Bio

I was born and bred in Lancaster in the North West of England. Despite having lived all over Great Britain, I am still a Northerner at heart. I did my undergraduate degree at Clare College, University of Cambridge, completing it in English Literature despite starting it in Philosophy. I managed to combine these two loves in a Masters in Philosophy and Literature at the University of Warwick which I completed in 1999. I then spent a year in London, working in publishing and spending my lunch hours in the book shops on Charing Cross Road. That was enough to convince me that I wanted to be the one writing the books, not editing them, so back to University I went. I spent four years in Brighton completing my doctorate, only then to enter the limbo land of post-doctoral unemployment.

After many unsuccessful job applications, and just as I’d reached the conclusion that my only option was to follow one of my other passions and retrain as a chef, I landed my first post as Lecturer in Contemporary Literature in the School of English at the University of St Andrews, becoming a Senior Lecturer there in 2012. I moved back to Cambridge in 2014 to take up a post as University Lecturer in Literature and Film in the Faculty of English, where I am now Professor of Literature and the Public Humanities.

I live in a village just north of Cambridge with my husband and two children, who are now not so little as they used to be, but not yet grown. Spending time with my family is my favourite thing to do, closely followed by (or ideally combined with) anything outdoors, preferably involving open water.

Academic Work

I am a scholar of late twentieth- and twenty-first-century literature, film and philosophy, with a research focus on the epistemic function and role of stories, on interdisciplinarity, and on the public humanities. My work takes place at sites of intersection and interconnection, between disciplines and fields (literary theory and criticism, literature and science studies, science fiction studies, film studies, continental philosophy, feminist theory and criticism), and between sectors (academia, media, and government). I locate my work at such sites in order to analyse, theorise and perform the specific modes of thought and knowledge offered by literature and cinema, and the humanities more broadly. More details of my academic work can be found on my Cambridge Faculty of English homepage.

Public Work

Integral to my academic work is a commitment to championing the public importance and significance of the humanities. I participate in a range of public events each year, engaging with various publics through broadcasting and podcasts, as well as engaging with policy, government and industry. Since being selected as a BBC Radio 3 New Generation Thinker in 2013, I’ve worked as a radio broadcaster for BBC Radio 4 and Radio 3. I co-created BBC Radio 3’s Literary Pursuits, which I presented from 2016-19, and BBC Radio 4 Open Book’s mini-series Close Reading from 2014-16. I took a break from radio broadcasting from 2019-2022 to focus on academic research, but I am now making my way back onto the airwaves.