Silence Hub

About
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This network will run from 2019 to 2022.

 

SH is the Silence Hub, where scholars interested in silence come together to share ideas.  The Hub is inter-disciplinary and public-facing.  Its convenors come from the Faculty of English (Professor Kate McLoughlin), the Faculty of History (Dr. Suzan Meryem Rosita Kalayci) and the Department of Psychiatry (Professor Willem Kuyken) at the University of Oxford, but silence is of interest to a range of disciplines—neurology, physiology, physics, engineering, literature, linguistics, philosophy, music, religious studies, theology, anthropology, ethnography, sociology, education—and we invite everyone working in such disciplines, and others besides, to join us for discussion.

Kate McLoughlin is writing a literary history of silence, Suzan Meryem Rosita Kalayci is interested in silence in history and Willem Kuyken works on the prevention of depression, primarily with mindfulness-based approaches.  We bring different research questions to the Silence Hub, but all three of us are interested in investigating what silence actually is, its origins and effects, and why it is so powerful.

In 2018-19, the Silence Hub is putting on a number of events (see the ‘Events’ tab for details).  In Michaelmas Term, we are concentrating on silence and mindfulness.  In Hilary, we are exploring Silence and Syria.  In Trinity, we are investigating Silence and God.  Each term, we will meet as a group to discuss readings that we will circulate in advance (please contact kate.mcloughlin@ell.ox.ac.uk) if you wish to receive the readings.  (If you haven’t got time to read them in advance, you are still welcome to join the group for discussion.)  We will also be putting on performances of silence—a concert, films and rituals—followed by debriefing workshops to discuss them.

If you are interested in any aspect of silence and would like to join our mailing-list, whether you’re an academic or a member of the public, please contact kate.mcloughlin@ell.ox.ac.uk.

 

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