Queen Mary’s Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences has invested in several new strategic lectureships. Over the next few weeks we will be featuring each of our new recruits and showcasing their research.
Queen Mary University of London is one of the UK’s leading global universities, highly rated for its teaching and learning, research and innovation, and wide-ranging public engagement.
The Humanities and Social Sciences have been key to establishing Queen Mary’s global reputation and the Faculty Schools regularly appear in subject rankings of the top 50 universities in the world.
Our Centres and Institutes drive Queen Mary’s local, national and global reputation, such as the Centre for the Studies of the Home, the Mile End Institute and the Centre for Commercial Law Studies.
Over the next few weeks we will be introducing each of our new lecturers through a new feature series.
Dr Rachel Bryant-Davies will join Queen Mary’s School of Languages, Linguistics and Film in 2019. She previously lectured at Durham University and recently held a Library Research Fellowship at Princeton. Her research unpacks the repurposing and privileged status of Greco-Roman antiquity to trace how classical knowledge is circulated and transformed.
“I am particularly interested in how everyday encounters with transitory media (such as magazines, toys, and games) intersect with canonical texts to entangle playful, interactive engagement and traditional perceptions of Classics,” said Dr Bryant-Davies.
“I am delighted to been joining Queen Mary’s Department of Comparative Literature and Culture, especially with this exciting opportunity to help develop interdisciplinary conversations at the Institute for the Humanities and Social Sciences. I very much look forward to working with the Centre for the Study of Childhood Culture, and with the many nineteenth-century experts at Queen Mary.”
One of the lesser known facts about Rachel is that as a student she sang on the official soundtracks for The Chronicles of Narnia and Shrek the Third (with the Bach Choir), recorded at the iconic Abbey Road Studios!
Dr Musab Younis was a Lecturer at Cardiff University prior to joining Queen Mary. His research focuses on the intersection of the history of political thought, international relations and critical theory. He is especially interested in nationalism, print cultures, anti-colonialism, post-colonial theory as well as race and racism in a global perspective.
“Going forward, I’m especially excited to work with colleagues across the Faculty on common projects that cross disciplinary boundaries,” he added.
Dr Sydney Calkin was based at Durham University prior to joining Queen Mary. Her research focuses on abortion and reproductive justice. She is particularly interested in how technology is changing the social, political and legal status of abortion as well as the growth of transnational pro-choice networks that use digital technologies to improve abortion access in countries with restrictive laws. Dr Calkin’s previous research explored gender equality initiatives in global development.
Away from work Sydney is passionate about linocut printmaking. “I love Japanese woodblock prints and often spend weekends making linocut prints inspired by Hokusai and Japan,” she explained.
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