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Professor Neil Badmington

(he/him)

BA (Exeter), MA, PhD (Wales)

Professor

School of English, Communication and Philosophy

Email
Badmington@cardiff.ac.uk
Telephone
+44 29208 76255
Users
Available for postgraduate supervision

Overview

I am Professor of English Literature and have taught at Cardiff University since 1999. I was educated at the University of Exeter, the University of California, and Cardiff University. My pronouns are he/him.

I am Director of Studies for English Literature and Creative Writing.

I am the author of four books, editor of over twenty volumes, and author of many essays. I write regularly for the Times Literary Supplement. My most recent book, Perpetual Movement: Alfred Hitchcock's Rope, was published by State University of New York Press in July 2021 as part of the Horizons of Cinema series edited by Murray Pomerance; a paperback edition was published in January 2022. Please click on ‘Publications’ (above) for more detailed information about my work.

I do not use any kind of personal social media, and my Cardiff University email address is the only one that I have.

Research interests

  • Film, particularly the work of Alfred Hitchcock.
  • Contemporary writing, especially American.
  • Poststructuralist critical and cultural theory, with an emphasis upon the work of Roland Barthes.
  • Creative criticism.
  • Postmodern culture.

I welcome queries from potential PhD students whose plans overlap with any of my listed interests.

Academic activities

I am the founding editor of the online academic journal Barthes Studies.

From 2013 until 2018 I was co-editor (first with David Tucker, then with Emma Mason) of The Year's Work in Critical and Cultural Theory. This journal is published by Oxford University Press for the English Association.

I have acted as undergraduate and postgraduate External Examiner at the University of Cambridge, Durham University, the University of Sussex, Goldsmiths University, Lancaster University, the University of Malta, Middlesex University, and the University of Warwick.

As part of the Welsh Government's Knowledge Transfer Scheme, I have worked with St. David's Sixth-form College, Cardiff, on the teaching of film studies and media studies. I have also worked with Whitmore High School, Barry, as part of their Aspire project for students with an interest in film.

 

Publication

2023

2022

2021

2020

2019

2018

2017

2016

2015

2014

2013

2012

2011

2010

2009

  • Badmington, N. 2009. Blade Runner's blade runners. Semiotica 173, pp. 471-489. (10.1515/SEMI.2009.022)
  • Badmington, N. 2009. Babelation. In: Callus, I. and Herbrechter, S. eds. Cy-Borges: Memories of the Posthuman in the Work of Jorge Luis Borges. Lewisburg: Bucknell University Press, pp. 60-72.
  • Badmington, N. 2009. L'encroyable Roland Barthes. In: Badir, S. and Ducard, D. eds. Roland Barthes en cours (1977-1980): Un style de vie. Dijon: Editions Universitaires de Dijon, pp. 145-52.
  • Badmington, N. 2009. Introduction. In: Lavers, A. ed. Roland Barthes: Mythologies. London: Vintage, pp. ix-xiv.

