – Maryn Edwards, ‘Is Any Press Good Press? A content analysis of media                                                                 coverage related to the reunion of Take That, 2005-2010’

1:45 – Sarah-Jane Adams, ‘Love Ain’t Here Anymore: Examining a Negative Fan  Response to the Reunion of Take That with Robbie Williams’

 2:15 – Mark Duffett, ‘Multiple Damnations: Deconstructing the Critical Response to Boyband Fandom’

2:45 – 3.15            Coffee

3.15 – 4:45            Panel Session III

3:15 – Tonya Anderson: ‘Still Kissing Their Posters Goodnight: Life-Long Pop Music Fandom’

3:45 – Tobias Nolte, ‘A Kleinian Notion of Applied Psychoanalysis: Break-up and Reunion from a Psychoanalytic Perspective’

4:15 – Georgina Gregory, ‘”You Can Make Me Whole Again”: Pop Tributes Embodying the Reunion’

4:45 – 5:30            Round Table Discussion & Close

More music

Parklife: Platt Fields: 11-12 June and Dot to Dot: Academy, Deaf Institute, Sound Control: 30 May

Talk: "Policing Sex between Men: 1850-1971" (18/May)

School of English, Sociology, Politics & Contemporary History (ESPaCH)
Democracy and Human Rights Research Centre

"Policing Sex between Men: 1850-1971"
Jeff Evans (MMU)

18 May, Crescent House, Room 409, 4pm, University of Salford.

For further information please contact:
Dr Jim Newell, Politics & Contemporary History (Email: J.L.Newell@salford.ac.uk)

About the lecture: The presentation will consider aspects of the social/political historical process by which the notion of ‘homosexuality’ and its binary opposite ‘not homosexuality’ (aka ‘heterosexuality’) gained intellectual and public currency. The introduction will review the emergent historiography and language, by which the historians can interpret the sources, including the challenging contributions of the scholars Prof. Halperin (Michigan Uni.) and Prof. Sedgwick (Berkeley).
The second and substantive aspect of the talk will focus on new and as yet unpublished evidence. This new evidence is used to critically assess the argument about the historical construct of a artificial/arbitrary binary division of the population of North West of England into ‘homosexual’ (‘unnatural’, sick) and ‘normative’ Northerners. This new primary evidence includes statistical data drawn from 80,000 court cases heard in North West Quarter Session Courts 1850 to 1971.
Details of specific events including ‘show trials’ (e.g. the unprecedented police raid of the Manchester Drag Ball of 1880) will be contrasted with oral evidence that contradicts more simple readings of the wider consequences of such state actions.
The talk will be given by Jeff Evans who is in the second year of his PhD at MMU researching this topic. He is a graduate of Salford and Manchester Universities.

Friends Of Mine festival (20-22 May)

All Eurovisioned out?

Full line-up announced, including Salford's own John Cooper Clarke and Dave Haslam.

Three day event at Capesthorne Hall.

5th Annual Conference of the York History Research Society

CONQUEST AND EXPANSIONISM

5th Annual Conference of the York History Research Society Friday 8 July 2011, University of York

Conquest and expansionism are themes that pervade all historical eras.

Individuals and societies have always sought to advance themselves, be it politically, socially or economically. Such ambition can manifest itself in peaceful endeavours, but it can also engender conflict. This important topic will be the subject of the 5th Annual Conference of the York History Research Society. We hope to bring together postgraduates from all aspects and all periods of history to join us in a stimulating debate on these issues.

If you would like to present a paper, please send a short abstract of no more than 300 words to Tom Wright (tjw507@york.ac.uk) by Monday 23 May 2011.

Papers should be designed to last no more than 20 minutes.

Suggested themes for papers might include, but are not limited to:


- Development of nation

- Expansionism and the military

- Trade and mercantile interests

- Dissemination of ideas, technologies and practice

- Assimilation

- Religious or irreligious expansion

- Political conquest

- Experiences and representation of conquest

- Failed conquests and expansion

- Protection rackets and tribute culture

This is a postgraduate-run conference which aims to foster collaborative engagement between research students. The event, including lunch, refreshments and a drinks reception, will be free of charge. All are welcome.

For any further information please contact one of the organisers:

Laura Chesworth ljc528@york.ac.uk, Andrew Stead ais503@york.ac.uk, Jenny Tomlinson jst508@york.ac.uk, Tom Wright tjw507@york.ac.uk.

The Crisis of the University and the Educational Significance of the Fees: Reducing the ‘Deficit’ or Fashioning Subservient Human Beings?

