Call for Papers
“Patchwork and Authorship”
May 3, 2024, University of Exeter
Keynote Speakers:
Professor Jennie Batchelor, University of York
Invitation
The University of Exeter’s AHRC-funded “The Art of Fiction” project invites proposals for 15-minute papers on the theme of “patchwork and authorship”.
As part of “The Art of Fiction” project, a series of handmade little magazines, circulated as The Busy Bee (1877-1886), are being digitized and researched for the first time. These texts, full of stories, articles, poems, and magazine cuttings, offer insight into the lives of a creative coterie that included Charlotte Mary Yonge and Amélie Claire Leroy, better known by her pseudonym Esmè Stuart. The editor, Selina Mary Moor, and other contributors were amateur essayists and largely women; and so, The Busy Bee provides an excellent case study for examining women’s collaborative art making in the late Victorian period.
In celebration of the digital launch of The Busy Bee, we are hosting a one-day workshop on Friday 3rd May that will provide a space for scholars working on tangent projects to come together and share thinking, coalesce perspectives, and foment new lines of enquiry. We will share research and participate in a collaborative making activity inspired by The Busy Bee that will allow us to explore embodied research methods together.
Paper topics could include, but are not limited to,
- Literature by multiple authors
- Collaborative writing
- Collage and patchwork
- Authorship and craft
- Albums or manuscript magazines
- The process of writing
- Creative academic writing
Further information
The conference will take place on May 3, 2024, at the University of Exeter and there is no fee for attending. Please email abstracts of up to 300 words for papers of 15 minutes to Dr Alex Gushurst-Moore by Wednesday 13th March. Confirmation of acceptance by Friday, 22nd March 2024.