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BGU laptops powering Imps to success
Two laptops provided by Bishop Grosseteste University (BGU) are helping Lincoln City's Danny and Nicky Cowley in their bid to gain promotion back to the Football League. The Imps are flying high in the National League this season and have become the first non-league team in 103 years to reach the quarter-finals of the FA Cup. Danny and his assistant (brother Nicky) have been using powerful coaching tools to help gain an edge on their opposition, and laptops provided by BGU have helped them. The laptops were provided to the Imps as part of BGU’s ongoing partnership with the club. At the start of the three-year sponsorship deal signed in 2016 various links were explored and the laptops were part of a conversation about academic and leadership development both at the club but also at BGU. Graham Basten, Head of School of Social Sciences at BGU, said, "I'm really delighted that our training facilities and IT support have contributed to the club's ongoing success" Lincoln City’s assistant manager Nick Cowley said, “(BGU) were great in providing us both with laptops and we use an app called Hudl which all our players have too. It’s used to go over our previous match. “The laptops which BGU have provided have given us the opportunity to look at thorough detail not only on our own performance but that of teams we are due to play against.” Hudl is an American company and their technology allows the Cowley brothers to upload clips and make annotations with specific instructions for each individual player. The brothers are both former PE teachers and the software has allowed them to get back to their teaching roots and set homework for the Imps players. Nicky explains, “We are able to see how much time they spend on (the app) as well. Sometimes they have a little extra work to do as we send a lot of clips of the opponents we’re about to play for our players to look at.” Have you been inspired by Danny and Nicky Cowley and the incredible success of the Imps this season? Find out how you could follow in their footsteps with our new Sport, Coaching and Physical Education degree. -
BGU Looking Eastward to Forge Links in China
Bishop Grosseteste University’s Deputy Vice-Chancellor has attended an Educational Exchange in Hunan Province in China as part of Lincolnshire County Council’s endeavours to strengthen relationships and socio-economic prosperity of the two regions. Professor Jayne Mitchell attended the event following the signing of an economic friendship agreement with Hunan Province by the county council. The educational exchange programme focused on developing relationships between universities and strategic bodies such as the education and economic development departments in provincial and county governments. It was co-ordinated by the Foreign and Overseas Chinese Affairs Office of Hunan Provincial People’s Government of China and the Hunan Provincial Education Department. The week-long programme involved visits to three cities in Hunan Province (Changsha, Changde and Zhangjiajie), introductions to senior officials in the Foreign and Overseas Chinese Affairs Office and Hunan Provincial Department of Education, and meetings to discuss collaboration and partnership working with 12 of the region’s top universities. During the visit Professor Mitchell signed a Memorandum of Understanding with Hunan First Normal University. The two universities are now planning staff and student exchanges, joint academic programmes, collaborative research projects and cultural exchanges in teacher education. Discussion is also ongoing with several more universities in Hunan about developing similar arrangements in other subject areas and priority sectors for the county. “There are many similarities in the history, expertise and future goals of BGU and universities in Hunan,” said Professor Mitchell. “By working together to share experience, knowledge and resources we can further develop the education and skills of local people and help contribute to the economic prosperity of businesses right across the county. “I would like to thank our hosts for their warm welcome and openness in seeking ways to work together. We have made many new friends and look forward to strengthening these relationships further by extending BGU’s partnership working with both Lincolnshire County Council and universities and businesses in China.” Cllr Colin Davie, Executive Member for Economic Development at Lincolnshire County Council, said: “I’m delighted that Bishop Grosseteste University had a successful visit. This is not just an important step for the university, but it will also help further cement our friendship with the province. “I’m confident that this growing relationship will bring opportunities for other businesses too, with agriculture, engineering, adult social care and culture already earmarked as areas for future collaboration. We have a lot in common and, working together, we can ensure greater prosperity for both regions.” -
