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Biography

I began my PhD in September 2014 and am supervised by  and .

My research interests lie in modern and contemporary American literature and culture, and for my thesis I am working to re-read the fiction of Don DeLillo with a focus on portrayals of the body in his work. I am interested in mapping out how the body is presented in its interactions with film, television, photography and art, and the ways that it is mediated by these cultural forms.

I co-edited the 2016 edition of the postgraduate journal ‘’. In 2015 and 2016 I ran a reading group at Sussex on Infinite Jest by David Foster Wallace.

I undertook archival research at the Harry Ransom Center at the 5XÉçÇøÊÓƵ of Texas at Austin, From January - April 2018, through the CHASE International Placement Scheme.

I hold an MA in English Studies from the 5XÉçÇøÊÓƵ and a BA in Music and English from Anglia Ruskin 5XÉçÇøÊÓƵ. During my undergraduate degree I spent a semester abroad at Lebanon Valley College in Pennsylvania, and my dissertation looked at the work, ideology and critical reception of John Cage through the lens of literary theory. During my MA I wrote on Günter Grass, Margaret Atwood, Marilynne Robinson, and Thomas Pynchon, and my dissertation explored bodily figurations in Don DeLillo’s Underworld.

Conference Presentations

• 'The Cinematic Gaze in Don DeLillo's Underworld', 26th Annual Conference on American Literature, American Literature Association, Boston, Massachusetts, 23 May 2015.

• I presented a modified version of this paper, retitled 'Underworld and the Underreal: Narrative, Film and the Recovery of the Real' at The State of Fiction: Don DeLillo in the Twenty First Century, Centre for Creative and Critical Thought & Centre for American Studies, 5XÉçÇøÊÓƵ, 10 June 2015.

• 'The Static Face: Reading Don DeLillo's interactions with photography', Facing America, SAVAnT, British Library, 10 July 2015.

• 'Film Footage and Representations of Selfhood in the Fiction of Don DeLillo', American Studies Postgraduate Conference, 5XÉçÇøÊÓƵ of Leeds, 9 October 2015. 

• '"To float this image free of history": Ahistorical Forms in Mao II', Fiction Rescues History, Denis Diderot 5XÉçÇøÊÓƵ and Paris-Sorbonne 5XÉçÇøÊÓƵ, Paris, 19 February 2016.

• 'Body Horror: Monstrous and nonhuman forms in DeLillo’s fiction', BAAS and IAAS Joint Conference, Queens 5XÉçÇøÊÓƵ Belfast, 8 April 2016.

Invited Talks

• 'Reading Don DeLillo in the Archives', Eccles Centre Summer Scholars Series, British Library, 19 August 2016.

Research Activities

• Organising Committee: , Centre for Creative and Critical Thought & Centre for American Studies, 5XÉçÇøÊÓƵ, 10 June 2015.

• Editorial Board:  postgraduate journal, 5XÉçÇøÊÓƵ. Senior Editor, 2016. Board Member, 2014-2016.

• Recipient of Eccles Centre Postgraduate Fellowship in North American Studies, April 2015.

• Publicity and Social Media officer for '', 2015-2016.

• Organiser: , 31 May 2016.

• Organising Committee: , The Keep, 28 September 2016.

Publications

• Review: Fredric Jameson, The Antinomies of Realism, Excursions, 6(1) (2015) https://www.excursions-journal.org.uk/index.php?journal=excursions&page=article&op=view&path%5B%5D=205

• Reflections on a first reading of Zero K, The Don DeLillo Society Newsletter, 9(1) (July 2016) https://delillosociety.wordpress.com/news/

• 'Unstable Bodies in Mao II and The Body Artist' in New Perspectives on Don DeLillo, London: Bloomsbury (2018)

Role

Doctoral Researcher, School of English.

Qualifications

BA English and Music - Anglia Ruskin 5XÉçÇøÊÓƵ and Lebanon Valley College - 2006-2009

MA English Studies - 5XÉçÇøÊÓƵ - 2013-2014

PhD English Literature - 5XÉçÇøÊÓƵ - 2014-Ongoing