Anglo-Catalan Society News Letter
and
Call for Papers
June 2007
(pdf printable version here)
Swansea Conference News : This year's conference will be hosted by the University of Swansea and will run from 16 th to 18 th November 2007. David George, Maria Delgado and Lourdes Orozco are organizing a special symposium on theatre and performance in the Catalan-speaking territories, involving Marion Peter Holt and Sharon Feldman as keynote speakers. The symposium will also include a launch of the theatre volume of ACSOP and the special issue of the Contemporary Theatre Review on Catalan theatre and performance (see attached flyer). The academic papers will be followed by a film screening at the University's Art Centre. The Joan Gili lecture will be delivered by Miquel Strubell, and we will follow this with a comparative session on language planning and/or cultural policy. On the Saturday evening there will be a rehearsed reading of Sharon Feldman's translation of Pau Miró's Plou a Barcelona . The Friday afternoon and evening sessions will be held at the University of Swansea, whilst the rest of the conference will take place at the Village Hotel in Swansea. The approximate cost of the conference, including Friday evening buffet, annual conference dinner and Sunday lunch, is to be £70.
Conference Accommodation: We have secured a special deal on accommodation at the Village Hotel in Swansea of £70 B&B per room per night for single and £77 for double occupancy. The hotel is currently holding 35 rooms for us. In order to book, please contact the following number, quoting 'Anglo-Catalan' when you make your booking: 0870 111 0517. The rooms will only be held until two months prior to the conference, so please make sure you make your booking in good time. Hotel details can be found here.
Call for Papers: You are invited to offer a paper (of around 20 minutes in length) at the Swansea conference on ANY ASPECT of Catalan culture. We would be interested in receiving abstracts on contemporary Catalan performance and performative cultures for the Friday symposium. Please send your title and a 100-word abstract by 30 th July 2007. For further information and proposals please contact the Society Secretary: Dr Helena Buffery, Department of Hispanic Studies, University of Birmingham, Edgbaston, Birmingham B15 2TT, United Kingdom.
Student Members: We are keen to involve more student members in our annual conference programmes and in other events sponsored by the Anglo-Catalan Society. One activity that we have discussed at committee level is the possibility of reviving the student scholarship to enable postgraduate students undertaking projects on an aspect of Catalan Studies to go on a research trip to the Països Catalans. If you are a student member and would like to be involved in a special event at the next conference, please contact Ben Bird or Jill Buckenham.
ACSOP : It is our pleasure to enclose the eighth Joan Gili Memorial lecture, given by Antoni Segura at the conference in Cambridge 2005. We are also able to provide news of the latest developments in the ACSOP series. This year, two volumes will be published with Fiveleaves Press: a volume of Catalan plays by women dramatists and an anthology of contemporary Catalan short stories in translation, with an introduction by Montserrat Lunati. There is also a volume of essays on Jesús Moncada in preparation by Kathryn Crameri. All three volumes will eventually be published on line. Please do visit the publications website. You will find information on how to sponsor the site.
JOCS : Montserrat Roser i Puig has uploaded the 2006 volume of JOCS and will proceed to edit the 2007 volume for release in September. You can visit the journal home page. I am sure you will wish to join us in thanking Montserrat Roser for the considerable amount of time she has spent to ensure the survival and continued high quality of JOCS.
Premi Internacional Ramon Llull: I am sure you will wish to join us in congratulating Professor Alan Yates, who was awarded the Premi Ramon Llull this year for his services to Catalan Studies.
London Catalan Centre: The Centre for Catalan Studies at Queen Mary, University of London, is holding a conference on ‘Catalan Culture and Identity in the Digital Era fron 5 th to 7th July 2007. You can find the programme here.
Conference on 'Nations without States in a Global Age': Professor Montserrat Guibernau is organizing this international conference on 28 th-29 th June 2007 at Queen Mary, University of London, at which there will be a number of papers on Catalan-related topics.
Barcelona Conference: There will be a two-day conference on 'Contemporary Barcelona: visual cultures, space and power” at the IGRS and British Library, London, on 14th-15 th March 2008. Please contact Helena Buffery for further information.
CatalansUK: This association recently received official recognition as a Catalan Centre from the Institut Ramon Llull. They send out regular newletters and can be contacted via email.. Annual membership costs around £35. They propose to organize cultural events throughout the year.
On-Line Catalan Course: Scotland 's Catalan Centre recently released online Catalan course materials for people wishing to prepare for Nivell B, C and D examinations. The first course began in March 2007. Please contact the following address for further information: Centre Català d'Escòcia, P.P Box 23414, Edinburgh EH1 1UW. Tel: 00 44 (0)7985 434 741.
Minutes of AGM: I have attached minutes of the AGM held at Lancaster in November 2006, which have been available on line on our website since December 2007. For those of you who do not have regular internet access or are not on our email distribution list, I will summarize key matters arising below.
Treasurer: Richard Mansell was elected as treasurer during the AGM. He will also now hold all membership data. Please contact him to update your membership details or make subscription payments if you have not elected to pay by standing order. His address is: Department of Hispanic Studies, School of Modern Languages, The Queen's Building, Queen's Drive, Exeter University, Exeter EX4.
Charity Number: After voting to make the required changes to the ACS constitution during the November 2006, the Society was finally awarded charitable status in December 2007. Many thanks to Toni Ibarz for al his hard work in making this possible.
FIAC: The Federació Internacional d'Associacions de Catalanística was finally constituted on 21 December 2006, with the ACS as an associate member. Our representative on the committee of the Federation is Elisenda Marcer, who will be the Federation Secretary for the next three years. The next event at which the Federation will be represented is the Catalan Studies Symposium to be held in Berlin at the beginning of October 2007, in the run-up to the Frankfurt Book Fair.
Please do not hesitate to contact me for further information.
Yours,
Dr Helena Buffery
Honorary Secretary of the Anglo-Catalan Society |