Graduation Beckons for Mum Who Went Back to School
A mature student who left school with very few qualifications and chose to put her family first will graduate with a degree from Bishop Grosseteste University (BGU) at Lincoln Cathedral on Wednesday 19th July. Clare Swiffen (38), from Helpringham near Sleaford, began her course in Education Studies and Special Educational Needs & Inclusion as a mature student, after commitments to family life prevented her from pursuing her career. She attended Grantham College to study an Access to Nursing course before starting a BSc in Midwifery at the University of Nottingham in September 2012 – but things did not go as she had hoped. “I was really excited to start my midwifery course in Nottingham, but unfortunately I had to leave in April 2013 as my daughter who had started school in the same September was really struggling both academically and socially,” said Clare. Choosing to put her family first, Clare took a year out in the hope of returning to university the following April, but she continued to face more hurdles. “The university wanted to base me at Mansfield and as a single parent at the time it just wasn’t feasible. “I applied for 70 to 80 jobs but I only got one interview, and they wanted me to be able to work from 8am to 8pm which I couldn’t do because of childcare issues. All the other jobs I applied for I either didn’t hear from or I was told I was underqualified or over qualified. So, my only option was to undertake further study to open other job opportunities.” After much debating Clare finally took the plunge to return to university and began the Education Studies and Special Educational Needs & Inclusion course at BGU in September 2014. “The course has not only helped me as a parent with a child with special needs, but it’s also allowed me to gain a better understanding of the needs of disabled children,” she said. “For me the biggest worry was the age difference to other students, but it’s never been an issue. I was dreading it but the whole experience exceeded my expectations and the support I’ve had from both the tutors and students has been amazing. “My advice to anyone who is a bit older and is contemplating going to university is to just go for it! It was quite daunting taking that first step, but I’m glad I did because it’s opened up so many opportunities for me that I wouldn’t have had if I didn’t go through with it.” After graduation, Clare will return to BGU to take her postgraduate PGCE teaching qualification as she hopes to become a special needs education co-ordinator. Clare Swiffen will graduate at Lincoln Cathedral with a BA (Hons) degree in Education Studies and Special Educational Needs & Inclusion at 10.15am on Wednesday 19th July 2017. -
BGU Awarded £2.6M European Funding to Support Local Businesses
Bishop Grosseteste University in Lincoln has been awarded over £2.6 million of European funding for two major projects to support entrepreneurship and innovation with businesses and social enterprises in Greater Lincolnshire.The award, from the European Structural and Investment Funds (ESIF), is the biggest business and research investment ever secured by BGU.It reflects the university’s strategy to increase its positive support for the development of businesses, communities and the economy of Greater Lincolnshire.BGU has purchased St. Hugh’s on Newport, an iconic Grade II listed building, to provide a new home for the projects. The building is on the site of an Augustinian Friary and has been used as offices for many years.The projects are: Lincolnshire Open Research and Innovation Centre (LORIC), which has a total value of £3.5 million (ESIF contribution £2.1 million) BGU Business Inspiration, which has a total value of £878k (ESIF contribution £527k). The two projects will run until spring 2019 and spring 2020 respectively, and will provide support for over 130 small to medium-sized businesses (SMEs) and social enterprises and will create eight jobs.Mark Bowen, Enterprise Development Manager at BGU, said: “The LORIC project will provide support to businesses, public and third-sector organisations across Greater Lincolnshire and position the university at the leading edge in the use of open data to support innovation.“The Business Inspiration project is designed to develop entrepreneurial leadership, with a particular focus on innovative approaches to growing small and micro-businesses. It includes a £307k grant-making fund that will encourage businesses in using creative and innovative approaches. It will provide successful applicants with up to 100% funding as well as financial support to employ graduate interns and placements.“We plan to refurbish St Hugh’s to create LORIC. The work is expected to take about 11 months to complete, but we already have a live project running in the background.