Recordings of presentations by Amita Nijhawan and Keren Poliah from the What Happens Next radical creative writing symposium, 21 June 2023, Salford, UK and online.

Nijhawan, Amita; Poliah, Keren

Abstract

Dr Amita Nijhawan

University Affiliation: University of the Arts London

Contact: [e-mail]

Title: “Storytelling/Playing: Disrupting and Relocating Voice in Academic Writing.”

Abstract: Techniques of storytelling help us destabilise and dehomogenise academic writing. They radically insert the ‘I’ and disrupt the idea that academic writing is ‘neutral’, ‘objective’ or ‘universal’ or that these are desirable qualities in the first place. This intervention argues that it is through enacting a radical (if changeable) subjectivity that we can reclaim our voice/s and be creatives and academics at the same time.

Bio: I work as an Educational Developer at the University of the Arts. I’m also a novelist under a different name and have lectured in dance studies and MA creative writing/fiction (at East Anglia). I do a workshop for staff called Decolonisig Academic Writing in which I explore the use of creative writing techniques that we can use in our academic writing to de-homogenise writing voice, create a writing voice in the first place, and to make academic writing less uniform, more enjoyable and with more of the ‘I’. https://researchers.arts.ac.uk/1833-amita-nijhawan

Keren Poliah

University Affiliation: University of Salford, Manchester

Contact: [e-mail]

Title: “‘drink the cup I drink’ – a creative reading demonstrating Deep Listening, multilingual and decolonial strategies as a performative approach to marginalised experiences.”

Abstract: I wish to present in a hybrid instructional and creative approach. The presentation focuses on method writing — a creative process similar to method acting — as a performative approach for the writer to embody the character in order to understand and portray the self more authentically. I give examples of my own practice as I write a roman-à-clef, a novel about real people, overlaid with a façade of fiction primarily to keep confidentiality of my participants-protagonists. My novel is on witchcraft (occult experiences) of thirteen active participants from my home country, Mauritius. In order to create a space for my participants to be heard and for the self to be authentically portrayed, I use decolonial approaches in writing, the ethos of Deep Listening, and multilingual writing. I will be reading excerpts of ‘drink the cup I drink’ — a chapter of my novel in progress — to highlight the creative processes my presentation engages. This chapter is about Path, a man in his late twenties who lost both parents to madness, alcohol and occult practices. From an early age, he witnessed his parents relying on witchcraft to solve every issue. His mother gave birth to a daughter, and passed away weeks later in a drunken state at her concubine’s house, with the baby crying on the floor. In this chapter, Path recounts his experiences with animal sacrifice, ghosts, and Pitr Paksha. While in this hybrid presentation, I unfold the rituals that led me to write his story.

Bio: Keren Poliah is in her final year of a PhD in Creative Writing at the University of Salford. She graduated from the University of Northampton with ‘The Moon is a Thief’ published in Red Kite 2018-2020. Her thesis, Words from World Watchers: experiences with the occult in Mauritius (Forthcoming 2024), resists conventional Anglo-centric PhDs and creates a space for the subaltern to be heard through research. Her interests include indigenous research methods, marginalised subjects, anti-gambling harms, and decolonising research. She has an Equality, Diversity, Inclusion (EDI) role to decolonise the PhD at the University of Salford Doctoral School. Twitter-@KerenPoliah

Citation

Nijhawan, A., & Poliah, K. (2023). Recordings of presentations by Amita Nijhawan and Keren Poliah from the What Happens Next radical creative writing symposium, 21 June 2023, Salford, UK and online. [Video]

• Digital Artefact Type: Video
• Online Publication Date: Nov 6, 2023
• Publication Date: Nov 6, 2023
• Deposit Date: Jan 20, 2025
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.17866/rd.salford.24243412.v1
• Publisher URL: https://salford.figshare.com/articles/conference_contribution/Recordings_of_presentations_by_Amita_Nijhawan_and_Keren_Poliah_from_the_What_Happens_Next_radical_creative_writing_symposium_21_June_2023_Salford_UK_and_online_/24243412