Professor Sara Upstone
Faculties, departments and locations
- Kingston School of Art
- Department of Humanities
- School of Creative and Cultural Industries
Faculty Director of Postgraduate Research and Professor of Contemporary Literature
- Email:
- s.upstone@kingston.ac.uk
About
I am Professor of Contemporary Literature and Faculty Director of Postgraduate Research. I coordinate the provision of and have overall management responsibility for PhD and research MA programmes across Kingston School of Art. I am also currently the Faculty Athena Swan Lead, and a member of the Faculty EDI Committee.
I teach creative writing, English literature, and film studies and accept proposals for PhD research in these areas. I welcome all proposals, but as a disabled scholar with a working-class background, I am very keen to offer project development support to groups who are underrepresented in academia. Please get in touch if I can help.
I've worked at Kingston since 2005, and before being Faculty Director of PGR, I was Head of the School of Arts, Culture and Communication, Head of Department of Humanities, and a School Director of Learning and Teaching.
Qualifications
- PhD English Literature
- MA English Literary Research
- BA English Literature with History
- Postgraduate Certificate in Learning and Teaching in Higher Education (PGCLTHE)
Domains
My research focuses on the politics of form in contemporary literature and its relationship to questions of identity, with a particular focus on race, spatial justice, and community.
My previous work has examined how literary genres and subjectivities intersect, in particular through a focus on utopian realism and its relationship to the British novel's representation of race, magical realism and postcolonial fiction, and spatial justice in contemporary reworkings of fairy-tale.
I am currently researching the 'transglossic' form of the contemporary novel, arguing that its potential to speak across different subject positions works in the service of a radical empathy. This project aims, in particular, to question the ongoing dominance of concepts of 'post-postmodernisms' in contemporary literary criticism. I am also exploring these ideas through creative writing practice, focused on forms of autotheory and lyrical nonfiction.
My personal website can be found at saraupstone.com
Specialisms
- Contemporary Literature
- Creative nonfiction
- Creative fiction
- Genre
- Race Studies
Scholarly affiliations
- Literary London Society Committee
Publications
Hari Kunzru
(2023). Manchester: (Manchester University Press)
Community in contemporary British fiction: From Blair to Brexit
Upstone, Sara and Ely, Peter (2022). London: (Bloomsbury Academic)
Against
Upstone, Sara (2020). Kingston upon Thames, U.K.: (Kingston University Press)
Literary theory: a complete introduction
Upstone, Sara (2017). London, U.K.: (Teach Yourself)
Rethinking race and identity in contemporary British fiction
Upstone, Sara (2017). New York, U.S.: (Routledge)
Postmodern literature and race
(2015). New York, U.S.A.: (Cambridge University Press)
Researching and representing mobilities: transdisciplinary encounters
(2014). Basingstoke, U.K.: (Palgrave Macmillan)
Postcolonial spaces: the politics of place in contemporary culture
(2011). Basingstoke, U.K.: (Palgrave Macmilan)
British Asian fiction: twenty-first-century voices
Upstone, Sara (2010). Manchester, U.K.: (Manchester University Press)
Spatial politics in the postcolonial novel
Upstone, Sara (2009). Farnham, U.K.: (Ashgate)
The transglossic : contemporary fiction and the limitations of the modern
Shaw, Kristian and Upstone, Sara, 2021, English Studies (102), 5, pp 573-600
Against walls
Upstone, Sara, 2019, Versopolis : the European Review of Poetry, Books and Culture
Against kindness
Upstone, Sara, 2019, Versopolis : the European Review of Poetry, Books and Culture
Against drinking
Upstone, Sara, 2019, Versopolis : the European Review of Poetry, Books and Culture
Against food
Upstone, Sara, 2019, Versopolis : the European Review of Poetry, Books and Culture
Against people
Upstone, Sara, 2019, Versopolis : the European Review of Poetry, Books and Culture
Against culture
