Urban Identities: Past and Present

Date / time: 27 June, 9:30 am - 6:30 pm

Urban Identities: Past and Present

From their first emergence, urban settlements have conveyed a strong sense of identity. For equally long there has been conscious reflection on this sense of identity, from Aristotle’s Politics to the 2021 City of Culture awarded to the city of the university hosting this conference. This one-day interdisciplinary conference will bring together historians of all eras with researchers of other disciplines studying contemporary cities and towns. It will explore society, culture, and landscape from pre-modern times, when the majority of the population lived in rural environments, to the predominance of urban living in the present.

The speakers at this conference cover topics from the medieval era through to the twenty-first century and come from a wide range of disciplines ranging from history through to dance. The conference will include an opening keynote speech by Prof Matthew Carmona (UCL) and a closing address by Prof Simon Marvin (Sheffield). Carmona will explore the idea of change across time in terms of his idea of the ‘place-shaping continuum’. Marvin will bring together themes from across the day in terms of his own work on the adaptation of cities to modern technology.

A provisional programme of papers is available here.To register and to view a provisional programme, visit https://warwick.ac.uk/fac/arts/hrc/confs/uipp

An early-bird fee of £10 is available for those registering before 30 April and a fee of £12.50 thereafter. Lunch, coffee breaks, and a wine reception are provided for all delegates.

Location: Humanities Building, University of Warwick, Coventry