LJMU – Page 2 – LJMU English

Tips on Secondary Sources

17/10/201606/08/2017 By LJMU EnglishNo Comments

Here are some tips and help in finding those pesky secondary sources! I know that most of you will already know all of this, but just in case you don't, here is some (hopefully helpful) advice. Firstly, never ask yourself "how many sources can I get away with?". The more secondary reading you do, the better, but that doesn't mean you have to read the whole book every time. Begin by checking the index for relative key words, and choose chapters that relate to your essay or your primary reading. Secondly, if you read a book or essay and that author mentions another author, it might be worth checking out the referenced author. This can actually create an interesting argument in your own essay (but don't plagiarise whatever you do!!). Thirdly, those lectures you attend every week, that are on BlackBoard, they usually contain references and quotes, some lecturers even put their bibliographies at the end. Check them out, I'd advise you not to pilfer the contents...

The Library Archives

14/11/201626/07/2016 By LJMU EnglishNo Comments

By now you will probably be experts in using the library (if not you can consult our helpful post and/or get in touch with the nice library folk), but have you ever used the archives in Aldham Robarts? Perhaps you have heard talk of The Lower Ground Floor and wondered what happens down there...? Well, wonder no more for the mysteries of LG are about to be revealed. If you look up the Archives and Special Collections on the LJMU website you can find out about their impressive and exciting collections. If you have an interest in researching something particular that's the place to look. You can find all the information regarding when you can visit and who you should contact via that website. If you get in touch with them, I can guarantee you will be welcomed by someone lovely, knowledgeable, and very willing to help. There is a lot of really exciting stuff down there, from the Willy Russell Archive to The Punch...

Respectable: LJMU English launch of Lynsey Hanley’s new book

13/04/201606/08/2017 By LJMU EnglishNo Comments

We talk a lot about the role social class plays in British society, but how exactly do we move from one class to another and, if we do so, what effect does it have on us? In her latest book, Respectable (Allen Lane), Lynsey Hanley argues that class remains resolutely with us, and subjects its attendant ideas of aspiration and social mobility (routinely cast as unequivocally positive phenomena) to bracing scrutiny. Lynsey is a Visiting Fellow of the School of Humanities and Social Science, and is also studying for a PhD with LJMU English. Hilary Mantel has called Respectable 'pithy and provoking'. Lynsey is the author of Estates: An Intimate History (2007) and is a frequent contributor to the Guardian, the New Statesman, and many other publications. She makes regular appearances on tv and radio, including Newsnight, Start the Week and Night Waves. She also wrote the introduction to the Penguin Modern Classics edition of Richard Hoggart's The Uses of Literacy, an important text on LJMU English's Level 4 module 'Literature in Context'. The launch of Respectable will...

Nadine Muller Records Programme for BBC Radio 3

09/11/201506/08/2017 By LJMU EnglishNo Comments

In April this year I was announced as one of the AHRC / BBC Radio 3 New Generation Thinkers 2015. Out of 550+ applicants, ten of us were eventually selected for this opportunity to bring our research and ideas to both the airwaves and to screen. My first broadcast took the form of a five minute essay on Victorian widows for an edition of Radio 3's Free Thinking, presented by Rana Mitter and recorded at the Hay Festival earlier this year (you can listen back to the whole programme here). Yesterday, on Remembrance Sunday, I was able to record my first ever edition of The Essay, which resulted the interesting challenge to condense 200 years of the history of widows in Britain into a 15 minute script fit for broadcast and of interest to the general public, in a way that would neither send radio listeners nor my live audience to sleep! My producer - the wonderful Jacqueline Smith - was very hands-on and...

Did She Kill Him? A Talk With The Author

24/02/2015 By LJMU EnglishNo Comments

Kate Colquhoun’s novel Did She Kill Him?On Thursday 5th February esteemed author, lecturer and academic Kate Colquhoun graced Liverpool John Moore’s University with her presence to talk to intrigued students and staff members alike about her historical retelling of a Merseyside story, Did She Kill Him? In brief, Kate explores the interesting case of Florence Maybrick, who in 1889 was arrested and put on trial for the alleged murder of her cotton merchant husband, James Maybrick. Method? (Arsenic) Poison. Motive? Adultery. Florence, a sweet (?), innocent (?) and virtuous (?) Alabama girl is represented in Kate’s novel as being the victim of a malicious judicial system which callously singled out a naïve and fragile widower. Further, Kate suggests that Florence was systematically and categorically alienated, isolated and finally subjugated by a hostile and altogether unwelcoming (British) milieu which failed to adopt her. Further, the entrepreneur’s untimely demise was shrouded in mystery from the offset, captivating the intrigue of the British media,...

