Comparatively Speaking

A BCLA EARLY CAREER RESEARCHERS PROJECT

Comparatively Speaking Interviews

The “Comparatively Speaking” questionnaire delves into the exciting new research being undertaken by early career comparatists. The project aims to light on emerging trends and direction in the field of Comparative Literature and promotes the ground-breaking work by scholars who cross disciplinary boundaries. It also aims to build an inclusive and supportive community of researchers who share their thoughts, insights and experiences with each other.

If BCLA Members would like to be considered for an interview, you can submit a request here.

Filters

Position

University

Nazry Bahrawi

Position:

Senior Lecturer

University:

Singapore University of Technology and Design

Bio:

Nazry Bahrawi is a senior lecturer of comparative and world literature at Singapore University of Technology and Design. His research explores Malay-Indonesian textual and non-material cultures in maritime Southeast Asia in light of race and ethnicity, poetics and literary theory as well as translation and adaptation studies. He has published in these areas in peer-reviewed journals and edited volumes. Nazry serves on the editorial board for the literary magazines, Wasafiri (UK) and PR&TA (Singapore).

Doriane Zerka

Position:

Early Career Fellowship

University:

University of Cambridge

Bio:

Doriane Zerka holds an Early Career Fellowship with the Leverhulme Trust and Isaac Newton Trust, hosted by the Faculty of Medieval and Modern Languages and Linguistics at the University of Cambridge. Her work focuses on comparative medieval literature, perceptions of alterity and gender, and the mobility of cultural production in the medieval world, with a particular emphasis on the German and Iberian contexts. She holds a PhD in German and Hispanic Studies from King’s College London, an MPhil in European Literature and Culture from the University of Cambridge and a BA in German and Hispanic Studies (European Studies) from Queen Mary, University of London. After completing her doctoral studies in 2019, she worked as Lecturer in German for Queen Mary, University of London before returning to Cambridge in 2020. Her doctoral thesis analysed representations of Iberia and the construction of identities in medieval German literature and is currently being revised for publication in 2022 with Legenda under the title Imagining Iberia in Medieval German Literature, while her current research questions the role of women as transcultural agents in the formation of a network of ‘European’ literature in the premodern world.

Alessia Zinnari

Position:

Lecturer in Italian

University:

University of Glasgow

Bio:

Alessia Zinnari is Lecturer in Italian at the University of Glasgow, where she has also taught Spanish and Comparative Literature. She obtained her PhD at the University of Glasgow in August 2020. Her thesis, entitled ‘Mental Illness, Women’s Writing and Liminality: A Comparative Study of Leonora Carrington and Alda Merini’, is grounded in feminist theory and focuses on the works that the two authors produced as a result of their experiences of hospitalisation in psychiatric institutions. In 2020, Alessia contributed to the edited collection Leonora Carrington: Living Legacies (Vernon Press) with a chapter on Carrington’s liminal journey in Down Below. Her most recent publication is an article titled ‘Alda Merini’s Memoir: Psychiatric Hospitalisation, Institutional Violence and the Politicization of Illness in 20th Century Italy’ (Journal of Trauma & Dissociation). Alessia's research interests include women's writing and art, life writing studies, trauma studies and the medical humanities.

Comparatively Speaking

A BCLA EARLY CAREER RESEARCHERS PROJECT