The Unexpected: Arts & Humanities PGR Conference

The Arts & Humanities PGR Events Committee welcomes proposals for its fourth annual free interdisciplinary conference on Thursday 1 May 2025 to celebrate the research occurring within our Arts and Humanities doctoral community. In its fourth year, our one-day conference theme is ‘The Unexpected’, inspired by the diverse range of PhD projects we have in the faculty and the exciting and difficult challenges researchers face in pursuit of their research projects. This is an excellent opportunity to build cross faculty relations by sharing and discussing our unexpected research adventures.

10:00 - 10:15 Registration and morning refreshments

10:15 - 11.30 Panel: Communities and cultural impacts
Ethan Northey [Creative Writing, Birkbeck] Echoes from the Mine: The Unexpected Transformation of Cornish Folkloric Traditions Through Industrial Landscapes
Chiara Mignani [Digital Humanities, KCL] Youn Haffray [UCL] and Hana Ibre [KCL] The Unlikely Afterlife of a Cinema: Resistance, Reclamation, and the Cultural Politics of Space in Post-Socialist Kosovo
Rendan Liu [Digital Humanities, KCL] Constructing a beautiful bubble: gender, consumerism, and neoliberalism in China
Gilang Desti Parahita [CMCI, KCL] “Disobedient Muslima” or “Neoliberal Muslim Feminists”?: Subjectivity Formation of Indonesian Women Who Engage with Feminist Discourses on Instagram

11:45 - 13:00 Panel: Digital tools and the online world
Andrea Farina [Digital Humanities, KCL] What Users Really Want: The Unexpected in Developing a Digital Tool
Caitlin Wilson [Digital Humanities, KCL] Semantic Search for Case Law: Rediscovering the Power of Embeddings in the Age of LLMs
Aadil Bouhlaoui [Digital Humanities, KCL] Leveraging the Unexpected: From Digital antisemitism to Generative AI and Geopolitical Changes
Charlie Bell [History, KCL] Parenting networks in the age of individualism: a study of the construction of community on Mumsnet

13:00 - 14:00 Lunch break
14:00 - 15:00 Keynote
Professor Christina Scharff [Professor of Culture and Subjectivity and Associate Dean for Doctoral Studies, A&H, KCL]

15:15 - 16:30 Panel: Navigating challenges and disruptions
Katharine Round [Film Practice, Queen Mary University] The Researcher in the Room: Becoming part of a
solitary confinement narrative
Hadani Ditmars [English, KCL] A Virtual Travelogue of Iraq
Arabella Norton [Theology, KCL] Theology amongst the rubble: Christian theological reflections on the land of Israel post 7th October 2023
Dan de la Motte [Queen Mary University] When co-creation goes wrong – a case study in failed and damaged relationships

16:45 - 18:00 Panel: Alternative approaches and unlikely research directions
Abbas Alsadeq [Music, KCL] Unanticipated Resonances: The Evolution and Adaptation of Traditional Islamic Music in Contemporary Contexts
Benjamin Y. Goff [Film Studies, KCL] Beyond Eurocentricity: Double Consciousness and Postsecular Aesthetics in American Film
Juuso Rantanen [Philosophy, KCL and Humboldt Universität zu Berlin] Finding my way to temporal representation in Kant
Emily Berry [Creative Writing, Birkbeck] Read the obits and shop the bargain bins: A case study

18:00 - 18:15 Closing remarks
18:15 Drinks reception

If you have any questions about the conference, do get in touch via email at ah-pgrevents@kcl.ac.uk and keep up to date with news relating to the conference and other community-building events on X @AH_PGREventsKCL and Instagram @ahpgr_events.