Dr Alexandra Campbell
- Lecturer in English Literature - Poetry & Environment (English Literature)
email:
Alexandra.Campbell@glasgow.ac.uk
School of Critical Studies, 5 University Gardens, G12 8QQ
Biography
Dr Campbell is a Lecturer in Contemporary Literature and Environmental Cultures, based in the School of Critical Studies. Before arriving at Glasgow she held previous positions at Edinburgh Napier University, the University of Edinburgh, and Bath Spa University. She received her PhD from the University of Glasgow.
Research interests
- Blue Humanities and Critical Ocean Studies
- Ecopoetics and Contemporary Poetry
- Energy Humanities and Marine Justice
- Infrastructure and Logistics
- Insurgent politics and poetics
Dr Campbell's research emerges at the nexus of interlocking forms of environmental oppression and resistance that occur within and against logistical infrastructure. She is currently working on her first monograph, tentatively titled 'Poetics and Logistics: Infrastructure, Insurgency and the Intimacy of Form' which examines the lived terrains and emergent grammars of struggle as conditioned by logistical capitalism. By examining the political ecologies and logistical fantasies of capitalist flow, the project examines forms of struggle as they emerge in and against the material, aesthetic, and financial forms of hydraulic infrastructures. From megadams and pipelines to ports, oceanic highways, and subsea communications networks the project examines the historical significance of hydraulic infrastructure as critical sites of regulation and potential insurrection. Turning towards instances of infrastructural sabotage, disruption and withdrawal in contemporary poetry from the USA, Canada, the Marshall Islands, and Hawai'i, the project identifies an emergent vocabulary of refusal that manifests within the infrastructural relations of contemporary logistics space.
Dr Campbell's research interests greatly inform her teaching in which she strives to pursue forms of antiracist pedagogy and radical inclusivity in the classroom space. In 2021 she was awarded 'Best Practice in Inclusive Education' by the University of Glasgows Student Representative Council. In 2022-4 she will be leading a Learning and Development bid with colleagues in the SCS on 'Decolonising the School of Critical Studies'.
In 2023 she will be a Rachel Cason Research Fellow on a joint project with Dr Fred Carter titled 'Insurgent Ecologies'. In 2020-1 she was Principal Investigator on the RSE funded Arts Workshop seriese 'World/Water Futures'. The series included a number of workshops on topics including: Blue Humanities Methodologies; Offshore Food and Energy; Coastal Futures.
Further to her work on logistics, energy and hydraulic infrastructure Dr Campbell has published widely on critical ocean studies and hydroculture and has recently co-edited a special issue of Humanities on 'World Literature and the Blue Humanities'.
She is the current Co-editor of the ASLE-UKI Journal, Green Letters.
Grants
- 2023: Landhaus Fellowship, Rachel Carson Centre, 'Insurgent Ecologies'
- 2022-23: British Academy Conference Grant, 'Resisting Toxic Climates'
- 2022-24: Learning Development Fund, University of Glasgow, 'Decolonising the School of Critical Studies'
- 2020-2021: RSE Workshop Grant, Royal Society of Edinburgh, 'World/Water Futures'
- 2018: Brigstow Ideas Exchange Fund, University of Bristol, 'Humans and Oceans'
- 2018: ASLE International Subvention Grant, Association for the Study of Literature and Environmnent USA, 'Ocean Matters'
Supervision
Dr Campbell welcomes inquiries from prospective PhD students in interested in pursuing research on topics relating to: contemporary poetry and ecopoetics; critical ocean studies/blue humanities; energy humanities; critical infrastructure and logistics; environmental justice and radical ecologies.
- Murray, Rachael
The Sea as the ‘Beyond’ in Romantic and Victorian Literature
Current Supervisees:
Shruti Shukla (English Literature)
Jeehan Ashercock (Creative Writing)
Fred Spoliar (Creative Writing)
Rachael Murray (English Literature)
Sarah Bresnahan (English Literature)
Previous Supervisees:
Sledmere, Maria: 'Hypercritique: Toward a Lyric Architechture for the Anthropocene' (Completed 2022)
Teaching
Semester 1
- 1A: Poetry and Poetics
- 2A: Writing Ecologies
Semester 2
- Futures: Unbundling the Now
- Fantasies of Energy