Wednesday, 14 May 2025, 1730, Susan Cadbury Theatre, Conference Aston.
Join us as Aston University’s history and literature teams explore different aspects of railway history, showcasing their research and activities through a series of short talks that will take us all over the world.
Dr Ilaria Scaglia (Aston University): the idealization and political appropriation of railways (global perspective).
Using material from her book The Emotions of Internationalism: Feeling International Cooperation in the Alps in the Interwar Period, in this talk Ilaria will explore trains as symbols of nationalism, internationalism, and larger causes.
Dr Joseph Yannielli (Aston University): The train and antislavery songs
Joseph’s presentation will explore how the railway featured in anti-slavery songs. This includes, “Get off the Track”, which compares the abolitionist movement to the (relatively recent) invention of train travel as twin forms of moral and industrial progress (i.e. “the technological sublime”).
Dr Sarah Olive (Aston University): The Railways in Text
Sarah will demonstrate how railways have been represented in literature through a stage reading of railway related texts.
Virtual Reality Experience
Participants will have the opportunity to experience Empire Soldiers: A Caribbean Story, a VR film set on a train about the contribution of Caribbean Soldiers in the First World War. Please note: the film contains racially sensitive language and may not be suitable for younger viewers.
Partition and the railways
The team will discuss their exhibition that was held in Birmingham New Street Station on railways and the Partition of India.
Also on display in the MBA lounge, outside the lecture hall, will be some of the treasures from the recently established Aston University Archives.