Skip to main content

Professor Neil Badmington

(he/him)

BA (Exeter), MA, PhD (Wales)

Users
Available for postgraduate supervision

Teams and roles for Neil Badmington

Overview

I am Head of Subject for English Literature and Creative Writing. I was educated at the University of Exeter, the University of California, and Cardiff University, and I have taught here since 1999.

In my previous role of Director of Studies for English Literature and Creative Writing (2022-24), I led the redesign and revalidation of our nine BA and three MA programmes in the two disciplines. This involved working closely with colleagues from other subjects across the humanities on a wide range of joint-honours undergraduate programmes. This leadership role led to my appointment in 2024 to the University-wide Programme Approval and Revalidation Sub-committee.

I do not use any kind of personal social media, and my Cardiff University email address is the only one that I have.

Research

My research interests include:

  • Contemporary literature.
  • The study of literature and other cultural forms within the broader context of the humanities.
  • Film and visual culture.
  • Literary and cultural theory.
  • The films of Alfred Hitchcock.
  • The work of Roland Barthes.
  • Creative criticism.

I am the author of four books, editor of over twenty volumes, and author of many essays. I write regularly for the Times Literary Supplement. My most recent book, Perpetual Movement: Alfred Hitchcock's Rope, was published by State University of New York Press in July 2021 as part of the Horizons of Cinema series edited by Murray Pomerance; a paperback edition was published in January 2022. I am currently working on two books: a creative-critical project titled Guided by Barthes and a monograph called Majors and Minors in Hitchcock that is under contract with State University of New York Press. Please click on ‘Publications’ (above) for more detailed information about my work.

I welcome queries from potential PhD students whose plans overlap with any of my research interests.

Other academic activities

I am the founding editor of the open-access academic journal Barthes Studies.

From 2013 until 2018 I was co-editor (first with David Tucker, then with Emma Mason) of The Year's Work in Critical and Cultural Theory. This journal is published by Oxford University Press for the English Association.

I have acted as undergraduate and postgraduate External Examiner at the University of Cambridge, Durham University, the University of Sussex, Goldsmiths University, Lancaster University, the University of Malta, Middlesex University, and the University of Warwick.

As part of the Welsh Government's Knowledge Transfer Scheme, I have worked on several occasions with St. David's Sixth-form College, Cardiff, on the teaching of film studies and media studies. I have also worked with Whitmore High School, Barry, as part of their Aspire project for students with an interest in film.

Since 2018 I've collaborated on numerous occasions with Snowcat Cinema to run public screenings and discussions of Alfred Hitchcock's films.

I have been an external assessor for the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (Canada) and the Fonds voor Wetenschappelijk Onderzoek (Belgium), and I was appointed expert étranger for a panel of the Agence d'évaluation de la recherche de l'enseignement supérieur (AERES) assessing the quality of research at University of Paris III-Sorbonne Nouvelle, University of Paris XIII-Villetaneuse, and University of Paris-Dauphine.

 

Publication

2025

  • Badmington, N. 2025. What makes Anthony adverse?. In: Palmer, R. B. and Pomerance, M. eds. Mervyn LeRoy Comes to Town. Rutgers University Press, pp. TBC-TBC.

2024

2023

2022

2021

2020

2019

2018

2017

2016

2015

2014

2013

2012

2011

2010

2009

  • Badmington, N. 2009. Blade Runner's blade runners. Semiotica 173, pp. 471-489. (10.1515/SEMI.2009.022)
  • Badmington, N. 2009. Babelation. In: Callus, I. and Herbrechter, S. eds. Cy-Borges: Memories of the Posthuman in the Work of Jorge Luis Borges. Lewisburg: Bucknell University Press, pp. 60-72.
  • Badmington, N. 2009. L'encroyable Roland Barthes. In: Badir, S. and Ducard, D. eds. Roland Barthes en cours (1977-1980): Un style de vie. Dijon: Editions Universitaires de Dijon, pp. 145-52.
  • Badmington, N. 2009. Introduction. In: Lavers, A. ed. Roland Barthes: Mythologies. London: Vintage, pp. ix-xiv.

