Here are a few of the programming items we planned for the first edition of Barricades, to give you a taste of what’s in store for the next con!
Guest of Honour Plenary session: Pod On High: A podcasting roundtable
Presenters: Nemo Martin, David Montgomery, Prof. Briana Lewis
Friday 22 April, 2022 – 6.30pm UTC
Nemo Martin (@breadandbarricades), David Montgomery (The Siècle), and Prof. Briana Lewis (The Les Misérables Reading Companion) in conversation about their experiences podcasting.
GoH Plenary session: Why the Restauration matters
Presenters: David Montgomery
Saturday 23 April, 2022 – 7pm UTC
Join David Montgomery of The Siècle podcast for a look at how the Restoration shaped Les Mis and the entire world.
GoH Plenary session: The construction of race in Les misérables fanworks
Presenters: Nemo Martin
Sunday 24 April, 2022 – 8.30pm UTC
Nemo presents findings from their quantitative study of 1525 works of fanart from over 200 artists, cataloguing the formulation of racial identity in Les Mis fanwork and comparing these representations to ‘canonical’ mentions of race in Hugo’s novel.
Presentation: When is an Adaptation not an Adaptation? ‘Les Misérables’ and the Contested Art of Storytelling
Presenter: Professor Bradley Stephens
Friday 22 April, 2022 – 8pm UTC, Academic Track
Who gets to decide if an adaptation is good or bad? Drawing on research into the afterlives of Hugo’s novel and the growth of adaptation studies as an academic field, Professor Bradley Stephens will discuss what the legacy of Les Misérables can contribute to how we understand adaptation as a cultural process.
Presentation: South African Themes in Liesl Tommy’s Les Misérables
This presentation will analyse apartheid and South African imagery and narratives in Liesl Tommy’s 2014 production of Les Mis at the Dallas Theatre Company, including its representation of toyi-toyi and other features strongly associated with the struggle against apartheid.
Presentation: Codes in Context: Queer Possibilities of Enjolras and Grantaire
Presenter: Amelia (byjuxtaposition)
Sunday 24 April, 2022 – 4pm UTC, Academic Track
Amelia is a British PhD student researching queerness in nineteenth-century France and literature of the period. Grounded in historical research, literary analysis, and queer coding, their presentation will explore the ways in which it’s possible to read and interpret desire and intimacy between Enjolras and Grantaire in Hugo’s Les Mis and its adaptations.
Presentation: A Study In Aggression: 30 Years of Musical Valjean and Javert
Presenter: Ruth Kenyon
Saturday 23 April, 2022 – 4pm UTC, Academic Track
Description: Ruth Kenyon is a British author currently working on a book about the musical of Les Misérables. In her presentation, she will draw upon her research to discuss how “aggressive” choreography and directorial choices aid the communication of the story, and how these choices have changed over time.
Panel: ‘Reset’: A Les Mis Short Film (viewing and behind the scenes)
Panelists: ShitpostingFromTheBarricade, ThePiecesofCait, and TheCandlesticksFromLesMis
Friday 22 April, 2022 – 9pm UTC, Fan track
Description: Our three panelists remotely collaborated on a multimedia project called “Reset” and shared it on 6 June 2021. In this presentation, the process behind that collaboration – how it came to be, how planning and communication worked, and each of their individual processes – will be shared and discussed.
