Cardiff School of English Communication and Philosophy

PhD Research

My thesis, entitled ‘The Highs and Lows of Modernism: A Cultural Deconstruction’, aims to interrogate the high/middle/low (brow) culture divide, examining whether this trichotomy truly describes modern(ist) texts and practices, and considering new, more productive ways of refiguring the relationship between high, middle and low culture.

Supervisor: Dr Laurent Milesi

Academic Background

MA in Critical and Cultural Theory (Distinction), Cardiff University, 2011
BA in English Literature and Cultural Criticism (1st Class Hons.), Cardiff University, 2009

Publications

'A Modern(ist) Mode: Fashion, 1910 and the Limits of Modernism', Word and Text 1.2 (2011)

Conferences, Symposia and Seminars

Conference papers:

'Battle of the Brows': Cultural Stratification in Modern Britain, 1867-1948, at New Work in Modernist Studies, Institute of English Studies, University of London, December 2011

A Modern(ist) Mode: Fashion in 1910, at BAMS 1910 Centenary Conference, University of Glasgow, December 2010

This is My Life: Kay Boyle and Modernist Autobiographics, at 'No Hawkers No Models': The Vicissitudes of the Modernist Muse, University of Westminister, June 2010

I also chaired a panel on Djuna Barnes at the 1910 Centenary conference in Glasgow, December 2010, and have attended numerous modernism conferences, including the EAM Conference on High and Low in Poznan, September 2010.

I am the principal organiser of the upcoming Alternative Modernisms conference, the founder of the Welsh Network of Modernist Studies [link] and a member of the British Network of Modernist Studies (BAMS).

Links

Webpage: http://cardiff.academia.edu/EmmaWest