| Membership | Over 400 |
|---|---|
President | Oliver Harris[1] |
| Staff | 8 |
| Website | ebsn |
TheEuropean Beat Studies Network (EBSN) and association (EBSN,e.V.,) is a charitable organization and network founded in 2010 by scholars Polina Mackay and ProfessorOliver Harris. It comprises an international community of scholars and students, writers and artists with an interest in the broad field ofBeat culture and the writers and artists associated with theBeat Generation. It holds annual conferences and promotes research and collaboration in the field of Beat Studies and the arts.[2][3][4] It is particularly transnational in focus, as Dr. Chad Weidner writes: 'The impetus of the European Beat Studies Network (EBSN) provides an additional forum for transnational angles into the Beats.'[5]
The EBSN is run by a board of eight that includes Beat scholars Paul Aliferis, Benjamin J. Heal, Estíbaliz Encarnación-Pinedo,Raven See, Chad Weidner and Florian Zappe. Art historian Frida Forsgren stepped down from the board in 2020.[6][7] Current membership stands at over four hundred, drawn from across Europe and around the world.[8]
Professor Harris, aWilliam Burroughs scholar, has done much to promote and develop the EBSN.[9] The Jewish Telegraph notes that Harris and colleagues 'set up the European Beat Studies Network because they had found previous academic conferences boring', with the 2016 Manchester Conference described as 'the largest conference of scholars, poets, filmmakers and musical performers interested in the Beat Generation.'[10] In a 2014 interview with Frank Rynne published on the official William S. Burroughs website Harris describes the aim of the EBSN:
Across Europe there's so much interest in the Beats--broadly defined--and the EBSN has a mission to put them in touch with one another. I'm especially keen to break down the usual academic groupings and the Anglo-American divide from non-English speakers, although the barriers are so longstanding it's not easy. It's also hard because the EBSN is free and open to all. No fees - but also no income, so it's literally a labour of love.[11]
The EBSN is frequently discussed and endorsed in both popular and scholarly works such as ProfessorAndrew Lees' memoirMentored by a Madman: The William Burroughs Experiment (2016) andKerouac on Record: A Literary Soundtrack (2018). Simon Warner, an editor of the latter, writes in his acknowledgments thanking 'those involved in Popular Music Studies and Beat Studies (with special reference to the European Beat Studies Network) - for their continued efforts to open up new and interesting areas of inquiry,' while Lees writes that 'Oliver Harris encouraged me to look at Burroughs' work from a scientific viewpoint and invited me to join a group of deadbeats (the European Beat Studies Network) whose imagination knows no limits.'[12][13]
The core function of the EBSN is to facilitate, promote and manage its annual conference, which has been held in theNetherlands,Denmark,Morocco,Belgium,England andFrance. TheTangier, Morocco conference received significant media attention inHuffington Post Morocco andEl Mundo.[14][15][16]A review of theBrussels, Belgium conference was published in theAmerican Studies journalTransatlantica.[17] Notable keynote speakers and performers appearing at previous conferences include Beat poet andNaropa Institute founderAnne Waldman, poetRobert Gibbons, musician, author and broadcasterCP Lee, noted neurologist ProfessorAndrew Lees, writer and academic Anouar Majid, noted English Beat poetsLibby Houston andPete Brown, and folk singer-songwriterEric Andersen.[18][19][20][21]
Essays derived from papers presented at the 2011 EBSN conference inMiddelburg, the Netherlands, were published in a 2013 edition of theJournal of Comparative American Studies.[22] Essays derived from papers presented at the 2014 EBSN conference inTangier, Morocco, were published in a 2016 EBSN special issue of thePurdue University Press Q2 rated JournalCLCWeb: Comparative Literature and Culture, edited by EBSN founders Oliver Harris and Polina Mackay.[23] The EBSN website also contains original scholarship including one of the last interviews withCarolyn Cassady, and many reviews of works of Beat and related scholarship, such as Alexander Adams' review ofIain Sinclair'sAmerican Smoke, referenced on Sinclair's website.[24][25]