Techne Congresses

Techne organises two residential congresses per year, which are designed and run by each member institution in turn. These events are primarily for Techne-funded students, although other doctoral students may be welcome to attend. Please direct any queries to techne@rhul.ac.uk. 

DOING THINGS WITH WORDS

The Summer Congress will take place on 24-25 June 2026 hosted by the University of Brighton at their Grand Parade Main building, Grand Parade BN2 0JY

The University of Brighton 2026 Techne Summer Congress is based around the theme Doing Things with Words and balances theoretical scholarship and practice-based research.

Words are a common currency. They craft and perform. Everyone, regardless of background, education, or occupation, relies on words. In academia, the use of words is heavily constrained. Words are even counted. Some are deemed appropriate and others are not. They can become contestable, censured, or reclaimed. Even the most practice-based project will use words. For those of us for whom practice plays no part, words are all we have.

But, as Lorna Goodison (1999) once put it, “Sometimes words are not enough”. William Burroughs remarked that they are “awkward instruments”, for which we have “a superstitious reverence”(1965). For Virginia Woolf, “Words have no meaning … [t]hey are sounds that fill the air and then vanish” (1931). Burroughs went so far as to say that words will be “laid aside eventually, probably sooner than we think”. But what will we use then?

In fact, what is a word? Do words carry meaning or do they create it? What is the political power of the word? When do words become art and do they limit creativity or facilitate it? How are word meanings affected by translation and how are they changing with the emergence of digital platforms? Can the absence of words say more than uttering them? This congress aims to provide a forum in which some of these and other related questions can be discussed.

References:

Burroughs, William (1965) Interviewed by Knickerbocker, C. in Paris Review, The Art of Fiction No. 36. Paris: 13-49.

Goodison, Lorna (1999) Turn thanks. Champaign, IL: University of Illinois Press.

Woolf, Virginia (1931) The Waves. London: Hogarth Press.

Techne students can access further information about the Congress via the links below. If you have any queries or issues which aren't covered on the below, please contact the Techne team who will be happy to assist.

Past Congress Information:

January 15 & 16 2026 Beyond Boundaries: Creative Approaches to Research Across Domains

This congress was hosted by the University of Surrey at the Stag Hill Campus in Guildford. 

 Summer 2025: 'Challenging Pasts / Critical Futures' - Hosted by the University of Westminster.

"In the context of "Challenging Pasts, Critical Futures," this Techne Congress engages with themes of social justice, research impact, and ethical responsibilities, while also addressing the intersections of class, sexuality, gender, racialised subjectivity and cultural differences. Our collective history is marked by systemic inequities and injustices that have marginalized various communities. These historical injustices necessitate rigorous examination and redress. By fostering critical thinking, we empower our doctoral researchers to question established narratives, deconstruct existing power relations and advocate for transformative change.

It is crucial that the impact of our research extends beyond academic circles, influencing policy, societal norms, and positions the lived experiences of marginalized communities at the centre of the frame. Research that centers on the experiences of those who have been marginalized through the structural and systemic inequalities can illuminate the unique challenges they face and inform more inclusive and equitable policies. As scholars and practitioners, we bear the ethical responsibility to ensure our work contributes to a more equitable and just future. This includes being mindful of the ways in which our research methodologies and practices can either perpetuate or challenge existing power dynamics.

This congress serves as a key platform to interrogate our past, challenge present injustices, and envision a future grounded in ethical and impactful research. In our openness to a plurality of voices, we can create a more inclusive academic environment that not only acknowledges but celebrates the contributions of our Techne doctoral researchers from all backgrounds. Through this collective effort, we can work towards a future where equity and justice are not just ideals but lived realities."

January 2025: 'Techne for Living and Making' - Hosted by the University of the Arts, London.

Revisiting the founding principles of the technē Doctoral Training Partnership the UAL curated congress in January 2025 reconsidered the notion of 'technē'.

technē, arises from the ancient Greek word to describe craftsmanship, craft or art, and was also applied to the human ability to realise intentions and organise actions through making, doing and performing. In our technological culture it relates to notions of expertise, technical knowledge, and the shaping of our life-world. technē and its corelate technologies, are never solely tools, never simple prostheses, surrogates, or mediators, rather they need to be understood as often material and embodied, entangled with "the knots we call beings", with what it is to be human (Haraway 2008: 250).

Whilst such knots and such knowledges are central to arts and design, and to living and living well, they have historically been overlooked by epistemological institutions. As such, this conference reconsidered the value and development of thinking through making, craft, technique, and technology in practice research
in arts, design and humanities contexts.

This congress critically explored imaginative practices of world-building, which contested previous understandings of “human” practices of crafting and cultural production, resituated the technē of diasporic and indigenous practices, and examined the critical debates in contemporary posthumanist theory in the context of creative processes (eg. Zakiyyah Jackson’s discussion of Wangechi Mutu’s collages, 2020).

June 2024: 'The Scholar's Voice' - Hosted by the University of Roehampton.

The scholar’s voice is a term that is used to encapsulate professional identity, as well as to refer to the originality and authenticity of the communication of ideas. The identity of the scholar is bound up in the development of communication and engagement – in writing, in speaking, in dialogue, in movement and presence, in creative practice, and in teaching – in other words, the authorial voice. It is there in how scholars present themselves to others too, and within the corporeality of their voice – the embodiment of their voice in physical presence.

Yet it is important to recognise that the scholar’s voice is curated and mediated by several converging practices, behaviours, actions and non-actions. This Congress explored these ideas and issues, featuring panels, lectures workshops and more.