|
News |
5 October 2022
When communicating Quaker history and values to each other and to the world, Friends have happily acknowledged the Religious Society of Friends as a minority speaking truth to power. However, recent re-evaluations have shown that Quakers exercised power over people minoritised by colonialism and participated in enslavement. Yet many Friends were also effective advocates for change with and on behalf of minorities and the minoritised in areas such as education, housing, prisons, mental healthcare, women’s rights and LBGTQ+ issues.
Nineteenth and twentieth century British and American Quakers were also more liberal in their attitudes than most other churches in their attitudes to indigenous people—but what did this mean in real terms? Was ‘not as bad’ a positive outcome when Friends espoused goodness and honesty?
This conference provides an opportunity to re-examine aspects of the Quaker narrative, and to appraise the extent to which Quaker hagiography may have triumphed over inconvenient detail. It is also a chance to reflect on the Quaker understanding of ‘concern’, and if or how local or national meetings support a Friend’s inspiration.
Indeed, differences within meetings have also produced minorities and marginalised individuals and groups—what does it mean to be a minority within a minority faith? What does intersectionality look like in these circumstances?
This conference is jointly organised by the Centre for Postgraduate Quaker Studies at Woodbrooke and the Quaker Studies Research Association, both of which welcome scholarship from a wide range of disciplines including Theology, History, Sociology, Cultural Studies, Philosophy, Ethics, Gender and Queer Studies, as well as different ways of seeing through Use of Language, and Social Construct and Social Change Theories.
Suggested topics include, but are not restricted to:
To submit, please send a 250-word abstract for a 20-minute paper plus a brief biographical note to: Judith Roads at qconference2023@gmail.com by 19th December 2022.
Successful presenters will be encouraged to consider the gold open access journal Quaker Studies as a place to publish.
Nineteenth and twentieth century British and American Quakers were also more liberal in their attitudes than most other churches in their attitudes to indigenous people—but what did this mean in real terms? Was ‘not as bad’ a positive outcome when Friends espoused goodness and honesty?
This conference provides an opportunity to re-examine aspects of the Quaker narrative, and to appraise the extent to which Quaker hagiography may have triumphed over inconvenient detail. It is also a chance to reflect on the Quaker understanding of ‘concern’, and if or how local or national meetings support a Friend’s inspiration.
Indeed, differences within meetings have also produced minorities and marginalised individuals and groups—what does it mean to be a minority within a minority faith? What does intersectionality look like in these circumstances?
This conference is jointly organised by the Centre for Postgraduate Quaker Studies at Woodbrooke and the Quaker Studies Research Association, both of which welcome scholarship from a wide range of disciplines including Theology, History, Sociology, Cultural Studies, Philosophy, Ethics, Gender and Queer Studies, as well as different ways of seeing through Use of Language, and Social Construct and Social Change Theories.
Suggested topics include, but are not restricted to:
- The theological basis of Quaker ‘concerns’
- Quakers acting under concern
- Speaking truth to power within and outside Quaker circles
- Quaker activities in relation to enslavement and Empire, and with civil rights
- European and American Friends overseas as ‘foreigners in a foreign land’
- The experience of Friends and of Quaker Yearly Meetings in colonised peoples
- Quakers collaborating with other faith groups on social justice issues, and where Friends were either the majority or the minority
- Friends, wealth, poverty, social class and caste
- Disability, illness and prejudice in Quaker groups
- Quaker engagement with political authorities
- Friends dealing with conflict, both internally and externally
To submit, please send a 250-word abstract for a 20-minute paper plus a brief biographical note to: Judith Roads at qconference2023@gmail.com by 19th December 2022.
Successful presenters will be encouraged to consider the gold open access journal Quaker Studies as a place to publish.
| qsra_2023_cfp_pdf-2.pdf |
20 September 2022
The Adshead Scholarship Award is available to academic researchers in the field of Quaker Studies. To apply you must be registered in a university postgraduate programme. We favour applicants who are relatively early in their study (e.g. in the first two years of a full-time PhD).
This scholarship is being revived in a more flexible way having been suspended during the pandemic years 2020-2022.
Previous scholars have used the award to devote some residential time in the Quaker library at Woodbrooke. However, this is not available at present so we have widened the scheme to allow for access to a much broader range of physical archive locations. We expect that the Library of the Religious Society of Friends in London will be especially useful to many researchers, but we are open to considering applications for travel to and accommodation near any archive relevant to your work.
The successful applicant will receive up to a maximum £600 (or equivalent for non-sterling applications) for 2023.
To be considered for an award you should complete the attached application form. You have the option of downloading the word doc or using the google form. Should you have any technical issues, please contact us at qsraofficers@gmail.com
adshead_award_application_form.docx
https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSeDqTy-glGaPuqscIQEAFyZzzkwskg93YII364bHjWRr_ZiAw/viewform?usp=sf_link
This application will help us determine how the scholarship could help you at this stage of your studies.
