Fiona O’Brien, Doctoral Candidate, The University of Adelaide

Thoughts on the ANZAMEMS Conference 2015

I was fortunate to attend my second ANZAMEMS in Brisbane this year, and I was particularly excited to deliver my first paper with thanks to the generosity of the ANZAMEMS bursary committee. I would also like to thank the committee at The University of Adelaide for The Bill Cowan Bar Smith Library Fellowship for the funding I received earlier this year, which also made my attendance possible.

Prior to the conference, I had been trying to clarify my thesis methodology, and used my paper to work through some of my ideas. I was a bit nervous as to how this would be received, but I received plenty of positive feedback, and was particularly lucky to have had Professor Laura Knoppers – who had delivered a keynote on Andrew Marvell – willing to offer some incisive suggestions for my own work on Marvell. This helped me to clarify the focus my thesis would take, and upon returning to Adelaide I was re-energized enough to complete a full draft incorporating these ideas.

The keynote by Professor Alexandra Walsham also sparked my interest with a paper exploring the “interconnections between material objects (in particular commemorative Delfware), religious identity and memory in Early Modern England. My own work takes a trans-disciplinary approach to studying the Anglo-Dutch war satires of John Dryden and Andrew Marvell, and Walsham’s work gave me a new perspective on how material objects can be analysed as an expression of religious and political identity. Listening to the variety of other papers further opened my eyes to new areas of research, some of which intersected with my own in ways I had not previously considered. The panel discussion on possible career directions post-PhD was also helpful, despite the outlook sounding rather bleak at times.

My time at the conference concluded with the PATS seminar. This was a valuable opportunity for a small group of postgraduate students to discuss their work with the conference keynote’s, as well as participating in discussions on a variety of interesting articles covering the themes of Representation, Religion and the History of Emotions. I left Brisbane with a new sense of focus, a desire to stay in touch with some of those I had met, and of course, to attending the next ANZAMEMS in Wellington in 2017.