Life history and life writing research uses life story - whether in the form of oral history, personal narrative, autobiography or biography - as a primary source for the study of history and culture.
Life history and life writing research uses life story - whether in the form of oral history, personal narrative, autobiography or biography - as a primary source for the study of history and culture. Life stories capture the relation between the individual and society, the local and the national, the past and present and the public and private experience. Research involves grappling with theories of memory, relationship and self representation, and with debates about literacy and orality. Many disciplines contribute to the field, including history, sociology, anthropology, literary philosophy, cultural studies and psychology. Life history and life writing researchers present their work in many forms. As well as academic publications, we contribute to radio and television documentaries, auto/biographical drama, reminiscence work, digital and video presentations and exhibitions. Life history and life writing research is, of necessity, concerned with ethics and power relationships, and with the potential for advocacy and empowerment.
Our next free event:
First to do it! Celebrating pioneering women through portraiture and biography
With Anita Corbin and Dr Kate Murphy
Wednesday, 8 July 2020
4-5.30 pm
ZOOM (live, online)
Free, all welcome, but booking is essential.
Magicians, firefighters, DJs, politicians, broadcasters, fight directors…
Join us for a Zoom celebration of pioneering women past and present, with acclaimed photographer Anita Corbin and historian and writer Dr Kate Murphy.
Anita's inspiring and informative exhibition of 100 First Women Portraits showcases British women who were each ‘firsts’ in their field.
Kate’s book Firsts: The Livewire Book of British Women Achievers, is a long overdue and startling exploration of over 500 women achievers.
They will be interviewed by art historian Dr Alexandra Loske, whose research interests include the life and work of women in the arts and sciences from the 18th century onward.
Professor Margaretta Jolly, Director of the Centre for Life History and Life Writing Research, will introduce the event.
Email A.Loske@sussex.ac.uk for a place.
New research project:
Squaring the colour circle:
Women in colour history
Led by art historian Alexandra Loske, this project will examine the lives and work of women in colour history from ca. 1760 onward.
Examples of women writing and publishing on colour before the twentieth century are extremely rare. While women were frequently depicted as personifications of colour or as artists, such as in the 1787 engraving above, fewer than 20 publications by women on the subject of colour dating to before 1900 are known.
This project seeks to gather information about the lives and work of women who wrote about, engaged with, and taught colour from the eighteenth century onward. The aim is to create a hub for data, information and image material that will help us understand how women in the eighteenth, nineteenth and early twentieth centuries managed to engage in a field largely dominated by men.
The webpage will also list related events, exhibitions, lectures, and publication.
Please follow this link for details.
Contact: A.Loske@sussex.ac.uk