ºÚÁϳԹÏÍø

• BA (Hons) 1st Class (Oxon)
• M. St (Distinction) (Oxon)
• D. Phil (Oxon)

I am a specialist of Francophone Studies and World Literature, with a particular interest in the global reception, adaptation circulation and translation of Francophone literature. I am also a published translator, with a growing body of work in Translation Studies. The majority of my research focuses on the postcolonial literature, film and visual culture of the Francophone Caribbean, and interrogates the international legacies of slavery, colonialism and postcolonialism. I have also published a substantial volume of comparative work which considers African, Canadian and Indian contexts.

I joined the ºÚÁϳԹÏÍø in 2010 as Lecturer in French, and was promoted to a personal Chair in 2018. To date, my research has been supported by two major funding awards as PI (approx. £150k each) from the AHRC and EC, and numerous smaller external and internal funding grants.Ìý

I have held Visiting and Associate Fellowships at Emory University, Atlanta; TORCH, University of Oxford; and Homerton College, Cambridge. In 2015, I was a Visiting Lecturer at the Ivan Allen College of Liberal Arts at the Georgia Institute of Technology (GeorgiaTech). I sit on the Board of the book series Francophone Postcolonial Studies, and the Australian journal Essays in French Literature and Culture. I receive regular requests to act as an External Expert Reviewer for international grant and promotion applications, particularly by bodies in North America, Europe and South Africa, and undertake peer review for a wide range of journals.

I am the author of four books, comprising three monographs:ÌýCreole Cinema: Memory TracesÌý(2025), the first study of Francophone Caribbean cinema in English;ÌýJoseph Zobel: Negritude and the NovelÌý(2018), which makes the original argument that Zobel’s novels must be understood as experiments to create a more applied, working-class, everyday form of Negritude;ÌýChildhood, Autobiography and the Francophone CaribbeanÌý(2013), a comprehensive comparative study of the aesthetic and political engagement found in Francophone Caribbean childhood memoirs; and a sole-edited volume New Approaches to Crime in French Literature, Culture and Film (2009).

My most recent articles explore the recovery of a marginalised modernist 'middlebrow' woman writer and aviation pioneer, Louise Faure-Favier (2022); the relationships between the governance of human and natural populations, using the methodology of biopolitics (2014); and an extension of that work to propose the novel methodology of biopolitical ecocriticism (2016).

Prior to joining Birmingham, I held a Postdoctoral Research Fellowship at Homerton College, Cambridge and completed my Undergraduate and Graduate Degrees at Trinity College, Oxford. At Birmingham, I am currently Programme Director of our MA in Comparative Literature and Critical Theories, for which I also serve as Admissions Tutor. I have held a number of administrative roles, most recently as cover School Head of Research for our large, multi-disciplinary School of LCAHM including REF preparations; I am also on the LCAHM REF Review team.

I am dedicated to the development of practical applications of my research with schools, ºÚÁϳԹÏÍø groups, libraries, SMEs and charities. For this aspect of my work, I am collaborating with local partners across the West Midlands, and also with international partners in the Caribbean and France. In summer 2008, in the final months of my D.Phil, I was a Tutor on the Oxford Sutton Trust Summer School, an access scheme for state school pupils. I was particularly keen to support the Summer School because I had attended myself – and had a wonderful week – in 1999. The Summer School encouraged me to become the first member of my entire family to go to university (I was also the first to stay in school after the age of 16).

Undergraduate

• Convenor: Y4 module "Francophone Caribbean Literature & Film" which examines the depiction of slavery, colonialism, racism, identity and immigration and introduces key concepts in Francophone Postcolonial theory.
• Tutor on Y2 modules including Global French and Core V (Student project) providing teaching on Francophone world
• Dissertation Supervisor for Y4 Dissertation Module (Francophone Postcolonial topics) and previous module convenor
• Y4 Translation from French into English
• I contribute lectures and seminar materials to Year 1 and Year 2 modules, introducing Francophone literature and culture.

