Conceptualising identities

On 14th October an extremely engaging and thought-provoking 'Identities theme' workshop took place involving 40 participants from 22 different departments across arts, science and social sciences faculties.
Yvonne Whelan from the School of Geographical Sciences, Ann Rippin from the Department of Management and Jane Speedy from the Graduate school of Education triggered intense discussion between 40 staff and research students from across the university with three short presentations of the ways in which contested and shifting conceptualisations of identity informed their work in geographical(national), organisational and personal/familial contexts respectively.
The presentations were followed by focused discussion within small interdisciplinary groups about a) conceptualisations of identity across disciplines and b) where this should take our interdisciplinary work at Bristol. Detailed feedback from these groups can be found on the identities list-serve for interested staff and students.
In brief, the group decided to follow up this workshop with a planning meeting take the ideas generated forward into an interdisciplinary multi-media publication/installation linked with the city of Bristol. This proposal is in its infancy, but suggestions included using ideas from Yvonne's work to investigate one monument/landmark in Bristol (? Wills memorial?/ Colston statue?/ Pero's Bridge?/ Graffiti?) in relation to shifting identities within the city and in the process producing artefacts in the form of an installation/exhibition congruent with the inquiry (following Ann's work) and providing opportunities for the local community to explore how their own shifting narratives relate to the monument/exhibition, alongside the ways these stories fit /rub up against the work of academics within the university (after Jane's work). Meeting dates (mid November onwards) to plan this project will be circulated on the identities list-serve.

Yvonne Whelan, from Geographical Sciences:'Landscape, Heritage and Geographies of Identity'.
Yvonne reviewed some aspects of her work , looking especially at the ways in which landscape is used to ground narratives of identity (especially national identity).

Ann Rippin, from the Department of Management: 'Anita and me: constructing identity with a corporate icon' presented work in progress on her study of Anita Roddick and theBody Shop International. Ann's work included the creation of artefacts as well as written texts

Jane Speedy, Graduate School of Education: 'Looking for Ladybirds through Helen Hobden's legs' .Jane used some of her work on 'family snaps' to consider the elusive relationships between memory, identity and family narratives and the importance of researching the inconsequential.