2008

2007

2006

2005

2004

2003

2002

2001

2000

1999

1998

1995

Articles

Book sections

  • Badmington, N. 2025. What makes Anthony adverse?. In: Palmer, R. B. and Pomerance, M. eds. Mervyn LeRoy Comes to Town. Rutgers University Press, pp. TBC-TBC.
  • Badmington, N. 2022. How the Words Appear (Review of Laurence Simmons, Zizek Through Hitchcock [Palgrave, 2021]). In: Gottlieb, S. ed. Hitchcock Annual: Volume 25., Vol. 25. Columbia University Press, pp. 213-221.
  • Badmington, N. 2022. Foreword. In: Poststructuralism: A Very Short Introduction, 2nd edition (by Catherine Belsey). Oxford University Press, pp. xvii-xviii., (10.1093/actrade/9780198859963.002.0006)
  • Badmington, N. 2021. Brief scenes: Roland Barthes and the essay. In: Aquilina, M. ed. The Essay at the Limits: Poetics, Politics and Form. London and New York: Bloomsbury, pp. 49-62.
  • Badmington, N. 2021. Approaching posthumanism. In: Sampanikou, E. D. and Stasienko, J. eds. Posthuman Studies Reader: Core Readings on Transhumanism, Posthumanism and Metahumanism., Vol. 2. Posthuman Studies Basel: Schwabe Verlag, pp. 167-174.
  • Badmington, N. 2017. Preface. In: Bennett, P. and McDougall, J. eds. Popular Culture and the Austerity Myth: Hard Times Today. Routledge Research in Cultural and Media Studies Routledge, pp. xv-xvi.
  • Badmington, N. 2017. Bored with Barthes: ennui in China. In: Badmington, N. ed. Deliberations: The Journals of Roland Barthes. Routledge, pp. 101-121.
  • Badmington, N. 2014. General introduction. In: Badmington, N. ed. Alfred Hitchcock: Volume I. Critical Evaluations of Leading Film-makers London: Routledge, pp. 1-6.
  • Badmington, N. 2014. Chronological table. In: Badmington, N. ed. Alfred Hitchcock: Volume I. Critical Evaluations of Leading Film-makers London: Routledge, pp. xiii-xix.
  • Badmington, N. 2014. SpectRebecca. In: Badmington, N. ed. Alfred Hitchcock: Volume IV. Critical Evaluations of Leading Film-makers London: Routledge, pp. 233-249.
  • Badmington, N. 2013. Kültürel Çalışmalar ve Post-İnsan Bimleri. In: Hall, G. and Birchall, C. eds. Yeni Kültürel Çalışmalar : Kuramsal Serüvenler. Kitap, pp. 379-395.
  • Badmington, N. 2011. Posthumanism. In: Booker, M. K. and Ryan, M. eds. The Encyclopedia of Literary and Cultural Theory. Volume III: Cultural Theory. Oxford: Blackwell, pp. 1212-1216.
  • Badmington, N. 2010. The 'Inkredible' Roland Barthes. In: Badmington, N. ed. Roland Barthes: Critical Evaluations in Cultural Theory., Vol. 2. London: Routledge, pp. 371-9.
  • Badmington, N. 2010. Posthumanism. In: Clarke, B. and Rossini, M. eds. The Routledge Companion to Literature and Science. Routledge, pp. 374-384.
  • Badmington, N. 2009. Babelation. In: Callus, I. and Herbrechter, S. eds. Cy-Borges: Memories of the Posthuman in the Work of Jorge Luis Borges. Lewisburg: Bucknell University Press, pp. 60-72.
  • Badmington, N. 2009. L'encroyable Roland Barthes. In: Badir, S. and Ducard, D. eds. Roland Barthes en cours (1977-1980): Un style de vie. Dijon: Editions Universitaires de Dijon, pp. 145-52.
  • Badmington, N. 2009. Introduction. In: Lavers, A. ed. Roland Barthes: Mythologies. London: Vintage, pp. ix-xiv.
  • Badmington, N. 2007. I ain't got no body: Lyotard and Le Genre of posthumanism. In: Margret, G. ed. Gender After Lyotard. State University of New York Press, pp. 27-45.
  • Badmington, N. 2006. Cultural studies and the posthumanities. In: Hall, G. and Birchall, C. eds. New Cultural Studies. Edinburgh University Press, pp. 260-272.
  • Badmington, N. 2005. Posthumanism. In: Malpas, S. and Wake, P. eds. The Routledge Companion to Critical Theory. Routledge, pp. 240-241.
  • Badmington, N. 2004. Roswell High, alien chic, and the in/human. In: Davis, G. and Dickinson, K. eds. Teen TV: Genre, Consumption and Identity. BFI, pp. 166-176.
  • Badmington, N. 2001. Jean Baudrillard. In: Pearson, R. E. and Simpson, P. eds. Critical Dictionary of Film and Television Theory. Routledge, pp. 42-42.
  • Badmington, N. 2001. Ernesto Laclau. In: Pearson, R. E. and Simpson, P. eds. Critical Dictionary of Film and Television Theory. Routledge, pp. 257-258.
  • Badmington, N. 2001. Metanarrative. In: Pearson, R. E. and Simpson, P. eds. Critical Dictionary of Film and Television Theory. London: Routledge, pp. 280-280.
  • Badmington, N. 2000. Mirror stage. In: Pearson, R. E. and Simpson, P. eds. Critical Dictionary of Film and Television Theory. London: Routledge, pp. 283-283.
  • Badmington, N. 2000. Parole. In: Pearson, R. E. and Simpson, P. eds. Critical Dictionary of Film and Television Theory. London: Routledge, pp. 320-321.
  • Badmington, N. 2000. Posthumanist (com)promises: diffracting Donna Haraway's Cyborg through Marge Piercy's Body of Glass. In: Badmington, N. ed. Posthumanism. Readers in Cultural Criticism Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan, pp. 85-97.
  • Badmington, N. 2000. Disclosure's disclosure. In: Lay, F. and West, R. eds. Subverting masculinity: hegemonic and alternative versions of masculinity in contemporary culture. Rodopi, pp. 94-105.
  • Badmington, N. 1995. Cruising the information superhighway: Computer-mediated communication, cultural landscapes, and the struggle over meaning. In: Gidley, M. and Lawson-Peebles, R. eds. Modern American Landscapes. Amsterdam: VU University Press, pp. 275-291.