Your plan will include information on what you see as your academic requirements as well as your need for financial support.
Please return your application to Judith Roads, QSRA convenor at roads4@me.com if using the word document.
The deadline for applications in 2023 is December 19th, 2022.
Before applying, you may wish to have a conversation with Ben Pink Dandelion. This can be arranged by emailing him directly at b.p.dandelion@bham.ac.uk
If your application is successful, you will be sent the award by bank transfer and need to book travel, accommodation, and library access yourself. If you are expecting to use the Library of the Religious Society of Friends in London you will need to arrange time to access specific resources directly with them. There are a number of options for accommodation which should allow you to stay for four to five nights in London, depending on the time of year, within the amount given by the award.
Here is a small selection:
Near Friends House, Euston, London NW1 2BJ
Bedford Hotel, 83, 95 Southampton Row, London WC1B 4HD
https://www.imperialhotels.co.uk/hotels/bedford-hotel
Premier Inn, Euston,
1 Duke's Rd, London WC1H 9PJ
https://www.premierinn.com/gb/en/hotels/england/greater-london/london/london-euston.html
Tavistock Hotel, 48-55 Tavistock Square, London WC1H 9EU
https://www.imperialhotels.co.uk/hotels/tavistock-hotel
Slightly further from Friends House, (London, zone 2)
The Royal Foundation of St Katherine,
2 Butcher Row, London E14 8DS
https://www.rfsk.org.uk/
After your visit to the archive of your choice, the recipient of the award is expected to report on the use you made of the money. This should include reporting the sums spent and on what, and commenting on the contribution the award made to your work. This report allows us to monitor the success of the award especially these new arrangements.
This scholarship is being revived in a more flexible way having been suspended during the pandemic years 2020-2022.
Previous scholars have used the award to devote some residential time in the Quaker library at Woodbrooke. However, this is not available at present so we have widened the scheme to allow for access to a much broader range of physical archive locations. We expect that the Library of the Religious Society of Friends in London will be especially useful to many researchers, but we are open to considering applications for travel to and accommodation near any archive relevant to your work.
The successful applicant will receive up to a maximum £600 (or equivalent for non-sterling applications) for 2023.
To be considered for an award you should complete the attached application form. You have the option of downloading the word doc or using the google form. Should you have any technical issues, please contact us at qsraofficers@gmail.com
adshead_award_application_form.docx
https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSeDqTy-glGaPuqscIQEAFyZzzkwskg93YII364bHjWRr_ZiAw/viewform?usp=sf_link
This application will help us determine how the scholarship could help you at this stage of your studies.
Your plan will include information on what you see as your academic requirements as well as your need for financial support.
Please return your application to Judith Roads, QSRA convenor at roads4@me.com if using the word document.
The deadline for applications in 2023 is December 19th, 2022.
Before applying, you may wish to have a conversation with Ben Pink Dandelion. This can be arranged by emailing him directly at b.p.dandelion@bham.ac.uk
If your application is successful, you will be sent the award by bank transfer and need to book travel, accommodation, and library access yourself. If you are expecting to use the Library of the Religious Society of Friends in London you will need to arrange time to access specific resources directly with them. There are a number of options for accommodation which should allow you to stay for four to five nights in London, depending on the time of year, within the amount given by the award.
Here is a small selection:
Near Friends House, Euston, London NW1 2BJ
Bedford Hotel, 83, 95 Southampton Row, London WC1B 4HD
https://www.imperialhotels.co.uk/hotels/bedford-hotel
Premier Inn, Euston,
1 Duke's Rd, London WC1H 9PJ
https://www.premierinn.com/gb/en/hotels/england/greater-london/london/london-euston.html
Tavistock Hotel, 48-55 Tavistock Square, London WC1H 9EU
https://www.imperialhotels.co.uk/hotels/tavistock-hotel
Slightly further from Friends House, (London, zone 2)
The Royal Foundation of St Katherine,
2 Butcher Row, London E14 8DS
https://www.rfsk.org.uk/
After your visit to the archive of your choice, the recipient of the award is expected to report on the use you made of the money. This should include reporting the sums spent and on what, and commenting on the contribution the award made to your work. This report allows us to monitor the success of the award especially these new arrangements.
Quaker Studies is multidisciplinary and interdisciplinary.
Quaker Studies feeds into and from theology, history, philosophy, politics, sociology, anthropology, womens studies, peace studies, literary studies and cultural studies. The Quaker Studies Research Association (QSRA), formed in 1992 and with an international membership, is the umbrella organisation for all those studying, teaching, researching or connected with research into one of the areas of Quaker Studies. With the Centre for Postgraduate Quaker Studies at Woodbrooke, the QSRA holds an annual conference, hosts the George Richardson Lecture, and oversees the David Adshead Scholarship for new postgraduates. There the fully-refereed journal, Quaker Studies, is published by Liverpool University Press twice a year. All journal subscribers are automatically members of QSRA: you can join by subscribing to the journal HERE.
