PhD Studentship : Haunting Ecocides: Gothic Narratives of Environmental Crimes

Haunting Ecocides, an interdisciplinary funded PhD Scholarship at the University of Greenwich, is an exceptional opportunity for cutting-edge interdisciplinary research with world-leading experts in the fields of literature and criminology.

The project  centres on discussion of narratives of sites haunted by ecological degradation that combine criminology and (especially Gothic) literary study. The supervisors will be Professor Andrew King, Dr Michael Fiddler and Dr Fiona Snailham.

While calls to define ecocide as a crime are ongoing, the idea of ecocide as a moral crime long predates the twenty-first century in both fiction and non-fiction. Such stories – fictional, journalistic, even documentary - often involve a supernatural force haunting the destroyed area and in turn destroying those who later make incursions into it. Such narratives have informed laws which, while not necessarily invoking supernatural agency openly, are nonetheless underpinned by related metaphysical suppositions about justice. Their investigation is thus related to what Fiddler calls “ghost criminology.”

The project will focus not only on the haunting that stories about damage to nature use to communicate moral and legal economies and encourage their investigation, but also the ghostly recurrence of these tropes over time from Greek myth to William Morris, H.G. Wells and Jeff VanderMeer. Crucial will be how discourses of gender, class and race are mobilised in these narratives to underpin the moral and legal economies they illustrate. The changing nature of, and relationships between, these discourses across time and place along with the interdependencies between law and narrative will be core to the enquiry.

Successful candidates will be required to undertake original and innovative archival research, to assist in the organisation of a related academic conference and to disseminate their work through publication, seminars and conferences as well as through impactful public-facing activities such as the curation of an exhibition and the generation of online videos.

Applicants should have a 1st or 2.1 at an undergraduate level and preferably an MA in a relevant discipline.

Informal enquiries are encouraged: contact Andrew King at a.king@gre.ac.uk.

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