Devils in the Details

Next Tuesday 23 June I’m giving a 10-minute presentation as part of the Time, Text and People group’s ‘Devils in the Details’ research event. My presentation is entitled The whole is greater than the sum of the details: emergence in a non-linear text. I will present a poem, then pose some questions about it in the hope of generating discussion.

Devils in the Details: When the small things make all the difference in Humanities research

Edith Cowan University Mt Lawley, Room 10.307/308
Tuesday 23 June 2015, 1-4pm

In a world of increasing spectacle, instantaneous social media, and 24-hour infotainment, the detailed work of scholars has for some come to seem archaic and quaint – yet remains essential for the advancement of human knowledge and self-understanding. From little-known facts, parallax views and technical errors, to close-readings of texts and events, when have small details been vital to illuminating and clarifying aspects of your work, or revealed the fundamental flaws in accepted interpretations?

Program

1.00pm – Dr David Robinson – ‘Welcome and Introduction’.
1.10pm – Dr David Robinson – ‘Rebels in the Footnotes – the Comoro Islands and the Mozambican Civil War’.
1.30pm – Dr Leigh Straw – ‘A Woman’s Record: Mary Ann Sweetman’s Life of Crime’.
1.50pm – Prof Quentin Beresford – ‘Defamation and Biography: When the Details Matter’.
2.10pm – Break
2.20pm – Jackson (PhD Candidate) – ‘The whole is greater than the sum of the details: emergence in a non-linear text’.
2.40pm – Dr Susan Hart – ‘Vital Statistics: Birth, Death and Marriage Certificates’.
3.00pm – Ben Hale (PhD Candidate) – ‘The ANC as Winner or Loser?: A closer look at the 2014 South African national elections’.

Attendance is open to all interested researchers.