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The girl in the locket and imagining lost stories: ekphrasis as a response to archival gaps
No full textThis thesis comprises a novel with multiple timelines – 'The Girl in the Locket' – and a contextualising essay. The two should be read together as a piece of practice-led research exploring the question of how historical novelists can use ekphrastic writing to transform incomplete or distorted archives.
Crossing three time periods, 'The Girl in the Locket' seeks to construct a sensitive, evocative and hopeful representation of a fictional West African Tudor serving-woman and her portrait. It explores the potential for paintings to transform our understanding of the past, yet also highlights their vulnerability to misinterpretation, and their incompleteness as records of a life.
The essay sets 'The Girl in the Locket' in the context of recent historical fiction which uses ekphrasis to reconsider characters who have been marginalised or misrepresented by history, and also considers parallels with activistic contemporary visual art praxes. In doing so, it offers a methodology to other historical novelists who seek to use ekphrasis to address archival injustices.
In section one, I investigate the opportunities and complications that arise when novelists turn to mimetic ekphrases of real portraits as a means of discovering the lost identities of the dead. Chapter one considers Hilary Mantel’s assertion that portraits are works of human artifice, and suggests that her use of real historical portraits in her Cromwell trilogy prompts us to question how much we can know about historical figures. In chapter two, I demonstrate that Mantel also takes seriously the idea that portraits capture something of the inner nature of their subjects, and I consider her trilogy as a case study for writers who seek practical techniques for extracting possible truths from portraits. Chapter three accounts for the ways in which my use of historical paintings in 'The Girl in the Locket' takes its cues from Mantel, and also explores how I have sought to give my notional ekphrasis of Johana Blackmore the “effect of the real”, while nonetheless staying alive to the limits of representation.
In section two, I move on from mimetic ekphrasis to consider notional ekphrasis as an approach to archival gaps. The question of how to approach incomplete or distorted records has been a particular focal point of slavery studies, and so chapter four considers the lessons that novelists can learn from twenty-first-century visual artists who seek to redress historic misrepresentations of enslaved people by making new archival traces that celebrate oppositional attitudes of resistance and resilience. In chapter five, I draw attention to comparisons between these artworks and Andrea Levy’s ekphrastic historical novel, 'The Long Song', which celebrates the human spirit’s defiance in the face of enslavement by inventing an oppositional figure and her portrait. Finally, chapter six elucidates how I have applied these lessons of oppositional notional ekphrasis to 'The Girl in the Locket'. It also describes a collaborative art project that is growing out of my novel, in which I am joining forces with visual artist Curtis Holder to explore the impact of bringing my protagonist’s imaginary portrait into real existence.
By setting 'The Girl in the Locket' in the context of contemporary works of visual art and ekphrastic fiction which seek to imagine people whom colonialist history has misrepresented or rendered invisible, I hope to point a way forward for future research. I believe there is further scope for methodologies of recovering lost histories to cross-pollinate between practitioners of the ‘sister arts’, and also for visual artists and ekphrastic writers to intervene in the archives together
Five Acts & A Monologue
No full textThis exhibition brings together two major works: Five Acts (2024/2025) — featuring a circular embroidered tapestry, sculptures resembling animal toys, and five live performances — and Accidental Paradise (2025), a newly commissioned sound installation. Together, they draw attention to voices that have long been pushed to the margins
The artificial earth: a conceptual morphology
No full textThis chapter outlines a method for the interrogation of the morphogenesis of abstractions, which we call “conceptual morphology”. This is a process whereby concepts are interrogated by working through scales of determination to ascertain the integral presuppositions of particular ideas, thus offering a means of altering such an idea to refine its applicability to a particular problematic. This method is demonstrated by tracing the morphology of the concept of ‘artificiality’, which is to be understood in terms of a logic produced by colonial cosmology with which the planet is conceived as an “artificial Earth.” We argue that the colonial cosmology is not built upon the world as it is found, but is a cosmology that states “this is the world as it should be.” Importantly, we suggest that this logic of artificiality reconstructs not just nature, but existence