Critical Games Back to life: play, risk and the self in academic writing

To its critics, academia can often appear as a form of elaborate play. Set apart from ordinary life, marked by ludic pleasures and moments of absurdity, it can seem like a game in which little is truly at stake.

This workshop, led by Dr Tim Beasley-Murray, Associate Professor of European Thought and Culture at UCL, in dialogue with Dr Niall Sreenan, Lecturer in Comparative Literature in the School of Modern Languages, will explore what happens when critical play spills back into the world beyond its protected space, raising questions of risk, responsibility and consequence.

Central to the session is a reflection on scholarly voice: when and why we keep ourselves out of our writing, when we put ourselves into it, and what is at stake in either choice. Aimed at PhD researchers in the humanities and social sciences, the session will invite participants to consider how academic writing that risks something of the self might open up new ways of being both playful and serious.

This session will draw on Dr Beasley-Murray's work, Critical Games, a book that explores the uneasy entanglement of play and seriousness in academia, literature and life itself and, in particular, on chapter five, 'Back to Life'. Participants will be sent a chapter to read in advance of the session.

All participants will receive lunch.

Schedule for the event

• 12 noon to 12.30pm: Dr Tim Beasley-Murray, 'Back to Life: Play, Risk and the Self in Academic Writing'
• 12.30pm to 1pm: Dr Tim Beasley-Murray in dialogue with Dr Niall Sreenan
• 1pm to 2pm: Lunch
• 2pm to 3pm: Participatory discussion on seriousness, play and academic writing in the humanities and social sciences

If you're interested in attending please use this digital form to sign up for the event.