Professor Sara Upstone

About

I am Professor of Contemporary Literature and Faculty Director of Postgraduate Research. I coordinate the provision of and have overall management responsibility for PhD and research MA programmes across Kingston School of Art. I am also currently the Faculty Athena Swan Lead, and a member of the Faculty EDI Committee. 

I teach across creative writing, English literature, and film studies, and accept proposals for PhD research in these areas. I welcome all proposals, but as a disabled scholar with a working class background I am very keen to offer project development support to groups who are underrepresented in academia. Please get in touch if I can help. 

I've worked at Kingston since 2005, and before being Faculty Director of PGR was Head of the School of Arts, Culture and Communication, Head of Department of Humanities, and a School Director of Learning and Teaching.

Academic responsibilities

Faculty Director of Postgraduate Research and Professor of Contemporary Literature

Qualifications

  • PhD English Literature
  • MA English Literary Research
  • BA English Literature with History
  • Postgraduate Certificate in Learning and Teaching in Higher Education (PGCLTHE)

Teaching and learning

Postgraduate courses taught

Research

My research focuses on the politics of form in contemporary literature and its relationship to questions of identity, with a particular focus on race, spatial justice, and community. My previous work has examined how literary genres and subjectivities intersect, in particular through a focus on utopian realism and its relationship to the British novel's representation of race, magical realism and postcolonial fiction, and spatial justice in contemporary reworkings of fairy-tale. I am currently researching the 'transglossic' form of the contemporary novel, arguing that its potential to speak across different subject positions works in the service of a radical empathy. This project aims, in particular, to question the ongoing dominance of concepts of 'post-postmodernisms' in contemporary literary criticism. I am also exploring these ideas through creative writing practice, focused on forms of autotheory and lyrical nonfiction. 

My personal website can be found at saraupstone.com

Areas of specialism

  • Contemporary Literature
  • Creative nonfiction
  • Creative fiction
  • Genre
  • Race Studies

Scholarly affiliations

  • Literary London Society Committee

Research student supervision

Main supervision

Other supervision

Publications

Number of items: 44.

Article

Shaw, Kristian and (2021) English Studies, 102(5), pp. 573-600. ISSN (print) 0013-838X

(2018) Versopolis,

(2016) Frontiers : a Journal of Women Studies, 37(2), pp. 138-164. ISSN (print) 0160-9009

(2015) Bloodstone Review, 1(1), pp. 36-40.

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(2009) South Asian Review, 30(2), pp. 119-135. ISSN (print) 0275-9527

(2007) Journal of postcolonial writing, 43(3), pp. 336-349. ISSN (print) 1744-9855

(2007) Frontiers, 28(1 & 2), pp. 260-284. ISSN (print) 0160-9009

(2006) Wasafiri, 21(1), pp. 34-38. ISSN (print) 0269-0055

(2004) World Literature Written in English, 40(2), pp. 23-39. ISSN (print) 0093-1705

(2004) Partial Answers: Journal of literature and the history of ideas, 2(2), pp. 139-159. ISSN (print) 1565-3668

(2003) U.S. Studies Online: The BAAS Postgraduate Journal, 3, ISSN (online) 1472-9091

(2002) Mythlore, 23(4), pp. 50-66. ISSN (print) 0146-9339

(2001) ARIEL, 32(4), pp. 258-259. ISSN (print) 0004-1327

Book

(2017) London, U.K. : Teach Yourself. 304p. ISBN 9781473611924

(2017) New York, U.S. : Routledge. 204p. (Routledge studies in contemporary literature, 16) ISBN 9780415729192

Platt, Len and Upstone, Sara, eds. (2015) New York, U.S.A. : Cambridge University Press. 301p. ISBN 9781107042483

Murray, Lesley and Upstone, Sara, eds. (2014) Basingstoke, U.K. : Palgrave Macmillan. 236p. ISBN 9781137346650

Teverson, Andrew and Upstone, Sara, eds. (2011) Basingstoke, U.K. : Palgrave Macmilan. 208p. ISBN 9780230252257

(2010) Manchester, U.K. : Manchester University Press. 247p. ISBN 9780719078330

(2009) Farnham, U.K. : Ashgate. 216p. ISBN 9780754665526

Book Section

(2023) In: Shaw, Kristian and Sloane, Peter, (eds.) Kazuo Ishiguro. Manchester, U.K. : Manchester University Press. (Twenty-First Century Perspectives) ISBN 9781526157539

