My research focuses on contemporary literature, in particular on Black British, Caribbean and African American writing. I am interested in where and how literary and scientific ideas intersect with regard to questions of race. This interest has taken several forms: My book Biofictions: Race, Genetics and the Contemporary Novel (2020) explores how the contemporary novel has drawn upon and intervened in debates about race in late 20th and 21st century genetic science.  It won the British Society for Literature and Science Book Prize for 2020 and was shortlisted for the European Society for the Study of English First Book Award in 2022. From 2016-2017 I was Principal Investigator of the AHRC funded project 'Literary Archaeology': Exploring the Lived Environment of the Slave, which brought together archaeological scientists, creative writers and literary scholars to develop a new, interdisciplinary approach to the study of the lives of enslaved people. I’m also interested in how the current movement to decolonise universities might impact upon interdisciplinarity research and collaboration. From 2020-2022 I was Principal Investigator of the Wellcome Trust funded project Black Health and the Humanities located at the Centre for Black Humanities. In October 2022 I was awarded a Philip Leverhulme Prize to begin a new book project, Black Lecturer.

Keywords

Black British writing; contemporary British fiction; genetics and literature; epigenetics, slavery and race; postcolonial literature and theory; racial science and medicine; science writing; historical fiction; African American literature.

I would welcome enquiries from students interested in pursuing doctoral work on Black British writing, contemporary literature or literature and science.