The British Association for Romantic Studies Digital Events Committee are glad to invite proposals for 2024. We’ll be looking to run fewer events this year, but we’re keen to keep the series going.
As before, we invite proposals for curated roundtable sessions; these usually consist of four or five speakers, at least one of whom must be a doctoral student or early career scholar. Events last for 90 minutes and will generally take place via Zoom at 5pm UK time on a weekday. The usual format is a series of talks of between 7 and 12 minutes in length, then a discussion among the speakers, then a Q&A session. Events are free and open to all; they will be recorded and shared on the BARS YouTube channel.
As part of our partnership with the Wordsworth Grasmere, we are also inviting proposals for our exciting new collaborative Digital Events programme. We plan to run three events each year with Wordsworth Grasmere, sharing our audiences. The link to the first of these can be found here, and can be booked here. These events aim to be more conversational than standard BARS Digital Events, addressing Wordsworth Grasmere’s public audience as well as academic listeners.
Indicative topics for both BARS Digital Events and BARS-Wordsworth Grasmere Digital Events include (but are not limited to) the following:
- Ecocritical and environmental studies
- Romanticism and disability studies
- Bicentenary celebrations and discussions
- Romanticism and pedagogy
- Romanticism and gender studies
- Digital Romanticism and online collections and resources
- Special editions and editing
- Romanticism and race
- Author studies
- Romanticism in the 21st century
- Romanticism and mobility
- The relationship between academia, heritage sites, museums, and libraries.
Wordsworth Grasmere is also particularly interested in running BARS-Wordsworth Grasmere Digital events on the following topics:
- Romanticism and public engagement (ways in which effort is made to reach beyond existing audiences, both academic and more broadly).
- Romanticism now (asking questions regarding why Romanticism matters to the modern age; how Romanticism offers us opportunities to consider and act upon issues of injustice, poverty, wellbeing, etc; and how Romanticism, poetry, and art can actively play roles in addressing international conflict, the climate crisis, racism, etc).
We recognise that this application process favours scholars applying as a team or group. If you would like to participate but are unsure how to reach out to scholars working on a similar topic in our field, please get in touch with the BARS Digital Events Team via the email address below – we’d be happy to make suggestions. If possible, please specify your area of research, include a brief biography, and explain the topic and scope of your proposed paper/roundtable idea.
The 2024 deadline for proposals is Wednesday 31st January 2024.
How to Apply
Please send your proposal to BARS.DigitalEvents@gmail.com by Wednesday 31st January 2024. Please indicate whether you would prefer your proposed event to be a BARS Digital Event or a BARS-Wordsworth Grasmere Digital Event.
We expect proposers to be members of BARS – please find more information about the benefits of being a member and how to apply here.
A proposal should be around 500 words and should include the names and email addresses of all speakers (we recommend four to five). Chairs can be nominated as part of the proposal or provided by the Committee. If you would like BARS to provide a chair, please state this in your proposal. Talks or contributions should be connected by a core subject for discussion and/or a central question for the panel to address. If you have not attended any previous Digital Events, please familiarise yourself with the format and past topics by viewing previous recordings of events on our YouTube or by looking at the Digital Events category on the BARS Blog before submitting a proposal.
If you would like to propose an alternative format, or if you have other questions, please feel free to contact us by email.
Contact: BARS.DigitalEvents@gmail.com
Twitter: @BARS_DigiEvents