University Lecturer in Literature and Film
Biographical Information
I read English at Clare College, Cambridge, graduating in 1998. I went on to gain an M.A. in Philosophy and Literature from the University of Warwick in 1999 and a D.Phil. in English from the University of Sussex in 2004. I taught at the University of St Andrews for eight years, from 2006-2014, first as a Lecturer and then Senior Lecturer in Contemporary Literature. I took up my present post as University Lecturer in Literature and Film in the English Faculty at Cambridge in 2014. I am currently seconded to the Leverhulme Center for the Future of Intelligence as Director of the AI: Narratives and Justice programme.
I am a member of the Faculty of English's Contemporaries research group and the interdisciplinary Cambridge Centre for Film and Screen. More widely, I am the General Editor of the book series Gylphi Contemporary Writers: Critical Essays and Chair of the British Association for Contemporary Literary Studies. I also serve on the editorial boards of C21: Journal of Twenty-First Century Writing and Fantastika.
BBC Broadcasting and Partnership:
In 2013 I was selected as an Arts and Humanities Research Council & BBC Radio 3 New Generation Thinker. I now broadcast regularly on BBC Radio 3 and Radio 4, presenting Literary Pursuits on Radio 3, and Close Reading on Radio 4’s Open Book. I also brokered and manage the University of Cambridge's partnership with the BBC on the National Short Story Award, and with the BBC and First Story on the Young Writers' Award and Student Critics' Award.
Details of all my public and media activities can be found on my website and blog.
Contact Details
Faculty of English
9 West Road
Cambridge
CB3 9DP
Email: sjd27@cam.ac.uk
Tel: 01223 (7) 67325