Books

Websites

Research

Research interests

My research interests include:

  • Contemporary literature.
  • The study of literature and other cultural forms within the broader context of the humanities.
  • Film and visual culture.
  • Literary and cultural theory.
  • The films of Alfred Hitchcock.
  • The work of Roland Barthes.
  • Creative criticism.

I welcome queries from potential PhD students whose plans overlap with any of my listed interests.

Research projects (present and past)

I am currently working on the following:

  • Majors and Minors in Hitchcock – a book that's under contract with SUNY Press, New York, for the Horizons of Cinema series edited by Murray Pomerance.
  • Guided by Barthes – a book-length creative-critical project that takes the work of Roland Barthes as its guide.
  • Volume 11 of Barthes Studies. This volume will be published on 12 November 2025.
  • An essay on Hitchcock's The Birds.

Recently completed projects include:

  • A book titled Perpetual Movement: Alfred Hitchcock's Rope for the Horizons of Cinema series edited by Murray Pomerance for SUNY Press, New York. This is the first book-length study of Rope to be published in English, and it makes extensive original use of archival materials held in the Warner Bros. Archive in Los Angeles and at the Margaret Herrick Library, Beverly Hills. The book was published in hardback in July 2021 and in paperback in January 2022.
  • Volume 10 of Barthes Studies. This special issue titled 'Preparations', guest-edited by Kate Briggs and Sunil Manghani, was published on 12 November 2024.
  • Seeing through to publication the second edition of Catherine Belsey's Poststructuralism: A Very Short Introduction. Kate was making her final alterations to this book when she was hospitalised in late 2020; she died in February 2021. At the request of her family, I finalised the text for publication using two sources: a file from Kate’s computer and a typescript with handwritten annotations that was found on her desk. The book was published by Oxford University Press in August 2022.
  • 'What Makes Anthony Adverse?' – an essay for a collection titled Mervyn LeRoy Comes to Town, edited by Murray Pomerance and R. Barton Palmer for Rutgers University Press. This volume is in press and will be published in May 2025.
  • An essay on Alfred Hitchcock's Rope for a collection titled Re-Viewing Hitchcock: New Critical Perspectives, edited by Robert E. Kapsis for Bloomsbury/BFI. This volume is in press and should be out in late 2025.
  • A short piece for Talia Lavin's The Sword and the Sandwich newsletter about how the work of Roland Barthes can help us to address one of the great unresolved philosophical questions of our time: is the hot dog a sandwich?
  • A review of Roland Barthes's all except you (translated into English by Joe Milutis) for the Times Literary Supplement. This piece was published in the paper on 20 October 2023. An online version was published as 'Reaching the Tortoise' on the same day.
  • A review of Roland Barthes's Évocations et Incantations dans la tragédie grecque for the Times Literary Supplement. This piece was published in the paper on 23 June 2023. An online version was published as 'Rehearsing His Lines' on the same day.
  • 'Roland Barthes in English: A Guide to Translations'. This regularly updated 12,000-word open-access reference resource provides details of all of the English translations of the work of Roland Barthes.

