Sophie Harris

I am a PhD Candidate and Humanities Studentship holder who graduated with a BA (Hons) in American and Canadian Studies from the University of Birmingham in 2021, before completing an MA as a recipient of the Christine and Ian Bolt Scholarship at the University of Kent. I graduated from my MA in November 2022.

My research interests lie in Queer and Indigenous Studies, focusing on how Settler Colonialism transcends from physical to digital spaces. 

Outside of academia, I am a published and active poet writing on queer sex, the body, and grief. You can find my work in print in Sunday Mornings at the River’s Depression is What Really Killed the Dinosaur (2022) and Poetry Diary(2022), as well as in the online e-mag Sonder Series. 

My PhD thesis grapples with the ways in which the ongoing impacts of Settler Colonialism persist in online spaces. It questions if hook-up/dating apps – like Grindr and Tinder – can be used for positive connection for those with multiple marginal identities in Indigenous communities in the nation state of Canada. 

This project merges literary and social methods of research to survey how Settler Colonialism affects have pervaded online spaces. It counters a previous absence of research by delving into the presentation of dating apps in literary works and analysing the works of emerging Indigiqueer writers who grapple with varied experiences of the erotic in physical and digital spaces.  

For details of all my research outputs, visit my WestminsterResearch profile.