LJMU English Hosts Inaugural Event of the Northern Postcolonial Network

20/01/201520/01/2015 By LJMU EnglishNo Comments

Members of the Northern Postcolonial Network (founded by the Universities of Sheffield, Salford and Manchester) are pleased to announce the network's inaugural event will take place on Wednesday 25th March at Liverpool John Moores University, 1-8pm. The network aims to support knowledge exchange and networking amongst scholars and other individuals and groups working on postcolonial topics in the North of the UK. The day itself will involve a mixture of discussion about the aims and priorities of the network, a postgraduate panel, a keynote address from Professor John McLeod of Leeds University and an evening event. We would welcome attendees from diverse contexts and fields, so as to further the discussion about postcolonial studies in the region. Further details to follow including a CFP for postgraduate papers. Please contact Dr. Kate Houlden on k.m.houlden@ljmu.ac.uk for further information or see the website at http://northernpostcolonialnetwork.com/. Alternatively, follow us on www.facebook.com/northernpostcolonialnetwork or on Twitter at @Northernpoco....

James Joyce’s Chamber Music

18/12/201406/08/2017 By LJMU EnglishNo Comments

LJMU English’s Gerry Smyth is also a musician. In 2012 he recorded and released an album entitled James Joyce’s Chamber Music: this was a folk musical version (co-written and performed with his daughter) of the thirty-six lyric suite published by James Joyce in 1907. Music played a crucial role in Joyce’s literary imagination, and Gerry has gathered together a wealth of material on this aspect of Joyce’s creative process, including the notation and performance of Joyce’s songs. You can explore this amazing resource here. ...

Blogging Beyond the Classroom

18/12/201406/08/2017 By LJMU EnglishNo Comments

Blogging Beyond the Classroom is an online forum for exchanging ideas and swapping experience of learning and teaching with blogging and related social media. It is supported by a Teaching Development Grant awarded to Helen Rogers of LJMU English, by the Higher Education Academy. ...

Social Media Skills for Students

18/12/201406/08/2017 By LJMU EnglishNo Comments

Social Media Skills for Students is an LJMU English project which builds on Nadine Muller’s work-experience module ‘Express Yourself: Presentation and Social Media Skills’ by creating a resource that extends beyond the English undergraduate programme at LJMU and that is accessible and useful to all students within and outside the university. Through this dedicated website, students are able to draw on guides and exercises devised to maximize their digital literacy and provide them with a professional online presence that can function as a significant aid in their career development and prospects. The site was established and developed by Nadine and her team of amazing interns. ...

Dr Jon Cranfield and the Holmesian Phenomenon

16/08/201406/08/2017 By LJMU EnglishNo Comments

Jon Cranfield's new book, co-edited with Tom Ue, received an excellent review in the Guardian this week. Sherlock Holmes is part of a series called Fan Phenomena which explores how enduring cultural icons are continually reinvented by their fans. The essays cover a wide range of these creative reinterpretations, from Steampunk iPad apps to Shakespeare and including, of course, the most recent television reappearance, played by Benedict Cumberbatch. Jon's own chapter in the book is entitled 'Sherlock Holmes: Fan Culture and Fan Letters'. Look out for a copy arriving soon in the Aldham Robarts Library....

Shelf Lives: Wednesday, 15 October 2014

08/10/201406/08/2017 By LJMU EnglishNo Comments

LJMU English will be running the next in the series of Shelf Lives talks on the top floor of Liverpool City Library on Wednesday 15th October 2014, from 3PM to 4.30PM. Jon Cranfield will talk about Arthur Conan Doyle's The Hound of the Baskervilles (1902), followed by Deaglán Ó Donghaile on Joseph Conrad's The Secret Agent (1907), and Elspeth Graham on Izaak Walton's The Compleat Angler (1653). We hope to see you there.! ...

This conference changed my life (or my thesis, at least)

29/10/201412/12/2014 By LJMU EnglishNo Comments

I recently got back from a four day geekend that was an international conference on science fiction held in London, as the 72nd WorldCon, an event so big that countries and cities bid for it in coming years (like the Olympics, but instead of athletes you get nerds) – indeed, it was held in a venue so big that it had two – TWO – train stations. Count them… Two. The conference was on diversity in science fiction, from its conception and inception to form and content, including text and hypertext, passive and interactive narratives, and, specifically for me, narratives that operated outside of the dominant paradigm of the straight white male. As I was struggling with a dissertation on the (feminist) posthuman in Iain M Banks novels, Alice Ferrebe threw over a CFP email and I went for it with all the verve and vitriol I had. And they accepted my abstract. And then I panicked. But I had my mentors, the staff,...