Upstone, Sara, 2019, Versopolis : the European Review of Poetry, Books and Culture
Some interventions in the question of living
Upstone, Sara, 2018, Versopolis
Beyond the bedroom : Motherhood in E. L. James’s Fifty Shades of Grey trilogy
Upstone, Sara, 2016, Frontiers : a Journal of Women Studies (37), 2, pp 138-164
You never let me leave
Upstone, Sara, 2015, Bloodstone Review (1), 1, pp 36-40
Education should be a right for all
Agnew, Eadaoin, Alliez, Eric, Auerbach, Paul, Blackburn, Robert, Botting, Fred, Brady, Mary, Caygill, Howard, Chadwick, Howard, Chanter, Tina, Choat, Simon, Chu, Jonathan, Cinpoes, Radu, Coultas, Valerie, Dines, Martin, Dixon, Paul, Favretto, Ilaria, Finn, Peter, Giaxoglou, Korina, Goldsmith, Carlie, Hallward, Peter, Hawkins, Sue, Haywood, Peter, Higginbottom, Andrew, Ichijo, Atsuko, Isaac, Marina, Jensen, Meg, Kayyali, Reem, Kettyle, Ann, Lambrou, Marina, Latimer, Amanda, Linton, Marisa, Lipsedge, Karen, Malabou, Catherine, O Maoilearca, John, McQuillan, Martin, Micklethwaite, Paul, Morgan Wortham, Simon, O'Brien, Catherine, Osborne, Peter, Pinnock, Winsome, Piper, Jason, Ponto, Maria, Raphael, Sam, Reid, Trish, Roberts, Mike, Rogers, David, Sandford, Stella, Searby, Michael, Siddiki, Jalal Uddin, Smart, Jackie, Spencer, Philip, Stockhammer, Engelbert, Stuart, John, Suess, Eleanor, Swift, Allan, Upstone, Sara, Vallee-Tourangeau, Frederic, Wells, Julian and Wilson, Scott, 2014, The Guardian
You are what you eat : postcolonial eating in the novels of Salman Rushdie
Upstone, Sara, 2009, South Asian Review (30), 2, pp 119-135
"Same old, same old": Zadie Smith's 'White teeth' and Monica Ali's 'Brick Lane'
Upstone, Sara, 2007, Journal of postcolonial writing (43), 3, pp 336-349
Domesticity in magical-realist postcolonial fiction: reversals of representation in Salman Rushdie's Midnight's Children
Upstone, Sara, 2007, Frontiers (28), pp 260-284
The fulcrum of instabilty: Salman Rushdie's The Ground Beneath her Feet and the postcolonial traveller
Upstone, Sara, 2006, Wasafiri (21), 1, pp 34-38
Anancy as trickster: magical space in the fiction of Wilson Harris
Upstone, Sara, 2004, World Literature Written in English (40), 2, pp 23-39
Writing the post-colonial space: Ben Okri's magical city and the subversion of imperialism
Upstone, Sara, 2004, Partial Answers: Journal of literature and the history of ideas (2), 2, pp 139-159
Toni Morrison and the magical re-visioning of space
Upstone, Sara, 2003, U.S. Studies Online: The BAAS Postgraduate Journal (3)
Applicability and truth in The hobbit, The lord of the rings, and The silmarillion: readers, fantasy, and canonicity
Upstone, Sara, 2002, Mythlore (23), 4, pp 50-66
Book review of 'Conversations with Salman Rushdie' by Michael R. Reder
Dailey, Sara, 2001, ARIEL (32), 4, pp 258-259
Eyes, ears, head, memory, heart: transglossic rhythms in Memory Palace and Twice Upon a Time
Upstone, Sara (2023). In: Shaw, Kristian, (eds.) and Upstone, Sara, (eds.), Hari Kunzru. Manchester University Press
‘An inevitable course’ Political responsibility in 'The Remains of the Day'
Upstone, Sara (2023). In: Shaw, Kristian, (eds.) and Sloane, Peter, (eds.), Kazuo Ishiguro. Manchester, U.K.: Manchester University Press
Even the ghosts : community in the wake
Upstone, Sara (2022). In: Upstone, Sara, (eds.) and Ely, Peter, (eds.), Community in contemporary British fiction : From Blair to Brexit. Bloomsbury Academic
Spaces : the magically real spaces of twentieth- and twenty-first-century fairy tale
Upstone, Sara (2021). In: Teverson, Andrew, (ed.), A cultural history of fairy tales in the modern age. London, U.K.: Bloomsbury Academic, pp 137-158
Post-ethnicity and the politics of positionality
Upstone, Sara (2020). In: Nasta, Sushelia, (eds.) and Stein, Mark U., (eds.), The Cambridge history of Black and Asian British writing. Cambridge, U.K.: Cambridge University Press, pp 650-662
Black British literature
Upstone, Sara (2019). In: O'Gorman, Daniel, (eds.) and Eaglestone, Robert, (eds.), The Routledge Companion to Twenty-First Century Literary Fiction. Abingdon, U.K.: Routledge
The 'post' in 'postcolonial'
Upstone, Sara (2016). In: McHale, Brian, (eds.) and Platt, Len, (eds.), The Cambridge history of postmodern literature. Cambridge, U.K.: Cambridge University Press, pp 262-277
