Newcastle University

Thank you very much indeed to those of you who supported the PG Forum Conference on Friday - it was a resounding success, and very well attended (sunshine notwithstanding).  The event was organized by Frances McIntosh and Maria Duggan, with help from a number of other PG students who may well be inspired to build on this success with our 10th PGF conference next year. 

The theme of 'Remembrance' (courtesy of Jane Webster) provided a coherent framework for the PG papers, attracting contributions from as far afield as UCL, Edinburgh and York, as well as locally.  The keynote address 'Memory and Forgetting in the City' was by Prof. Richard Alston (Royal Holloway) - and it is pleasing to note that all subject areas in the School were represented in the programme.

The Winner of the Norman McCord Prize for best paper was Jessica Moody (York), 'King John and the Abolition Act: remembering slavery in Liverpool in 1907 and 1957).  Runner-up was Michael Smith (Newcastle), 'Memorialisation and Slave Shipwrecks: 'speak her name and gently touch the souls of our ancestors'.

The Winner of the Keith Wrightson Prize for Best Poster was Maria Duggan (Newcastle), 'Spindle Whorls in Early Medieval South-West Britain'; Highly Commended were Owen Brittan (Newcastle) for 'Literary Skirmishes in the Grub Street Journal' and Dulma Karunarathna, 'The Household and Beyond: imagining the female in primitive rock art of India'.

Congratulations to our prizewinners and thanks to everyone who took part.

Professor Helen Berry, Director of Postgraduate Studies