at large by recursively instating its logic as the de facto epistemic condition. By utilising the work of Sylvia Wynter and Alfred North Whitehead, and their theorisations of overrepresentation and the concept of the bifurcation of nature respectively, this chapter argues that the logic of artificiality underpins many of the ways in which we relate to Earth systems in contemporary global techno-capitalist society. A series of key moments in the morphological history of artificiality are highlight and explored: from the European colonial project, through modern enlightenment science and the bifurcation of nature, and finally contemporary discourse proposing geoengineering as a solution to the climate crisis. In each of these moments certain inscriptions of artificiality have been made, to the point in which the earth itself comes to be seen as an artificial object, or machine, to be controlled and manipulated. This critical conceptual morphology of artificiality allows the advance of a conceptual and practical project for constructing knowledge in our contemporary moment of climate crisis. Beyond the specificities of the chapter’s case study, conceptual morphology provides a method to construct and reengineer concepts necessary for an interpretation and understanding of the contemporary moment that is able to escape the hegemonic colonial-capitalist order of contemporary techno-science
Understanding interculturalism in music education, community and creative practice
No full textThis chapter provides a critical overview of contemporary discourse about interculturalism in relation to music education, community and creative practice. The first section defines the terms ‘culture’ and ‘intercultural(ism)’ with reference to a range of conceptualisations. Importantly, it is noted that what intercultural music practice is, in terms of creative practice through composition and performance, tends to predate research about what it does, for example in education and community settings. In the second section, examples of intercultural creative projects are highlighted in the context of discourse about new interculturalism (Kimberlin & Euba, 1995; Eckersall, 2005; Knowles, 2010; Mitra, 2015) whereby it is acknowledged that creative encounters can be untidy, confusing or messy. The third section questions how differences and similarities are understood in intercultural creative practice, while the fourth interrogates levels or situations of in-between-ness. In the fifth section such creative encounters are then considered in the context of education and community practice, emphasising how intercultural dialogue may help people to bond or connect
Chapter Arts Centre in the 1970s: a radical shift for theatre
No full textThis chapter is a case study of Chapter Arts Centre in Cardiff which opened its doors in 1971, a crucial turning point in theatre history that its founders were at the forefront of. The chapter focuses on the early years of Chapter and how the approach to making and programming theatre engaged its community – both locally and afar. The chapter draws on interviews conducted with both Mik Flood and Christine Kinsey (two of the founders), engage with original archival material pertaining to the history of the arts centre and examine alternative theatre history (Ansorage 1975, Itzen 1980, Barker 1979, Craig 1980).
From the mid-to late seventies chapter arts centre began a residency programme that invited artists to come and make work, using the entire building as their stage. Arguably this could be seen as one of the first places in the UK to pioneer what we have now come to call “Immersive Theatre”. This model was adopted from the Mickery Theatre in Holland, a place Mik Flood visited as part of his research for rethinking how theatre should be made and seen within the walls of (and beyond) Chapter. Flood was keen to build a relationship between the arts centre, the audience and the theatre makers and allow the building to be place of making rather than only viewing theatre. The chapter explores the efficacy of these residences and investigates how the relationship between the building and its community were developed
Self-directed learning and student-centered learning: a conceptual comparison
Full text linkSelf-directed learning and student-centred learning are key theoretical constructs in the educational literature. However, to date, the similarities and differences between these terms have not been examined. This paper therefore provides a historical overview of both constructs, followed by an analysis of the similarities and differences between them. The analysis found that student-centred learning has been interpreted in a much broader and more inconsistent way than self-directed learning, and that any conceptual comparison is dependent on the ways in which student-centred learning is interpreted. In particular, the inclusion or non-inclusion of the notion of power-sharing is key when comparing student-centred learning to self-directed learning. If power-sharing is not considered part of student-centred learning, learning might be student-centred and not yet self-directed. An original and important conclusion from the present work is that: only if power-sharing is considered part of student-centred learning can learning be both student-centred and self-directed. Increased clarity around the meanings of these concepts will benefit teachers and other educational stakeholders and will allow us to conduct more valid research to examine the potential impacts of such approaches
