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Dr Christopher Wiley co-edits new Palgrave book on transnationality and artists’ lives

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Dr Christopher Wiley has co-edited, together with Dr Marleen Rensen (University of Amsterdam), a new volume entitled Transnational Perspectives on Artists’ Lives, published by Palgrave Macmillan and including chapters on artists from Europe, North America, Africa, and Australasia representing a range of arts disciplines.

The book’s international contributors include Sander Bax, Suzanne Bode, Tamar Hager, Maximiliano Jiménez, Jane McVeigh, Anna Menyhért, Manet van Montfrans, Samantha Niederman, Suze van der Poll, Josiane Ranguin, Maria Razumovskaya, Marleen Rensen, Marc Röntsch, Maryam Thirriard, and Christopher Wiley. The table of contents is available here.

This essay collection was developed from a 2018 conference held at the University of Amsterdam, The Netherlands, at which Dr Wiley, an internationally acknowledged expert on musical biography, gave a Keynote lecture.

Dr Wiley’s chapter in the volume, ‘Ethel Smyth as the composer Edith Staines in E.F. Benson’s Dodo trilogy’ (abstract available here), discusses the depiction of the composer Ethel Smyth as a fictional character in E.F. Benson’s sensational book Dodo and its sequels Dodo Wonders and Dodo’s Daughter.

Dr Rensen and Dr Wiley also co-authored the editorial introduction, ‘Writing Artists’ Lives Across Nations and Cultures: Biography, Biofiction and Transnationality’, which considers issues raised by writing the lives of artists, as well as the significance of transnationality to biography.

This is the second volume that Dr Wiley has published with Palgrave Macmillan this year, the first being on researching and writing about contemporary art and artists.

For further information, and to purchase the book: https://www.palgrave.com/gp/book/9783030451998

Bibliographic citations

Wiley, Christopher. ‘Ethel Smyth as the composer Edith Staines in E.F. Benson’s Dodo trilogy’, in Marleen Rensen and Christopher Wiley eds. Transnational Perspectives on Artists’ Lives. Cham, Switzerland: Palgrave Macmillan, 2020, pp. 255–69. 

Rensen, Marleen and Christopher Wiley. ‘Writing Artists’ Lives Across Nations and Cultures: Biography, Biofiction and Transnationality’, in Marleen Rensen and Christopher Wiley eds. Transnational Perspectives on Artists’ Lives. Cham, Switzerland: Palgrave Macmillan, 2020, pp. 1–24. 

Rensen, Marleen and Christopher Wiley eds. Transnational Perspectives on Artists’ Lives. Cham, Switzerland: Palgrave Macmillan, 2020. pp. xv, 276. ISBN 978-3-030-45200-1, 978-3-030-45200-1 (eBook)

Full texts

The full text of Dr Wiley’s chapter is available here: https://www.academia.edu/65118145/Ethel_Smyth_as_the_composer_Edith_Staines_in_E_F_Bensons_Dodo_trilogy

And the full text of the co-authored editorial introduction may be downloaded here: https://www.academia.edu/65117588/Writing_Artists_Lives_Across_Nations_and_Cultures_Biography_Biofiction_and_Transnationality

Dr Christopher Wiley publishes major book chapter on musical biography in Oxford University Press volume

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Dr Christopher Wiley has written a major book chapter on musical biography for a new essay collection published by Oxford University Press, The Oxford Handbook of Music and Intellectual Culture in the Nineteenth Century, edited by Paul Watt, Sarah Collins, and Michael Allis.

Dr Wiley’s 12,000-word chapter, entitled ‘Biography and Life-Writing’ (abstract available here), discusses the advent of musical biography, its proliferation in the long nineteenth century, and its legacy up to the present. It includes two case studies: a compilation of anecdotes, to explore how Victorian values were reflected in contemporaneous life-writing; and a collected biography, to investigate the role of women as characters within musical biographies.

Dr Wiley is an internationally acknowledged expert on musical biography, the subject of his doctoral dissertation, and has previously published widely on the subject.