Postcolonial and diasporic voices - bringing Black to the Union Jack: ethnic fictions and the politics of possibility
Upstone, Sara (2015). In: Hubble, Nick, (eds.), Tew, Philip, (eds.) and Wilson, Leigh, (eds.), The 1990s: a decade of contemporary British fiction. London, U.K.: Bloomsbury Academic, pp 123-148
'Some kind of black': black British historiographic metafictions and the postmodern politics of race
Upstone, Sara (2015). In: Platt, Len, (eds.) and Upstone, Sara, (eds.), Postmodern literature and race. New York, U.S.A.: Cambridge University Press, pp 279-294
'Footprints are the only fixed point' : mobilities in postcolonial fiction
Upstone, Sara (2014). In: Murray, Lesley, (eds.) and Upstone, Sara, (eds.), Researching and representing mobilities : transdisciplinary encounters. Basingstoke, U.K.: Palgrave, pp 39-56
Mobilising representations : dialogues, embodiment and power
Murray, Lesley and Upstone, Sara (2014). In: Murray, Lesley, (eds.) and Upstone, Sara, (eds.), Researching and representing mobilities : transdisciplinary encounters. Basingstoke, U.K.: Palgrave Macmillan, pp 1-20
(In)fusion and the ‘postcolonial’: Salman Rushdie’s 'Shame' as ethical-political fiction
Upstone, Sara (2012). In: Ghosh, Ranjan, (ed.), Romancing theory, riding interpretation: (in)fusion approach, Salman Rushdie. New York, U.S.: Peter Lang, pp 132-148
Iris Murdoch, Ian McEwan and the place of the political in contemporary fiction
Rowe, Anne and Upstone, Sara (2012). In: Rowe, Anne, (eds.) and Horner, Avril, (eds.), Iris Murdoch: texts and contexts. Basingstoke, U.K.: Palgrave Macmillan, pp 59-73
Representation and realism: Monica Ali’s 'Brick Lane'
Upstone, Sara (2012). In: Ahmed, Rehana, (eds.), Morey, Peter, (eds.) and Yaquin, Amina, (eds.), Culture, diaspora and modernity in Muslim writing. Routledge, pp 164-179
The history house: the magic of contained space in Arundhati Roy’s 'The God of Small Things'
Upstone, Sara (2012). In: Ghosh, Ranjan, (eds.) and Navarro-Tejero, Antonia, (eds.), Globalizing dissent: essays on Arundhati Roy. Abingdon, U.K.: Routledge, pp 71-79
Introduction
Teverson, Andrew and Upstone, Sara (2011). In: Teverson, Andrew, (eds.) and Upstone, Sara, (eds.), Postcolonial spaces: the politics of place in contemporary culture. Basingstoke, U.K.: Palgrave Macmilan, pp 1-13
9/11, British Muslims, and popular literary fiction
Upstone, Sara (2010). In: Birkenstein, Jeff, (eds.), Froula, Anna, (eds.) and Randell, Karen, (eds.), Reframing 9/11: film, popular culture and the "War on Terror". London, U.K.: Continuum, pp 35-44
Negotiations of London as imperial urban space in the contemporary postcolonial novel
Upstone, Sara (2006). In: Lindner, Christoph, (ed.), Urban space and cityscapes: perspectives from modern and contemporary culture. London, UK: Routledge, pp 88-100
For Dawit Isaak
Upstone, Sara(2018). In: Writers’ Centre Kingston presents the English PEN Modern Literature Festival, 08 Mar 2018 :Kingston, U.K.
JRR Tolkien and the Great War
Upstone, Sara(2014). In: Kingston Connections 2014, 21 - 29 Jun 2014 :Kingston upon Thames, U.K.
Planetary (post)humanism in Neil Gaiman's 'Anansi boys'
Upstone, Sara(2013). In: Being Beyond Boundaries: Dissolving (species) Hierarchy in Contemporary Culture, 05 Oct 2013 :Kingston Upon Thames, U.K.
Past is future: Utopian diasporic histories in contemporary British fiction
Upstone, Sara(2013). In: History, postcolonialism and tradition: The Postcolonial Studies Association conference 2013, 12 - 13 Sep 2013 :Kingston Upon Thames, U.K.
Can literature save the world?
Upstone, Sara(2009). In: Kingston Reader's Festival, 23 Apr - 22 May 2009 :Kingston upon Thames, U.K.
From postcolonial to British Asian: public and private space in Monica Ali's Brick Lane
Upstone, Sara(2007). In: Colonial and postcolonial spaces, 06 - 07 Sep 2007 :Kingston upon Thames, U.K.
Preoccupied with the past: negotiations of migrant London in Zadie Smith's 'White teeth' and Monica Ali's 'Brick Lane'
Upstone, Sara(2005). In: Literary London 2005 : Representations of London in literature, 14-16 July 2005 :Kingston Upon Thames, U.K.