Biography

My PhD explores the ability of poetry to act as a voice of radical political critique in post-Apartheid South Africa. I focus on experimental and avant-garde poetry with a view towards tackling the complex relationship between poetic form and socioeconomic power. My study is particularly pressing given that the poets I have chosen to highlight are largely overlooked by the commercial publishing industry and mainstream academia. While my project pays specific attention to post-Apartheid South Africa, I ultimately see my research as relevant to other postcolonial and developing milieus in which the formal battles of artists and writers can constitute a resonant mode of protest against an unequal world system. Apart from my doctoral work, I am organising Cambridge's Postcolonial Seminar Series in 2014/ 2015 and welcome all to come along.