“I am surprised they have allowed you in here to do this”: women’s prison writing as heterotopic space of narrative inclusion
Full text linkThe focus of this paper is the hidden world of women’s imprisonment as revealed in their writing produced in creative writing workshops. Proceeding from the perspective of narrative inquiry as a methodology to study lived experience, this study explores the juxtaposed spaces of the closed, exclusionary carceral world and the open, creative space of the writing workshop. Here we come to find the personal, situated within the wider carceral institution, in the marginalised voices of women in prison, writing their stories in their own words. The prison environment is seldom envisaged as a space that promotes literacy, education, the arts or creativity. This paper takes a relational perspective of creative writing workshops as a space which enables and facilitates prison writing, becoming a bridge between the enclosed prison space and the world outside. Following Foucault (1986. Of other spaces. Translated by Jay Miskowiec. Diacrities 16(1). 22-27) the creative writing workshop and the textual space of writing may be seen as heterotopic spaces of play, empathy and inclusion that reflect the prison in the language of marginalisation. It gives the opportunity to women in prison to write about their inner lifeworld as a process to bear witness to their experience and work through the trauma of imprisonment. This writing in the textual space becomes a reflection of the repressive heterotopic space of prison and serves as a counter-narrative to the master narrative of punishment and prison. Therefore, whilst the writers in prison reach out to poetic and creative techniques to capture colours, metaphors and genres such as the fairy tale, the reader is constantly confronted by the harsh reality of their lived experience of confinement and their lives pre-imprisonment
Using lifestyle sports to create a ‘meaningful’ physical education experience
No full textPhysical education has often been justified as a subject which promotes ongoing involvement in physical activity for young people, both beyond the school gates and into adulthood. However, the subject faces challenges in promoting sustained physical activity among youth, prompting calls for reform in both content and teaching approaches. This chapter addresses this concern by reporting findings from an action research study implementing lifestyle sports interventions in two English secondary schools. Two lifestyle sports units (Parkour and a Kickboxing/Cross-Fit hybrid) were implemented with mixed-sex groups aged 11–13 years old, over a six to eight lesson period. Units were delivered using a meaningful physical education approach and were taught by the lead researcher. Data collection encompasses teacher-researcher reflections, observations, and interviews with observing teachers. The data were analysed using thematic analysis and three major themes were drawn from the data. Major themes include the purpose of physical education, the potential of lifestyle sports, and barriers to implementation. Insights highlight the innovative aspects of the approach and underscore the need for change in traditional methods. We discuss these findings in greater depth and make subsequent recommendations for both future research and practice in this area
Anyone can be a hero: the militarization of children in Putin's Russia
Full text linkVladimir Putin's Russia places a great deal of emphasis on the patriotic education of its children and young people, which includes encouraging them to embrace the glorification of war and provide unconditional support for Russia's armed forces. The state's efforts to militarize Russia's youth have accelerated since the start of its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022 and increasingly rely on the appeal of heroism and heroes as role models to engage and inspire young people. War-related heroic behaviours are presented as an attainable ideal for youth that can be developed by participating in a range of exciting activities. This article focuses on the hero-making activities of two state-sponsored patriotic youth groups, the Youth Army and the Victory Volunteers, during the first 100 days following Russia's mass invasion of Ukraine. It draws attention to the embodied and immersive nature of these activities, and especially the emphasis on forging emotional bonds between young people and those who have experienced war. The efforts of the Youth Army and the Victory Volunteers to prepare future generations of Russians to accept the idea of war reveal the state's expectations that it will continue to need a war-supportive society into the foreseeable future
