Through exploring the psychopathology of Capgras syndrome, in which a patient mistakes a loved one for an imposter, The Echo Maker offers a sustained meditation on the ways in which we project our own problems onto other people. As a reflection on the mysteries of consciousness, the novel offers some interesting if not especially new insights into the fuzzy boundaries between scientific and literary interpretations of the mind. Read more
My area of research can broadly be construed as lying within the digital humanities. I am especially interested in the ways in which technology is represented in literature, the technologies of literature (print and digital), and the ways in which new media such as video games allow us to reinterpret traditional media such as literature.
I have published articles in top-ranked journals such as the Journal of Literature and Science and Poetics Today.
I edit and maintain the research impact and outreach blog, Research in English At Durham (READ), and have published work on social media and research dissemination.
My main areas of research and expertise include:
Cybergothic, cyberfiction and science fiction
The writings of A.S. Byatt
Postmodernism in popular culture
Video game narratives
Narratology
Literature and technology
Online dissemination and social media
Current Activities
If there are hedgehogs and foxes, then I am definitely a research roamer across disciplines rather than a head-down snuffler in one. Here are some of the broad questions I'm currently working on, or at least thinking about in the shower:
Are video games literature? Games, among other things, tell stories. Novels, among other things, also tell stories. Whilst they are not structurally the same, and tell their stories in fundamentally different ways, there are surely things to learn from each medium about the way the other works, and perhaps more importantly the similar ways in which people respond to their narratives. I am currently preparing a monograph entitled Reading Games: Computer Games and the Limits of Literature, which compares canonical literary texts and theories to computer games, with a view to exploring the ways in which each media can cast light upon the other. Linked to this I have published articles and book chapters on video games and literary genre, serialisation and games, and video game aesthetics. I often blog about Game Studies.
How do we measure the impact of a tweet? Social media is an increasingly important means of academic public engagemenet. However, by the nature of the web much of the "chatter" is ephemeral. I am looking at how we best capture and archive public engagement activity as and when it happens online.
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