2008

2007

2006

2005

2004

2003

2002

2001

2000

1999

1998

1995

Articles

Book sections

  • Badmington, N. 2022. How the Words Appear (Review of Laurence Simmons, Zizek Through Hitchcock [Palgrave, 2021]). In: Gottlieb, S. ed. Hitchcock Annual: Volume 25., Vol. 25. Columbia University Press, pp. 213-221.
  • Badmington, N. 2022. Foreword. In: Poststructuralism: A Very Short Introduction, 2nd edition (by Catherine Belsey). Oxford University Press, pp. xvii-xviii.
  • Badmington, N. 2021. Brief scenes: Roland Barthes and the essay. In: Aquilina, M. ed. The Essay at the Limits: Poetics, Politics and Form. London and New York: Bloomsbury, pp. 49-62.
  • Badmington, N. 2021. Approaching posthumanism. In: Sampanikou, E. D. and Stasienko, J. eds. Posthuman Studies Reader: Core Readings on Transhumanism, Posthumanism and Metahumanism., Vol. 2. Posthuman Studies Basel: Schwabe Verlag, pp. 167-174.
  • Badmington, N. 2017. Preface. In: Bennett, P. and McDougall, J. eds. Popular Culture and the Austerity Myth: Hard Times Today. Routledge Research in Cultural and Media Studies Routledge, pp. xv-xvi.
  • Badmington, N. 2017. Bored with Barthes: ennui in China. In: Badmington, N. ed. Deliberations: The Journals of Roland Barthes. Routledge, pp. 101-121.
  • Badmington, N. 2014. General introduction. In: Badmington, N. ed. Alfred Hitchcock: Volume I. Critical Evaluations of Leading Film-makers London: Routledge, pp. 1-6.
  • Badmington, N. 2014. Chronological table. In: Badmington, N. ed. Alfred Hitchcock: Volume I. Critical Evaluations of Leading Film-makers London: Routledge, pp. xiii-xix.
  • Badmington, N. 2014. SpectRebecca. In: Badmington, N. ed. Alfred Hitchcock: Volume IV. Critical Evaluations of Leading Film-makers London: Routledge, pp. 233-249.
  • Badmington, N. 2013. Kültürel Çalışmalar ve Post-İnsan Bimleri. In: Hall, G. and Birchall, C. eds. Yeni Kültürel Çalışmalar : Kuramsal Serüvenler. Kitap, pp. 379-395.
  • Badmington, N. 2011. Posthumanism. In: Booker, M. K. and Ryan, M. eds. The Encyclopedia of Literary and Cultural Theory. Volume III: Cultural Theory. Oxford: Blackwell, pp. 1212-1216.
  • Badmington, N. 2010. The 'Inkredible' Roland Barthes. In: Badmington, N. ed. Roland Barthes: Critical Evaluations in Cultural Theory., Vol. 2. London: Routledge, pp. 371-9.
  • Badmington, N. 2010. Posthumanism. In: Clarke, B. and Rossini, M. eds. The Routledge Companion to Literature and Science. Routledge, pp. 374-384.
  • Badmington, N. 2009. Babelation. In: Callus, I. and Herbrechter, S. eds. Cy-Borges: Memories of the Posthuman in the Work of Jorge Luis Borges. Lewisburg: Bucknell University Press, pp. 60-72.
  • Badmington, N. 2009. L'encroyable Roland Barthes. In: Badir, S. and Ducard, D. eds. Roland Barthes en cours (1977-1980): Un style de vie. Dijon: Editions Universitaires de Dijon, pp. 145-52.
  • Badmington, N. 2009. Introduction. In: Lavers, A. ed. Roland Barthes: Mythologies. London: Vintage, pp. ix-xiv.
  • Badmington, N. 2007. I ain't got no body: Lyotard and Le Genre of posthumanism. In: Margret, G. ed. Gender After Lyotard. State University of New York Press, pp. 27-45.
  • Badmington, N. 2006. Cultural studies and the posthumanities. In: Hall, G. and Birchall, C. eds. New Cultural Studies. Edinburgh University Press, pp. 260-272.
  • Badmington, N. 2005. Posthumanism. In: Malpas, S. and Wake, P. eds. The Routledge Companion to Critical Theory. Routledge, pp. 240-241.
  • Badmington, N. 2004. Roswell High, alien chic, and the in/human. In: Davis, G. and Dickinson, K. eds. Teen TV: Genre, Consumption and Identity. BFI, pp. 166-176.
  • Badmington, N. 2001. Jean Baudrillard. In: Pearson, R. E. and Simpson, P. eds. Critical Dictionary of Film and Television Theory. Routledge, pp. 42-42.
  • Badmington, N. 2001. Ernesto Laclau. In: Pearson, R. E. and Simpson, P. eds. Critical Dictionary of Film and Television Theory. Routledge, pp. 257-258.
  • Badmington, N. 2001. Metanarrative. In: Pearson, R. E. and Simpson, P. eds. Critical Dictionary of Film and Television Theory. London: Routledge, pp. 280-280.
  • Badmington, N. 2000. Mirror stage. In: Pearson, R. E. and Simpson, P. eds. Critical Dictionary of Film and Television Theory. London: Routledge, pp. 283-283.
  • Badmington, N. 2000. Parole. In: Pearson, R. E. and Simpson, P. eds. Critical Dictionary of Film and Television Theory. London: Routledge, pp. 320-321.
  • Badmington, N. 2000. Posthumanist (com)promises: diffracting Donna Haraway's Cyborg through Marge Piercy's Body of Glass. In: Badmington, N. ed. Posthumanism. Readers in Cultural Criticism Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan, pp. 85-97.
  • Badmington, N. 2000. Disclosure's disclosure. In: Lay, F. and West, R. eds. Subverting masculinity: hegemonic and alternative versions of masculinity in contemporary culture. Rodopi, pp. 94-105.
  • Badmington, N. 1995. Cruising the information superhighway: Computer-mediated communication, cultural landscapes, and the struggle over meaning. In: Gidley, M. and Lawson-Peebles, R. eds. Modern American Landscapes. Amsterdam: VU University Press, pp. 275-291.

