Risk Anything!

A symposium presented by the Australasian Modernist Studies Network

Friday 6 April 2018 | UNSW Sydney
Keynote: Associate Professor Natalya Lusty (University of Sydney)

“Risk! Risk anything! Care no more for the opinions of others, for those voices. Do the hardest thing on earth for you. Act for yourself. Face the truth.” – Katherine Mansfield

The peripatetic New Zealand modernist Katherine Mansfield wrote these words towards the end of her life, urging herself to be courageous, to pursue her creative convictions. Mansfield’s approach to life and work is an example of the countless creative women who embraced, employed and drove the modernist cultural experiment.

Nearly a century later, our own era is equally defined by contingency and risk, offering a unique opportunity to reflect on the history and legacies of creative behaviour that defines itself in terms of risk.

This symposium brings together specialists researching topics relating to risk, women and modernist culture, especially research dedicated to women who have traversed the ‘risky’ division between centres of modernism – Britain, Europe, and the United States – and so-called ‘peripheries’.

All are welcome to attend this free event: please register your attendance here to assist with planning.

Co-Convenors: Dr Louise R Mayhew (Griffith) and Dr Helen Rydstrand (UNSW)