Philippa Fincher

(she/her)

BA and MA

Overview

I began my PhD studies in October 2021, supervised by Dr Becky Munford and Dr Carrie Smith. My thesis examines contemporary feminist discourses in popular literature, TV, podcasts, and other popular media forms, through analysing narratives of women's friendships in these texts. I have written on the ways feminist podcasts such as The Guilty Feminist and Sentimental Garbage place contrasting feminist discourses in conversation with each other, and I am currently writing about how popular fiction writers such as Holly Bourne, Lara Williams and Candice Carty-Williams use their fiction to narrativise contemporary feminist debates. 

I completed my MA in Comparative Literatures and Cultures at the University of Bristol (2017-2018). There, I studied 19th Century European Literature and 20th Century African Literature, alongside 21st Century digitial cultues and litertuares, before completing my dissertation, a comparative analysis of how England's Jane Austen and Germany's Theodor Fontane used Realist literature to challenge the position of women in their respective societies. 

Alongside my PhD research, I am a Teaching Associate in English Literature. This year I am teaching on the first-year UG modules Critical Reading and Critical Writing, and Ways of Reading. In addition, I am running a workshop on Feminism in contemporary popular culture for the ENCAP Reading Week Festival.