Oskar Hayward

Profile

I graduated from the University of Leeds in BA French in 2020, returning in September 2020 to complete an MA by Research under the supervision of Dr David Platten and Dr Claire Lozier which was funded by the Sutcliffe Scholarship.

My MA by Research thesis was entitled, 'Les particules artificielles': illness, drugs and writing in the works of Michel Houellebecq. During my MA, I was principally engaged with the interdisciplinary field of medical humanities & trauma studies, participating in the online Séminaire – ‘La France sur le divan’ with a paper entitled 'En thérapie': an analysis of contemporary France through its narratives of break down, collapse and recovery. I was awarded a Distinction for my MA by Research in 2022.

I am currently a PhD Candidate in French, and my research is funded by the Leeds Doctoral College.

I have presented papers at the following international conferences:

-Speculative Futures Conference, University of Maryland, Baltimore (2025)
-42nd Annual 20th and 21st Century French & Francophone Studies International Colloquium, North Carolina (2025)
-La France sur le divan – “En thérapie”, Online (2021)

External to my studies I have toured Europe and will travel to Australia in February as part of a digital music archive project which focusses on ethnomusicology, folk and DIY-pop traditions of the UK.

Research interests

My research interests have pivoted from medical humanities to environmental humanities and contemporary francophone literature, with a particular focus on narrative responses to the climate crisis. My doctoral research develops a comparative framework for analysing affective and linguistic representations of environmental disruption in francophone “outsider” fiction.

Qualifications

• BA Hons (First-Class) French
• MA by Research (Distinction)