“man is no longer man confined but man in debt. One thing, it's true, hasn't changed - capitalism (Deleuze) 

A one-day discussion seminar jointly organised by PhD students and staff members of the School of Humanities, Languages and Social Sciences (University of Salford, Manchester)

The ‘cuts’ and ‘fees’ imposed by the lib-con government amount to the entrenchment of a new regime of control based on an extremely doctrinaire and contagious political ideology (managerialism) and guaranteed by a new bondage (compulsory debt-financing). Repeated over and over again, the idea that ‘reducing the deficit is absolutely necessary’ ends up imposing an attitude of resignation in the face of what is taken as inevitable. Yet, we must ask: Why is the ‘deficit’ so bad for governments and so good for students? What if ‘being in debt’ is not just an economic matter, but a coercive pedagogy and a moulding mechanism to produce a particular kind of human being? Why is it that academics, students and support staff allow themselves to be managerialised, that is, pitted against each other?

These and other questions will be addressed in the seminar; topics to be discussed include: The politics of higher education and the question of university autonomy, self-government and academic freedom today. The rule of finance: financialisation and compulsory debt-financing. Managerial indicators of ‘quality’ and ‘satisfaction’: what kind of human beings lie behind such indicators and result from their use? The academics’ attitude and response to the politics of privatisation, marketisation and corporatisation of the university.

Confirmed interventions from:

Sarah Amsler (Aston University, Birmingham) Peter Bratsis (University of Salford) Bob Brecher (University of Brighton) Jeremy Gilbert (University of East London) Will Jackson (PhD, University of Salford)

Sukh Johal (University of Manchester) Jennifer Morgan (PhD, University of Salford) Karel Williams (University of Manchester) Bob Jeffery (PhD, University of Salford) Carlos Frade (University of Salford)

Friday 27 May 2011: 10:30 - 6 pm

Clifford Whitworth Conference Room (Clifford Whitworth Library), University of Salford (Greater Manchester)

(90 yards from Salford Crescent train station)

ALL Welcome

For further information contact: salforduniagainstcuts@googlemail.com

Sheffield Documentary Festival: 8-12 June

Sheffield Doc/Fest is soon upon us, and the full programme is now online. Highlights include an Albert Maysles retrospective and a Richard Leacock tribute. Strands this year include protest documentaries and music documentaries.

Hit So Hard: The Life & Near Death Story of Patty Schemel

Director(s):

P. David Ebersole

Aware that her rock and role lifestyle was yielding some crazy episodes, Patty Schemel picked up a video camera in the early 1990s. A rising star in the flourishing music scene of America’s Pacific Northwest, Schemel’s pals included Kurt Cobain and his wife Courtney Love, who hired her as the drummer for her band Hole. Capturing some extraordinary scenes, including Cobain and Love at home with their baby daughter, Schemel also recorded her own descent from playing sell-out world tours to destitute heroin addict, and her ultimate rehabilitation. The footage is interwoven with entertaining interviews with Schemel and Hole’s surviving members (their base player Kristen Pfaff died of an overdose just two months after Cobain’s suicide) and Schemel’s own family. “I couldn’t get over that she gave up a good job at Microsoft,” says her mom. With a pace as fast moving as the music, director P. David Ebersole’s film is destined to become a classic music doc on the joys and perils of life in the fast lane.

"Why the BBC should mind the Salford gap"

June 2nd // 6-9 pm // Revolution Gallery, MOSI

Annual Lecture with Steve Hewlett, with special tour of Mosi Great Western Warehouse

“BBC Breakfast's move to the north has been presented as a bold move – but the reality is that it needs to hit relocation targets
The BBC has been keen to present its decision to relocate BBC1's Breakfast programme from London to its new MediaCity:UK HQ in Salford as a positive move for the programme and the 100 or so staff that will go with it.

Breakfast will "benefit from the iconic new waterside location" in an "especially symbolic move" that will "create opportunities for career development", gushed the press release.
But if it was such a good idea why have we only just heard about it? The answer lies in what has become known internally at the BBC as the "Salford gap".

When the BBC signed up to move to Salford's MediaCity:UK in the first place it was offered very attractive terms by the North West Development Agency. In return for which the BBC agreed to contractual terms that specified the minimum number of posts that had to be relocated from London to Salford. That number was 1,500.

