Dr Josh Powell

(he/him)

Publication

• Date
• Type

Research

The core aim of my research is to explore how scientific, therapeutic and aesthetic methodologies can inform one another.

I am currently working to this end by developing a monograph on modern fiction’s engagement with the concept of depersonalization (understood as experiences of unreality and detachment from one's 'mind', 'self', 'body', or 'surroundings'). The six chapters of this study take in authors such as Mary Ward, Oscar Wilde, George Moore, Virginia Woolf, Samuel Beckett, Ann Quin, Tsitsi Dangarembga, Philip Roth and Ben Lerner. It will ultimately:

·       Identify the role that experiences of depersonalization have played in shaping modern anglophone literature

·       Set out the ways in which literary accounts of depersonalization can inform psychiatric understandings of the concept

·       Foreground how depersonalization figured in psychological and cultural responses to a range of historical events, including the World Wars and Decolonization

My previous project considered the relationship between Samuel Beckett's literary experiments and the disciplines of experimental psychology and psychotherapy. The project formed the basis of my doctoral research and its finding were shared through a series of publications that culminated in a monograph entitled Samuel Beckett and Experimental Psychology (published by Bloomsbury in January 2020).

Reviews now emerging of the monograph have spoken of 'fascinating insights... convincing... ambitious interpretations (Journal of Beckett Studies) and a 'convincing argument, supported by rich analysis', 'great on the cognitive textures of Beckett's writing' (Journal of French Studies)

Teaching

I am enthusiastic about innovating teaching and assessment practices to ensure Cardiff’s students encounter an interdisciplinary experience that will equip them to be active, ethical and capable agents in a changing world.

I have taught on a wide range of modules at Cardiff, including:

Literature and Science

Modernist Fictions

Gothic Fiction: The Romantic Age

Gothic Fiction: The Victorians

Alfred Hitchcock

Ways of Reading

In my role as Assessment and Feedback lead for ENCAP, I have helped to find novel solutions to negotiate the challenges posed to assessment practices by Covid 19 and the emergence of Generative AI. This has involved helping to revise and implement policy relating to marking, moderation, academic integrity and AI-use at School, College and University level.

I am a fellow of the Higher Education Academy.

Biography

I completed my undergraduate and MA degrees at the University of Reading, before moving to the University of Exeter to begin my PhD in 2015. I completed my PhD in two years of study and began teaching at Cardiff in 2017 on a part-time basis, alongside other teaching posts at Exeter and the University of Bristol. In 2019, I took up a full-time position as a Lecturer in English Literature at Cardiff. In this role I have focused on delivering outstanding teaching across a wide variety of modules; furthering Cardiff’s research expertise in the relationship between the humanities and sciences; adapting our teaching and assessment practices for the emerging challenges of the twenty-first century.

Academic positions

• Lecturer in English Literature at Cardiff University (August 2019-Present)
• Teacher in English Literature at Cardiff University (September 2017-July 2019)
• Assistant Teacher in English at the University of Bristol (January 2018-June 2019)
• Graduate Teaching Assistant/ Occasional Teacher in English at the University of Exeter (January 2015-June 2018)

Supervisions

I am interested in supervising PhD students in the areas of:

• Samuel Beckett studies
• Modernist Literature
• Literature and Psychology
• Philip Roth studies
• Gothic literature

Current supervision

Serkie Marchant