Professor Hall’s Next Generation Visit: Collaborating on a Materialist Perspective at Bristol

Posted on by sarah.watts

This blogpost was authored by Professor Dewey Hall. Professor Hall is a materialist ecocritic based at California State Polytechnic University, Pomona, CA, USA. He visited the University of Bristol as a Next Generation Visiting Researcher in Autumn 2024 to collaborate with Professor Ralph Pite in the Department of English.

As a Bristol Next Generation Visiting Researcher, Professor Hall connected and engaged with faculty and postgrads in the Schools of Humanities, Geographical Sciences, and Earth Sciences. He delivered four (4) scripted lectures with powerpoints successfully as slated during his one-month residence, which were very well received:

  1. “The Political Ecology of Matter” on 18 September 2024 (School of Geographical Sciences and School of Humanities);
  2. “The Ecology of Hopkins’s ‘Remarkable Sunsets’ and Ruskin’s ‘Storm-Cloud’ Lecture (1883-1884): Krakatoa, Weather, and Climate Change” on 25 September 2024 (Centre for Environmental Humanities and School of Humanities);
  3. “Marble as Material Form: Geology, Quarrying, and Provenance” on 1 October 2024 (School of Humanities, School of Earth Sciences, and IGRCT);
  4. “A Materialist Approach to the Parthenon Sculptures: Subject, Object, and Thing” on 8 October 2024 (English, History of Art, Classics, and Archaeology).
Professor Dewey Hall standing at the front of a lecture theatre. Behind him his presentation slide reads 'University of Bristol Visiting Researcher Lecture Series: The Political Ecology of Matter'.
Professor Dewey Hall’s lecture: “The Political Ecology of Matter”

The question/answer sessions following the lectures were collegial and mutually stimulating, inspiring further research and inquiry through one-on-one discussions and small group gatherings. Professor Hall’s lectures are chapters from his book manuscript under contract with Bloomsbury Publishing forthcoming in 2025 titled Materialist Romanticism: The Matter of the Marbles. He is grateful to wonderful, multi-disciplinary colleagues at the University of Bristol for their interest and engagement with his work: Professor Ralph Pite (English), Dr Lucy Donkin (History of Art), Dr Noreen Masud (English), Professor Nicoletta Momigliano (Classics), Professor Ellen O’Gorman (Classics), Dr Merle Patchett (Human Geography), Professor Rich Pancost (Earth Sciences), and Sir-Professor Stephen Sparks (Earth Sciences) among many other individuals. Professor Hall has further collaborations planned with Professor Pite through conferences convened by the University of Lausanne and U.C. Riverside, featuring their respective paper presentations. When Professor Hall thinks of the UoB, he states that he will recall it as a place of grace.