Bibliographic citation

Wiley, Christopher. ‘Biography and Life-Writing’, in Paul Watt, Sarah Collins, and Michael Allis eds. The Oxford Handbook of Music and Intellectual Culture in the Nineteenth Century. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2020, pp. 77–101. doi: 10.1093/oxfordhb/9780190616922.013.4

Full text

The full text of Dr Wiley’s chapter is available here: https://www.academia.edu/35186914/Biography_and_Life_Writing_Oxford_Handbook_of_Music_and_Intellectual_Culture_in_the_Nineteenth_Century_

Dr Christopher Wiley lead-edits new Palgrave book on researching and writing about contemporary art and artists

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Dr Christopher Wiley has edited, together with Dr Ian Pace (City, University of London), a new book entitled Researching and Writing on Contemporary Art and Artists: Challenges, Practices, and Complexities, published by Palgrave Macmillan and encompassing music, literature, dance, theatre and the visual arts.

Developed from a conference held at the University of Surrey in 2017, the volume includes contributions by Joel Baldwin, Richard Birchall, Jill Brown, Miriam Cabell and Phoebe Stubbs, Vered Engelhard, Christopher Leedham and Martin Scheuregger, Ian Pace, Andy W. Smith, Joanne ‘Bob’ Whalley, Christopher Wiley, Annie Yim, and Lorraine York.

Dr Wiley has co-authored two chapters in the collection: the editorial introduction, ‘Researching and Writing on Contemporary Art and Artists’, with Ian Pace; and the chapter MusicArt: Creating Dialogues Across the Arts’, in conversation with Dr Annie Yim.

For further information, and to purchase the book: https://www.palgrave.com/gb/book/9783030392321
https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/3030392325

Bibliographic citations 

Wiley, Christopher and Ian Pace. ‘Researching and Writing on Contemporary Art and Artists’, in Christopher Wiley and Ian Pace eds. Researching and Writing on Contemporary Art and Artists: Challenges, Practices, and Complexities. Cham, Switzerland: Palgrave Macmillan, 2020, pp. 3–15. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-39233-8_1

Yim, Annie and Christopher Wiley. ‘MusicArt: Creating Dialogues Across the Arts’, in Christopher Wiley and Ian Pace eds. Researching and Writing on Contemporary Art and Artists: Challenges, Practices, and Complexities. Cham, Switzerland: Palgrave Macmillan, 2020, pp. 259–76. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-39233-8_14

Wiley, Christopher and Ian Pace eds. Researching and Writing on Contemporary Art and Artists: Challenges, Practices, and Complexities. Cham, Switzerland: Palgrave Macmillan, 2020. ISBN 978-3-030-39232-1, 978-3-030-39233-8 (eBook). https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-39233-8

Full texts

The full text of the editorial introduction is available for free download under licence from Surrey Research Insight Open Access: http://epubs.surrey.ac.uk/857053/

Dr Christopher Wiley delivers paper at conference on biography at the University of Nottingham

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1200px-University_of_Nottingham_logo.svgDr Christopher Wiley has presented a paper at the multi-disciplinary conference ‘Biography and Public History: Constructing Historical Narratives through Life-Writing’, held in the Department of Music at the University of Nottingham on Wednesday 20 June 2018.

Dr Wiley’s paper, ‘Anecdote as a Genre in Musical Biography’, drew primarily on his recent research on Victorian life-writing, while also discussing the foundational role of anecdote within musical biography from its advent at the turn of the nineteenth century onwards.

Proposing that biographical anecdote warrants recognition as a genre in its own right given its extraordinary staying power and the sophisticated narratives that developed around specific examples, Dr Wiley demonstrated its potential to contribute to a greater understanding of associated culture through the recounting of stories of its most cherished figures.

The one-day conference was attended by some 50 international delegates. Dr Wiley also chaired the opening session, which featured papers on archaeology, buildings architecture, and literature.