“As a result of setting-up LORIC and our associated project BGU Business Inspiration, we are intending to create eight new jobs but, by the time we have reached our target, around 40 people will be working at St Hugh’s.” Mark added: “Once again this highlights the commitment of BGU to developing the communities that have supported us for more than 155 years.“Thanks are due to the Greater Lincolnshire Local Enterprise Partnership, Lincolnshire County Council’s Technical Assistance team and the Business Lincolnshire Growth Hub for their unstinting support throughout the challenging application process, which took more than a year to complete.”BGU will be making a total investment of £1.6 million with participating businesses contributing £153k. Open Data Open Data is increasingly in the news. The demand from businesses and organisations to be able to analyse and interpret large, complex datasets into useable information which they can easily work with is increasing.In the future, the stars of the data scene will be people and businesses with the skills to interpret and connect different datasets in ways which will not only be easily accessible, but which will help businesses to find new opportunities and solve problems which they may not currently be aware of.They will not only be tech and digital sector enterprises, but businesses in mainstream service, health, manufacturing, visitor economy, educational and skills sectors for example. They all have the potential to benefit from open data.Insights could help to identify new market opportunities and develop new capabilities within a business to improve productivity, efficiency or profitability.“At BGU, we are keen to develop the capacity of our research students and academic teams to work with organisations and to transform datasets into a language which end users can understand and use to add value in practical ways,” said Mr Bowen.“For example, the services we are offering could be useful to help health and social care organisations to plan more effectively for the future. A business could find analysed data useful in helping them to understand changing patterns, needs and preferences within communities.” -
BGU student organises activity day for young carers
A BGU Drama in the Community student recently organised an activity day with forty young carers from across Lincolnshire. Every year Drama in the Community students at BGU complete a community project in their final year working with a community group for approximately three months. The communities vary from work with the elderly, projects with people with mental health issues, special needs, schools, youth groups and many more. Chloe Stewart, a third year Drama in the Community student, decided to work with young carers for her project. Her project culminated in an activity day at the BGU campus giving young carers the opportunity to relax, socialise and try out a range of activities. The young people took part in drama, dance, samba band, sports and craft workshops. Chloe said “after speaking to some of the young carers, it was apparent that the day had had an effect on them. “Some expressed that the day had given them the opportunity to get away from their responsibilities, others said how thrilled they were to have tried the different activities that were available for them, and some just stated how nice it was to meet individuals of a similar age to them in a similar situation. “I felt immense pride in watching the two communities come together to give the young carers the opportunity to have some time away from their home life and responsibilities.” To make the day a success Chloe liaised with a number of outside organisations, companies and Lincolnshire County Council. Freshtime Futures Trust, a charity from Boston that give young individuals funding to achieve their goals, invested just under £1000 to enable the day to go ahead. The connections made at the event will be long lasting and there is hope that the event will be held again in the future. The community project is just one of many opportunities that Drama in the Community students at BGU get involved with. Chloe said “the course gives students incredible opportunities. I am thrilled we are given the chance to go out into the world and use our knowledge and skills to benefit a community. “It is incredible to be able to see your hard work come to life and what real effect you can have on other individuals.” Find out more about studying Drama at BGU. -
Andrew Jackson on Bernard Samuel Gilbert
BGU's Dr Andrew Jackson has been out and about through April, discussing his research on little-known Lincolnshire author and dialect poet, Bernard Samuel Gilbert (1882-1927). Following a recent conference paper for the Social History Society in London, Andrew has given talks on the writer to the Torksey History Group and to the Lincoln Branch of the Geographical Society. He also visited Gilbert's birthplace, Billinghay, to give a talk to the village's history society, and to discuss with members the surrounding Lincolnshire landscape that had inspired much of his writing. Andrew said "Bernard Gilbert’s work fell largely into obscurity following his death 90 years ago. I am on something of a mission to bring his writing to the attention of the people of his home county in the present, and to audiences well beyond Lincolnshire as well." Dr Andrew Jackson is Head of Research at Bishop Grosseteste University in Lincoln. -
