WARWICK NOMINATOR: PROFESSOR KAREN O'BRIEN, DEPARTMENT OF ENGLISH AND COMPARATIVE LITERARY STUDIES

Charles Withers is Professor of Historical Geography at the University of Edinburgh.  He is a leading, internationally distinguished geographer, with exceptionally broad and interdisciplinary research interests.  These centre in historical and cultural geography, geography and the making and reception of scientific knowledge in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, global history from the Celtic periphery to the circum-Atlantic histories of Africa and the Americas, and mapping, exploration and spatial thinking in the Enlightenment.  His most recent monograph, Placing the Enlightenment:  Thinking Geographically about the Age of Reason (Chicago University Press, 2007), has had a considerable impact in reorientating the field of European and American Enlightenment studies.  His current work extends geographical perspectives into new areas of enquiry, including the institutionalising of science, the epistemology of travel accounts, book history, discovery and collective memory.  He is currently completing a book on the British Association for the Advancement of Science, leading a  major AHRC project on the creation of public `fact’ from explorers’ accounts of extra-European travel in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, and writing a study of `discovery’, publicity and commemoration in the case of the African explorer Mungo Park (1771-1806).

Professor Withers will spend two weeks as a visiting fellow at the Institute of Advanced Study nominated by Professor Karen O'Brien (Warwick's Eighteenth-Century Centre and Department of English and Comparative Literary Studies).  Warwick does not have a geography department, but much of the work in Humanities and Social Studies has been invigorated by the recent 'spatial turn’ in and across these disciplines, by a new interest in the cultural production of spaces, and way in which globalisation has drawn attention to the spatial parameters of social relations.  This visit by a geographer, able to interact with staff across a range of disciplines (particularly those whose work is based in the nineteenth century and before), will be both timely and beneficial in taking forward existing, cross-disciplinary intellectual engagements with new geographical thinking.  Postgraduate and postdoctoral and early career staff will benefit from the opportunity for an intensive, “outside the box” study day at Compton Verney on "Spaces of Knowledge-Making in the Eighteenth and Nineteenth Centuries", to be lead by Professor Withers, that will introduce them to the conceptual categories and vocabularies used by geographers, and will enable them to reflect on these interdisciplinary dimensions of their work.  Professor Withers’ visit will strengthen existing collaborations and ties that he already has with Warwick.  These collaborations radiate in a number of directions.  Professor Withers was the keynote speaker at Warwick's “Centres of Enlightenment” conference in summer 2008, funded through Professor O'Brien's IAS incubation award.  As the next stage of this project, a conference will take place in 2010, with his assistance and in conjunction with a colleague in the Oxford History faculty, on “London as a Centre of Enlightenment”.  This will also have input from Warwick colleagues,  Dr Rosie Dias from Art History (who has herself contributed to Professor Withers Georgian Geographies collection), and from Dr Anderson (Sociology) and Dr Renaud Morieux (Lille).  In addition, both the Eighteenth-Century and Global History Centres are keen to forge closer ties with Compton Verney under its new director.  In order to strengthen that collaboration, they will organise a joint event here, lead by Professor Withers.

Events planned during Professor Wither's visit are posted on the Calendar.  They will include: 

• a public lecture on 13 May, widely advertised across Arts and Humanities and Social Studies, as well as the Centre for Lifelong Learning.  The title is "Travels into Print", and further details are on the Eighteenth-Century Centre website.  We aim to podcast the lecture on Warwick iTunesU.  This event is jointly hosted by the Eighteenth-Century Centre and the Global History and Culture Centre.  For full details click here

• a one-day interdisciplinary workshop for postgraduates/ early career postdoctoral and other staff at Compton Verney on 7 May on “Spaces of Knowledge Making in the Eighteenth and Nineteenth Centuries”:  The workshop will be opened and concluded by Professor Withers and he will also lead a session based on pre-circulated short readings and act as a respondent throughout. Other sessions will be lead by Dr Dias on painting (using the gallery collections), Dr Renaud Morieux (on oceanic borders);  Dr Anderson (Sociology) on oceanic space and subaltern experiences of travel.   Full details of the workshop are on the workshop webpage, click here

• participant, IAS speculative lunch on "Migration and Society", 11 May

• lead discussant  in a one-day, interdisciplinary workshop at the IAS on 14 May, entitled "Economies of Improvement:  Technical Innovations, The Sciences and the Public Sphere in the Eighteenth Century", with academic speakers from across the UK.  For full details of this workshop click here