Post-Colonial Literatures Research Group

Postgraduates

Since the Group’s inception, a number of students have completed PhDs on topics in postcolonial literature. Topics have included:

• The poetry of Derek Walcott
• The plays of Wole Soyinka and Zakes Mda
• The novels of Patrick White and Peter Carey and the paintings of Sidney Nolan
• Boundary Relations: a comparative analysis of the poetry and fiction of David Arnason and Michael Ondaatje.

At present, the following PhD students are under supervision from members of the Group, or have recently submitted their doctoral theses for examination:

Ole Birk Laursen, ‘Contemporary Black and Asian British Women’s Life Writing’; also working on the database for Making Britain: South Asian Visions of Home and Abroad (1870-1950)

Richard Lee, ‘Women and Partition: Indian and Pakistani Novels of the Mid to Late 20th Century’

Shane Malhotra, ‘Close to the Edge: Containment and Contagion at the Frontier of Empire, 1839-1939’

There is a lively and supportive postgraduate research culture at the Open University, and applications to study for a PhD in Postcolonial Literatures are warmly invited. Students wishing to apply may also gain from working alongside established and ongoing research projects, such as The Colonial and Postcolonial History of the Book, and Making Britain. Supervision has also been provided to students visiting from overseas such as through the Commonwealth Fellowships Scheme run by the Association of Commonwealth Universities.