Sport at BGU shortlisted for prestigious award
Sport at Bishop Grosseteste University (BGU) in Lincoln has been shortlisted for an award at this year’s Active Lincolnshire Sports Awards. The department is one of three finalists in the Sports Department of the Year category. Sport at BGU was praised in the shortlisting process for “a great partnership between students, BGU staff and professionals from Lincoln City FC”. The BGU logo sits proudly on the Lincoln City home shirt and BGU’s sponsorship of the club has brought about many benefits to students, the club and the city over the last year. Sports students received coaching from City manager Danny Cowley in December, worked with players as they trained at BGU and learnt about the importance of data and research in preparing high-performing teams. The FA Cup trophy made a memorable appearance on campus in March prior to the Imps’ historic quarter-final clash against Arsenal. The Imps’ FA Cup run attracted national and international TV coverage of the partnership which has helped to raise the profile of the Club, BGU and the city of Lincoln as a whole. The Sports department also received praise for working with its partners and the wider community to provide more opportunities for people to become involved in sport and physical activity. The Sports Department, working with its FE College partners, has developed a new BSc (Hons) Sport, Coaching and Physical Education degree that will enable more people across the county to study the benefits of sport and physical activity. BGU’s Student Ambassadors are putting their coaching and teaching skills to good use supporting local primary schools to deliver sport and physical activity for young people. The Cathedral Cup, an initiative developed jointly by students from both of the city’s Universities, was also highlighted as a particular success. Sports teams from BGU competed against teams from the University of Lincoln in October 2016, culminating in a showpiece football match, at Lincoln City’s Sincil Bank stadium, attended by thousands of sports fans from across Lincolnshire. The Cathedral Cup has become an annual charitable and community-focussed showcase for the city. Dr Graham Basten, Head of School of Social Sciences at BGU, said, “I am absolutely delighted that the Sports Department at BGU has been shortlisted for the Lincolnshire Sports Award. “That an independent panel has noted our sustained progress in developing community links, student engagement, our partnership with Lincoln City Football Club, and our new BSc Sport and Coaching is testimony to the great work of the academic and wider staff at BGU, our students and our partners. “It was great to see our logo on the Imps football shirt worn by young and old, a real sense of pride in the city. I therefore hope that more students will be inspired to ‘Study Sport at BGU’”. The Lincolnshire Sports Awards will take place at the Lincolnshire Showground on 2 November 2017. Find out more about Sport at BGU. -
Research Boosted at BGU as Five Earn Promotions
Bishop Grosseteste University (BGU) in Lincoln has appointed a professor and four readers from among its academic staff in recognition of their research work. Dr Kate Adams in the University’s Research and Innovation Centre becomes a professor, while Dr Jack Cunningham and Dr Sibylle Erle in the School of Humanities and Dr Caroline Horton and Dr Emma Pearson in the School of Social Sciences become readers. Professor Adams is an education specialist and the University’s Head of Research. Her research focuses on aspects of childhood from children’s perspectives, particularly on spirituality, and the implications of children’s understandings for the wellbeing agenda in education. Dr Cunningham is Academic Co-ordinator for Theology and has researched extensively into early modern and late medieval religious history. He is also one of the principal investigators of the Ordered Human Project based at BGU and a specialist in the life and work of Robert Grosseteste. Dr Erle is a Senior Lecturer in English and her research interests range from William Blake and Alfred, Lord Tennyson to 1790s politics and landscape gardening. She has lectured and given seminars at Tate Britain and the Wellcome Institute and most recently lectured at the Universities of Greifswald and Zürich. Dr Horton is the Academic Co-ordinator for the PhD programme. She also teaches on psychology courses and runs DrEAMSLab, the university’s Dreaming, Emotions, Associations and Memories in Sleep Laboratory. She is an active researcher in the field of sleep-dependent memory consolidation, with a particular interest in studying dreaming as a reflection of autobiographical memory consolidation processes. Dr