Dr Meg Jensen

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Meg Jensen
About
Teaching and learning
Research
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About

My research focuses on representations of human rights violation and/or traumatic experience in narrative form, and the social, cultural, gendered and familial contexts in which such works are produced. 

Recent applied projects, funded by the UK Foreign and Commonwealth Office and the UNDP, assessed the effectiveness of Expressive Writing methodologies in supporting the well-being of women victims of sexual violence in conflict in Iraq and AHRC funded work with communities in crisis across Lebanon.

My most recent publications including the monograph The Art and Science of Trauma and the Autobiographical: Negotiated Truths, Palgrave 2019, evaluate a range of life narrative forms that represent traumatic experience (memoir, testimony, poetry, graphic novels, monuments, autobiographical novels, etc) and consider the relationship between such works and current behavioural, psychological, and neurochemical approaches to diagnosing and treating traumatic disorders.

Finally, my practice-based research takes the form of creative non-fiction and autobiographical novels concerned with representations of traumatic experience.

Academic responsibilities

Professor in English Literature and Creative Writing

Qualifications

  • BA Liberal Arts, Sarah Lawrence College, New York (1985)
  • MA English Literature (Distinction), New York University, 1991
  • PhD English Literature Queen Mary, University of London, 1996
  • Senior Fellow Higher Education Academy (SFHEA) 2017

Teaching and learning

Because my main area of research interest is reflecting on how stories of trauma and conflict are represented in texts of all kinds, I teach in a wide range of subject areas. In Creative Writing at BA, MA, MFA and PhD, I work with students on the development of their own voice and specialize in autobiographical forms of writing. In English Literature, I teach across several time periods from the late 18th Century to the present, in genres from fiction, to non-fiction to poetry to graphic forms of writing, written by authors from all over the world: from 19th century British novels to post-colonial short stories, to modernist poetry and prose and beyond. I am particularly interested in writing that challenges dominant narratives - stories and poems and non-fiction that speaks from the "outsider's" point of view. 

Undergraduate courses taught

Postgraduate courses taught

Research

I publish widely on the relationship between memory, trauma, the autobiographical and the advancement of human rights and conduct funded interdisciplinary applied research on the uses of Expressive Writing for supporting well-being in survivors of traumatic experiences. 

Funded Projects include: 

Expressive Life Writing and Telling During Crisis: Addressing Urgent Needs in the Akkar Governate, Lebanon

December 2020: AHRC Research Grant £25,000 as Co-I

The primary research question of this project is: "How can Expressive Life Writing be deployed during an acute crisis to support well-being for social workers and their most vulnerable clients especially women and girls?"The secondary research questions of this project are: "What are the most effective means of reaching vulnerable subjects isolated by crisis situations with ELW -online, with an App, by phone?" and "How can ELW be taken to scale as part of a well-being centered response to building resilience in the face of a crisis?"If the research provides satisfactory answers to these questions, then this project will produce a universally available, stress tested, step change in the use of ELW as a form of rapidly deployable assistance for the trauma, stress and pressure of quickly evolving crisis situations. 

Expressive Writing: support for Front Line Health Care Workers during and after the COVID-19 Outbreak/news/article/2393/12-oct-2020-expressive-writing-project-from-kingston-university-to-help-covid19-healthcare-workers-overcome-traumatic-experiences/

April 2020: awarded £10,000 by Viaro Energy, Ltd. to research, develop and deliver support to Front Line Health Care Workers during the COVID-19 outbreak. The research project will also test the efficacy of an innovative multilingual, freely accessible digital model for the successful dissemination of Expressive Writing training and exercises, gathering feedback via online surveys.

AHRC Global Research Funding £21,000 in 2018 and £26,000 in 2019

Expressive Writing Capacity Building with Akkar Network for Development (AND), Beirut

United Nations Development Programme SIRI project, Iraq, £1,500 in 2017. Expressive Writing Capacity Building   https://www.iq.undp.org/content/iraq/en/home/presscenter/pressreleases/2018/11/04/undp-supporting-women-crsv-and-sgbv-survivors-of-trauma.html 

Dear Diary Exhibition: Somerset House June 2017 Produced and exhibited filmed refugee diaries: http://tsrnetwork.org/news-network/publications/

UK Cabinet Office Countering Violent Extremism Programme, £7,400 in 2017

UK Foreign and Commonwealth Office Human Rights Fund, Stigma Project: £2,400 in 2016    http://www.inmaairaq.com/drejae.aspx?=hewal&jmare=86&Jor=1

                                                                

Research student supervision

Main supervision

Other supervision

Publications

Jump to: Article | Book | Book Section | Conference or Workshop Item | Performance/Live Event
Number of items: 36.

