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The T. S. Eliot International Summer School

6-14 July 2019, University of London

Director: Professor Anthony Cuda | Deputy Director: Elizabeth Micakovic

“An exhilarating literary-cultural experience.” Program participant, 2018

This summer, the T. S. Eliot International Summer School will convene in London for nine days of readings, lectures, and special events featuring renowned scholars and writers from around the world. Since its founding 11 years ago, the Summer School has hosted lectures and readings by the late Nobel Prize Laureate Seamus Heaney, Pulitzer Prize winning poet Paul Muldoon, celebrated playwright Tom Stoppard, UK Poet Laureate Carol Ann Duffy, and many more. The programme is held in Bloomsbury, the heart of literary London, close to the former Faber offices in Russell Square where Eliot worked. The premiere venue for the study and research of Eliot and modernism, the Summer School has attracted students from over 31 nations, a testament to the worldwide resurgence of Eliot studies as the Eliot Editorial Project provides students access to new editions of his poems, prose, and letters.

Programme

The School will formally open with an evening lecture by the internationally acclaimed poet Sean O’Brien (The Drowned Book, Europa) on Saturday 6 July. A trip to Little Gidding follows on the Sunday, with lectures and readings by Michael Hrebeniak (University of Cambridge), Mary Ann Lund (University of Leicester), Robert Von Hallberg (Claremont McKenna College), and award-winning novelist Ali Smith (Autumn, How To Be Both).

From Monday through Friday, students experience morning lectures from a distinguished list of Eliot scholars, including Jewel Spears Brooker (Eckerd College), David E. Chinitz (Loyola University Chicago), Robert Crawford (University of St Andrews), Anthony Cuda (University of North Carolina, Greensboro), Julia Daniel (Baylor University), Nancy Fulford (T.S. Eliot Estate), Robert Von Hallberg (Claremont McKenna College), Elizabeth Micakovic (Queen Mary, University of London), Rachel Potter (University of East Anglia), Jean-Michel Rabaté (University of Pennsylvania), Jayme Stayer, S.J. (John Carroll University), and Joanna Rzepa (University of Essex).

Students choose one of a variety of afternoon seminars for a week-long, in-depth study under the guidance of prominent experts in the field of modernist and Eliot studies. The seminars for summer 2019 are (see descriptions on the website):

Hannah Sullivan, winner of the 2019 T.S. Eliot Prize, will deliver a reading at the London Library on Friday evening, followed by a gala reception. On Saturday, students travel to Burnt Norton, for a picnic and the annual Burnt Norton Lecture, given by poet and Eliot biographer Robert Crawford (University of St Andrews). The School closes on Sunday with an optional mass at St Magnus Martyr and a guided walking tour by Carey Karmel and Mark Storey.

Students

The School welcomes students from all academic and non-academic backgrounds ‒ poets, artists, professionals, teachers, and life-long citizens of literature from every vocation who take delight in joining with students, faculty, and the wide community of Eliot readers for an exhilarating cultural and social experience.

Tuition Fees

The fee for the T. S. Eliot International Summer School will be £600 for the whole week, which includes the provision of documentary materials, sandwich lunches, coffee/tea breaks, poetry readings, organised coach trips and entrance fees to Little Gidding and Burnt Norton. The tuition fee does not cover the cost of accommodation, evening meals, or travel.

Bursaries

The School is proud to be able to offer generous bursary support. In 2018, 75% of students received full or partial bursaries. The deadline for bursary applications is 1 May 2019.

Applications

For application forms, programme information, and accommodation details, please visit: https://ies.sas.ac.uk/eliot

Contact

For further information, please contact Georgia Reeves, Eliot Summer School Administrator: [email protected].

For information about this year’s programme, please contact the Director: [email protected]

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Special Issue of Humanities: Realism and Naturalism in the Humanities

Guest Editor: Cameron Dodworth, Ph.D., Department of English, Methodist University

Deadline for Submissions: 30 June 2019

As a movement and genre, Realism—including Naturalism and Impressionism—had its origins in the literature and visual art of France in the early- to mid-nineteenth century, but it soon became very much an international and interdisciplinary methodology that extended well into the twentieth century and beyond. This special issue of Humanities invites submissions that engage with Realism, Naturalism, and even Impressionism (as articulated through Realism) as international and interdisciplinary movements and genres. Particularly through the lens of the Humanities (literature, art, theater, film, history, music, and philosophy), submissions that engage one or more of those disciplines—and that form interdisciplinary connections between those and others—are encouraged. Also welcome are studies that connect with Realism at any point from the nineteenth century through the Modernist period, including papers that make even more contemporary connections (through adaptation studies, for example).

While the study of Realism, in broader contexts, contains a significant amount of scholarship, focus on Naturalism, in particular, is of major concern in this special issue. This special issue seeks to not only gain a greater sense of understanding in relation to Naturalism—as an oftentimes underdeveloped, underexplored, and even ambiguous genre within the umbrella of Realism—but it also seeks to challenge previous understandings of Naturalism.

Gabriel P. Weisberg observes—mainly of visual art—in Beyond Impressionism: The Naturalist Impulse (1992) that Naturalists “were overlooked by collectors and critics who believed that the avant-garde—those artists in total opposition to an academic tradition—came to full ascendancy at the turn of the twentieth century,” and that Naturalism was often stigmatized as failing to reflect “the stylistic traits of nascent modernism.” Papers that challenge and/or support these claims, especially on a more interdisciplinary basis, are of particular interest. To what extent does Naturalism, within the realm of Realism, deviate in various disciplines from the evidently more avant-garde fin-de-siècle movements that are typically considered more consistent with the evolution towards Modernism? To what extent is Naturalism an avant-garde movement in its own right? What about the liminality as well as the limitations of Naturalism, within and beyond the scope of Realism?

Papers that address the above questions or that explore any other subject matter within Realism, Naturalism, and Impressionism will be considered.

Manuscripts should be submitted online at https://www.mdpi.com/journal/humanities by registering and logging in. Once you are registered, complete the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All papers will be peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a double-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Humanities is an international peer-reviewed open access quarterly journal published by MDPI.

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