‘The best academics’: Helen Rogers in the THE

08/10/201406/08/2017 By LJMU EnglishNo Comments

Dr Helen Rogers has been named in the Times Higher Education as an academic making exemplary use of blogging in her research. In the article 'Twitter and Blogs are Not Add-ons to Research', published on 28th August 2014, Tim Hitchcock, professor of digital history at the University of Sussex, praised Helen's Conviction blog, which shares ideas and excerpts from her forthcoming book Conviction: Stories from a Nineteenth-Century Prison. Professor Hitchcock claims that the most impressive thing about Helen's blog (and her career more widely) 'is that there is no waste – what starts as a blog, ends as an academic output, and an output with a ready-made audience, eager to cite it'. Last year Helen received a Teaching Grant from the Higher Education Authority to develop her innovative approach to fostering collaborative student research in two of LJMU English's undergraduate modules. Visit 'Prison Voices' and 'Writing Lives' to see what her students have achieved. You can also find out more about both...

Krystina Osborne

12/12/201406/08/2017 By LJMU EnglishNo Comments

Krystina is a PhD student at the Research Centre for Literature and Cultural History. Prior to this, she studied at LJMU for a BA in English, graduating with a First Class Honours degree, and for an MRes in Literature and Cultural History, achieving a Pass with Distinction. Krystina’s MRes thesis was entitled ‘“In the Service of Women”? Developments in Feminism and Female-Authored Erotic Fiction Since the Publication of Angela Carter's The Sadeian Woman’, and focused on authors including Charlotte Roche and Sarah Hall. Her main research interests in contemporary women’s erotic writing and theories of gender and sexuality are reflected in her recent progression to PhD level to conduct research into engagements with female masturbation in contemporary women’s writing and in wider culture, supervised by Dr Kate Houlden and Dr Fiona Tolan. She is currently on the steering group for the Postgraduate Contemporary Women’s Writing Network (PG CWWN) and also works part-time as a bookseller, a role that has intensified her interest...

Shelf Life (It’s the Only Life We Know)

16/08/201406/08/2017 By LJMU EnglishNo Comments

Beginning on Wednesday, 17 September, LJMU English Staff will be giving a series of talks at the (dazzling) Liverpool Central Library. Organised by Dr Gerry Smyth, LJMU English's Reader in Cultural History, each session will feature three presentations on books and other material held by the library, with plenty of time for discussion afterwards. Gerry said: 'We decided that eclecticism - something for everybody – rather than a shared theme or period, would be the best means to structure each session. I guess if there is a theme animating the series it's a love of books, of reading, and a celebration of libraries'. This 'Shelf Life' series will take place on 17 September, 15 October, 12 November and 10 December 2014, beginning at 3pm, on the top floor of the Central Library. Look out for more details on the topics and texts we'll be discussing. We'd love to see you there. ...

Graduate Teaching Assistantships

13/08/201412/12/2014 By LJMU EnglishNo Comments

The Faculty of Arts, Professional and Social Studies at Liverpool John Moores University is offering up to 10 full time Graduate Teaching / Research Assistant Studentships in a range of disciplines to start in October 2014. This studentship scheme offers a valuable opportunity to study for a PhD while teaching in subjects broadly related to your PhD research. The studentship covers full tuition fees and a bursary of £13,863 for three years, based on successful PhD progression. GTAs work with academic staff in a range of teaching, learning and assessment activities to support student learning for up to 180 hours in each academic year. These activities include supporting lectures, leading seminars, providing tutorial support, demonstrating in practical classes, marking student assessments and exam invigilation. GTAs will undertake a programme of teaching and learning skills development during the first year, and will be encouraged to attend a range of researcher development sessions in line with the Vitae Researcher Development Framework throughout their...

Research Seminar: Lynsey Hanley (Visiting Fellow) – ‘A Look In The Mirror – Reflections on Tabloid Observations & Broadsheet Prejudices, 1980-2010’ (29 October 2013)

04/11/201312/12/2014 By LJMU EnglishNo Comments

‘A Look In The Mirror, Reflections in Tabloid Observations and Broadsheet Prejudices, 1980 – 2010’ by Lynsey Hanley On 29th October 2013, Liverpool John Moores University were more than proud to welcome new Visiting Fellow in the Research Centre for Literature and Cultural History, Lynsey Hanley, to discuss her most recent work ‘A Look In The Mirror, Reflections in Tabloid Observations and Broadsheet Prejudices, 1980 – 2010’. Having previously heard of Hanley’s work with Estates her 2007 book published under Granta Books and acknowledged her contributions to The Guardian newspaper; it was interesting to hear her latest piece of research from the author herself. When Hanley began her presentation to a room filled with Liverpool John Moores staff and students, she tapped into nostalgia to ensure that the entire room was entranced by her research. Introducing her research with the statement that The Mirror was the publication that she and her family grew up with, allowed us, the audience, to recall our...

