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Personal Profile For Dr Greg Garrard
ArtsWork Senior Teaching Fellow, Principal Lecturer English Lite. School of Humanities and Cultural Industries.
PhD [University of Liverpool], BA(Hons) [UW Swansea], MA [UW Swansea].
Personal Statement:
My primary commitment as an academic has always been to teaching, and to scholarship aimed at supporting and enriching teaching. I have designed and run numerous new modules at Bath Spa University, trialling new modes of assessment and patterns of delivery. In doing so, my aim has been to expand the range of abilities, activities and enthusiasms demonstrated by students and evaluated by formal assessment. For example, my 'Poetry' module includes oral presentations and personal anthologies, which help to emphasise the importance of students' own poetic loves, as well as shifting attention from the textual to the aural dimension of poetry. I've used journals, review essays, assessed discussion lists and creative projects to broaden the range of things students can do for credit. Of course, assessment only looks at outcomes, whereas in the classroom, it is the unassessable encounter of motivated students with a well-informed, flexible teacher that really counts...
My research addresses the relationship of nature and culture, predominantly in literature but also in philosophy, film and popular culture. I have written about Romanticism, Irish literature, rhododendrons, DH Lawrence and even the emergence of environmentalism in Nazi ideology! I have benefited immensely from the support and discussion fostered by the 'Writing and the Environment' research group at BSU, in particular my arguments with Richard Kerridge. My monograph survey of 'Ecocriticism' covers wilderness narratives, wildlife documentaries, biosphere theme parks and the image of the Earth from space, besides canonical novels and poetry. It has now been translated into Portuguese, Korean and - in a pirate edition - Cantonese. My most recent research focuses on the intersection of evolutionary psychology, literature and ecocriticism. I hope to identify and develop approaches to literary study that are scientifically literate as well as environmentally sustainable.
My most recent developments in teaching include a module called 'Reading Animals', and a new one on 'Ian McEwan'. Both these developments arise from, and help to enrich, my developing research interests.
In January 2006, I was awarded a Bath Spa Teaching Fellowship in recognition of my work in curriculum development, pedagogical research and promoting excellence in teaching. From June 2006, I have been working as a Senior Teaching Fellow as part of the Artswork Centre for Excellence in Teaching and Learning. This exciting opportunity involves working with students to enhance their employability in creative and cultural industries. Meanwhile I will be continuing to build international relationships in my capacity as Erasmus coordinator for the School.
In September 2006, I was awarded a National Teaching Fellowship by the Higher Education Academy for my work on innovative assessment and education for sustainable development, and my contributions to English pedagogy at the national level. Since then, I have published pedagogical research, and am now editing a book for Palgrave called 'Teaching Ecocriticism and Green Cultural Studies.'
Thanks to the popularity of 'Ecocriticism' I have been fortunate to have been invited to speak at numerous conferences, and have become involved more closely with national and international developments in the field. In my capacity as Chair of the Association for the Study of Literature and the Environment UK, I have designed a new website, pamphlet and poster for the organisation. I have been commissioned to edit the 'Oxford Handbook of Ecocriticism', and am working on a monograph called 'Towards Consilience: Evolution, Ecology and Literary Theory.'
Professional Qualifications:
Membership of Professional Bodies/Subject Associations:
Chair of the Association for the Study of Literature and the Environment
Member of National Teaching Fellows Network and Higher Education Academy
Member of British Association for Literature and Science
Teaching Specialism:
Ecocriticism
Poetry
Canadian Literature, Irish Literature
Ian McEwan, Margaret Atwood
Utopian Fiction
Literary Theory and Philosophy of Literature
Key Publications/Exhibitions/Performances:
'Radical Pastoral ?', Studies in Romanticism, Fall 1996 (Vol. 35, no.3)
'An Absence of Azaleas: Nativity and Exoticism in Romantic Biogeography', Wordsworth Circle, Fall 1997
'Heidegger, Heaney and the Problem of Dwelling', in Writing the Environment, ed. R. Kerridge and N. Sammells, Zed Books 1998
'The Romantics' Views of Nature', in Spirit of the Environment, ed. J. Palmer and D. Cooper, Routledge 1998
'Wordsworth and Thoreau: Two Versions of Pastoral', in Thoreau: The Sense of Place, ed. R. Schneider, University of Iowa Press 2000
'Ecocriticism', Routledge New Critical Idiom 2004
'Ecocritica' (trans. Vera Ribeiro), UnB [Brasilia University Press] 2006
