About
I am a Reader in English Literature in the Department of English. I have previously taught at different universities in the United Kingdom, United States and Senegal. My main research areas are in postcolonial literature and theory, new literatures in English, contemporary British fiction and comparative literature. My theoretical interests are varied, but include nationalism/transnationalism, race, identity, globalisation and the nexus between politics and literature. More specifically, I work in narratives of transatlantic slavery and their legacies in Britain as well as more broadly in British Chinese cultural studies. My first monograph, _The Postcolonial Country in Contemporary Literature_ (Palgrave Macmillan, 2023) explores contemporary texts and cultural representations which engage with legacies of the British empire in the British countryside and in postcolonial rural spaces. My current book project explores the role of gender in eighteenth-century slave narratives and compares them to representations of slavery in contemporary Black British novels. In 2022, I co-curated the ground-breaking British Library exhibition "Chinese and British" (November 2022-April 2023) and I am currently Director for the British Chinese Studies Network. I am also working on tracing the cultural history of racism against the Chinese in Britain as mediated through representations of food as well as forms of resistance.
MY ACADEMIC SUPPORT AND FEEDBACK HOURS FOR SEMESTER 2 (2025-26) are Tuesdays on MS Teams from 4-5pm and on Wednesdays from 10-11am in my office (room 2.03 in 19 Abercromby Square)
Prizes or Honours
- British Academy Small Research Grant 2011 (British Academy, 2012)
- Mini Grant (National Endowment of the Humanities, 2006)