‘Love Across the Atlantic’ conference

Project title:

‘Love Across the Atlantic’ conference – an interdisciplinary conference on US-UK romance’

“The conference examines how the ‘special relationship’ shared by the US-UK since the 19th century has existed, not merely at an economic or diplomatic level.”

Researcher:

Project proposal:

‘Love Across the Atlantic – An Interdisciplinary Conference on US-UK Romance’ will be held at Roehampton on June 16, 2017, organised by Deborah Jermyn with University of Alabama colleagues including Theodore Trost, Past Chair of Religious Studies, a collaboration prompted by Roehampton’s growing partnership with UA. 

The conference examines how the ‘special relationship’ shared by the US-UK since the 19^th Century has existed not merely at an economic or diplomatic level. Rather, British and American citizens have long fallen in love across the expanse of the Atlantic, with one another but often too with the idea(l) of that other place across the ocean. The conference explores the history and enduring appeal of US-UK relationships: what are the economic and ideological factors that have fuelled this romantic framework?; what have been its recurrent tropes across disciplinary, national and temporal boundaries; and how does the notion of ‘love across the Atlantic’ speak to our collective fantasies of home, desire, escape and identity?

Photo by Priscilla Du Preez on Unsplash

Themes: