Popular Music and Wellbeing Conference, 14-15 September 2023
Popular music culture continually seeks to create states of individual and collective joy, ecstasy, transcendence, and belonging, as well as spaces in which subjectivities can be composed, transformed and/or radically (re)imagined. On the other hand, popular music also produces widely circulating discourses about the reverse of wellbeing, such as anxiety, alienation, abuse, isolation, depression, and self-harm.
This two-day conference brings together an international set of scholars who will explore these and other issues from different angles of vision. We'll discuss key themes, such as:
- histories of popular music as a discourse of identity and belonging
- the use of music as therapeutic intervention
- grassroots music spaces as sites of community organisation
- pop music and body images
- mindfulness as musical listening
- pop music as a commentary on mental health awareness.
Finding Hogarth in the Humanities, 27 March 2023
Hosted by St Mary's University, Twickenham, and Hogarth House Academics and independent researchers at all levels are invited to submit an abstract for this one-day interdisciplinary conference which analyses the impact of artist and social critic William Hogarth. Renowned in his lifetime as one of the most significant artists of his generation, Hogarth’s influence continues to inspire artists, authors and the media from the eighteenth century to the present day. We welcome submissions from all historical and geographical regions and encourage those interested to tailor their submission to their own research, noting how Hogarth offers inspiration or commentary within their subjects.
This one-day conference included papers on the following themes:
- Hogarth and the modern moral subject
- reinterpretations of Hogarth and his work
- passion and feelings in Hogarth’s art
- Hogarth’s aesthetics
- moral and ethical questions in Hogarth
- Hogarth’s reputation and influence
- Hogarth’s London.
Fulham Palace lecture series
St Mary’s academics participated in a public lecture series at Fulham Palace, drawing upon their humanities research to interpret the story of this former residence of the Archbishops of London. Talks included:
- lecture on ‘The Second World War at Fulham Palace’ Dr Mark Donnelly, 25 May
- lecture on ‘Human Trafficking and Fulham Palace’ by Dr Carole Murphy, 1 June
- lecture on ‘Women and Religious Life in the Nineteenth Century : A Case study of Catharine Tait’ by Angela Platt, 8 June
- lecture on ‘Behind the Scenes with Catherine of Aragon’ Prof Glenn Richardson, 15 June
- lecture on ‘The French Revolution and Fulham Palace' by Dr Stewart McCain, 22 June.