This one-day colloquium on Wednesday 3 December brings together writers, historians, literary critics, cultural theorists and interested others for a discussion about new ways of writing about place in contemporary New Zealand. We hope to develop a conversation about re-imagining place for an emerging generation of writers and scholars, and to do so in a form that unsettles the boundary between the academic and the creative, between the historical and the literary. In particular, we are interested in engagements with place that take the form of the personal essay. Featured participants include: Tony Ballantyne, Sally Blundell, Alex Calder, Annabel Cooper, Tim Corballis, Martin Edmond, Ingrid Horrocks, Lynn Jenner, Cherie Lacey, Tina Makereti, Harry Ricketts, Jack Ross, Alice Te Punga Somerville, Giovanni Tiso, Ian Wedde, Lydia Wevers, and Ashleigh Young.
The event will open with a plenary address by Martin Edmond on the evening of Tuesday 2 December, followed by a reception.
Co-convened by the W.H. Oliver Humanities Research Academy at Massey University, the Centre for Research on Colonial Culture at the University of Otago, and the Stout Research Centre for New Zealand Studies at Victoria University.