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Biography
Current Status PhD (full-time) - currently registered
Research Topic Flâneurs in love: Writing psychogeography into LGBTQ+ YA Historical Fiction
Research Summary This practice-based project examines how writing psychogeography into LGBTQ+ YA historical fiction can limit 'writerly-presentism': that is, "the imposition of a writer's modern values, beliefs, or awareness onto a past era" (Power, 2003). I posit that using an innovative technique to exclude the modern day queer experience from historical narratives will allow for subcategories within the genre of queer fiction to expand as widely as other major genres without risking misappropriation or distorted presentations of the past. A reflective analysis of my findings will make up approximately 30% of my thesis, while the remaining 70% will consist of an original novel (or extended extract if the final wordcount surpasses the project limit). This piece of long-form prose will be centred around two queer teens living in Paris during an alternative timeline where the Cold War erupts in late 1951.
Research Interests Psychogeography, Urban Geography, Creative Writing Practice, YA Fiction, Fanfiction
Research Supervisors Dr. Thomas Legendre Susan Billingham
Research Institutes, Centres and/or Research Clusters Memberships Associate Fellow (Postgraduate) at the Royal Geographical Society
Conference Papers & Presentations October 20-21, 2022 at Université de Caen Normandie - "Narrative ethics and character in the representation of the past in contemporary English-speaking fiction" Paper: The Future of LGBTQ+ YA Historical Fiction: An Exploration of Narrative Trends
August 29 - September 1, 2023 at The Royal Geographical Society - "Royal Geographical Society (with IBG) Annual International Conference 2023" Paper: (Re)Constructing Space in the Queer Young Adult Novel Using Psychogeography: Towards a New Interdisciplinary Research Method
Additional Information BA, Film and Electronic Arts (Specialization: Production Management) with a Minor in Geography - CSU, Long Beach & Queen Mary, University of London
MSc, Management (Specialization: International Corporate Strategy) - Imperial College London
MA, Creative Writing (Specialization: Fiction Prose) - Royal Holloway, University of London