Centre for Life History and Life Writing Research

Spring/Summer Terms 2014

Tuesday 28 January, 12.30-2.00pm, A108
Dr Jenna Bailey: 'Playing on the Margins of History: Ivy Benson and Her All-Girls Band'
Dr Jenna Bailey is the Visiting Fellow at the CLHLWR. Her best-selling book Can Any Mother Help Me? is based on letters in the University of Sussex’s Special Collections (now The Keep), and was published by Faber and Faber in 2007. This event was co-sponsored by the Department of History.

Wednesday 12 February, 1.00-2.00pm, Richmond Lecture Theatre
Dr Stephen Weiss: 'War, Death and Second Chance'
Born in 1925, Weiss has an incredibly fascinating life story as a Second World War veteran who landed in Southern France in 1944, fought alongside the French Resistance, and subsequently became a psychoanalyst, academic researcher in war studies and military historian. One of the most internationally decorated World War Two veterans, on Armistice Day 2013 Dr Stephen Weiss was awarded the rank of Commander of the French Legion of Honour by the French Ambassador in London.
Presented in association with the Centre for the History of War and Society. Introduction by Professor Rod Kedward.

Thursday 6th March, 12.00-1.45pm, SB 309
Professor G. Thomas Couser: ‘Why Memoir Matters’
Though often confused with the novel, memoir is a distinct genre, in theory at least. As a result, we properly have different expectations of it. Memoir matters, in part, because it does different "work" than fiction does. Couser explored the implications of this difference in the context of the history and present situation of memoir in the US. In particular, he will argue for the significance of memoir as a threshold genre, accessible to many, and rooted in practices of daily life. Prof. Couser is the author of Memoir: An Introduction (OUP, 2011) and a leading author of many books on family memoir, disability and the ethics of life writing.

Wednesday 19th March 12.30-1.45pm, Friston 117
Professor Paul Thompson and Dr Margaretta Jolly, ‘Feminist Pioneers of Social Research and of Everyday Experiment: An Oral History Perspective’
This seminar introduced two major oral histories recently archived at the British Library, Pioneers of Social Research and Sisterhood and After: The Women’s Liberation Oral History Project.

NEXT EVENTS:

Wed 9th April 2014, Jubilee Building Room G22, 16.00-17.30pm
Professor Joe Moran: ‘Television and the History of Everyday Life’
Joe Moran is Professor of English and Cultural History at Liverpool John Moores University. His most recent book is the acclaimed Armchair Nation: an Intimate History of Britain in Front of the Television. He also wrote Queuing for Beginners: The Story of Daily Life from Breakfast to Bedtime and On Roads: a Hidden History, and describes himself as interested in ‘the everyday, the banal and other important matters’.
This seminar is being organised in conjunction with the Public Culture Research Hub.
Chair: David Hendy, Respondent: Margaretta Jolly.

Thursday 22nd May 2014, 12.00-1.45 pm Place TBC
Dr Kate Murphy: ‘Woman's Hour: Telling History, Being History, Making History’
Dr Murphy is a Senior Lecturer in Radio Production at the University of Bournemouth. She worked at the BBC for 24 years, primarily as a Senior Producer for Woman’s Hour, during which time she had responsibility for the history output, as well as carrying out extensive research into the programme’s past. She will share her inside knowledge of life at one of the nation’s defining sites of women’s representation.
This event is co-sponsored by the Centre for Gender Studies.