The Archers
And finally comes in the form of an email forwarded to me by my good friend John Shepherd earlier in the week. It is set out below:
From: Urban and Regional Planning research and dissemination list [mailto:URBAN-REGIONAL-PLANNING@JISCMAIL.AC.UK] On Behalf Of Cara Courage
Sent: 25 June 2017 14:52
To: URBAN-REGIONAL-PLANNING@JISCMAIL.AC.UK
Subject: CfP: Third Academic Archers conference, London Feb 2018
Call for Papers: The Archers in fact and fiction: Academic analyses of life in rural Borsetshire
Dr Cara Courage and Dr Nicola Headlam invite the submission of abstracts to the third Academic Archers conference, to be held on 17th February 2018 at The British Library, London.
The one-day conference will feature a number of 15 minutes papers, as well as 5 minute Quick Pitches and posters, around the programme and issues contained therein, of BBC Radio4’s The Archers.
Submissions are invited from any academic discipline and subjects might include but are by no means limited to:
- Queer perspectives on life in Ambridge
- Rural housing development – who benefits?
- Entrepreneurialism in rural communities
- Politics and protest – ‘right to the field’ in Borsetshire
- Brexit & Ambridge, what future post CAP?
- Gender, class and cricket in the village
- What is a gossip? Gendered approaches to info sharing
- Intergenerational justice in Ambridge
- Greenwashing Ambridge, from eco-warriors to biodiversity accountants?
This list is not meant to be exclusive or exhaustive, but is meant to inspire you to think how your academic research, sector professional expertise or listener forensic knowledge of The Archers can illuminate and explain life in Ambridge and Borsetshire. The day is intended to give fans of The Archers a platform to exercise their love of the programme and their subject area.
If you are a fellow Archers fan and/or academic please submit your abstract of 200 words with a short biography to both cara@caracourage.net and headlams@gmail.com by 28th July, indicating if you are proposing a paper, Quick Pitch or poster. Please submit this as a Word attachment. Programming will be determined by an Academic Archers panel and will be communicated by mid-September.
Further information on Academic Archers can be found at www.academicarchers.net/ and search for ‘Academic Archers 2017’ on YouTube for films of the 2017 conference.