Amber Lascelles

Profile

I completed my PhD at the University of Leeds in September 2020 and began a Research Associate position at the Centre for Black Humanities at the University of Bristol in October 2020.

My doctoral thesis focused on transnational Black feminist resistance in the fiction of five contemporary authors: Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, Dionne Brand, Edwidge Danticat, Tsitsi Dangarembga and Taiye Selasi. My thesis was a cross-cultural exploration of how Black female authors creatively respond to inequality and oppression within our neoliberal capitalist world-system. Interested in how Black women writers can form solidarities by attempting to negotiate cultural, class-based, and economic difference, I argued that, primarily through explorations of the body politic, these authors create a Black feminism that is transnational in its reach, enacting a necessary resistance to neoliberal capitalism.

Teaching

I taught three undergraduate modules, 'Poetry: Reading and Interpretation' and 'Foundations of English' (2018/19), and 'Writing Critically' (2017/18). I supervised third year dissertation students in Postcolonial Literature at Leeds Beckett University (2019). Additionally, I am a self-employed private tutor for Masters, Undergraduate, and A-level students (2016- present).

Activities

I co-directed Women's Paths Research Group. Our seminar series and symposium for 2017/18 focused on intersectional feminism and activism. We worked with eight local women's charities to create an impactful dialogue between academia and activism. We secured funding from five funding bodies within and beyond Leeds (including WRoCAH,  the Leeds for Life Foundation and the Postcolonial Studies Association). I was President of the Black Feminist Society (17/18) creating a space to develop critical ideas and build networks for women of colour in academia.

Publications/ Outputs

Journal article, ‘Locating Black Feminist Resistance through Diaspora and Post-diaspora Spaces in Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie’s and Edwidge Danticat’s Short Stories’, African and Black Diaspora: An International Journal, 13:2 (2020), 227–40.

Podcast episode. ‘Black feminism, literature and resistance’, Surviving Society (May 2020)

Book review, ‘Jacqueline Crooks’ Ice Migration and Lorna Goodison’s Redemption Ground’. Wasafari (Routledge, 2019), 99, 87–88.

Postgraduate journal article, ‘“New art forms”? Disaster Capitalism in Caribbean Literature’. Warwick Uncanny: Journal of Literature, Theory and Modernity (University of Warwick, 2016) 2:1, 30–46.

Conference organisation

• Conference Assistant for Memory and Performance in African-Atlantic Futures, University of Leeds (August 2018)
• Women of the Global South and its diasporas: Rights, Representation, Activism International Symposium (June 2018). Women's Paths final 2018 event organised by myself and three co-organisers.
• Women's Paths Roundtable, 'Doing Intersectional Feminist Work in Academia', Intersections & Academia Conference, University of Sheffield (June 2018)
• Curated panels about postgraduate study for black students at Leeds University Student Union's Inspire, Learn, Lead Conference (January 2018 and February 2019)

Conference papers

I have presented my research at international conferences, including Afroeuropean Studies 2019 (University of Lisbon, July 2019), the 3rd Annual Black Feminism, Womanism and the Politics of Women of Colour in Europe (Berlin, September 2018), Memory and Performance in African-Atlantic Futures (University of Leeds, August 2018), Caribbean Women (Post) Diaspora: African/Caribbean Interconnections Conference, (London Southbank University, July 2018), 42nd Annual Conference of the Society for Caribbean Studies (University of London, July 2018), Postcolonial Studies Association Convention (University of London, September 2017 and University of Manchester, September 2019) and several others.

I was invited to present my research at research seminars at the University of Ghana (April 2019) the University of Worcester (February 2019) and the Postcolonial Studies Research Exchange at Nottingham Trent University (April 2018).

Research interests

My broader research interests include Caribbean literature; African literature; African-American literature; Postcolonial theory; contemporary English literature; feminist fiction, theory and activism; and Marxist theory.

Qualifications

• MA World Literature, University of Warwick
• BA English Literature, DeMontfort University