Dr Anna Bernard
Reader in Comparative Literature and English
Research interests
- Arts
- Literature
- Media
Biography
I came to King’s in 2012, following my first appointment as a lecturer in the Department of English and Related Literature at the University of York. I received my BA from the University of California at Berkeley and my PhD from the University of Cambridge. I have held a Leverhulme Research Fellowship (2016-17), a Visiting Research Fellowship at the University of Sydney (2017), an AHRC Research Network grant (2013-16), and a University of York Anniversary Lectureship (2010-11).
Research Interests and PhD Supervision
- Postcolonial and world literature in English, Spanish, Arabic, and Hebrew
- Decolonization and culture from the 1960s to the 1980s
- Literature and 20-21C political movements, especially the Palestinian national movement
- Cultural activism and advocacy including manifestos, documentary film, and protest poetry
- Solidarity, internationalism, anti-colonialism, human rights
- Theories of postcolonial, comparative, and world literature
My research is concerned with the literature and culture of anti-colonial struggles that have persisted after the formal end of European imperialism. I am the author of Rhetorics of Belonging: Nation, Narration, and Israel/Palestine (Liverpool UP, 2013, available open-access) and Decolonizing Literature (forthcoming 2023, in Polity Press’s Decolonizing the Curriculum series).
I am currently working on a book called International Solidarity and Culture: Nicaragua, South Africa, Palestine, 1975-1990. The book considers appeals for solidarity in literature and film that circulated among participants in the Nicaragua solidarity campaign, the anti-apartheid movement, and the Palestine solidarity movement. Drawing on archival records of international solidarity activism in Britain, I examine texts and films that resist a broader shift towards humanitarianism by promoting a solidarity based on shared political commitments.
I welcome PhD supervision enquiries from students interested in anti-colonial and third-worldist literature and culture, literature and transnational movements, and cultural activism and advocacy.
Teaching
Postcolonial and world literature and theory, literature and solidarity movements, Arabic and Hebrew literature in translation.
Research
Critical Economic and Political Thought
The group approaches the study of politics and economics from critical cultural perspectives including, but not limited to, history, literature, visual culture, performance and social activism.
Events
Building Usable Pasts
How is solidarity depicted and actioned through the idea of building usable pasts?
Please note: this event has passed.
Doing Solidarity
At this online panel event, three speakers reflect on what it looks like to 'do' solidarity and how this is carried out.
Please note: this event has passed.
Writing and Performing Solidarity
Discussing representations of solidarity in writing and performance with three renowned academics.
Please note: this event has passed.
Decolonizing Higher Education: A Virtual Book Launch
Join the International Solidarity Action Research Network (ISARN) as our partners launch three new books.
Please note: this event has passed.
Research
Critical Economic and Political Thought
The group approaches the study of politics and economics from critical cultural perspectives including, but not limited to, history, literature, visual culture, performance and social activism.
Events
Building Usable Pasts
How is solidarity depicted and actioned through the idea of building usable pasts?
Please note: this event has passed.
Doing Solidarity
At this online panel event, three speakers reflect on what it looks like to 'do' solidarity and how this is carried out.
Please note: this event has passed.
Writing and Performing Solidarity
Discussing representations of solidarity in writing and performance with three renowned academics.
Please note: this event has passed.
Decolonizing Higher Education: A Virtual Book Launch
Join the International Solidarity Action Research Network (ISARN) as our partners launch three new books.
Please note: this event has passed.