SOCIETY FOR NEO-LATIN STUDIES

GRADUATE STUDENT FORUM

KING’S COLLEGE LONDON, STRAND BUILDING S8.08 FRIDAY 16TH MAY 2014, 1-6.30PM

We are organizing a graduate student forum to be held at King’s for graduate students working on or with neo-Latin material. The event is open to students in any discipline and at all stages, including MA/MPhil/MSt students and undergraduates considering graduate work in the field as well as PhD students. The event is scheduled for a Friday afternoon to allow those not based in London to make a weekend of it if they wish. KCL’s Strand campus is extremely central and easily accessible by tube from all the mainline terminals.

Graduate students in neo-Latin studies are unusually isolated: the UK has no departments of neo-Latin, so students are scattered among many departments across the country, including history, English, classics, modern languages, history of science, philosophy and theology. They are often the only student in their department (or even institution) working on a neo-Latin topic. There is a strong need for such students to meet each other, share their research and consult with more senior academics, who are themselves hard to locate and contact for the same reasons – they are scattered among many departments, and almost none of them will have ‘neo-Latin’ in their job title. As a result, strategies for career planning and job applications are particularly challenging for these students. This forum will offer the opportunity to speak pragmatically about such challenges and to discuss career development with staff and students at all stages.

The aim of the forum is to combine brief presentations by five or six students (limited to 10-15 minutes to allow even students at an early stage, for instance an MA dissertation, to present) with a session of presentations by four established academics from a range of disciplinary backgrounds and career stages to advise on career development in the field.

There will be a small registration fee of £10 (payable in cash on
arrival) to cover a sandwich lunch, coffee in the afternoon and drinks at the end of the event. We are applying for funds to allow us to offer some graduate bursaries to cover this fee and travel expenses. The event is generously supported by the Institute of Classical Studies.

If you would like to attend, please book a place by emailing VICTORIA MOUL (VICTORIA.MOUL@KCL.AC.UK) BY THE 1ST OF MAY 2014. Please indicate your institution, research area and the stage you are at (e.g. first year PhD; prospective MA student). If you would like to be considered for a bursary, should funds be available, please indicate this.
(Priority would be given to those traveling the greatest distances.)

If you are interested in PRESENTING A SHORT PAPER on a neo-Latin element of your research please also contact Victoria, with a brief outline of the possible topic. Exploratory papers on ongoing research, or discussions of a particular problem are very welcome: you don’t have to be sure of your conclusions.
   
   
PROGRAMME

1.00-2.00: Arrival, registration, sandwich lunch in S8.08. Chance for introductions and informal networking.

2.00-4.15: series of short (10-15 minute) papers by five or six graduate students on their research. Followed by questions and discussion.

4.15-4.45: coffee break

4.45-6.00: 'Careers in Neo-Latin' session, four presentations by neo-Latin scholars at various career stages and from various disciplinary backgrounds: Dr Paul Botley (Warwick, holder of Leverhulme funding for a Neo-Latin project); Dr Emma Buckley (Classics department, St Andrew’s); Dr Andrew Taylor (Cambridge, MML/English); Professor Brenda Hosington (Centre for the Study of the Renaissance, Warwick).

6.00 ONWARDS: Drinks in situ. There will be a dinner afterwards at a local restaurant of an appropriate grad-student-friendly budget for anyone who'd like to come along.