Postgraduate

• Programme Lead and Admissions Tutor: MA in Comparative Literature and Critical Theories
• Module Convenor: Introducing World Literature and Film (sem 1)
• Module Convenor: MA CLCT Dissertation (whole year)

I lead a lively group of PhD students working on a range of PhD programmes, including our established traditional PhD routes, and our recent addition, the PhD in Translation Studies practice-based route.

I also offer teaching and dissertation supervision for a number of MA-level courses.

Broadly speaking, my expertise falls into the areas of Francophone Studies, Postcolonial Studies, Comparative Studies, World Literature, Sexuality and Gender Studies, and Translation Studies. My PhD students work with me on aspects of literature or visual culture that fall into one - or more - of those areas.

More recently, my theoretical interests in World Literature, Postcolonial Studies, Comparative Literature and Translation Studies have led me to supervise students working in languages including Arabic and Amharic, with appropriate co-supervision from colleagues who advise on linguistic aspects.

I hugely enjoy working with a diverse group of students drawn from across the UK and internationally, including mature students, working parents etc, and who choose a course suited to their specific requirements (e.g. Full time or Part Time; Distance Learning or campus based).


Prospective MA and PhD students are welcome to email me to discuss research proposals.

I am also Programme Director of our very popular MA in Contemporary Literature and Critical Theories, a programme which often serves as a springboard to future PhD study.

Find out more - our PhD French Studies  page has information about doctoral research at the ºÚÁϳԹÏÍø.

I have published in the fields of Francophone Studies, Postcolonial Studies, Comparative Studies (particularly with a Caribbean focus), World Literature, Sexuality and Gender Studies, Ecocriticism, and Translation Studies. I work with students at Undergraduate and Graduate level, and postdoctoral fellows, on aspects of literature (including Translation) and/or visual culture that fall into one - or more - of those areas.

Ìý

In the course of my international research, I work with academic and ºÚÁϳԹÏÍø partners in the UK,ÌýFrance, the Caribbean, the USA and Australia. I also make regular media contributions (to date, in Martinique, metropolitan France, the UK and Angola), and have attracted external funding in excess of £500k through largeÌýEU and AHRC awards.ÌýAt Birmingham, I founded the FRANCOPOCO Network in 2010 to promote internationally significant research, and have to date hosted scholars from the Caribbean, the US and Europe.

My first monograph,ÌýChildhood, Autobiography and the Francophone CaribbeanÌý(LUP, 2013) is the first study to identify and trace the development of an important tradition of Francophone Caribbean childhood narratives from the early 1900s. I provide a ground-breaking analysis of the aesthetic innovations and political implications – particularly for the transmission of the memory of slavery – in this important and vast body of writing. This research was funded by two individual AHRC Funding Awards for MA and Doctoral study (2004-5; 2005-2008), and by an AHRC award for fieldwork in the French Caribbean (2007). It has become an established reference in the field, with over 1000 copies listed in University libraries across the world (WorldCat, 2023).

In my second monograph,ÌýJoseph Zobel: Négritude and the NovelÌý(LUP, forthcoming), I propose an original new reading of that well-known - but often misunderstood - Martinican novelist. My study offers a radical new vision of Zobel, and sets out to change the way that the author is understood by scholars and students alike. This project was supported by the award of an AHRC Early Career Leadership Fellowship (2014-2016). The project’s blog is: The monograph has in a relatively short time become an established reference in the field, with over 1000 copies held in University libraries all over the world (WorldCat, 2023).

As sole editor, I have also published a book onÌýNew Approaches to Crime in French Literature, Culture and FilmÌý(Peter Lang, 2009).

More recently, I have undertaken substantial EU-funded research into ‘biopolitics’, examining the governance of populations. For this, I guest-edited a special edition of theÌýInternational Journal of Francophone StudiesÌýon ‘Race, Violence and Biopolitics’ (2014), with Alessandro Corio. That project’s blog is here: .

Subsequently, during my AHRC ECLF, I extended this biopolitical line of investigation to consider the governance of the natural environment in a 2016 article published inÌýFrench Studies, which is available toÌýÌýthanks to funding from the AHRC.

