Open University Literature and Music Research Group panel at the ‘English: Shared Futures’ Conference

Open University Literature and Music Research Group panel attend the ‘English: Shared Futures’ Conference, hosted at the University of York on 3^rd-5^th July 2025. 

Our interactive digital resource offers examples of combined reading and listening experiences. Our aim is to test the extent to which it enables us to investigate new ways of constructing and socialising reading and listening. For scholars and teachers of literature, might it aid exploration of whether we can bring to life the imagined aural worlds of historical texts and to what ends? 

Delia da Sousa Correa, Joanne Reardon, Natalie Burton, and Francesca Benatti will discuss the value of this interactive resource for students of literature and creative writing and its wider interdisciplinary potential, including its value as a prompt for creative writing or musical composition. We would value feedback from colleagues researching and teaching English Literature, Language and Creative Writing, including from delegates to E:SF who can comment on the asset’s potential usefulness in schools.

The resource could potentially be developed as a web-based asset, available in a variety of formats, via which users could access connected text/musical examples from a wide range of historical periods, record their responses, and input suggestions for further material for inclusion. If developed in this way, what might be the asset’s public-engagement and community potential, both as a digital platform, and as a resource that could be used in public spaces such as libraries, creative writing workshops, museums, galleries, and exhibitions, or by community groups such as book clubs, U3A classes, care homes and refugee organizations? We will invite responses from delegates to our ideas about its potential scope as a democratic resource that enables users to articulate their listening and reading experiences in potentially transformative ways.

There will be an opportunity for E:SF delegates to try out the prototype resource and to record their responses. If facilities at the conference venue allow, we would very much welcome being able to leave the resources running for delegates to explore during the remainder of the conference.