Since the deal was done the departments earmarked to make the move have been doing two things: politicking to avoid moving anything they could justify keeping in London; and, critically, shrinking as a result of BBC-wide efficiency drives. Hence the emergence of the "Salford gap" as the difference between the contractual requirement to move 1,500 posts and the actual numbers relocating.

FMT boss Erik Huggers has described Salford as the place to build the BBC's new future. Broadcasting House was the radio age, Television Centre the TV equivalent, and MediaCity:UK the online "universal gateway" to the BBC's future. However, the man himself meanwhile seems curiously unwilling to make the move.” Steve Hewlett, guardian.co.uk

Come and listen to Steve Hewlett as he talks about his views on the BBC’s relocation to MediaCity, and how they have dealt with the move. Steve will also give his opinion on whether Manchester can be an international media hub. You will then get a chance to ask to put your own questions to Steve, who won’t hold back on telling you what he thinks.

The annual lecture will take place in the spectacular Revolution Gallery in the newly refurbished Museum of Science and Industry. You will also get a chance to take a tour of the Great Western Warehouse, an integral part of Manchester’s history. So come and join us for a fascinating lecture, a bite to eat, a couple of drinks and plenty of networking opportunities.

Steve Hewlett
Writer, Broadcaster and Media Consultant

Steve Hewlett is currently a Guardian Columnist and broadcasting consultant whose clients have included Tiger Aspect, the Guardian Media Group, Ofcom, DCMS, Channel 4, BSkyB and New South Wales FTO.
He also runs Big Pictures Ltd, a television production Company with commissions from Channel 4, the BBC and the PBS Network in the USA. He is visiting Professor of Journalism and Broadcast policy at Salford University He is also a regular contributor to and presenter of programmes on Radio 4 and Five Live and now presents Radio 4’s weekly Media Show.
Steve is the Chair of DocFest – the Sheffield International Documentary festival, a board member at Screen Yorkshire and a fellow of the Royal Television Society.

Date:
June 2, 2011
Location:
Revolution Gallery
Museum of Science and Industry
Manchester
18.00pm – 21.00pm


http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/organgrinder/2010/jul/16/bbc-breakfast-salford

Pathways: Careers Options for Researchers

Pathways is an annual career development event for postgraduate researchers and research staff, held at The University of Manchester.

In 2011, the event will be held over three days:

Day 1 (Friday 10th June): Career Options – a chance for delegates to question PhD qualified professionals from a wide variety of sectors, roles and organisations. Participants can choose to attend 5 from 40 available expert panel sessions.

Day 2 (Monday 13th June): Interviews and Assessment - offers delegates the chance to partake in a range of interview and assessment practical exercises, appropriate to a range of careers.

Day 3 (Wednesday 15th June): PhD Employer Zone @ The Graduate Fair – an exhibition of organisations who are particularly interested in recruiting people with a PhD. Attendees can also access independent advice from careers consultants with specialist knowledge of the researcher employment market.

We would like postgraduate researchers and research staff from Vitae partner institutions across the NW Hub to benefit from this event in June 2011. We are therefore offering places at this event at the following rates:

Special delegate rate for NW Hub Partner Institutions

Delegate rate including lunch, refreshments and conference materials

One Day - £30 per attendee Two Days - £45 per attendee
*The PhD Employer Zone at the Graduate Fair on day 3 is free entry

Link for more information is here: http://manchesterpgcareers.wordpress.com/pathways/

Sexuality Summer School 2011 17th-20th May

Registration for the 2011 Summer School: Queer Temporalities will go live on the University of Manchester's e-store page on March 14th. Make sure to register early to avoid disappointment!
 

• University of Manchester estore

The Sexuality Summer School 2011 draws upon the success of its previous years, embracing an interactive learning model that combines intensive workshops, discussion panels, lectures and student-lead seminars in order to construct a supportive research community over the course of four days. This year the conference turns towards the idea of Queer Temporalities, bringing together researchers from diverse fields including English Studies, Cultural Studies, Sociology, Media Studies, Performance Studies and many others to discuss and critique representations and understandings of gender, sexuality and queerness as they relate to concepts and constructions of the temporal.

• 2011 Sexuality Summer School poster (pdf)

The Sexuality Summer School

The Sexuality Summer School has been held annually by the CSSC since 2008. The Sexuality Summer School is coordinated by the Centre for the Study of Sexuality and Culture (CSSC) and the Research Insitute for Cosmopolitan Cultures (RICC).

