Organisers: Dr. Jade French (Loughborough University), Jennifer Ashby (European University Institute), & Julia Heinemann (Leipzig University)
Background: In recent years, there has been a flurry of new interest in the work of Mina Loy (1882-1966) resulting in a steady output of monographs, new translations, and republications that present Loy from increasingly diverse perspectives. As Sarah Hayden writes in the introduction to the republication of Insel (2014) ‘there have been many Loys; more are emerging’.
In 2023 – 100 years after the initial publication of the Lunar Baedeker – it is time to survey the field and reflect on the past, present, and future of Loy scholarship. This symposium offers a space to connect and build community with other researchers of Loy, documenting the currents and trends that are emerging in the field. We hope to generate discussion and collaboration, finding possibilities for synthesis between approaches and methods.
As an online symposium, this event seeks to synthesise and reflect on current work in Loy studies. Participants will deliver short position papers (10 minutes) in a roundtable format. We hope this platform will establish connections between established dialogues and recent approaches, create a sense of community, and offer a platform for new projects.
Dr Jade Elizabeth French works on ageing, care and intergenerationality. Her research explores a ‘poetics of ageing’ in modernist texts, with a specific focus on the late works of Mina Loy, H.D., and Djuna Barnes. She has written on modernism and ageing in articles for Feminist Modernist Studies, Women: A Cultural Review and Modernism Modernity Print+. She is also the co-founder of Decorating Dissidence, an arts platform highlighting the art histories of craft and making from modernism to the contemporary.
Jennifer Ashby is a PhD Candidate at the European University Institute, Florence (EUI). Her ongoing thesis explores the intersection of early twentieth century heterodox spiritualities and scientific discourse with avant-garde aesthetics, focalised through the artist and poet Mina Loy. She is a convenor of the interdisciplinary EUI Queer and Feminist Studies Working Group, a Postgraduate Representative for the British Association for Modernist Studies, and an Editor of The Modernist Review.
Julia Heinemann is a PhD Candidate and Junior Assistant Professor at Leipzig University. In her dissertation, provisionally titled “Mina Loy’s Metaphysical Modernism”, she suggests that Loy’s works qualify claims about modernism’s metaphysical collapse by employing modernist textual strategies to renegotiate the position of the human subject in relation to both immanent and transcendent experience. Her research is supported by the German Academic Scholarship Foundation (Studienstiftung) and the German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD). With Prof Dr Ralf Haekel, she also co-organises this year’s GER conference “Romanticism and its Media” at Leipzig University.
Find us on Twitter: @MappingMinaLoy
Event Date: 4th-5th August 2023
Location: Online (Zoom)
Please check back here for further information and to access the link for the online symposium on the day. The programme and registration details will be announced soon!
Registration will be free and open to all.
Loy Symposium 2023 