The long-awaited English: Shared Futures, postponed for covid reasons from 2020, was the biggest UK conference in the field of English studies this year, and brought together 350 academics, teachers, writers, publishers, and other members of our community to celebrate our discipline. There were over 80 other sessions featuring leading research from over 250 speakers from across the discipline, some led by learned societies, as well as sessions on pedagogy and joint discussions between Secondary, Further, Higher and Initial teacher education colleagues about the challenges facing the discipline.
The event included a REF Feedback session with Dinah Birch (Chair of Main Panel D), Greg Walker (Chair of Subpanel 27) and 11 REF panellists; a Head of Department Briefing and Networking event, run with University English; a session on the new QAA Benchmark for English; a Roundtable on The Public Humanities in the 21st Century. Our two plenary sessions were Walks Through Colonial Britain with Corinne Fowler, Raj Pal, and Emily Zobel Marshall, and The Case for Culture: English Studies and the Levelling Up Agenda with Katy Shaw (AHRC Programme Director for Creative Communities), Claire Malcolm (New Writing North), Cheryl Martin (Culture Word), and Christopher Smith (Executive Chair, AHRC).
There were salons with leading poet Daljit Nagra MBE, Clare Lees and Barbara Bleiman; a site-specific mentoring scheme for Early Career Academics; the launch of the ‘Decolonising the Discipline’ initiative, and a publisher’s hall, with most of the major UK academic presses represented.
Our unique cultural fringe showcased Salford and Manchester’s strong history of cultural innovation, exploring and celebrating this creative edge: it included a performance and book launch from Manchester collective ‘Young Identity’; refugee poetry collective Safety4Sisters; new prose from experimental publishers Dostoyevsky Wannabe and The Real Story; an evening of the best innovative and experimental poetry, curated by Nikolai Duffy with Robert Sheppard, Grace Atkinson, Sarah Cave and Dali Muru & the Polyphonic Swarm. We also hosted a Manchester and Salford Small Press Book Fair.
Delegates also had the chance to experience Manchester’s literary scene with guided walks, visits to writers’ houses, and the chance to sample MMU’s special collections and poetry libraries, as well as a number of parties and launches. It was supported by the English Association, University English, the Institute of English Studies, the National Association for Teaching of English (NATE) and the National Association of Writers in Education (NAWE), with the cultural fringe funded by Arts Council England. The conference was well-received by delegates, and has provided both valuable ideas for future work and events, and cemented working relations in a period which more than ever needs concerted work by all of us on behalf of the subject.
– Professor Robert Eaglestone