I have given keynote speeches, invited lectures and talks in English and French at events organized by the French Ministère des Outre-mer; Society of Francophone Postcolonial Studies; University of Oxford Francophone Seminar; University of Cambridge Modern French Seminar; Liverpool International Slavery Museum; University of Liverpool Post-Slavery ESRC symposium; Race In The Americas research network; Ottawa University; Laval University; Institut Français de Londres; Centre national de la recherche scientifique; Université Paris IIIÌý- La Sorbonne nouvelle; Université Cheikh Anta Diop Senegal; Université Toulouse- Jean Jaurès; Salon du Livre Paris.

I have organised a number of international research events, conferences and workshops, at the ºÚÁϳԹÏÍø (Visiting Caribbean Scholar funded through University of London/ILACS in 2017; colloquium on Ìýin 2013; visit ofÌýMaryse Condé and Richard PhilcoxÌýin 2010), Cambridge (2009) and Oxford (2007, 2008).

I regularly discuss my research with audiences beyond academia, in the UK and internationally. In April 2015, I gave a number of invited talks in the Caribbean (Martinique) to mark the centenary of the birth of Joseph Zobel. I also spoke at a Round Table on Joseph Zobel at the Paris Salon du Livre 2015. I was invited to speak at a Round Table with Patrick Chamoiseau as part of the 2014 Toulouse La Novela Public Festival of Science and Culture.

My research activities have been discussed in the French and Caribbean press, and I have twice been interviewed by the Caribbean newspaper France-Antilles (2013, 2015) and by the radio station Radio Caraïbe International. I have appeared on Caribbean TV twice – first on the television station ATV, during the evening news programme ‘Trois Questions à…’, and then on Zouk TV as a panelist on the weekly cultural review ‘Le Magazine littéraire’ for an hour-long special edition on Joseph Zobel.

International ºÚÁϳԹÏÍø (non-academic) research partners

• UK: British Library, London; Midlands Arts Centre, Edgbaston; Mockingbird Cinema, Custard Factory, Digbeth; Small Woods Association, Ironbridge.
• Metropolitan France: Passions Partagées Zobel Network, supported by the French Ministry for Education, Ministry for Overseas Territories and Ministry for Diversity;
• French Caribbean: Martinique: Rivière-Salée: Médiathèque Public Library; Joseph Zobel High School; Georges Elisabeth Middle School / Fort-de-France: Regional Museum of History and Ethnography

Online content

• March 2015 - present: I run a Twitter Account ‘@Zobelproject’ relating to my AHRC Fellowship activities
• October 2014 - present: I run a blog on Joseph Zobel relating to my AHRC Fellowship which includes links to my media appearances:
• October 2013 Birmingham Black History Blog Posting 'Exploring the French Caribbean: Identity, Language and Memory'
• June 2013, Colloquium at ºÚÁϳԹÏÍø 'Race, Biopolitics and Violence'
• April 2013 Interview (in French) in the newspaper France-Antilles:
• April 2013 Report: Fieldwork in Martinique, supported by a CAL Research & Knowledge Transfer grant. 
• March 2013 Report: North America Visit, 20th and 21st Century French and Francophone Studies International Colloquium, Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta, Georgia.
• Jan 2013 'Birmingham Perspective' article 'Haiti 3 Years On: "When All Else Has Fallen, Culture Remains": 

Public talks

• 'Introducing Hatian-Canadian Author Dany Laferrière', University's inaugural Arts and Cultural Festival
• January 2010 - Haiti: Beyond the Earthquakepublic engagement activities

Membership of scholarly groups organisations

• I am one of the founding members of the ºÚÁϳԹÏÍø FRANCOPOCO Network (Francophone Colonial and Postcolonial), created in March 2010. The FRANCOPOCO Network welcomed its first Postdoctoral Fellow, Dr Alessandro Corio, in 2012 thanks to a major European funding grant.
• I am an active member of international scholarly societies, including the Society for French Studies and the Society for Francophone Postcolonial Studies

Personal distinctions

• 2006  OxTalent IT award for WebLearn site Cahier d’un retour au pays natal
• 2003  Peter Kirk Scholar (national award to undertake independent research project in Europe)
• 2003  Oxford University Heath Harrison Scholarship