Books

Websites

Research

Research interests

  • Film, particularly the work of Alfred Hitchcock.
  • Contemporary writing, especially American.
  • Poststructuralist critical and cultural theory, with an emphasis upon the work of Roland Barthes.
  • Creative criticism.
  • Postmodern culture.

I welcome queries from potential PhD students whose plans overlap with any of my listed interests.

I spent the first decade or so of my career working extensively in the then-emerging field of posthumanism, but I haven't written a word about the subject since 2010 and won't be doing so between now and the end of my career.

Research projects (present and past)

I am currently working on the following:

  • Guided by Barthes – a book-length creative-critical project that takes the work of Roland Barthes as its guide.
  • Volume 10 of Barthes Studies. This will be published on 12 November 2024 and will be a special issue titled 'Preparations', guest-edited by Kate Briggs and Sunil Manghani.
  • An essay on Hitchcock's The Birds.

Recently completed projects include:

  • A book titled Perpetual Movement: Alfred Hitchcock's Rope for the Horizons of Cinema series edited by Murray Pomerance for SUNY Press, New York. This is the first book-length study of Rope to be published in English, and it makes extensive original use of archival materials held in the Warner Bros. Archive in Los Angeles and at the Margaret Herrick Library, Beverly Hills. The book was published in hardback in July 2021 and in paperback in January 2022.
  • Seeing through to publication the second edition of Catherine Belsey's Poststructuralism: A Very Short Introduction. Kate was making her final alterations to this book when she was hospitalised in late 2020; she died in February 2021. At the request of her family, I finalised the text for publication using two sources: a file from Kate’s computer and a typescript with handwritten annotations that was found on her desk. The book was published by Oxford University Press in August 2022.
  • An essay on Mervyn LeRoy's Anthony Adverse for a collection titled Mervyn LeRoy Comes to Town, edited by Murray Pomerance and R. Barton Palmer for Rutgers University Press.
  • An essay on Alfred Hitchcock's Rope for a collection titled Re-Viewing Hitchcock: New Critical Perspectives, edited by Robert E. Kapsis for Bloomsbury/BFI.
  • A review of Roland Barthes's all except you (translated into English by Joe Milutis) for the Times Literary Supplement. This piece was published in the paper on 20 October 2023. An online version was published as 'Reaching the Tortoise' on the same day.
  • A review of Roland Barthes's Évocations et Incantations dans la tragédie grecque for the Times Literary Supplement. This piece was published in the paper on 23 June 2023. An online version was published as 'Rehearsing His Lines' on the same day.
  • 'Roland Barthes in English: A Guide to Translations'. This 12,000-word open-access reference resource provides details of all of the English translations of the work of Roland Barthes.

 

Biography

Biography

I was born and grew up in the small town of Abergavenny in the Welsh borderlands at a time when it was often said that the county of Monmouthshire was somehow in neither Wales nor England. As Raymond Williams, who came from the same area, once put it: 'We talked of "The English" who were not us, and "The Welsh" who were not us.' It ought to have been clear to everyone that a sporting life did not lie ahead of me, but I was nonetheless often told that I 'could go either way' or 'play for either team'. When, many years later, I first encountered poststructuralism's suspicion of binaries, certainties, and fixed categories, I felt that I had found theoretical confirmation of something that I had always taken for granted.