Pearson is a Senior Lecturer in Education and Academic Co-ordinator for the Education Doctorate programme, and her research activities are centred on the study of socio-cultural contexts of learning. Her consultancy work with organisations such as UNICEF, UNESCO and the Asia Pacific Regional Network for Early Childhood (ARNEC) has supported her research and involved travel to many countries, from North Korea to Vanuatu. “These appointments recognise the exceptional leadership and excellence in research which is being demonstrated by these members of staff,” said Professor David Rae, Executive Dean for Research and Knowledge exchange at BGU. “BGU has a long-term plan to develop research excellence, and recognising the talent and achievements of our top researchers is fundamental to this. The new professorship and four readerships aim to provide the research leadership for our entry into the next Research Excellence Framework in 2021 and beyond.” -
Retired RAF Service Woman Realises Her Dream at BGU
A Lincoln woman who spent over two decades in the Royal Air Force before retiring and returning to education will graduate with a degree from Bishop Grosseteste University (BGU) in Lincoln this week. After moving to the UK from the Caribbean, Amanda Betts (47) joined the RAF and served as an Aerospace Systems Operator for 22 years before deciding to go to university. With an interest in primary school teaching she attended Lincoln College to study an Access to Higher Education course in teacher training in 2013. At the same time, she began volunteering as a Teaching Assistant at Chad Varah Primary School in Lincoln, before starting a three-year BA (Hons) degree in Education Studies and History at BGU in 2014. Amanda said: “It was always my intention to do some aspect of teaching, but it was only after getting into university that I thought that being a primary school teacher would be my next role,” While at university Amanda joined the Networking Club through the BGU Employability Award which helps students prepare for the workplace after graduation. After initially wanting to become a primary school teacher, she decided that she would be better suited in a slightly different role. “It’s not always easy knowing if a career or particular job will suit you but the Networking Club allowed me to speak to a range of teaching staff and experts all in one place. I soon realised that full-time teaching was not the path for me. “Instead I wanted to work in an environment with children using a wider range of activities and services which would help the child in life, not just academically.” Once back on track Amanda applied for a voluntary post to work with vulnerable children and adults at the St Giles Sure Start Children’s Centre during her third year. She said: “I met a variety of social workers and outreach workers who were dedicated to making sure each child received the best start possible. “I knew that by volunteering I could make a difference to children’s lives too, and this is when I discovered where my skills and interests would be best suited.” The road to graduation has not been an easy ride for Amanda, who not only found out she was dyslexic during her time at university but also got married part way through her degree! “I never did many academic examinations in the RAF apart from oral exams so getting used to reading and writing essays in a short space of time was hard for me. I just thought that I was having difficulties with the workload, especially being a mature student, but I never considered myself dyslexic. As well as all this I was adjusting to married life!” After graduation, Amanda will start volunteering at the St Giles Sure Start Children’s Centre and plans on using skills from her degree to facilitate activities for the children who visit the centre. Amanda Betts will graduate at Lincoln Cathedral with a BA (Hons) degree in Education Studies and History at 10.15am on Wednesday 19th July 2017. -
Unbinding Gender and Ecology—and Foucault!—at BAVS 2017
The theme of the 2017 BAVS Conference at Bishop Grosseteste University (BGU) was 'Victorians Unbound: Connections and Intersections'. Dr Pandora Syperek offers her thoughts... The ostensible theme of this year’s BAVS was the paradox between the parallel Victorian impulses to classify (knowledge, matter, people) into neat categories and to challenge established order and its inherent hierarchies through advancement and innovation. The goal was to consider what happens when the Victorians are ‘unbound’ from this seeming contradiction, instead granted the complexity to recognise that the one informed the other – the understanding of order and definition was necessary to blow it all apart and reorder and redefine. In order to do this we need to loosen the rigidity with which we have categorised the Victorians. In a way, this is a major thread running through my own research on the gendering of objects in the Natural History Museum, London: by looking at the less examined ‘jewel-like’ specimens