Conference on the Great Miners Strike

Digging the Seam: the Miners Strike of 1984/5

25th-27th March 2010, University of Leeds.

Registration is now open for this conference, which is aimed at both HE scholars and the public, with keynote speakers representing different approaches to the ‘re-telling’ of the strike:

David Peace (author of GB84)
Julian Petley (Brunel)
Simon Popple (Leeds)
Patrick Russell and Ros Cranston (BFI)
Yvette Vanson (documentary maker) and Michael Mansfield.
Poet Ian McMillan, and the world premiere of Songs at the Year’s End with music by Hugh Nankivell.

Exhibition, performance, screenings, testimony and academic papers. With contributions from: John Hyatt (MMU, the Three Johns); Richard Crangle (Exeter), Rosemary Preece (National Coal Mining Museum for England), Sue Owen (Sheffield), Michael Bailey (Leeds Met), Patricia Holland (Bournemouth); Granville Williams; Dave Rogers (Banner Theatre); Ian Beasley (photographer) and others.

The conference looks at mainstream and alternative representations of the strike at the time, and subsequently, across the broad range of cultural expression such as the press, TV, film, performance, photography and music and song. Plus, 25 years on, how both archive study and new creative work lead us into new insights and perspectives. The conference is organised into four strands – Memory, Legacy, Media and Popular Culture, and Witness – to help compare and contrast the personal and the objective study, the artefact and the heritage industry, cultural memory and the creative.

For more information, and to register: Online registration
Or contact Dr. Eleri Pound at ics-conferences@leeds.ac.uk or on 0113 343 5805.

Organised at the University of Leeds by the Louis Le Prince Centre and the Media Industries Research Centre at the Institute of Communications Studies; with support from the School of Performance and Cultural Industries, the School of Music, Leeds International Film Festival, Opera North, and the DARE partnership.

Accommodation
We have negotiated reduced rates with Weetwood Hall hotel, quote Digging the Seam when you book for the conference rate of £70 bed & breakfast. Other hotel recommendations can be found on this page: http://www.leeds.ac.uk/visitors/where_to_stay.htm