 

Teaching

In the spring 2025 semester I'm solely responsible for the first-year core module Ways of Reading.

 

Biography

Biography

After attending my local comprehensive school in the Welsh borderlands, I became the first person in my family to attend university when I went to Exeter to study American and Commonwealth Arts (1990-94). A year abroad at the University of California in 1992-93 introduced me in detail for the first time to critical and cultural theory, and I went on to study for an MA (1994-95) and PhD (1995-98) in this field at Cardiff University, with funding from the British Academy and under the supervision of Catherine Belsey. (My obituaries for Catherine Belsey, co-authored with Julia Thomas, are available on the Cardiff University website and in the Guardian, and a more personal piece about what she meant to me is available here.)

After completing my PhD in late 1998, I was appointed to the department.

Education and qualifications

1995-98: PhD, Cardiff University. (British Academy Studentship.) Supervisor: Catherine Belsey.

1994-95: MA in Critical and Cultural Theory, Cardiff University. (British Academy Studentship.)

1992-93: University of California, Santa Cruz.

1990-94: BA in American and Commonwealth Arts, University of Exeter. Class I. Winner, Exeter  Literary Society Prize, 1994. Winner, David Henderson Award, 1994.

1982-89: King Henry VIII Comprehensive School, Abergavenny.

Academic positions

  • 2015-present: Professor of English Literature, Cardiff University
  • 2009-2015: Reader in English Literature, Cardiff University
  • 2005-2009: Senior Lecturer in English Literature, Cardiff University
  • 2001-2005: Lecturer (B) in English Literature, Cardiff University
  • 1999-2001: Lecturer (A) in English Literature, Cardiff University
  • 1998-1999: Hourly paid Associate Lecturer in English Literature, Cardiff University

Speaking engagements

·      ‘In the Garden with Annie Hayworth’, HitchCon23 conference, Mercy College, New York.

·      ‘Sixty Years of The Birds’. Introduction to a special anniversary screening of Alfred Hitchcock’s The Birds, Snowcat Cinema, Penarth.

·      Introduction to a screening of Alfred Hitchcock’s Notorious, Snowcat Cinema, Penarth.

·      ‘Brief Scenes: Roland Barthes and the Essay’. Keynote lecture at The Essay: Present Histories, Present Futures conference, University of Malta.

·      ‘Rope at 70’. Introduction to a special anniversary screening of Alfred Hitchcock’s Rope, Snowcat Cinema, Penarth.

·      ‘Hitchcock, Horror, Sound’, St. David’s Sixth-form College, Cardiff.

·      Workshop on academic editing University of Ghent, Belgium.

·      ‘For Henriette’s Tomb: Barthes, Mourning, Mallarmé’, University of Malta.

·      ‘For Henriette’s Tomb: Barthes, Mourning, Mallarmé’, Cambridge University.

·      ‘For Henriette’s Tomb: Barthes, Mourning, Mallarmé’, Cardiff University.

·      ‘Roland Barthes at 100: The Death of the Author’, Newport and Gwent Literary Society.

·      Conference organiser, Roland Barthes at 100, Cardiff University.

·      ‘For Henriette’s Tomb: Barthes, Mallarmé, Mourning’, University of Leeds.

·      ‘Bored with Barthes’, Centre for Modern European Literature, University of Kent.

·      ‘The Bothersome Details of the World: Admiral Byrd, Little America, and the Problem of Retreat’, Institute of North American Studies, King’s College London.

·      ‘Punctum Saliens: Barthes, Mourning, Film, Photography’, Cardiff University.

·      ‘Adapting Rebecca’, World Book Night event, Cardiff University.

·      ‘Stories of “O”: Hitchcock, Herrmann, and The Man Who Knew Too Much’, York St. John University.

·      Conference organiser (with Laurent Milesi), Zoontotechnics (Animality/Technicity), Cardiff University.

·      ‘Posthumanimals’, Concordia University, Montreal.

·      Conference organiser (with Jürgen Pieters), Literature and Culture: The Work of Catherine Belsey, University of Ghent, Belgium.

·      ‘Danger! Keep Out! Exploring Culture with Catherine Belsey’, University of Ghent, Belgium.

·      ‘Posthumanimals: The Debt to Animal Studies’, plenary address, British Animal Studies Network.

·      ‘Towards the Posthumanities’, Lancaster University.

·      ‘Ps/zycho: Hitchcock’s Magic’, Cardiff University.

