- Institute for Modern and Contemporary Culture
- Literary Studies
About me
I am Professor in Modern Literature and Culture and have taught at the University of Westminster since 2002. I was previously educated at King's College, Cambridge (BA (Hons) First Class in English 1991), the University of Sussex (MA in Critical Theory 1993), and the University of Westminster (PhD in English 2002).
My research interests are in modernism, aesthetics, urban theory and the novel. Currently, I am Research Director for the School of Humanities, and Deputy Director of Westminster's interdisciplinary Institute for Modern and Contemporary Culture. I was the University Research Excellence Framework (REF) Director for REF 2021.
I have been a member of the editorial collective of the journal Radical Philosophy for more than fifteen years and am on the editorial advisory boards of the Journal of Visual Culture and New Formations. In addition to my literary and theoretical interests, which focus on modernism and the theory of the novel, I have a longstanding interest in architectural and urban theory, and have also taught, lectured and published extensively in this field.
Teaching
I teach on the core MA modules in Problems and Perspectives in Cultural Studies and Visual Culture: Theoretical and Critical Perspectives, as well as on the Urban Cultures MA module, which considers a variety of different cross-disciplinary representations of the modern metropolis and critically examines the divergent ways in which these understand the character of urban experience.
At undergraduate level, I have previously taught courses on the novel, tragedy, cultural and Marxist criticism, aesthetics, critical theory, modernism and contemporary fiction at Westminster.
Research
I am co-editor of books on the German philosopher Theodor Adorno and on photography and literature, as well as author of numerous articles on modernism, aesthetic theory, capitalist culture, photography, urban theory and the novel, in journals including in Angelaki, Journal of Visual Culture, New Formations, Novel, SubStance, and Theory, Culture & Society. Currently, I am working on two projects: on philosophies of the metropolis and on capitalism and the novel.
My work has been translated into Spanish, Polish, Portuguese and Farsi, and I have been a member of the editorial collective of the journal Radical Philosophy for more than fifteen years.
Research Students
I have supervised a number of PhDs, across a range of disciplinary areas, and would welcome applications from students wishing to pursue graduate research on the avant-garde, modernism, aesthetic and critical theory, or the relationship between urban and cultural form.
Publications
For details of all my research outputs, visit my WestminsterResearch profile.