Further information may be found at the conference webpage: https://www.nottingham.ac.uk/conference/fac-arts/humanities/music/biography-and-public-history/biography-and-public-history.aspx

The full conference programme is available online here: https://www.nottingham.ac.uk/humanities/departments/music/documents/2018/final-programme.pdf

Dr Christopher Wiley delivers Keynote lecture at international conference at the University of Amsterdam

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Dr Christopher WJanuary 2018_Amsterdam_Poster 2018 Workshop Transnational Perspectives on Artistsiley gave a Keynote lecture at the two-day international workshop, ‘Transnational Perspectives on the Writing of Artists’ Lives, 19th-21st centuries’, held at the University of Amsterdam, The Netherlands on 25–26 January 2018.

Dr Wiley’s 50-minute paper, entitled ‘Musical Biography as a National and Transnational Genre’, explored the extent to which composer life-writing reflects the preoccupations and concerns of its time and place of origin while simultaneously embodying pan-European values that remain strikingly robust across texts from different countries and centuries.

Addressed to an interdisciplinary audience primarily from The Netherlands, France, the UK, and US, Dr Wiley’s lecture developed research previously presented at the University of Oxford, and generated much productive discussion from delegates.

An internationally acknowledged expert in the field, Dr Wiley has given a number of previous keynotes at conferences on biography, including the four-day ‘(Auto)Biography as a Musicological Discourse’ held at the University of Arts, Belgrade in 2008.

The full schedule for the workshop may be viewed here: http://www.uva.nl/en/shared-content/subsites/amsterdam-institute-for-humanities-research/en/events/events/2018/01/transnational-perspectives-artists-lives.html

The programme is also available online as a PDF: https://www.huizingainstituut.nl/v02/wp-content/uploads/Programme-Workshop-Transnational-Perspectives-on-Artists-Lives-2-Jan-18.pdf

Dr Christopher Wiley co-organizes international multi-disciplinary conference on Writing About Contemporary Artists at the University of Surrey

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Keynote - Annie Yim, Christopher Le Brun, and Christopher WileyDr Christopher Wiley was Chair of the Conference Committee for an international, multi-disciplinary three-day conference entitled Writing About Contemporary Artists: Challenges, Practices, and Complexities’, held at the University of Surrey from 20-22 October 2017.

Hosted and sponsored by the University’s Institute of Advanced Studies, the conference brought together scholars and practitioners in fields including musicology, theatre studies, dance and choreography, literature, film, digital media, and the visual arts. Its 70 participants represented a strongly international delegation drawn from North and South America, Australia, South Africa, and across Europe and the UK.

Dr Wiley compèred and co-authored the event’s central Keynote Concert and Dialogue (pictured above) given by MusicArt London, featuring the distinguished painter Christopher Le Brun (President of the Royal Academy of Arts) and pianist Dr Annie Yim (St John’s Smith Square Young Artist in Residence 2016/17), with additional contributions by composer Richard Birchall.

Dr Wiley also acted as chair and panel member for the final conference session (pictured below), a roundtable on ‘Contemporary artists, contemporary writing: Internet and social media’, at which he spoke about his reviewing activity across the art disciplines for digital magazine Musical Theatre Review as well as his guest-blogging for sites such as the Association of National Teaching Fellows blog and Oxford University Press Blog.

Further information may be found at the conference website: http://www.ias.surrey.ac.uk/workshops/artistswriting/

The full programme (including abstracts) may be downloaded here: http://www.ias.surrey.ac.uk/workshops/artistswriting/papers/Writing%20About%20Contemporary%20Artists%20conference%20_%20Proggramme.pdf

Roundtable - Christopher Wiley, Björn Heile, Katie Beswick, and Ian Pace

Update: Online reports on the conference are available at the following links:

http://www.planethugill.com/2017/10/writing-about-contemporary-artists.html

http://annieyim.com/keynote-concert-and-dialogue-at-an-international-multi-disciplinary-conference-at-the-university-of-surrey-21-october-2017/

http://blogs.surrey.ac.uk/arts/2017/10/22/international-conference-in-pats-building-writing-about-contemporary-artists/