Sebastian presents paper at the 14th Victorian Popular Fiction Association Annual Conference (13-15 July 2022)
Contagion, Decadence, Contingency: Debating and Examining Deconstructions and Reinforcements of Imageries and Mythologies of Purity and Contamination in Victorian Popular Fiction
My participation in the 14th Victorian Popular Fiction Association Annual Conference (13-15 July 2022)
Thanks to the support of EUROSUD Studies and Career Development Fund, I was able to participate in the 14th Victorian Popular Fiction Association Annual Conference held at the University of Loughborough from the 13th to the 15th of July 2022. During the three work-intensive days of the conference, a wide range of scholars and researchers in the field of Victorian Literature Studies presented papers related to this years’ conference general topic “Purity and Contamination in Victorian Popular Fiction and Culture”. Although relying on different theoretical and methodological approaches of Literary Studies, Comparative Literature and Cultural Studies, all papers had one thing in common: they all analyzed representations of purity and contamination in Victorian popular fiction, offering new perspectives on the mechanisms of construction of imageries and mythologies of purity and contamination in Victorian imagination. The topics of the papers, among others, included: Gothic monsters, contaminated aesthetics, purity and contamination in detective and sensation fiction, sin and moral corruption in fiction, imperialism and travel fiction etc. One of the highlights of the conference was undoubtedly the keynote lecture “Poisoned by Books: Reading and Writing in the fin-de-siècle Gothic” given by Prof. Andrew Smith.
On the second day of the conference, I had the opportunity to present my paper “Mythology of Purity and Contamination of Decadent Imagination in Machen’s Horror Fiction”. My presentation started with a close reading of Oscar Wilde’s De Profundis, an intriguing autobiographical quest for the sources of author’s own “degradation” which is, ultimately, found in utter “contamination” of Wilde’s aesthetics by the “perverse” aestheticism of his lover, Lord Douglas or Bosie. Namely, in De Profundis Wilde depicts his fall under the influence of Bosie’s lifestyle as a process of being “lured into the imperfect world of coarse uncompleted passion, of appetite without distinction, desire without limit”, whereby Bosie’s lifestyle and its underlying notion of aestheticism are represented as the source of contamination of Wilde’s aesthetics and ethics which, being “lured into perversity”, ultimately became detached from its initial “pure” form. Taking De Profundis as the epitome of the mythology of “purity” and “contamination” of the decadent aesthetics (and decadent imagination), my paper briefly touched upon consolidation and reinvigoration of such mythology not only in decadent literature of fin de siècle but also in anti-decadent literary criticism of critics such as Benedetto Croce and Mario Praz. Ultimately, my paper focused on the analysis of Arthur Machen’s early horror fiction – the novella The Great God Pan and the short story The Inmost Light – demonstrating how in both texts decadent imagination was represented both as a possible source of ideological “contamination” and as a “pure” aesthetic and political vision of re-sacralization of modernity, whereby characters of mad scientists represent the “contaminated” decadent imagination, while modern flâneurs embody its “pure” form. After the end of my presentation, a lively and rich discussion continued.
All in all, I benefited immensely from attending the conference and being able to share my research with renowned scholars in the field in which I would like to continue my PhD studies in Comparative Literature. Not only did I gain a better insight into the research field, but I also gained additional impetus for carrying out my research in an interdisciplinary and transnational academic environment.
By Sebastian Kukavica - 2020-22 Student Cohort
Amanda participates in a Management and Consulting in the Digital Age Summer School in Rome
BUDS – BUILDING UP DIGITAL STRATEGISTS
MANAGEMENT AND CONSULTING IN THE DIGITAL AGE
From the 11th to the 15th of July I participated in the Digital Management and Consulting Summer School in Rome. It was organized by the BUDS (Building Digital Strategists) Program, an initiative of Tor Vergata Rome University.