The Summer School is an annual event intended for postgraduates and researchers working in the broadly defined area of sexuality studies. The Summer School addresses current debates within queer studies, emphasising in particular its implication for the interdisciplinary study of culture. It offers an opportunity for students to discuss queer debates with researchers in the CSSC as well as international scholars brought in for the event. Applications welcome from Doctoral and Masters' level students from any university, as well as third-year undergraduates interested in taking the MA in Gender, Sexuality and Culture at The University of Manchester.

The Summer School is organised in conjunction with the Queer Up North International Arts Festival. For more information about the 2008 and 2009 programmes, please see our Previous Years page. 

CSSC sponsors frequent public events, Queer Methodology Seminar Series and conferences.
CSSC also offers an innovative MA program in Gender, Sexuality and Culture.

Screening in the Rain

Open-air Spinningfields screenings for this summer announced
Programme here

Spinningfields: Classical Greece to the Northern Quarter's Ancient Rome...

Salford University / Islington Mill event

Message from John Sweeney:

Just to let you know that there is a special University/Islington Mill partnership event on next Wednesday 18^th May, starting at 7.30pm. Four bands will be performing in the wonderful Islington Mill venue.

First up is one of Salford’s newest bands Seahawk – BA Popular Music & Recording 1^st year students selected from over 20 bands for this, their inaugural extra-curricular concert.Come along and see what you think.

Next up is Man Made, featuring Nile Marr –singer/songwriter and guitarist extraordinaire,not to be missed.

Performing for the first time in the UK the next band is Canada’s These Electric Lives, playing their own brand of ‘melodic dance rock’. TEL’s energetic live show consistently delivers uplifting and danceable anthems fuelled by an intensity of honest emotion. Winners of Indie Week Canada 2010, TEL are sure to make you forget euro zone troubles and provide you with some Commonwealth comfort.

Last, but of course not least, are Manchester’s latest rising stars The Louche FC, to finish off with their heady concoction of lush melodies,languid beats and swooning vocals- not to mention recent Salford graduate and drum maestro Adam Dawson.Should be a rousing finale.

So, four bands for the price of none – what a bargain!

Admission is free, so be early!

www.islingtonmill.com

Anthony Burgess: Marlowe and Shakespeare

Talk at the Anthony Burgess Foundation

17 May, 6.30pm

Free, no booking required
Christopher Marlowe and William Shakespeare were twin stars in Anthony Burgess’s intellectual and artistic firmament. Marlowe inspired work including his MA thesis on Marlowe’s Dr Faustus to the last novel published in his lifetime, A Dead Man in Deptford; and he absorbed Shakespeare too, inspiring the novels Nothing Like the Sun, Enderby’s Dark Lady, a biography, short stories, film scripts, a television series, songs, and even a ballet suite for full orchestra. Graham Woodroffe, Director of the Anthony Burgess Centre at the University of Angers, France, will talk about the influence of these two Elizabethan heavyweights on Burgess and his work, exploring what they brought to it and what Burgess contributes to our understanding of them.

Art and Eating Disorders

Sarah Coggrave, Bronwyn Platten and others...: Mouths and Meaning

Tuesday, 24 May 2011, 6.00pm
until
Friday, 24 June 2011, 5.00pm

Where: Chapman Gallery, Chapman Building, University of Salford, M5 4NT

How much: Free
More info: http://www.arts.salford.ac.uk/

Mouths and Meaning is a research project and exhibition developed by Bronwyn Platten, towards her PhD based in the School of the Built Environment, the University of Salford. The focus of Mouths and Meaning is to explore and creatively represent experiences of embodiment, food and eating by those who have been affected by an eating disorder.
Using a multisensory, holistic and interdisciplinary approach the exhibition will showcase a range of new works including photography, film and sculpture developed by Sarah Coggrave in collaboration with Bronwyn Platten; a selection of individual works by both artists as well as a series of drawings by workshop participants from England, Scotland and Australia.
Bronwyn's studentship has been funded by EPSRC as part of the collaborative, multi-institutional Health and Care Infrastructure Research and Innovation (HaCIRIC), IMRC Centre, the School of the Built Environment, the University of Salford.
Opening hours: 12 - 5pm, Wed to Sat
Preview/launch event: Tuesday 24 May, 6-8pm (free admission, everyone welcome!)

David Walsh / "Socialism and Cinema"

David Walsh, Arts Editor of the World Socialist Website and our external speaker back in October (talk covered here), has just published a two-part interview with Spielberg biographer Joseph McBride (Part One and Part Two), returning to many of the points of discussion concerning contemporary American film-making, its limits, politics, achievements and disappointments.