University Of Birmingham

Department Member, Postgraduate Recruitment

Thesis Title: Re-thinking Urban Space in Contemporary British Writing

About

Examined in November 2011, my AHRC-funded doctoral research focused fundamentally around the relationships between affect, memory, narrative and spatial agency in the urban spaces featured in a cross-section of contemporary British literature.

The thesis starts from a critique of the Marxist historico-materialist spatial theory, like that of French philosopher Henri Lefebvre, widely adopted in literary studies to give 'spatial readings' of texts. I explore the limitations of such theory however, including its neglect of those spaces which lie outside of, have been obsolete by or experience an ambivalent relationship with dominant modes of production and social relation, and also the inability of such theory to entertain the notion that spaces might achieve their own agency, beyond their actualization through human action and appropriation.

  As case studies, I elaborate these ideas by looking specifically at abandoned spaces, subterranean spaces and transient (hotel) spaces, investigating how the representation of such spaces allows authors to explore city-space in ways for which Lefebvre's scheme cannot sufficiently account, such as in the transmission of affect between spaces and human subjects, in which the urban space becomes an agent and subject in its own right. I cover a range of novelists from the more acadmeically 'popular' such as Iain Sinclair, Ali Smith and Monica Ali, to those who have attracted very little previous critical attention, such as Nick Royle, Conrad Williams and Tobias Hill. Overall, my project draws attention to the issue of theory in 'spatial readings' of texts, asking that we carefully consider the context and relevance of a spatial theory like Lefebvre's before inflicting it upon the porous, uncontainable and often unruly urban spaces of the contemporary British novel.

In general, my research interests include: Contemporary British and American Fiction; literature and the city; London writing; Literary Birmingham; literature and memory; literature, space and time; psychogeography; cultural geography; postmodernism; urban exploration photography; subterranean descent narratives. I have presented work at postgraduate, national and international conferences and have published essays on topics such as spatial agency in the fiction of Cheshire-born author Nicholas Royle, Contemporary London Descent Narratives and birth narratives and the photography of abandoned maternity wards- a topic on which I have had an article, 'birth-place', published by Feminist Review.  I also hold a B.A. (Hons) in English and an M.A. in Literary and Cultural Studies from Lancaster University, where I was awarded the Princess Alexandra Chancellor's medal.

Here at Birmingham, I am co-founder of 'Roles', a Gender and Sexuality Interdisciplinary Research Forum, with which I have co-organised a series of postgraduate symposia on widely varied, cross-disciplinary work in the field of gender and sexuality studies. I am part of the review panel for the Birmingham Journal of Literature and Language, and with colleagues Sarah Parker and Paul Horn set up and organised the successful 2011 conference 'Unexpected Agents.'

I have been a teaching assistant and a visiting lecturer in the department, on the first year 'Literature Foundation' and 'English Literature 1790-present' units as well as the second year 'Literature in Britain after 1945' module. In 2010 I was also co-ordinator and PGTA for an online research skills module in the School of English, Drama and American and Canadian studies, planning and running workshops and drop-in sessions for Postgraduate students in generic and research skills.

Elsewhere, I am actively involved in the annual Literary London conference, and in July 2011 was elected as Postgraduate and Early Career Representative on the committee of the new Literary London Society.

Professionally, I have chosen to stay in the Higher Education sector working in Postgraduate Recruitment for the University of Birmingham. I am very interested in Outreach, Widening Participation and public engagement in HE and in Postgraduate Recruitment and support provision for new and prospective Postgraduates. I keep up research interests in my spare time and am currently working on a chapter for a forthcoming book on Women's Writing After 9/11 to be published by Routledge. I also like to combine academic commentary, personal experience and spoken performance - a combination which I tried out in my paper 'The Green One: A very personal literary London on the District Line' at the Literary London Conference 2011. My personal and academic engagements with city-spaces are often inextricable, and I relish in exploring and unpicking these intertwining strands.

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