An Interdisciplinary postgraduate colloquium funded by the AHRC Beyond Text Student-Led Initiatives Programme

Centre for Medieval & Early Modern Studies, University of Kent, Canterbury

Thursday 3rd December, 2009

Our definition of bad behaviour has been chosen to cover the widest parameters of the transgressive, from the ludic, mischievous or disruptive to the violently anti-social, sexual, tabooed and/or criminal. The twin aims for this Colloquium are: to explore how text and 'beyond text' - i.e. other facets of visual and material culture - may be deployed and problematised as evidence for boundary breaking; and secondly to support the provision of essential research skills for postgraduate participants and organizers.
Beyond these aims, the Colloquium will explore transgression through transmission and memory, as both memory and perception are brought to bear on any recollection of bad behaviour. As our comprehension of bad behaviour in the past shapes our understanding of crime now, new perspectives of understanding will be created. Contextualizing different perspectives and approaches on transgressive behaviours, and engaging them in a dialogue, permits fruitful questioning of our preconceptions. This will allow us to achieve our goal of contributing high-quality research, utilizing the Colloquium and its collaborative ventures with organizations outside academia, to form an arena for shared debate. These aims tie in with the Beyond Text programme and specifically, the transmission and memory theme.

Our events and activities will emphasise connections to images, objects, performance and orality and so enhance transfers of knowledge beyond the normative disciplinary divides.

For more information please go to the University of Kent website.