·      ‘The Encredible Roland Barthes’, University of Ghent, Belgium.

·      ‘Towards the Posthumanities’, Society for Literature and Science in the Arts, Chicago.

·      ‘“…a drowning of the human in the physical”’: Jonathan Franzen and the Corrections of Humanism’, Rothermere American Institute, University of Oxford.

·      Discussant, Life Sciences conference, Queen Mary, University of London.

·      Discussant, Biological Bodies conference, Queen Mary, University of London.

·      ‘Alien Chic: Fashions in Supernatural Belief’, Rugby School, Warwickshire.

 

·      ‘Mapping Posthumanism’, keynote address at the annual conference of the Royal Geographical Society/Institute of British Geographers, Imperial College, London.

·      ‘Nanterre, Here, Now, Encore: Fukuyama’s Furphy’, University of Paris X.

·      ‘Alien Chic; or, How We (Never Really) Learned to Stop Worrying and Love E.T.’, University of Ghent, Belgium.

·      ‘Posthuman, All Too Human’, University of Paris VII.

·      ‘Alien Chic; or, How We (Never Really) Learned to Stop Worrying and Love E.T.’, Cardiff University.

·      ‘The Cultural Context of the Post/Human’, Centre for Religion, Culture and Gender, University of Manchester.

·      Respondent, ‘The values of sex, gender, sexuality in posthumanist virtual realities’ seminar, Marc Bloch University of Strasbourg.

·      ‘Stepping Beyond Anthropocentrism’, University of Exeter.

·      Conference organiser (with Jean-Jacques Lecercle), Ethics and Politics: The Work of Alain Badiou, Cardiff University.

·      ‘Marx and Daughters: Donna Haraway’s Marxism’, Cardiff University.

·      ‘Alien Chic, Posthumanism and Globalization’, Kingston University.

·      ‘Who’s Afraid of Pierre Macherey?’, University of Paris X.

·      ‘Theorizing Posthumanism’, University of Oxford.

·      ‘Approaching Posthumanism’, University of Birmingham.

·      ‘Approaching Posthumanism’, University of Warwick.

·      ‘Pod Almighty!; or, the Strange Postmodernity of Don Siegel’s Invasion of the Body Snatchers’, University of Birmingham.

·      ‘Blade Runner: The Future is Now’, University of Exeter.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Committees and reviewing

I am the founding editor of the journal Barthes Studies and a member of the editorial/advisory panels of:

I am a member of the Northern Theory School and an advisor to the Critical Posthumanism Network.

Supervisions

I welcome applications or informal queries relating to PhD supervision in research areas which overlap with my own:

  • Contemporary literature.
  • The study of literature and other cultural forms within the broader context of the humanities.
  • Film and visual culture.
  • Literary and cultural theory.
  • The films of Alfred Hitchcock.
  • The work of Roland Barthes.
  • Creative criticism.

Past projects

  • Jacob Wilson, Katabasis and Self as Point of View: Crafting the Reader, an Affective Experience (co-supervision with Tristan Hughes).
  • Rodolfo Piskorski da Silva, Of Zoogrammatology. (Fully funded by Coordenacao De Aperfeicoamento De Pessoal Nivel Superior, Brazilian federal government.) 
  • Callie Gardner, Roland Barthes and English-language Avant-Garde Poetry, 1970-1990. (AHRC funding.) 
  • Jessica George, Deadly Light: Machen, Lovecraft and Evolutionary Theory.
  • Angus McBlane, Embodiment in the ‘Flesh’: A Critical Posthuman Account of Embodiment. 
  • Rhys Tranter, Ill Seen Ill Said: Trauma, Representation and Subjectivity  in Samuel Beckett’s Post-war Writing. (AHRC funding.)
  • Étienne Poulard, Untimely Aesthetics: Shakespeare, Anachronism and Presence. (AHRC funding; co-supervision with Melanie Bigold.) 
  • Erica Brown Moore, Practising the Posthumanities: Evolutionary Animals, Machines and the Posthuman in the Fiction of J.G. Ballard and Kurt Vonnegut.
  • James Aubrey, The Literature of Replenishment: The Novels of Umberto Eco and J.M. Coetzee and John Barth’s Definition of Postmodernist Fiction.
  • Jessica Mordsley, The Animal in Differance: Tracing the Boundaries of the human in Post-Darwinian culture. (AHRC funding.)

Contact Details

Email Badmington@cardiff.ac.uk
Telephone +44 29208 76255