'Poodles and Curs: Eugenic Comedy in Ibsen's "An Enemy of the People"', in 'Culture, Creativity and Environment', ed. T GIfford and F Becket, Rodopi 2007
'Nietzsche, Lawrence and the Ecological Overman', 'Colloquy' journal, Nov 2006, (No. 12)
'Ecocriticism and Education for Sustainable Development', 'Pedagogy' journal, Fall 2007 (Vol.7, no.3)
'Problems Concerning Islands: Ecocriticism and Insular Biogeography', in 'What is the Earthly Paradise?: Ecocritical Responses to the Caribbean', ed C Campbell and E Somerville, Cambridge Scholars Press 2007
'Heidegger Nazism Ecocriticism', in 'Crowded Space', ed. R Kerridge, University of Virginia Press forthcoming
'Ecocriticism', in 'Blackwell Encyclopedia of Literary Theory', ed. R Eaglestone, Blackwell forthcoming
'Reading as an Animal: Ecocriticism and Darwinism in Margaret Atwood and Ian McEwan', in 'Local Natures, Global Responsibilities', ed. L Volkmann et al, Rodopi forthcoming
'Ecocritical Cultural Analysis: Three Hours to Save the World!', in 'The Handbook of Sustainability Literacy', ed A Stibbe, Green Books forthcoming
'Conciliatory Consilience', Indian Journal of Ecocriticism (vol 2), forthcoming
Conferences to which I have been invited:
'Margaret Atwood's Apocalypse', closing plenary at the biennial conference of the Association for the Study of Literature and the Environment (UK), University College Chichester, June 2004
'Nietzsche, Lawrence and the Ecological Overman', closing plenary at the inaugural conference of the Association for the Study of Literature and the Environment (Australia-New Zealand), Monash University, April 2005
'Green Shakespeares', roundtable discussion seminar at the British Shakespeare Association conference, September 2005
'Sustainable Development in English', presentation to English Subject Centre event on sustainability in the Humanities, London, September 2005
'Problems Concerning Islands: Ecocriticism and Insular Biogeography', opening plenary at Caribbean Ecocriticism conference, Warwick University, November 2006
'Human Animals: Modern Theriomorphism and Ecocriticism', opening plenary at 'Discourses of Sustainability' conference at National Taipei University, November 2006
'What is Ecocriticism?', opening plenary at 'Ecocriticism: Nature and Literature' conference at CEMUS, Uppsala University, March 2007
'Reading as an Animal: Atwood, McEwan and Darwin', plenary at 'Local Natures, Global Responsibilities' conference of the Association for the Study of the New Literatures in English, University of Jena, May 2007
'"How with this rage shall beauty hold a plea?": English and Education for Sustainable Development', workshop at English Subject Centre conference 'Renewals: Refiguring English in the 21st Century', Royal Holloway, University of London, July 2007
'Conciliatory Consilience: Darwinism and the Great Web in Ecopoetry', closing plenary at ASLE-UK conference, University of Edinburgh, July 2008
In 2009, I will give plenary lectures on ecocriticism in Holland and Denmark, and will give the opening keynote lecture at the ASLE conference at the University of Victoria, Canada. In September, I will do my first remote lecture in the interests of saving carbon emissions, at a conference in South Africa.
Current Scholarship:
Director of an English Subject Centre-funded project on 'Education for Sustainable Development', and co-author of a report on the same subject commissioned by the HEA.
My recent modules include ones on Margaret Atwood, Ian McEwan and representations of animals.
My academic research at the moment is focused on the intersection of ecocriticism and Darwinism. At the same time, I am working on an application for teaching and learning poetry called 'Poetik'.
External Examiners:
I am external supervisor for Petra Hansson at the University of Upssala, who is writing a PhD on ecocriticism and ESD.
Other External Roles:
I am on the editorial board of the journal 'Green Letters'.
Pedagogical Collaborations:
With University of Liverpool and Falmouth College, University of Exeter, on Education for Sustainable Development project.
With Centre for Employability in the Humanities (CETL), UCLAN, on pedagogical research into employability and work-related learning in the Humanities.
With CAPITAL (CETL), Warwick, on performance-based learning in literature.
With John Clare Trust on development of the poet's house in Helpston into a museum.
Media contribution:
Radio 4 interview, June 2001
Pleasing reviews or citations:
citations in J Bate, The Song of the Earth
Recent Professional Updating:
Conference activity as above.
Regular attendee and contributor to English Subject Centre events such as 'Oral Assessment in a Discursive Discipline' (London, 2001); 'Teaching Theory' (London 2001); 'E-learning: Using VLEs and MLEs' (Bristol 2002); 'Making Assessment Work' (Exeter 2002); 'Studying Poetry' (Hertfordshire 2003); 'Pedagogies of the Text' (Gloucestershire 2006). I have also presented papers on the use of VLEs at the LTSN conference in London and again in Greenwich.
Last Updated: 31 March 2009.
This page is created by the above named individual. The views expressed are theirs and are not those of Bath Spa University. BSU is not responsible for the content of any external sites referenced.
