Ordinary / Everyday / Quotidian

The ordinary and the everyday are intuitively self-evident, yet notoriously elusive. Efforts to define “ordinary language” or “everyday practice” have preoccupied thinkers across many disciplines: philosophers, historians, sociologists, political theorists, geographers, and critics of literature and the visual arts. And these subjects demand more attention from scholars working on race, class, gender and sexuality, as well as food studies and the digital and medical humanities. Yet existing efforts have rarely engaged in dialogue with their counterparts in other disciplines.

One of the major impediments to interdisciplinary cooperation on the everyday is the persistence of discipline-specific vocabularies. In order to tackle this problem directly, this conference has grouped papers according to theme, rather than by discipline. As a result, all participants will be challenged to think outside of their habitual disciplinary vocabularies, and, we hope, emerge with fresh insights into their own presuppositions and an expanded conceptual toolbox for thinking about the everyday.

What do the terms everyday, ordinary and quotidian mean at the beginning of the twenty-first century? This conference will confront head-on the challenges and opportunities presented by the interdisciplinary nature of such an enquiry.

Confirmed events include keynote addresses by:

• Prof. John Roberts (History of Art, Wolverhampton)
• Dr. Jennifer Baird (Classics and Archaeology, Birkbeck)
• Dr. Bryony Randall (English Literature, Glasgow)

It will culminate in a colloquium chaired by Prof. Ben Highmore (Cultural Studies, Sussex) and featuring:

• Prof. Michael Sheringham (French Literature, All Souls College, Oxford)
• Prof. Holger Nehring (History, Stirling)
• Dr. Rupert Read (Philosophy, UEA)
• Dr. Michael White (History of Art, York)
• Dr. Neal Alexander (English Literature, Nottingham)

To register, please visit our Eventbrite page: http://oeq.eventbrite.co.uk/

Ordinary/Everyday/Quotidian conference programme (PDF , 633kb)