This is a podcast in which lecturers on the Literature programme at York St John University will talk about their research interests and activities, to give you a flavour of the kinds of work they’re producing and the ideas that fascinate them.
And it’s a podcast with a twist, because as well as talking about their own work, they’re going to ask their colleagues questions about their work, so we’ll be learning more about what our team is doing alongside you, the listeners.
Episode 1.
In the first installment, Dr Anne-Marie Evans, Associate Head of School for English Literature at York St John University, is interviewed by Dr Adam J Smith, Senior Lecturer in Eighteenth-Century Literature.
Anne-Marie joined YSJU in 2011, after working previously at both the University of Central Lancashire and the University of Sheffield. At it was at the University of Sheffield that she also completed her PhD about literature, consumerism and the articulation of female identity in early twentieth century American literature. As you’ll hear in the interview, Anne-Marie has since published on such topics as Edith Wharton, Celebrity Autobiography and Zombies.
Find the episode on Anchor!
Episode 2.
Our second episode is a discussion with Dr Janine Bradbury, a Senior Lecturer in American Literature at The University of York who, until November 2021, was part of the team at York St John University. Janine wrote her PhD at the University of Sheffield, where she also taught before coming to YSJU where she then worked for eight years. Janine is a poet and interdisciplinary scholar specialising in African American Literature, American popular culture, and, more recently, the colonial history of Trinidad and Tobago.
In the interview you’re about to hear, she’ll talk about Black American Literature and the prevalence of the ‘passing narrative’, as well her interests in genealogy, popular culture and wrestling. Asking the questions will be last episode’s interviewee, Dr Anne-Marie Evans.
Episode 3
Our third episode is a conversation with Dr Fraser Mann, Senior Lecturer in English Literature at York St John University. Fraser works on mid-twentieth century American fiction and its relationship with salient socio-cultural phenomena of the same period. His PhD, which he undertook at YSJU, explored the literary representation of masculine combat experience in twentieth-century war narratives. Fraser currently works on literary responses to the First and Second World Wars and the Vietnam conflict, with a particular focus on the anxiety existing between ideological representations of masculinity and the graphic truth of experience in terms of both the corporeal and psychological self. He also works on American Memoir and autobiographical voice, and has written recently on contemporary music memoirs written by key figures from American punk and indie. Conducting the interview is last time’s guest, Dr Janine Bradbury.
This episode was edited, produced and presented by Drs Adam Smith and Jo Waugh in association with the English Literature programme at York St John University.
Episode 4
Our fourth interview is with Dr Alex Beaumont, Senior Lecture in English Literature and Politics at York St John University. Alex’s work is is organized around the intersection of politics and spatiality primarily in British cultural production of the period 1945-present. Conducting the interview is last time’s guest, Dr Fraser Mann.
Find the episode on Anchor!
Episode 5
Our fifth interview is with Dr Jo Waugh, Senior Lecture in English Literature and Politics at York St John University. Jo’s is interested in Victorian contagions and literary representations of those contagions, especially with reference to the Brontës.
Conducting the interview is last time’s guest, Dr Alex Beaumont.