Call for Papers, deadline – 7 March 2025, 12 pm
A passionate advocate for British imperial power, Lord Curzon (1859-1925) believed in his and Britain’s right to rule. Through his travels and political career, he wielded, antagonised, reformed, informed and expressed British power. Marking the centenary of Curzon’s death in 1925, this international symposium will seek to follow Curzon’s interactions with and in the British Empire. Whilst recognising his impact on Britain, its empire, and the world, it looks to move beyond Curzon as the sole protagonist of these histories.
We invite scholars and heritage professionals to contribute to two days of discussion at the University of Derby and Curzon’s ancestral seat, Kedleston Hall, which holds a museum dedicated to his colonial collection. Through critical engagement with the many aspects of Curzon’s relationship to the British Empire, we seek to bring marginal and global perspectives to the fore.
Our aim for the workshop is to bring together these deeply contextualised histories, that will ground interdisciplinary discussions. By sharing our disparate expertise, we seek to enrich our collective understandings of Curzon, Kedleston, the Museum and the objects within it, connecting their imperial contact points and contexts. The first day will conclude with a visit to Kedleston Hall, to see the museum and enjoy a drinks reception and a keynote address from Professor Durba Ghosh, Cornell University.
We are seeking proposals from researchers and heritage professionals for:
- 10 minute contextual talks – these can be an introduction to a relevant topic or an exploration of a case study related to the themes of the symposium
- 20 or 30 minute research papers – these should be traditional papers presenting new research or perspectives on a relevant subject to the themes of the symposium
Possible themes and topics include, but are not limited to:
- commemoration, memorials, monuments
- restoration, historic preservation
- diplomacy, ceremony, tradition
- collecting, display, museums
- object itineraries or biographies, material histories
- metropole and colony, frontiers, borders
- war, violence, invasion, conflict
- resistance, opposition to colonial rule
- politics, administration, bureaucracy, the state
To be considered for this workshop please email curzoncentenarysymposium@gmail.com with a 150-word bio and a 250-word abstract by 12 noon 7 March GMT.
About the organisers:
- Dr Oliver Godsmark is a historian of late colonial and early postcolonial South Asia and its diaspora, who has worked with various heritage organisations in Derbyshire to capture intersections between its local and global histories.
- Dr Rebekah Hodgkinson is a postdoctoral research assistant at the University of Oxford. Her PhD research on the National Trust’s institutional history uses Lord Curzon as a case study to understand the influence of imperialism on the construction of British heritage.
- Charlotte Johnson is an AHRC M4C-funded PhD student, co-supervised by the University of Birmingham and the National Trust. Her thesis explores the history of the ‘Eastern Museum’ at Kedleston and the objects within it. Before commencing her PhD research she held curatorial positions at museums and country houses.