Key details
Richard Clesham
PhD Researcher
After completing my BA in Politics and Philosophy at the University of Sheffield in 2013, I returned to academic study in 2021 on a part-time basis at Birkbeck College, University of London. My MA was in Comparative Literature and Cultural Studies, with a dissertation on necrowriting and disappropriation in the border novel.
Invigorated by the MA experience I wanted to continue with academia and secured a place on the PhD here at the University of Greenwich in 2024.
My research interests include hauntology, ecoGothic, science fiction, folk horror and how narratives can challenge the status quo and engage us with the more-than-human world.
Outside of academia, I worked in publishing for the best part of a decade and have worked-and volunteered-with community cinemas for many years. I am based in Sheffield, on the doorstep of the Peak District.
Awards
VC Research Scholarship, 2024-7
Peter H Nidditch Prize in Philosophy, 2013
Research / Scholarly interests
Haunting Ecocides – my thesis will look at how narrative fiction, particularly Weird and speculative fiction, can overcome representational challenges of climate disaster and ecological destruction. It will analyse texts that portray sites of ecocide and interspecies entanglement, paying particular attention to representations of haunting and disturbed landscapes.