Labnet: CFP: Digging the Seam: the 1984/5 Miners' Strike - a conference in Leeds, March 2010

[labnet at lists.labourhistory.net]

From: Labourhistory.net

CFP: Digging the Seam: the 1984/5 Miners' Strike: a conference in Leeds,
March 2010
URL: http://labourhistory.net/news/i0911_15.php

Dear Colleague

Please could you circulate news of our conference? We are particularly
interested in archival collections and how archives preserve and
construct histories of the strike.

very best wishes Simon

Simon Popple
Faculty Director of EKT, PVAC
Director of the Louis Le Prince Centre for Film, Photography and
Television
Senior Lecturer in Cinema The Institute of Communications Studies The
University of Leeds
0113-3437607

Digging the Seam

Cultural Reflections and the Consequences of the 1984/5 Miners' Strike -
Conference 25-27th March 2010.

Papers, panels, screenings, performances and exhibition materials are
invited for a conference to be held at the University of Leeds on March
25-27, 2010.

The conference is organised by The Louis Le Prince Centre for
Photography, Film & Television (LLP) and the Media Industries Research
Centre (MIRC) at the Institute of Communications Studies (ICS)

Introduction and Themes
March 2010 marks the 25th anniversary of the end of one of the bitterest
industrial disputes in living memory, the 1984/5 miners' strike. The
social and political consequences of this dispute, which have resonated
for the past quarter century, have been subject to detailed analysis and
reflection. The consequences for the arts and popular culture are less
clearly mapped. This conference intends to explore the broad cultural
legacy of the strike and to focus on two key strands.

The first will examine cultural representations of the strike and
broader mining culture through popular forms such as literature, music,
dance, theatre, performance, radio, photography, television and cinema.
It will examine how popular culture has recorded and represented the
strike and its associated cultures in the intervening 25 years as well
as its role in the preservation of particular traditions and practices
in a new 'post industrial' society.

The second will examine the relationship between the strike and cultural
production. How did cultural producers in forms such as music, theatre
and cinema respond to the strike? Which kinds of producers showed what
kinds of solidarities with the miners and how effective were they? How
have cultural producers actively constructed meanings of the strike in
the intervening years? Arguably, the defeat of the miners hastened the
onset of various forms of policy, aimed at regenerating
'post-industrial' communities through information and cultural
industries. To what extent have there been useful policy interventions,
cultural and otherwise, in mining communities?This anniversary provides
a perfect opportunity to reflect on these issues and to explore the role
of culture and the cultural industries within this important context.

Suggested themes
Possible strands and contributions could include:
Culture and Industrial identity/Political theatre/ Folk traditions/
Music and the cultural impact of the strike/New documentary traditions
in film and photography/Cultural re-orientation and the strike/ Arts
therapy and reconciliation/Storytelling and testimony/ The cultural
industries as new employers? /Digital resources and the strike/Archives
and the re-constructions of cultural memory/ The impact of the strike on
media cultures/The political novel/ Poetry and protest/ Culture as
memory.

We are also seeking proposals for screenings, performance, and art works
for exhibition.

Proposal deadline: abstracts (250 words max), enquiries and requests for
registration should be sent, by 1st December 2009, to the organising
committee at:
email: ics-conferences at leeds.ac.uk

or mail to: Dr Eleri Pound, Digging The Seam Conference, Institute of
Communications Studies, 16 Clarendon Place, The University of Leeds,
Leeds, LS2 9JT, UK