on display—small, pretty, crafted, straddling art and science—and their resonance within the broader culture, I explore how categories of gender and genre were unstable and fluid. Like many Victorianists, I have been influenced by Michel Foucault’s History of Sexuality (1976) and its reconception of Victorian attitudes to sexuality and the epistemic implications. Foucault’s thesis in Volume 1 is that what has traditionally been characterised as the modern repression of sexuality, culminating in the notorious prudery of the Victorians—aka the ‘repressive hypothesis’—in fact reveals an explosion of interest in sexuality, hence the scientia sexualis of the late nineteenth century, which spawned the new field of psychoanalysis and the new ‘species’, the homosexual. Foucault’s notion that sexuality is a cultural construct had major impact, and followed on from his concept of the episteme—the historical conditions of possibility of a given discourse—as developed in The Order of Things (1966). Instead of the transition from sexual repression to sexual science, the latter focused on the transition from classical natural history to modern biology. While Foucault may no longer be the ‘hot’ theorist he once was, his ideas remain influential: I detected a strong Foucauldian thread running through the talks at BAVS 2017 and their unifying theme of Victorians Unbound. Here I will consider how the dual Foucauldian themes of sexual and natural science emerged—were unbound—in discussions of gender and ecology. Ghosts of The History of Sexuality and The Order of Things haunted the keynote lectures and roundtables that in turn lingered throughout the panel sessions and in delegates’ consciousness, but the phantoms seemed to reconfigure themselves into new forms. Let’s call it Foucault 2.0. The opening round table highlighted the importance of things: Kate Hill argued that museum collections and their treatment disrupt Victorian boundaries, with the hierarchies of objects echoing those of people. Edwina Ehrman beautifully literalised the conference theme in her talk ‘Unlacing the Corset’. Interesting to me was that WH Flower, the second director of the Natural History Museum, campaigned against corsetry—in my paper a couple hours later I would describe how he campaigned against women’s adornment with exotic bird plumage. Who knew comparative anatomists were so concerned with women’s fashion? While the disfiguring of women’s bodies through corsetry might seem similarly cruel and barbaric to the murder of innocent birds, the museum director’s opposition points towards a counter-regulation of women’s activities and self-adornment. This despite the fact that he was personally responsible for the killing of numerous specimens. Meanwhile, non-corset-wearing women like female activists were seen as unfeminine. This is the type of complexity that requires unravelling in contemporary scholarship.Mike Huggins’s jovial keynote on Victorian respectability established a running joke throughout the conference proceedings that carried with it a Foucauldian flavour. To understand the Victorian episteme(s), we need to acknowledge our own. While this may be an impossible task, asking historiographical questions of our work as Victorianists—e.g. why are we so obsessed with Victorian respectability? Why not Victorian unrespectability?—is essential for recognising how the current period and its concerns shape our vision of the Victorian era, and why it matters to us. The contemporary interest in the period in fiction and popular culture emerged in panels examining Steam Punk and NeoVictorianism, again questioning our relationship to the past via its representation in the present. The weight these areas were given marked an important development for Victorian studies and was fitting seeing as directly following the conference in Lincoln was a steam punk festival! These themes and Huggins’s talk set the tone for prioritising everyday realities and ‘low culture’ as much as high discourse. I’d have to say the most revealing experience for me was a tour of the Victorian Prison following the drinks reception on the beautiful grounds at Lincoln Castle—descriptions of cell conditions for inmates including children and women with babies, as well as public hangings, brought home some of the grimmest aspects of Victorian life. As well as topics of gender and natural science, as an art historian I was drawn to the art and visual culture panels—luckily for me, a number of talks combined these fields. In the panel ‘Sex, Sexiness, Sexlessness: Problems of Eroticism in Victorian Classical Forms’, Rebecca Mellor and Melissa Gustin’s papers examined how queer sexuality can and has been both overemphasised and underemphasised, respectively, to the detriment of art historical narratives in the cases of Pre-Raphaelite painter Simeon Solomon and American Neoclassical sculptor Harriet Hosmer. The artists’ gender is implicated here, in that art historians have traditionally overlooked beauty as the embodiment