Film: Dorothy and EP Thompson Remembered

“Remembering Dorothy and Edward”, a film of a lecture by Sheila Rowbotham about her friends Dorothy and E.P. Thompson, will be premiered in The Hive, Worcester on Friday 8 March 2013, as part of International Women’s Day.

Date: Friday 8 March 2013

Venue: Studio, Ground Floor, The Hive, Sawmill Walk, The Butts, Worcester WR1 3PB

Start: 7.30pm, doors open 7.00pm

Admission: £3 / £1 concessions

The lecture makes reference to the past 275 years of British women campaigners: such as Mary Collier’s 1739 poem “The Woman’s Labour”, her response to the claim that housewives had an easy life; “Owd” Nancy Clayton lobbying under fire for parliamentary reform in 1819; and, Abadiah Higginbotham stating that “the voice of woman is not sufficiently heard” in 1851. Sheila talks about her own steps into feminism during the 1960s, inspired by the writings of Mary Wollstonecraft, Alice Clark and Simone de Beauvoir.  Sheila also recalls how Dorothy and Edward Thompson, both peace campaigners, were always able to provide her with guidance, support and humour.

The documentary was directed and edited by Hayley Moore, 21, as part of her University of Worcester film-making degree.

After the film the audience will have the opportunity to speak to the film’s producers and share their memories of Dorothy and Edward Thompson.

It will be screened in the Studio, a theatre on the ground floor of The Hive library, between 7:30pm and 9.00pm on Friday 8 March.

Entrance will be charged at £3 and £1 (concessions) payable at the door.

For further information please contact: Hil Cross, dandeptlecture@talktalk.net

Edited to add: CALL FOR PAPERS

The Global E. P. Thompson:
Reflections on the Making of the English Working Class after Fifty Years

To be held at Harvard University, Cambridge, Massachusetts
October, 3rd – 5th, 2013

Paper Proposals are due May 15th, 2013

Fifty years ago E. P. Thompson published The Making of the English
Working Class, one of the most influential social history works ever.
Its approach to the history of common people, its arguments and its
methods came to influence several generations of historians and others
all over the world. To trace Thompson’s influences, and with it the
larger story of the varied approaches to social history that have come
out of them, the Program on the History of Capitalism and the
Weatherhead Initiative on Global History at Harvard University seek to
initiate a global conversation among researchers across the humanities
and social sciences to reflect critically on Thompson's impact on the
writing of history and his enduring significance for future research.

At a time of global economic crises, as scholarship returns to themes
of class, inequality and political economy with renewed interest,
urgency, and moral purpose, the fiftieth anniversary of the Making of
the English Working Class offers a welcome opportunity to both
critically reflect on Thompson's scholarship and consider the ways in
which his ideas, methods and commitments can still inspire
intellectual frameworks and research programs that speak to present
global problems.

The conference, to be held at Harvard University from 3rd-5th of
October, 2013 invites critical engagement with Thompson's legacy. The
Making has been at the center of many controversies in the writing of
social, political, cultural, and labor history over the past decades,
and we welcome papers that trace these debates. We are also interested
in papers tracing Thompson’s influence in various fields of history,
and in various parts of the world. Moreover, we are seeking
contributors who address issues such as

-Translating E. P. Thompson: English Idioms and Traditions in Global Context
-Class Formation: An Important Category of Analysis in History?
-Moral Economies and Political Economy: Culture, Economy and Politics
-Spatially Situating Social Processes: Communities, Regions, Nations,
-World-Systems

We are committed to making this a global conversation. With
translations of the Making into many languages, including Chinese,
Japanese, Turkish, Portuguese, Spanish, French and German, Thompson’s
work has had a global audience. Middle Eastern, Asian, African and
Latin American scholars are especially encouraged to apply.

Finally, we encourage graduate students to submit paper proposals. We
hope to provoke an inter-generational dialogue, involving established
scholars who have long drawn inspiration from Thompson's work as well
as aspiring practitioners starting their academic careers.

Please submit paper abstracts of no more than 500 words, along with a
CV, to Jessica Barnard at the email address:
jbarnard@wcfia.harvard.edu with the subject line “E. P. Thompson 2013”

Paper Proposals are due May 15th, 2013

We will notify applicants in June, 2013. If accepted, we will ask you
for a draft paper by September 1st. We will cover all (economy class)
travel costs, accommodation and meals.

Organizers

Rudi Batzell, PhD Candidate, History, Harvard University
Sven Beckert, Laird Bell Professor of American History, Harvard University
Andrew Gordon, Folger Fund Professor of History, Harvard University
Gabriel Winant, PhD Candidate, History, Yale University