Ross Dawson

12/12/201405/08/2017 By LJMU EnglishNo Comments

Profile coming soon!...

Dr Alice Ferrebe

13/08/201005/08/2017 By LJMU EnglishNo Comments

My earliest research focused upon the representation of gender in British literature and culture, and resulted in my first book, Masculinity in Male-Authored Fiction 1950-2000. This looked at the influence of conceptions of masculinity on fictional form and theme through a period of intense political and stylistic negotiation, ranging from the (allegedly) Angry Young Men, to the more contemporary confessional literature of Nick Hornby. This research and writing in the field of literary gender studies continues, and I’m also really interested in the performances of gender that are at work in the English classroom – I co-edited a collection of essays that explore this dynamic with my LJMU colleague Fiona Tolan. I’ve become increasingly fascinated with the literature and culture of mid-century Britain, and my book Good, Brave Causes, which covers the decade 1950-1960, was published in 2012 as part of the Edinburgh History of Twentieth-Century Literature in Britain series. The 1950s has acquired almost as many mythic associations as its...

Dr Filippo Menozzi

27/10/201505/08/2017 By LJMU EnglishNo Comments

I hold a PhD from the University of Kent. My research explores the work of Anglophone South Asian women writers and the contested notions of ‘postcolonial’ and ‘world literature’. Main research interests are South Asian literature, the role of intellectuals in postcolonial societies, the links between Marxism, ethics and postcolonial studies, and the narratives of migrants and refugees. Teaching experience in postcolonial literature, Romanticism, critical theory, twentieth-century literature and the contemporary. I am currently working on a co-edited volume on South Asian women writers for the MLA and on anti-imperialist thinker Rosa Luxemburg for the journal New Formations. I am on the editorial board of Cogent Arts & Humanities. Selected Publications Books "Postcolonial custodianship: Cultural and literary inheritance" (Routledge, 2014) (Book) (ed. with Deepika Bahri) Teaching Anglophone South Asian Women Writers (MLA, in progress (Book) (ed. with Bahriye Kemal and Tinashe Mushakavanhu) Visa Stories: Experiences Between Law and Migration (Cambridge Scholars, 2013) (Book) Journal Articles "Anita Desai and the Ethics of Postcolonial Writing", The Journal of Postcolonial Writing (2016)...

Dr Nadine Muller

13/08/201006/08/2017 By LJMU EnglishNo Comments

My research covers literary and cultural histories of women, gender, and feminism from the nineteenth century through to the present day, as well as contemporary women's fiction, and neo-Victorianism. My first monograph - The Widow: A Literary and Cultural History - will be published by Liverpool University Press in late 2017, and I am now working on an oral history and participatory project called War Widows' Stories, which is in receipt of a grant by the Heritage Lottery Fund. I am a member of the AHRC Peer Review College, and I am also a BBC New Generation Thinker. I welcome enquiries from prospective doctoral researchers wishing to work on any combination of the above fields and themes. At LJMU, I teach across all undergraduate levels and postgraduate levels, and I have led the departments' core literary and cultural theory provision as well as covering modules on gender and social media. I have also designed specialist modules such as "Feminist Fictions", which covers women's writing's relationship with feminist...

Dr Kathryn Walchester

29/11/201424/10/2018 By LJMU EnglishNo Comments

My main research interest is travel writing; in particular eighteenth- and nineteenth-century European journeys by women. I have published monographs on women travellers in Italy and Norway and I am currently working on a monograph about travelling servants. I lead the ‘Genres of Travel’ module at Level 6; the ‘Teaching Strand’ of ‘English in the Workplace’ and ‘Cultures of Childhood’ at Level 5 and lead ‘Reading English’ at Level 4, as well as supervising dissertation students at Level 6 and post-graduate projects at MRes and PhD. With colleagues from University of Liverpool and Liverpool Hope University, I organise the Annual Liverpool Travel Seminar. Research My research interests are writing by late eighteenth- and nineteenth-century British travellers and explorers, particularly representations of the north and Italy. I have published work on women travel writers in Italy including ‘Our Own Fair Italy’; Women’s Travel Writing and Italy 1800-1844 ( 2007) and Gamle Norge and Nineteenth-Century British Women Travellers in Norway, a monograph about women...