Goldsmiths, University of London

Graduate Student, English and Comparative Literature

Tutor

About

I am a PhD researcher in the English and Comparative Literature Department at Goldsmiths, University of London, where I also teach. My Masters degree in Twentieth Century Literature was also obtained at Goldsmiths. Prior to my time in New Cross, I studied at the University of Manchester where I was awarded a First Class (Hon) degree in English and American Literature.

My thesis is an enquiry into how contemporary Africa is represented in recent novels by writers of African origin. The aim of this research is to foreground contemporary the African writer’s engagement with the turbulent recent history of the continent in work by writers such as Zakes Mda, Chris Abani, Ngugi wa Thiong’o, Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie and Aminatta Forna. By discussing such novelists in tandem with recent interdisciplinary critical work on Africa, this thesis explains how these contemporary novels address the conflicting ideas and materialities concerning post-independence African culture and society.

Alongside my reasearch, I am a tutor in the ECL department of Goldsmiths and a steering group member of the Postgraduate Contemporary Women's Writing Network (www.pgcwwn.org).

This year, I am a seminar tutor on the third year module on 'The Art of the Novel', as well as lecturing on other undergraduate modules. In previous years, I have taught the first-year core course  'Explorations in Literature', as well as acting as an Effective Academic Writing tutor for all ECL undergraduate students. I  also currently act as tutor on a number of online seminars for the University of London's International Programme.

Aside from my obvious research interests in the history and form of the novel, as well as African literature, my interests also include postcolonial theory, American and British film and television, contemporary women’s writing, and popular music.