(2021) In: Teverson, Andrew, (ed.) A cultural history of fairy tales in the modern age. London, U.K. : Bloomsbury Academic. pp. 137-158. (Cultural Histories Series) ISBN 9781350095717

(2020) In: Nasta, Sushelia and Stein, Mark U., (eds.) The Cambridge history of Black and Asian British writing. Cambridge, U.K. : Cambridge University Press. pp. 650-662. ISBN 9781107195448

(2019) In: O'Gorman, Daniel and Eaglestone, Robert, (eds.) The Routledge Companion to Twenty-First Century Literary Fiction. Abingdon, U.K. : Routledge. (Routledge Literature Companions) ISBN 9780415716048

(2016) In: McHale, Brian and Platt, Len, (eds.) The Cambridge history of postmodern literature. Cambridge, U.K. : Cambridge University Press. pp. 262-277. ISBN 9781107140271

(2015) In: Hubble, Nick , Tew, Philip and Wilson, Leigh, (eds.) The 1990s: a decade of contemporary British fiction. London, U.K. : Bloomsbury Academic. pp. 123-148. (The Decades Series) ISBN 9781441172587

(2015) In: Platt, Len and Upstone, Sara, (eds.) Postmodern literature and race. New York, U.S.A. : Cambridge University Press. pp. 279-294. ISBN 9781107042483

(2014) In: Murray, Lesley and Upstone, Sara, (eds.) Researching and representing mobilities : transdisciplinary encounters. Basingstoke, U.K. : Palgrave. pp. 39-56. ISBN 9781137346650

Murray, Lesley and (2014) In: Murray, Lesley and Upstone, Sara, (eds.) Researching and representing mobilities : transdisciplinary encounters. Basingstoke, U.K. : Palgrave Macmillan. pp. 1-20. ISBN 9781137346650

(2012) In: Ghosh, Ranjan, (ed.) Romancing theory, riding interpretation: (in)fusion approach, Salman Rushdie. New York, U.S. : Peter Lang. pp. 132-148. ISBN 9781433112607

and (2012) In: Rowe, Anne and Horner, Avril, (eds.) Iris Murdoch: texts and contexts. Basingstoke, U.K. : Palgrave Macmillan. pp. 59-73. ISBN 9780230348288

(2012) In: Ahmed, Rehana , Morey, Peter and Yaquin, Amina, (eds.) Culture, diaspora and modernity in Muslim writing. Routledge. pp. 164-179. (Routledge research in postcolonial literatures) ISBN 9781136473395

(2012) In: Ghosh, Ranjan and Navarro-Tejero, Antonia, (eds.) Globalizing dissent: essays on Arundhati Roy. Abingdon, U.K. : Routledge. pp. 71-79. (Routledge Studies in Social and Political Thought, (59)) ISBN 9780415995597

and (2011) In: Teverson, Andrew and Upstone, Sara, (eds.) Postcolonial spaces: the politics of place in contemporary culture. Basingstoke, U.K. : Palgrave Macmilan. pp. 1-13. ISBN 9780230252257

(2010) In: Birkenstein, Jeff , Froula, Anna and Randell, Karen, (eds.) Reframing 9/11: film, popular culture and the "War on Terror". London, U.K. : Continuum. pp. 35-44. ISBN 9781441111326

(2006) In: Lindner, Christoph, (ed.) Urban space and cityscapes: perspectives from modern and contemporary culture. London, UK : Routledge. pp. 88-100. (Questioning cities) ISBN 0415366534

Conference or Workshop Item

(2018) In: Writers’ Centre Kingston presents the English PEN Modern Literature Festival; 08 Mar 2018, Kingston, U.K.. (Unpublished)

(2014) In: Kingston Connections 2014; 21 - 29 Jun 2014, Kingston upon Thames, U.K.. (Unpublished)

(2013) In: Being Beyond Boundaries: Dissolving (species) Hierarchy in Contemporary Culture; 05 Oct 2013, Kingston Upon Thames, U.K.. (Unpublished)

(2013) In: History, postcolonialism and tradition: The Postcolonial Studies Association conference 2013; 12 - 13 Sep 2013, Kingston Upon Thames, U.K.. (Unpublished)

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

(2007) In: Colonial and postcolonial spaces; 06 - 07 Sep 2007, Kingston upon Thames, U.K.. (Unpublished)

(2005) In: Literary London 2005 : Representations of London in literature; 14-16 July 2005, Kingston Upon Thames, U.K.. (Unpublished)

This list was generated on Sun May 19 06:37:53 2024 BST.