of intellectual and spiritual ideals in Solomon in favour of an oversexed reading of homoeroticism, according to Mellor, while Gustin argued—in her excellently titled paper ‘Fifty Shades of Gay’—that conversely art historians have tripped over themselves to ignore and deny Hosmer’s lesbianism and its influence on her work. The consensus was to reclaim the queer gaze whilst broadening our conception of the erotic to go beyond the physical. While contemporary theories of gender and sexuality can facilitate new understandings of such material, a historicised conception of sexual categories, à la Foucault, is essential.Also on the positioning of gender in between lived experience and representation, in their panel ‘Transgender’, Ann Heilmann, Billie-Gina Thomason and Rachel Egloff discussed transgenderism in Victorian lived realities and textual personae. A recurring problem was the privileging of ‘biology’ in both historical and current discourse—e.g. the Victorians’ determination of gender through breasts and external genitalia, and recent biographers’ insistence that James Miranda Barry was female, despite living as a man for over fifty years. As with the panel on queer artists, unpacking trans histories brings up important methodological questions for how we address these histories whilst, as Thomason urged, avoiding the problem of presentism—imposing our current understanding, or episteme, on the past. And yet this does not only comprise current debates such as those surrounding trans rights, but equally broader categories developed during the Victorian era, such as modern biology.Subtler modes of categorisation were explored in panels such as ‘Decadent Spaces/Pleasurable Places’, which featured Joanne Knowles on the geographically and socially liminal space of the pleasure pier, Joseph Thorne on marginality and hybridity in Decadent cosmopolitanism and Giles Whiteley on the ‘curious effects’ of Wilde’s psychogeography. Rayanne Eskandari and Stuart McWilliams discussed the ‘Politics and Medievalism’ of John Ruskin and William Morris, respectively, and their paradoxes of authority and subversion in the case of Ruskin, and populism and scarcity in the case of Morris. In one of the few explicitly art focused panels, ‘Sculpture: Connections and Intersections’, Katie Faulkner discussed the gender and genre performance of Julia Margaret Cameron’s photography, as engaging with both sculpture and theatre to construct a particular vision of femininity. Jordan Kistler reconsidered evolutionism in Walter Pater’s theory of artistic development as representing a taxonomy based on the Lamarckian archetype, as promoted by Richard Owen (founder of the Natural History Museum) rather than an illustration of Darwinian progress. The implication, according to Kistler, is that in Pater’s formulation sculpture may come out favourably, as the epitome of art rather than its lowest form. In my own panel, simply titled ‘Objects’, Leonard Driscoll discussed things unrealistic but real in HR Haggard’s paratexts, taking the discourse of naturalism beyond the literary genre (which Haggard found rather ugly and smelly) to explore liaisons with archaeology. While the ‘connections and intersections’ between Leonard’s paper and my own on gendering taxidermied hummingbirds were not immediately obvious, parallels concerning the real or more-than-real and corresponding issues of taste and authenticity quickly emerged between these historically marginalised artefacts. Throughout BAVS 2017 there was an emphasis on the everyday and its objects. As Kate Flint stated in her beautifully illustrated keynote on the cultural history of dandelions: the attention to the ordinary, commonplace and overlooked was one of the Victorians’ greatest contributions. This sentiment was echoed in the final President’s Panel speakers Katherine Newey’s enthusiasm for studying theatre with its liberating marginality and infinite materiality and Brian Maidment’s call for more studies of songbooks and almanacs and the need to experience archives in the flesh. This theme was fostered by, and in turn facilitated, a sense of fluidity or boundlessness of disciplines. And yet disciplinary demarcations were still apparent in different approaches taken, confirming there is still much to be learnt from one other. As a non-literary studies person, I felt like a tourist. But then again maybe that’s why I enjoyed it so much. The historian Peter Gay has written that Foucault’s ‘accustomed technique…of turning accepted ideas upside down’ is reminiscent of the principle underlying Oscar Wilde’s humour. This method is as relevant now as it was to the Victorians.Pandora Syperek is a postdoctoral researcher who recently completed a fellowship at the Paul Mellon Centre for Studies in British Art. She is developing a monograph titled Jewels of the Natural History Museum: Gender, Display and the Nonhuman, 1851-1901. She received her PhD in the History of Art at UCL in 2015.
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