After attending my local comprehensive school, I became the first person in my family to attend university when I went to Exeter to study American and Commonwealth Arts (1990-94). A year abroad at the University of California in 1992-93 introduced me in detail for the first time to critical and cultural theory, and I went on to study for an MA (1994-95) and PhD (1995-98) in this field at Cardiff University, with funding from the British Academy and under the supervision of Catherine Belsey. (My obituaries for Catherine Belsey, co-authored with Julia Thomas, are available on the Cardiff University website and in the Guardian, and a more personal piece about what she meant to me is available here.)

After completing my PhD in late 1998, I was appointed to the department.

Education and qualifications

1995-98: PhD, Cardiff University. (British Academy Studentship.) Supervisor: Catherine Belsey.

1994-95: MA in Critical and Cultural Theory, Cardiff University. (British Academy Studentship.)

1992-93: University of California, Santa Cruz.

1990-94: BA in  American and Commonwealth Arts, University of Exeter. Class I. Winner, Exeter  Literary Society Prize, 1994. Winner, David Henderson Award, 1994.

1982-89: King Henry VIII Comprehensive School, Abergavenny.

Academic positions

2015-present: Professor of English Literature, Cardiff University

2009-2015: Reader in English Literature, Cardiff University

2005-2009: Senior Lecturer in English Literature, Cardiff University

2001-2005: Lecturer (B) in English Literature, Cardiff University

1999-2001: Lecturer (A) in English Literature, Cardiff University

1998-1999: Hourly paid Associate Lecturer in English Literature, Cardiff University

Committees and reviewing

I am the founding editor of the journal Barthes Studies and a member of the editorial/advisory panels of:

I am a member of the Northern Theory School and an advisor to the Critical Posthumanism Network.

I have assessed research grant applications externally for the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (Canada) and the Fonds voor Wetenschappelijk Onderzoek (Belgium). In 2008, I was appointed expert étranger for a panel of the Agence d'évaluation de la recherche de l'enseignement supérieur (AERES) assessing the quality of research at University of Paris III-Sorbonne Nouvelle, University of Paris XIII-Villetaneuse, and University of Paris-Dauphine.

Supervisions

I welcome applications or informal queries relating to PhD supervision in research areas which overlap with my own:

  • Film, particularly the work of Alfred Hitchcock.
  • Contemporary fiction, especially American.
  • Poststructuralist critical and cultural theory, with an emphasis upon the work of Roland Barthes.
  • Postmodern culture.

Past projects

  • 2017 Rodolfo Piskorski da Silva, Of Zoogrammatology. (Fully funded by Coordenacao De Aperfeicoamento De Pessoal Nivel Superior, Brazilian federal government.) 
  • 2016 Callie Gardner, Roland Barthes and English-language Avant-Garde Poetry, 1970-1990. (AHRC funding.) 
  • 2014 Jessica George, Deadly Light: Machen, Lovecraft and Evolutionary Theory.
  • 2014 Angus McBlane, Embodiment in the ‘Flesh’: A Critical Posthuman Account of Embodiment. 
  • 2014 Rhys Tranter, Ill Seen Ill Said: Trauma, Representation and Subjectivity  in Samuel Beckett’s Post-war Writing. (AHRC funding.)
  • 2013 Étienne Poulard, Untimely Aesthetics: Shakespeare, Anachronism and Presence. (AHRC funding; co-supervision with Melanie Bigold.) 
  • 2012 Erica Brown Moore, Practising the Posthumanities: Evolutionary Animals, Machines and the Posthuman in the Fiction of J.G. Ballard and Kurt Vonnegut.
  • 2010 James Aubrey, The Literature of Replenishment: The Novels of Umberto Eco and J.M. Coetzee and John Barth’s Definition of Postmodernist Fiction.
  • 2007 Jessica Mordsley, The Animal in Differance: Tracing the Boundaries of the human in Post-Darwinian culture. (AHRC funding.)