Cultural Histories at Kingston
c/o Patricia Phillippy, FASS, School of Humanities, Department of English Literature, Penrhyn Road, Kingston University,
Kingston upon Thames
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Cultural Histories @ Kingston (CHK) is an interdisciplinary research group based in the Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences at Kingston University. Centred around the concept of the ‘cultural text’, the group includes scholars from the fields of literature, film, media, history, music, dance, performance, and journalism, who are brought together by a shared interest in the way in which narratives – written, visual, and performative – shape and have shaped individual and communal experience, material culture, and everyday life. The group is concerned both by how these diverse narratives describe cultural identities, and the contribution they make to how such identities are formed, engaging both with the role of the cultural text and the conditions of its production. Extending from the past, to the present, and to future culture, the group is engaged in research that historicises cultural practices from Early Modern culture to the present, and that situates current and future practices within the contemporary cultural moment. A particular feature in these terms are concerns for questions of social justice, and how gendered, racial, religious, ethnic and sexual identities are both produced through, and reflective of, texts as cultural forms.
CHK provides a focus for current research as well as providing a forum for the development of new research collaborations and exchange, identifying shared research interests across staff within the Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences and promoting the diverse but related activities pertaining to cultural enquiry represented within the Faculty. It is committed to innovative disciplinary and interdisciplinary research, and its members are engaged in a wide range of research activities, which include collaborative projects, the production of the internationally recognised Cinema Journal, and a number of current and future publications. The group regularly meets to provide a forum for the development of these research activities, including the organisation of conferences, research seminars, and the invitation of visiting speakers.