- PhD in English Literature, Queen Mary, University of London
- MA in Literature Studies; Certificate in Teaching Composition and Literature, San Francisco State University
- BA Honours, with Special Distinction in the Major, in English Literature, University of California, Santa Barbara
I am an Associate Professor of Literature who regularly directs the module Science Fiction for Survival and who teaches on the MA module Speculative Bodies. I supervise a number of PhD students on projects relating to feminist literature and speculative science fiction. I run the York Centre for Writing's online science fiction magazine which I co-edit with Professor Rob Edgar: Terra Two: An Ark for Off-World Survival.
I am particularly interested in science fiction. My PhD in English from the University of London, Queen Mary focuses on the representations of gender and progressive spirituality in women's science fiction and fantasy in the late twentieth century. I am currently focused on exploring the way speculative science fiction invites readers and viewers to access what Minna Salami has entitled 'sensuous knowledge' (Salami, 2020). I am hugely indebted to speculative science fiction and fantasy writer Ursula K. Le Guin, whose stories and essays have influenced me and my way of life since I first encountered her work in my early twenties.
I teach Science Fiction for Survival, Literature at Work, and the MA module Speculative Bodies.
I am co-editor of Gender in Music Production with R. Hepworth-Sawyer, J. Hodgson and M. Marrington (Routledge, 2020), and founder/caretaker of the York Centre for Writing’s online science fiction magazine Terra Two: An Ark for Off-World Survival.
