This book has been compiled following the quality and reception of papers presented at the Moving Forward Postgraduate Conference, held at the University of Aberdeen, 21-22 July 2009. The volume comprises editorial and seven substantive papers on the themes of 'tradition and transformation', carefully chosen by the editorial team from in excess of fifty full written papers. These represent and tender a wide range of scholarly approaches to and within the arts and social sciences; the remit of Moving Forward. Each paper has been catered to a non-specialist audience in order to make the collection more widely accessible. Although 'tradition and transformation' seems loose terminology in many respects, it struck the editors that the dichotomy between past and future, the desire to respect history but also to effect change, and the presence of the present, were three issues that resounded throughout the conference contributions, but were those specifically captured within the selected papers. From each of six disciplinary areas, ranging across the arts and social sciences, delegates use the freedom of their positions as early-career researchers to boldly explore relations between these concepts without fear of censure, but with enthusiasm and energy for academic knowledge development and contribution. Indeed, through the papers chosen for inclusion here, distinct in their disciplinary origins, approaches and foci, we emphasise the many similarities that exist among the arts and social sciences subjects.
About the Author: Heather M. Morgan is a Doctoral Candidate and Guest Lecturer/Teaching Assistant at the University of Aberdeen. She was the co-ordinator of Moving Forward 2007-2011 and researches and publishes in the areas of gender and crime. She is currently Co-ordinator of the Centre for Sustainable International Development. She is a Member of the European Society of Criminology, Associate Researcher with The Scottish Centre for Crime and Justice Research, affiliated with the Scottish Institute for Policing Research, a Member of the Policing and European Studies Research Network and a Member of the Prison Visiting Committee for HMP Peterhead. She was lead editor on Perspectives on Power: An Inter-Disciplinary Approach (Cambridge Scholars Publishing, 2010). Ruth Morris is a Doctoral Candidate and Teaching Assistant within the School of Language and Literature, University of Aberdeen and was a member of the organising committee for Moving Forward 2008-2010. She has published two books entitled Mary Elizabeth Braddon and the Jewish Question: A Victorian English Novelist and the Worlds of Anglo-Jewry, Judaism and Zionism, 1859-1913 (Academica Press, 2011) and Mary Elizabeth Braddon's Belgravia: A London Magazine, and the World of Anglo-Jewry, Jews and Judaism, 1866-1899 (Academica Press, forthcoming 2012). Her research has also featured in a number of journals. She is currently an English teacher at Harrogate Ladies' College, North Yorkshire, and is a Council Member of the Yorkshire Dialect Society.