Academic Staff

Dr James Canton : Part-time Teacher

Position in department	Part-time Teacher
Staff position	Part-time Teacher
E-mail	jcanto (non Essex users should add @essex.ac.uk)
Qualifications	BA Exeter; MA Open; PhD Essex
Research interests	British Travel Writing on Arabia in the Twentieth Century; Travel writing and theory; the work of W.G. Sebald; the interface between colonial history and postcolonialism; nature writing and the emerging ‘new nature writing’ movement; writing on the Essex landscape; the writers of Essex.
Publications	Books From Cairo to Baghdad: British Travellers in Arabia (London: I. B. Tauris, 2011) - A Cairo edition of From Cairo to Baghdad has also been published by the American University Press, November 2011. Out of Essex: Re-Imagining a Literary Landscape (Oxford: Signal Books, forthcoming 2013) Chapters ‘Oriental Expressions: British Visions of Arabia in a Post-Colonial World’ in Experiencing Imperialism: Interdisciplinary and Transnational Perspectives of the British Abroad since the Eighteenth Century, edited by Martin Farr and Xavier Guégan (Basingstoke, Hampshire: Palgrave, forthcoming 2012) Journal Articles ‘North Norfolk’ in EarthLines (Forthcoming, 2013) ‘An Oak’s Heart’ in EarthLines, 3, November 2012 ‘Untangling British Nature Writing’ in EarthLines, 1, May 2012 ‘Imperial Eyes: Imperial Spies, British Travel and Espionage in Southern Arabia, 1891-1946’ in The Journal of Imperial and Commonwealth History, vol. 37, No. 4, December 2009, pp. 537-554 ‘Search for Essex wildlife writer’ in Wyvern, March 2009 Book Reviews ‘Seen in the Yemen’ by Hugh Leach (London: Arabian Publishing, 2011) in Journal of Arabian Studies (forthcoming, 2013) ‘The Old Ways’ by Robert Macfarlane (London: Hamish Hamilton, 2012) in Green Letters: Studies in Ecocriticism (forthcoming, 2013) ‘Travellers to the Middle East from Burckhardt to Thesiger: An Anthology’ edited by Geoffrey Nash (London: Anthem Press, 2009) in Studies in Travel Writing (forthcoming, 2012). ‘The Arabian Frontier of the Raj: Merchants, Rulers, and the British in the Nineteenth-Century Gulf’ by James Onley (Oxford: Oxford University Press 2007) in Times Literary Supplement, 5475, (7 March 2008), 30. ‘From Empire to Orient: Travellers to the Middle East 1830-1926’ by Geoffrey Nash (London and New York: I. B. Tauris, 2005) in Studies in Travel Writing, 10 (2006), 179-80. Reader Reports For Studies in Travel Writing, October 2011. REVIEWS ‘Interested in the Other’ by Eamonn Gearon, Times Literary Supplement, 18 November 2011, pp. 8-9. - Full review of From Cairo to Baghdad: British Travellers in Arabia (London: I. B. Tauris, 2011)
Study areas
Conferences/presentations	‘Oriental Expressions: British Visions of Arabia in a Post-Colonial World’ at British Abroad: from the Grand Tour to Mass Tourism, University of Newcastle, 1-2 April 2010 ‘“No Camels; No Little Brown Boys”: Seeing Arabia after Suez, Aden and Thesiger’ at After Empire? Leeds Humanities Research Institute, University of Leeds, 26-7 September, 2008 ‘Imperial Eyes: Imperial Spies. British Travel and Espionage in Southern Arabia, 1891-1946’ at Perspectives – Postgraduate Conference, University of Essex, 10 May 2008 ‘Imperial Eyes: Imperial Spies. British Travel and Espionage in Southern Arabia, 1891-1946’ at New Directions in Travel Writing II – Postgraduate colloquium, Nottingham Trent University, 4 January 2008 ‘Surveying the Scene: Towards an Understanding of British Travel Writing on Arabia since 1882’ at New Directions in Travel Writing – Postgraduate colloquium, Nottingham Trent University, 6 January 2006 PUBLIC APPEARANCES Lectures: ‘Back into the Wild: Towards a New Nature Writing’ (12 March 2012), University of Essex. Talks: Royal Geographical Society, 1 Kensington Gore, London (23 April 2012) Wigan Literary Festival (12 April 2012) Essex Book Festival: ‘Trees Shall be Our Books’ (3 March 2012), University of Essex. ‘Out of Essex: Re-imagining the Literary Landscape’ (1 March 2012), Hedingham Heritage Society, Hedingham, Essex. Book launch: ‘From Cairo to Baghdad’ (1 December 2011), University of Essex. Essex Book Festival: ‘A Conference of Birds’ (12 March 2011), University of Essex. ‘Out of Essex’ (10 March 2011), Halstead Heritage Society, Halstead, Essex. Essex Book Festival: ‘J. A. Baker: A Wild Essex Writer’ (20 March 2010), Colchester Library, Colchester, Essex. ‘On J. A. Baker’s The Peregrine’ (18 March 2009), Halstead Library, Halstead, Essex. Exhibition: ‘Tidal Margins ’ at The Peter Peers Gallery, Aldeburgh (21-26 September 2012) Radio: BBC Essex, ‘On J. A. Baker’, 12 March 2009

<< Back