Britain: Literature to Labour (cont.)

.... The Center co-sponsored a talk by the Editor of The Guardian newspaper in London, Alan Rusbridger, who talked to Orville Schell, Dean of UC Berkeley's Graduate School of Journalism, about the future of newspapers in this new world of online news. The Guardian, founded in 1821, is a leading national newspaper with a long history of editorial and political independence.

The Center for British Studies also co-sponsored a talk by Suzette Macedo with the Portuguese Studies Program. Macedo talked about Ted Hughes’ The Birthday Letters drawing on her close relationship with Sylvia Plath and Ted Hughes. Macedo was friends with the couple during and after their marriage and was part of their inner circle. Macedo is an academic and literary translator of Portuguese/English works including the above-mentioned The Birthday Letters.

Other highlights included a talk by Prof. Amanda Anderson from the Department of English at John Hopkins University. Prof. Anderson’s paper, entitled “George Eliot’s Long Argument” explored the anti-theoretical George Eliot. Prof. Anderson specializes in Victorian literature and contemporary literary, cultural, and political theory.

The Center co-sponsored a conference with the Institute of Governmental Studies: Reinventing Britain: Constitutional Reform in Britain Under New Labour which included visiting academics from the United Kingdom and Canada led by Visiting Scholar, Andrew McDonald, from the UK Department for Constitutional Affairs.

Six graduate students were invited by the Center for British Studies to give dissertation workshops with British themes and students from the English, Polticial Science and History departments participated. Our events about Britain, British history & culture, and our related Speaker Series in Irish Culture are always open to the public.

— Candace Groskreutz