'Stranger than Fiction' podcast

Elizabeth Green Musselman, Associate Professor of History at Southwestern University, has recently launched the Missing Link podcast. The first topic she deals with is 'Stranger than Fiction': the ways that science fiction has drawn inspiration from planetary science. A slightly different take on our astronomical theme!

Her Husband: Hughes and Plath

Cambridge University Centre for Gender Studies presents:

Prof. DIANE MIDDLEBROOK in Conversation with Prof. Juliet Mitchell on her
award winning biography 'Her Husband: Ted Hughes and Sylvia Plath, a
marriage'

1-2.30pm, Wednesday 24th October
Jesus College, Upper Hall
Attendance is free and all are welcome!

Diane Middlebrook is Emeritus Professor of Literature at Stanford
University. Her latest book 'Her Husband', is a highly acclaimed account of
the marriage between Sylvia Plath and Ted Hughes.

For more details on this, and all our events, visit: www.gender.cam.ac.uk

Brecht and Wittgenstein workshop

Workshop, Saturday 13 October

"Brecht and Wittgenstein"

Location: Richard Eden Suite, West Court, Herschel Road, Cambridge

11am: Screening of "Galileo", based on Charles Laughton's 1947 adaptation
of Brecht's play, directed by Joseph Losey, starring John Gilgud, Tom Conti
and Chaim Topol.

Break and snacks

1:30pm: Discussion and Presentations by
Michael Nedo
Richard Raatzsch
Martin Kusch

Everyone welcome.

For more information contact Dr Richard Raatzsch (rr334@cam.ac.uk).

15th October

We'll begin our discussions of Astronomers and Astronomy on Monday 15th October, with two literary classics:

• Dante Alighieri, Purgatory (c. 1321), Canto 4 (Please select Edition Mandelbaum, Volume Purgatorio, Canto IV)

• John Milton, Paradise Lost (1674), Book 8, lines 1-197

Due to the ongoing refurbishment works at Darwin College, I shall meet Reading Group attendees at 7.25pm outside the main entrance, to help negotiate the building site! The seminar runs from 7.30-9pm, after which we'll probably go for a drink in the College bar.

We hope to see you then!

Romanes Lecture

Professor Dame Gillian Beer will deliver the Romanes Lecture at 5.45 p.m. on Thursday, 8 November 2007 in the Sheldonian Theatre, Oxford. Her lecture is entitled ‘Darwin and the Consciousness of Others’. The lecture is free to attend and open to all.

Workshop on Popular Science Books

Call For Contributors - Workshop on Popular Science Books

We are looking for contributors for a one-day event on popular science books to be held at Imperial College, London on 22nd Feb 2008. Literary critics, historians, writers, illustrators, publishers, prize-givers, reviewers, readers, booksellers, teachers (and others) are all invited to take part.

Contributors will be asked introduce a book, collection, theme, or popular science author, perhaps with a small extract, and use it to raise a topic for discussion in or about popular science.

Texts considered can be contemporary or historical, but should be something all participants can get an idea of quickly from the introduction; all important text must be in English. Participants will come from different backgrounds, so be prepared to share examples and speak to people from other fields.

Topics may include (but are not limited to):
* Criteria for a 'good' popular science book.
* The use of imagery and metaphor.
* History of Science.
* Illustrations, diagrams, graphics and design.
* Issues of culture and social class.
* Writing for children.
* Epistemology.
* Celebrity and popular science authorship.
* Marketing and publishing.
* Religion.
* Relationships between scientists and 'the public'.

We will conduct participatory workshops rather than following the traditional "papers and questions" model. You would have 30-45 minutes to lead a session, which means speaking about your example for approx. 15 minutes, then leading an open discussion on your topic.

If you are interested in contributing, please send us an outline of your presentation (500 words maximum) and a short bio (approx 200 words). The outline should list the source(s) you want to discuss, and preview the discussion topic your session would raise. Email this to popscievent@gmail.com by the 23rd November 2007.

Registration will not open until the programme is finalised in early December, but we can confirm that the cost will be £10 (includes lunch and refreshments) and it'll be held at Imperial College, South Kensington Campus, on Friday 22nd February 2008.

Further enquires to popscievent@gmail.com.

Next term - astronomers and astronomy

Next term we will be reading about astronomers and astronomy. All the texts are available online; copies will also be placed in the Whipple Library box file. We meet on Mondays from 7.30-9pm in the upstairs seminar room of Darwin College.

All are welcome!

Organised by Daniel Friesner (Science Museum) and Melanie Keene (HPS).

15th October

• Dante Alighieri, Purgatory (c. 1321), Canto 4 (Please select Edition Mandelbaum, Volume Purgatorio, Canto IV)
• John Milton, Paradise Lost (1674), Book 8, lines 1-197

29th October

• Thomas Hardy, Two on a Tower (1882), Chapter 4
  
• George Meredith, "Meditation under stars" (1888)
  

12th November

• Leonid Andreieff, To the Stars (1905), especially Act IV. The most easily available English translation is by A. Goudiss, in Poet Lore, Winter 1907. You can find it by logging on to Periodicals Archive Online, and then searching under author "Andreieff".

26th November

• William Wordsworth, "Star Gazers" (1807)
• Walt Whitman, "When I heard the learn'd astronomer" (1865)
  
• Virginia Woolf, "The Searchlight" (1943)

We hope to see you in October!

Mailing list

A reminder that we have a dedicated email list for the reading group: just let me know if you'd like to sign up!

Michaelmas 2007

Dates for next term's SLRG can now be confirmed as Mondays 15th and 29th October, and 12th and 26th November. We'll be meeting as usual from 7.30-9pm in the upstairs seminar room of Darwin College, and we'll be discussing astronomers and astronomy. More details soon...

BSLS 2008

The Third Conference of the British Society for Literature and Science

Proposals for 20-minute papers are invited for the third annual conference of the British Society for Literature and Science. The conference will be held at Keele University, from 27–29 March 2008. Plenary speakers include Frank Close, OBE (Professor of Physics, Exeter College, Oxford), Steven Connor (Professor of Modern Literature and Theory, Birkbeck College, London), and Helen Small (Fellow in English, Pembroke College, Oxford).

Papers may address topics in the interactions of literature and science in any period and any languages. Presenters need not be based in UK institutions.

We also invite panel proposals for three papers of 20 minutes or four papers of 15 minutes; members of the panel should be drawn from more than one institution.

Please send an abstract of no more than 400 words and a 100-word biographical note (or in the case of a panel, abstracts and notes for each speaker) to bsls@englit.arts.gla.ac.uk, by 30 November 2007. Please send abstracts in the body of messages; do not use attachments. Alternatively, abstracts and proposals may be posted to Dr Sharon Ruston, School of Humanities, Keele University, Keele, Staffordshire, ST5 5BG, UK.

Please address any queries to Dr Sharon Ruston at the email or postal address above.