The Summer School consisted specialized in learning how to work with digital transformation and adapt to the current digitalized world. Some big companies in the digital sphere, such as Deloitte, Accenture, NTT Data, SAP, and SAS, were partners in the program and were responsible for giving tutorials and training. Deloitte was responsible for presenting about Customer Journey and Cybersecurity. Accenture focused on salesforce and presented a platform for online training concerning sales. NTT Data took care of Project Management and agile working.
I was one of 37 participants from different Universities across Europe (Portugal, Spain, Germany, Finland, Belgium, Italy, and the United Kingdom). Before the in-person part of the Summer School, we had access to an online course and had to choose a relative challenge that we would like to work on during the week in Rome. There were 3 different challenges provided by the partner companies (Accenture, Deloitte, and NTT Data). I, along with 4 other participants, worked on the challenge concerning project management of NTT Data. Our objective was to project the reopening of a restaurant after the COVID-19 pandemic by using digital transformation and an agile process . Besides the regular course and presentations, each group had workshops and tutorials with mentors of the respective company. Our workshop with the NTT Data team was incredibly productive and helpful. Within the designed workgroups, we had to identify aspects within the challenge that we had to change of the challenge we had to change and brainstorm solutions using technology. Next week each group will have a meeting online with the respective tutor company to present the final project for the challenge.
The Summer School opened my mind to professional opportunities in the digital area that I had not previously thought about. It was helpful to understand how digitalization is necessary for adapting to current changes in the world and how it can be used to improve all sorts of projects and processes. It was not only a beneficial academic experience, but it was also very enriching in terms of networking and meeting people from different backgrounds. Overall, it was an extremely profitable experience!
By Amanda Delgado Gussão
Clotilde attends European and International Human Rights Standards in Disaster Settings Course
Hi everyone, my name is Clotilde, and I am an -almost- second-year EUROSUD student. With this blog I would like to share my recent experience at Scuola Superiore Sant’Anna, in Pisa, Italy. There, I had the great opportunity to attend a five days intensive advanced training course about European and International Human Rights Standards in Disaster Settings, within the Jean Monnet Module.
Spending a week at the Scuola was for me a great chance from many perspectives. Indeed, the Scuola is internationally well known and distinguished for its high ranking and education of excellence provided to its “allievi” (students). Among the courses provided, the Scuola also offers intensive advanced training courses, open to postgraduate and PhD students, and practitioners. In fact, during this very intense week I had the pleasure to interact and grow in an inspiring and motivating environment, in which knowledge, passion and curiosity are palpable and constant during lectures, debates and other activities, also outside the classrooms. I am so grateful to have had the great chance to meet brilliant colleagues, lecturers and practitioners that, by providing a very insightful and enriching perspective on the topics treated, also helped me enlarge my network, knowing more possibilities of carrier and, most importantly, got me to know this fundamental topic and its multiple shades and shapes.
As previously mentioned, the course I followed is named European and International Human Rights Standards in Disaster Settings. In general, the course aimed to provide a legal perspective on disaster management activities and, consequently, the fundamental role of human rights in the prevention and response to natural and technological disasters. More specifically, the five days were organised to give, for each macro topic, a deep and complete overview of the issue.
After a first-day introduction, we were guided into a deep understanding process of the International, Disaster and Human Rights Laws. Indeed, this represents a fundamental basis to further discuss and develop more specific focuses on the topic, such as the actors involved in humanitarian assistance and disaster management. Furthermore, the protection issues related to the impact that natural and technological disasters bring were also treated with specific regard to children and migrants, the most vulnerable and fragile categories of the society.
Moreover, an interesting and relevant focus was dedicated to how climate change has recently been affecting the world and society, highlighting the increase of disasters during the last decade, indicative of a radical change that should quickly and efficiently happen in the next years.
Happy and satisfied with the experience I had, I now feel more confident and complete in the knowledge of such important topics. During this intense and enriching week, the Scuola gave us the incredible chance to be directly in touch with the representatives and researchers in the field of disaster setting and human rights; this helped me to understand how human rights protection and disasters are connected and how they are simultaneously becoming urgent and challenging. The need to intervene and grant dignity, freedom and life to all human beings is now, more than ever, a priority.