• KEY HIGHLIGHTS
• ARCHIVE LED TEACHING
• STUDENT PLACEMENTS
• UNBOXED VOLUNTEER OPPORTUNITY
• PUBLICATIONS
• ENQUIRIES - TOPICS AND THEMES
• STATISTICS - VISITS AND ENQUIRIES
KEY HIGHLIGHTS
UEA Archives and Collections Visiting Fellowships
We are now welcoming applications for 2023/24, with a deadline of 5pm on 31/3/23 for completed applications. More on this scheme.
Funded PhD - Doris Lessing’s Archives: Communism, Decolonisation, and Literary Practice — CHASE Doctoral Training Partnership
Applications are also invited for a funded collaborative doctoral award. The successful candidate will work with our Doris Lessing Archive at UEA and material held at the Harry Ransom Center in Texas. Deadline 23/1/23. Doris Lessing’s Archives: Communism, Decolonisation, and Literary Practice — CHASE Doctoral Training Partnership
Display on the archive of poet Sarah Maguire
A new archive display provides glimpses into the life of UEA graduate Sarah Maguire – a new generation poet, literary translator and founder of the Poetry Translation Centre.
Rufus Talks, cataloguer and curator, introduces the display in this blog.
Visit from EDP journalist, Charles Bliss, 22 November
It was wonderful to spend time chatting with Charles Bliss from the Eastern Daily Press about the exciting projects happening at BACW and the UEA Archives. Charles came to film a video feature about the Archive. It’s always nerve wracking talking on film but the hardest part was choosing a favourite collection to talk about from the huge variety of historic and literary treasures in the strong room. Watch out for the feature on the EDP website due early 2023!
Open Day 22 October and 19 November
We welcomed 82 visitors across our autumn admissions open days. Prospective students and their parents/carers were introduced to a range of gems from the archive – from contemporary creative writing to suffragette material. Through informal presentations and hands on experience, visitors discovered how students use the archive in teaching sessions and for further study. They also heard about opportunities available to them.
Towards a Centre for Contemporary Poetry in the Archive
update on our Mellon Foundation funded project
• An international Stakeholder Consultation Group met on 17 November 2022
Representatives from Harvard University; the International Council on Archives (ICA); Granta; the Society of Authors, Mayday Room Archives, Bloodaxe Poetry Archive, Newcastle University; Spring Sultan (literary agency) and Sarah Lowndes, artist and public engagement practitioner, offered feedback on the project’s methodology and community led approach to collecting archives from currently under-represented poets using our flexible loan model. 12 participants.
• Poetry, Representation and the Archive: 25th May 2023 – Call for Papers (CfP)
This one-day conference at UEA will bring together researchers in these areas to discuss the kinds of question such a project raises. Deadline 6/3/2023. More: Events - Towards a Centre for Contemporary Poetry - Library (uea.ac.uk)
ARCHIVE LED TEACHING
MA Creative Writing Module (LDC Prose Fiction induction tour), 12 October
Taking students behind the scenes at the archive is always a joy. The rows and rows of historic volumes, rolls of maps and the excitement of moving that rolling stack is always a treat. We were joined by a dedicated group of LDC postgraduate students for an induction tour at the start of their course and we look forward to seeing them back in the reading room for research soon. 4 attendees
Feminist Research Methods ‘Is archiving a feminist Issue?’ (MA PGT Gender Studies), 19 & 20 October
We really enjoyed the interdisciplinary perspective of the Gender Studies MA students who came in October to examine archive resources and consider the way archives can create, influence and disrupt research narratives. The ideas from the session were exciting and showed how far we have to go in addressing unrepresented stories in the archives. 17 attendees. [See photo].
Digital Archives, HUM PGR PPD session, 31 October
A new session looking at how digital archives impact the research of postgraduate students had its first session. Looking at the drivers, barriers and opportunities presented by digital archives Grant Young and Helen Busby enjoyed looking at case studies with digital archive research PhD students. The session will run again in March 2023. 1 attendee.
Sara Taylor’s Creative Process, LDC UG Creative Writing, 31 October-4 November (4 sessions)
We were impressed with the depth and intensity of the scrutiny bought to the sessions by the creative writing undergraduate groups who examined Sara Taylor’s creative process as part of their course. Looking at early drafts of short stories which eventually made up the novel ‘The Shore’ the students get a glimpse into the reality of drafting and editing of an award-winning writer. 45 attendees.
Sarah Maguire Archive, LDC PGT Describing Poetry, 14 November
A new session this semester developed with our Academic Director Jeremy Noel-Todd, Cataloguer Rufus Talks and Lecturer Holly Corfield Carr. Focussing on the newly catalogued material from the Sarah Maguire Archive this exciting session took a forensic dive into the drafting process of Maguire’s poetry and proved hugely rewarding. 18 attendees. [See photo].
‘The Blitz: The bombs that changed Britain’, AMA Documentary Film Making, 29 November
Archives are a valuable tool for film makers in telling stories from untold, unique perspectives. We are fortunate to have the Solly Zuckerman archive at UEA which contains 2000 essays written by school children during the Second World War about their first-hand experiences of bombing raids. This session explores the role of the UEA archive specifically in the making of a documentary about the impact of bombing in World War II and the lasting impact on survivors. 10 attendees.
David Bellos Archive, LDC MA in Literary Translation (MALT), 30 November
This term we provided protected digital access to postgraduate literary translation students to scanned documents from the David Bellos Archive. In this asynchronous session they examine correspondence and drafts relating to David Bellos’s translation of French writer George Perec’s (1936-1982) W, or the Memory of Childhood. 6 registered.
STUDENT PLACEMENTS
Joseph Williams joined us as our latest CHASE postgraduate placement. Joe will be working on an archive close to his own research topic processing a large deposit of material to the Malcom Bradbury collection. We already know that Joe’s specialist insight into Bradbury’s career and writing will be a great asset to our team.
UNBOXED VOLUNTEER OPPORTUNITY
In January we are launching our Unboxed scheme. All UEA students from all courses can apply, we ask our volunteers to undertake an archive induction and attend blog writing training with a professional journalist. Then our volunteers pick something from our collections that inspires them and create a blog to shout from the roof tops. This is a great opportunity to find out about the cultural heritage sector, get behind the scenes at the archive and unbox some hidden gems.
PUBLICATIONS
Images from the Pritchard Papers feature in this new glossy publication from two of our archive visitors: Leyla Daybelge and Magnus Englund. Walter Gropius: an illustrated biography. London: Phaidon, 2022.
ENQUIRIES - TOPICS AND THEMES
BACW COLLECTIONS
ANTHONY GREY western journalists in China in the 1960s CHARLIE HIGSON the nature of comedy DORIS LESSING female friendships in Lessing’s literature ROGER DEAKIN wild swimming W.G. SEBALD interviews and teaching materials
OTHER COLLECTIONS
GS CALLENDER his photo supplied for a documentary on climate change PRITCHARD Easiwork™ kitchens in Lawn Road Flats; history of MARS (Modern Architectural Research Society); landscape architect Christopher Tunnard; architecture of Impington Village College, Cambridge UEA COLLECTION history of the nursery/playgroup ZUCKERMAN Allied bombardment and subsequent surrender of the Mediterranean island of Pantelleria, 1943
STATISTICS - VISITS & ENQUIRIES
Archives: 262 (49 remote): UEA: 118; UK 132; Int’l 12
Special Collections: 3
Microfilm: 2
