Grosvenor East room 2.06 and on Teams, with optional extension until 2.30 pm for in-person attendees.

Seminar 6.4: Beachcombing as methodology: the stories of objects washed up by the sea

When and where: Thursday 3rd July 2025 from 1-2 pm in Grosvenor East room 206 and on Teams, with optional extension until 2.30pm for in-person attendees. Tea, coffee, juice and snacks provided.

Presenter: Louise Kenward is a part-time doctoral student in her third year with the Centre for Place Writing. She is the editor of the anthology Moving Mountains: Writing Nature Through Illness and Disability (Footnote) which was released in paperback earlier this year. Louise is a writer and artist with a background working as a psychologist and psychotherapist in the NHS.

Format/topic: Louise will start this session with an overview of her current research, which builds on her work creating Moving Mountains. Her current project is structured around beachcombing the coastline of the Romney Marshes, a place on the southeast coast of England at particular risk of flooding. She is specifically investigating parallels between the body and landscape, drawing on her own experiences of living with chronic illness. The session will open out to discuss and explore how we can use objects in creative practice, inviting attendees to respond to creative writing prompts in considering found objects. You will be encouraged to play with ideas of the familiar and everyday in connecting with the unfamiliar and extraordinary. There’ll be time for a Q&A at the end.

Preparation: You are invited to bring along an object that you can hold in your hand – for example something found on a walk, one you keep on your desk or windowsill, or one that you carry around with you in your pocket (or it could be something you find on your journey to the session). There’s no reading for this session but if you’d like to read more about beachcombing, chronic illness, and objects as starting points to stories, I strongly recommend Sally Huband’s Wainwright Prize longlisted book, Sea Bean.

Tea, coffee, juice and snacks provided.

Email Loretta to say whether you would like to attend online or in person, and if you have any dietary requirements (all snacks are vegetarian).