URBAN UNDERWORLD: A CONFERENCE ON LONDON'S SPATIAL & CULTURAL UNDERGROUNDS
FROM 1825 TO THE PRESENT.

KEYNOTE SPEAKER: Dr. Rachel Falconer, University of Sheffield.
EVENING SPEAKER: Michael Horowitz, former Editor of 'New Departures'.

In the year 1825 the engineer Marc Brunel started to excavate the Thames
Tunnel. The project was to prove the first step toward the creation of a
modern underworld beneath London, the city's subterranean labyrinth of
sewage, transit, and communications systems. This conference will consider
the rich representational history this urban underworld has enjoyed, in
literature, music, film and art, over the past 175 years. Socially
conceived underworlds of poverty of crime that proliferate in the wake of
the city's rapid expansion and industrialisation, will receive special
attention. So too will the numerous underground movements, both cultural
and intellectual, to emerge in the capital since the death of William Blake
in 1827 (most notably in the 1960s, with publications such as 'New
Departures' and 'International Times'). This conference will attempt to
map these spatial, social and cultural undergrounds; to relate London's
most richly suggestive mindscape to contemporary theoretical debates on
subterranean space, urban studies, and subcultural activity.

This is a call for papers on any topic relating to this Urban Underworld.
Papers are to be 20 minutes in length, to be followed by 10 minutes of
questions and discussion. Proposals should be 200-300 words long, and
should be sent to James Riley (rjer2_at_cam.ac.uk) by August 1st 2006.

The conference is to be followed by an evening event, featuring performance
poetry by Michael Horowitz, films by Rod Mengham and Marc Atkins, and live
music.

Tickets for the Conference cost £12 / £10 conc.
Tickets for the Evening Event cost £6 / £5 conc.
Tickets for both Conference & Event cost £15 / £12 conc.

For further information please contact David Ashford at dma31_at_cam.ac.uk. To
purchase tickets please send a cheque for the requisite amount to: David
Ashford, Selwyn College, Cambridge, United Kingdom, CB3 9DQ. Cheques should
be made payable to David Ashford, and should be stapled to a short note
stating your name, address, email address, telephone number, and ticket
preference.

VENUE: Faculty of English, University of Cambridge, UK.
DATE: 26/09/2006.
DEADLINE FOR PROPOSALS: 01/08/2006.

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Received on Wed Jun 07 2006 - 11:23:56 EDT