My profile

Biography

I am a committed European and Francophile with particular interest in poetry and popular culture.

Out of work I spend my time record collecting (Ska, Sun Ra, Zappa), walking, travelling and trying to improve my Spanish.

Words of wisdom

Turn up regularly and ask when you don’t understand.  If you don’t understand something, at least half the rest of the class probably doesn’t get it either.

Academic and professional qualifications

PhD on Symbolist poet Ephraim Mikhael : UCL 1989.

Other academic service (administration and management)

 French Section Coordinator for year abroad. 

Languages

French

Expert reviewer for external funding bodies

I have worked by invitation as a peer reviewer for the publishers Liverpool University Press, Bloomsbury and Peter Lang as  well as for the following scholarly journals:  Modern and Contemporary France, Graphic Novels and Comics, Kult,  Nouvelles Etudes Francophones, Authorship, French Studies, European Comic Art, Libri & Liberi.

Expert reviewer for external funding bodies

I sit on the editorial board of the scholarly journal European Comic Art.

Visiting and honorary positions

In 2004/5 I taught English for 1 week at the University of Limoges under the aegis of the Socrates Teachers Exchange scheme. 

Membership of professional associations

Founder member of the International Bande Dessinée Society.

Teaching

Why do I teach?

I strongly believe we should understand other cultures and I like to think I’m helping younger people to do so. Learning other languages and cultures is tremendously enriching both personally and professionally.  

Subject areas

French

Research outputs

My research focus was originally 19th Century Symbolist poetry but it has since moved on to French comics.

19th century literature and in contemporary popular culture, particularly bande dessinées.