Dr Agnes Woolley

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Overview
Overview
Biography
Dr Agnes Woolley is Lecturer in Transnational Literature and Migration Cultures at Birkbeck, University of London. Before joining Birkbeck in 2017, she was Lecturer in Contemporary Literature at Royal Holloway, University of London, and has also taught at the University of Lincoln, the University of Derby and the University of Leeds.
Agnes's research interests are in contemporary and postcolonial literature, theatre and film, with a focus on concepts of migration and diaspora. She is the author of Contemporary Asylum Narratives: Representing Refugees in the Twenty-First Century (Palgrave Macmillan, 2014) and has published extensively on asylum, refugee arts, climate change and contemporary literature. Her current research examines the interrelationship between contemporary screen cultures and geopolitical refugee discourses in the forthcoming book Moving Images: Refugees in Contemporary Screen Culture (Bloomsbury, forthcoming, 2022). She is a regular contributor to openDemocracy, reporting on migration issues and works with grassroots refugee organisations in London.
Qualifications
- Ph. D.,, University of Leeds, 2011
- M. A., , School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London, 2004
- B. A., , University of Leeds, 2003
Administrative responsibilities
- Programme Director of the MA Migration Literatures and Cultures
- Admissions Tutor for the BA Liberal Arts
- First Year Tutor for BA Liberal Arts
Professional activities
Mentor for the Council for At-Risk Academics (CARA) Syria Programme
Member of the Arts and Humanities Research Council Peer Review College
Fellow of the Higher Education Academy
Member of the British Association for Contemporary Literary Studies and the Postcolonial Studies Association.
Member of the editorial boards for NuBE, Nuova Biblioteca Europea and Frontiers. Review Editor for Frontiers: Refugees and Conflict.
Honours and awards
- Teaching Excellence Award for undergraduate course 'Seeking Asylum in the Twenty-First Century', Royal Holloway, University of London, November 2016
- College Performance Award, Royal Holloway, University of London, November 2016
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Research
Research
Research interests
- Refugee arts
- Diasporic literature and film
- Contemporary, postcolonial and transnational literature and culture
Research overview
I work on the literature and culture of migration, with a special interest in forced migration. My research is interdisciplinary and collaborative, drawing on refugee and diaspora studies as well as literary and cultural methodologies.
Research Centres and Institutes
- Centre for Contemporary Literature
- Senior Research Associate, Refugee Law Initiative, School of Advanced Study
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Supervision and teaching
Supervision and teaching
Supervision
I welcome enquiries from prospective PhD students who are interested in undertaking research in any of my areas of research interest. Prospective students should submit an informal inquiry, followed by a proposal of 2,000 - 4,000 words, including an indicative bibliography.
Current doctoral researchers
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AZAD SHARMA
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KESHIA RICHARDS
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NIVEDITA NAIR
Teaching
Teaching modules
- Theorising the Contemporary, Contemporary Theorising (AREN095S7)
- Connecting the Arts (AREN126S5)
- Doing English (AREN208Z4)
- The Creative Critical Seam (AREN221S6)
- Storytelling: Narrative Archetypes, Forms and Techniques (AREN256S4)
- Literature, Empire and Race (ENHU004S5)
- The Post-War: 1945 to the present (ENHU050S7)
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Publications
Publications
Article
- Anis, R. and Aldared, F. and Kemal, B. and Woolley, Agnes (2023) Diasporic Syrian women writers: stories of resilience and survival. British Journal of Middle Eastern Studies ISSN 1353-0194.
- Woolley, Agnes (2021) Strangers in a strange land. Sight & Sound 31 (6), pp. 84-87. ISSN 0037-4806.
- Palladino, M. and Woolley, Agnes (2018) Migration, humanitarianism and the politics of salvation. LIT: Literature, Interpretation, Theory 29 (2), pp. 129-144. ISSN 1043-6928.
- Woolley, Agnes (2017) Narrating the “Asylum Story”: between literary and legal storytelling. Interventions: International Journal of Postcolonial Studies 19 (3), pp. 376-394. ISSN 1369-801X.
- Woolley, Agnes (2014) "There's a Storm Coming!": Reading the Threat of Climate Change in Jeff Nichols's Take Shelter. Interdisciplinary Studies in Literature and Environment 21 (1), pp. 174-191. ISSN 1076-0962.
- Woolley, Agnes (2012) Questioning narrative authenticity in Kay Adshead’s The Bogus Woman. Moving Worlds: A Journal of Transcultural Writings 12 (2),
- Woolley, Agnes (2012) ‘Something blurred in her?’: imagining hospitality in Graham Swift's The Light of Day. Textual Practice 26 (3), pp. 449-465. ISSN 0950-236X.
Book
- Cox, E. and Durrant, S. and Stonebridge, L. and Woolley, Agnes, eds. (2019) Refugee imaginaries: research across the humanities. Edinburgh, UK: Edinburgh University Press. ISBN 9781474443197.
- Woolley, Agnes (2014) Contemporary asylum narratives: representing refugees in the Twenty-First Century. Basingstoke, UK: Palgrave Macmillan. ISBN 9781137299055.
Book Review
- Woolley, Agnes (2022) John-Michael Rivera, Undocuments.
- Woolley, Agnes (2018) Six authors in search of justice: engaging with political transitions.
- Woolley, Agnes (2014) Maggie Awadalla and Paul March-Russell, eds, The Postcolonial Short Story: Contemporary Essays.
Book Section
- Woolley, Agnes (2023) Re-orienting the gaze: visualising refugees in recent film. In: Lê Espiritu Gandhi, E. and Nguyen, V. (eds.) Routledge Handbook of Refugee Narratives. Routledge. ISBN 9780367674762. (In Press)
- Woolley, Agnes (2019) Docu/Fiction and the aesthetics of the border. In: Cox, E. and Durrant, S. and Farrier, D. and Stonebridge, L. and Woolley, Agnes (eds.) Refugee Imaginaries: Research Across the Humanities. Edinburgh, UK: Edinburgh University Press. ISBN 9781474443197.
- Woolley, Agnes (2018) Asylum. In: O'Gorman, D. and Eaglestone, R. (eds.) The Routledge Companion to Twenty-First Century Literary Fiction. Routledge Literature Companions. Abingdon, UK: Routledge. ISBN 9780415716048.
Editorial
- Jeffery, L. and Palladino, M. and Rotter, R. and Woolley, Agnes (2019) Creative engagement with migration. Crossings: Journal of Migration & Culture 10 (1), pp. 3-17. Intellect. ISSN 2040-4344.
Other
- Jeffery, L. and Palladino, M. and Rotter, R. and Woolley, Agnes (2019) Creative engagement with migration - Special issue of Crossings: Journal of Migration & Culture, v.10(1). Intellect.