Article

Campbell, Siobhan and (2024) Journal of Poetry Therapy, ISSN (print) 0889-3675 (In Press)

(2020) Life Writing, 17(4), pp. 609-611. ISSN (print) 1448-4528

[Reviewer] (2017) Viewfinder, 106, p. 23. ISSN (print) 0952-4444

(2016) Life Writing, 13(4), pp. 431-448. ISSN (print) 1448-4528

, , , , , , , , , Choat, Simon, Chu, Jonathan, , , , Dixon, Paul, , Finn, Peter, , , , Hawkins, Sue, , , , , , , , , , , , , , , Micklethwaite, Paul, Morgan Wortham, Simon, , Osborne, Peter, , , , , Reid, Trish, , , , , , , , , , , , , , and (2014) The Guardian,

(2014) Textual Practice, 28(4), pp. 701-725. ISSN (print) 0950-236X

(2012) New Writing: The International Journal for the Practice and Theory of Creative Writing, 9(3), pp. 337-341. ISSN (print) 1479-0726

(2012) Life Writing, 9(3), pp. 315-325. ISSN (print) 1448-4528

(2011) Literature Compass, 8(12), pp. 941-950. ISSN (online) 1741-4113

and Jolly, Margaretta (2011) Literature Compass, 8(12), pp. 875-877. ISSN (online) 1741-4113

(2009) a/b: Auto/Biography Studies, 24(2), pp. 299-314. ISSN (print) 0898-9575

(2009) Modern Language Review, 104(1), pp. 192-193. ISSN (print) 0026-7937

(2008) Modern Language Review, 103(3), pp. 839-840. ISSN (print) 0026-7937

(2007) Modern Language Review, The, 102(3), p. 842. ISSN (print) 0026-7937

(2007) Literature Compass, 4(4), pp. 1208-1226. ISSN (online) 1741-4113

Book

Mansfield, Katherine and [Editor] (2021) London, U.K. : Macmillan Collector's Library. 266p. ISBN 9781529045604

(2019) Basingstoke, U.K. : Palgrave Macmillan. 299p. (Palgrave Studies in Life Writing) ISBN 9783030061067

and Campbell, Siobhan (2016) Edinburgh, U.K. : Beyond Borders Scotland. 89p. ISBN 9781526202604

Jensen, Meg and Jolly, Margaretta, eds. (2014) Madison, WI, U.S. : University of Wisconsin Press. 332p. (Wisconsin Studies in Autobiography) ISBN 9780299300142

Jensen, Meg and Jordan, Jane, eds. (2009) Newcastle upon Tyne, U.K. : Cambridge Scholars Publishing. 238p. ISBN 9781443805261

(2002) New York; Basingstoke : Palgrave Macmillan. 236p. ISBN 0312293534

Book Section

(2021) In: Jensen, Meg, (ed.) Prelude & other stories. London, U.K. : Macmillan Collector's Library. pp. vii-xvi. ISBN 9781529045604

(2020) In: Hammond, Andrew, (ed.) The Palgrave handbook of Cold War literature. Cham. Switzerland : Palgrave Macmillan. pp. 323-343. ISBN 9783030389727

and Campbell, Siobhan (2019) In: Douglas, Kate and Barnwell, Ashley, (eds.) Research Methodologies for Auto/Biography Studies. New York, NY : Routledge. pp. 149-160. (Routledge Auto/Biography Studies, 1) ISBN 9780367255688

(2018) In: Dix, Hywel, (ed.) Autofictions in English. London, U.K. : Palgrave Macmillan. pp. 65-83. (Palgrave studies in life writing) ISBN 9783319899015

(2016) In: McClennen, Sophia A. and Schultheis Moore, Alexandra, (eds.) The Routledge Companion to Literature and Human Rights. Abingdon, U.K. : Routledge. pp. 184-192. (Routledge Literature Companions) ISBN 9780415736411

Brivati, Brian, , Jolly, Margeretta and Moore, Alexandra Schultheis (2014) In: Jensen, Meg and Jolly, Margaretta, (eds.) We shall bear witness : life narratives and human rights. Madison, WI, U.S. : University of Wisconsin Press. pp. 267-280. ISBN 9780299300142

(2014) In: Jensen, Meg and Jolly, Margaretta, (eds.) We shall bear witness : life narratives and human rights. Madison, WI, U.S. : University of Wisconsin Press. pp. 141-157. ISBN 9780299300142

(2009) In: Jensen, Meg and Jordan, Jane, (eds.) Life writing: the spirit of the age and the state of the art. Newcastle upon Tyne, U.K. : Cambridge Scholars Publishing. pp. xxvii-xxxiii. ISBN 9781443805261

and (2009) In: Jensen, Meg and Jordan, Jane, (eds.) Life writing: the spirit of the age and the state of the art. Newcastle upon Tyne, U.K. : Cambridge Scholars Publishing. pp. xxxiv-xxxvii. ISBN 9781443805261

(2007) In: Shiach, Morag, (ed.) The Cambridge companion to the modernist novel. Cambridge, UK : Cambridge University Press. pp. 112-125. (Cambridge companions to literature) ISBN 0521670748

(2004) In: Goldman, Lawrence, (ed.) Oxford dictionary of national biography. Oxford, UK : Oxford University Press. ISBN 9780198614111

(2004) In: Goldman, Lawrence, (ed.) Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. Oxford, UK : Oxford University Press. ISBN 9780198614111

Conference or Workshop Item

[Speaker] (2010) In: Kingston Reader's Festival; 01 May 2010, Kingston upon Thames, U.K.. (Unpublished)

[Speaker] (2009) In: Kingston Reader's Festival; 23 Apr - 22 May 2009, Kingston upon Thames, U.K.. (Unpublished)

Performance/Live Event

(2018) Forgetting, Kingston Writers' Centre. 25 Jan 2018, Kingston Upon Thames, U.K.

This list was generated on Mon May 20 06:30:31 2024 BST.

Videos of my work

Nordic Pizza by Meg Jensen

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