Dr Ross Truscott

Profile

Before joining the School of Fine Art, History of Art, and Cultural Studies at the University of Leeds in October 2023, I worked  for eight years as a Researcher (Senior Lecturer) at the Centre for Humanities Research at the University of the Western Cape, primarily involved with the work of the centre but also teaching in Historical Studies and Women’s and Gender Studies. My academic route into Cultural Studies began in Psychology, specifically Critical Social Psychology.

After completing an MPsych,  I read for my doctorate at the University of Fort Hare in South Africa. During this time was a visiting student at the London School of Economics and at the Interdisciplinary Centre for the Study of Global Change at  the University of Minnesota, and at all three institutions immersed myself in postcolonial, psychoanalytic and critical theory,  Since graduating in 2012, I have held fellowships in Interdisciplinary Feminist Studies at Duke University, at the Centre for Humanites Research at the University of the Western Cape, at the University of Minnesota (I returned years later to teach a course on Global Apartheid in Comparative Literature and Cultural Studies), and at the Käte Hamburger Research Centre at Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität, Munich.

Responsibilities

• Interim Director of Research and Innovation

Research interests

My research draws on psychoanalytic, critical, postcolonial and feminist theory to reflect on “the psychic life of power” that institutional discourses entail. I have written about festivals, the post office, institutions of higher education, psychiatric institutions, and the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of South Africa, but am in general interested in the ways institutions produce particular kinds of subjects. In thinking this through, I regularly draw upon art, in its various forms, as an accomplice. 

<h4>Research projects</h4> <p>Any research projects I'm currently working on will be listed below. Our list of all <a href="https://ahc.leeds.ac.uk/dir/research-projects">research projects</a> allows you to view and search the full list of projects in the faculty.</p>

Qualifications

• PhD
• MPsych
• BA Hons
• BPsych

Professional memberships

• Association for Psychoanalysis, Culture and Society
• Association for Psychosocial Studies

Student education

I teach across undergraduate and postgraduate courses in the School, focussing primarily on Cultural Studies. Key themes in most courses on which I teach are: the legacies of colonial discourse; race, class, gender, and sexuality; aesthetics and politics; and subjectivity. 

<h4>Postgraduate research opportunities</h4> <p>We welcome enquiries from motivated and qualified applicants from all around the world who are interested in PhD study. Our <a href="https://phd.leeds.ac.uk">research opportunities</a> allow you to search for projects and scholarships.</p>