Dr Sean Seeger

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Email
saseeg@essex.ac.uk -
Telephone
+44 (0) 1206 874502
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Location
5NW.5.18, Colchester Campus
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Academic support hours
Autumn: Tuesday, 2–3 / Spring: Thursday, 3–4
Profile
Biography
Sean Seeger is Lecturer in Literature in the Department of Literature, Film, and Theatre Studies. Before his appointment at Essex in 2016, Sean taught in the Department of English and Comparative Literature at Goldsmiths, University of London. He received his PhD from Essex in 2014. Sean’s research and teaching are concerned with modern and contemporary literature and culture. His main research interests are in James Joyce, modernism, utopias and dystopias, and science fiction. As well as numerous essays and articles, he is the author of Nonlinear Temporality in Joyce and Walcott (Routledge, 2017), the first dedicated comparative study of James Joyce and Derek Walcott. Sean's current research focuses on utopias, dystopias, and the relationship between the two. He is also interested in the ways in which these forms of literature intersect with social and political thought. He teaches two undergraduate modules which are informed by his work in this area: LT250 Dystopias, a second-year module on dystopias in literature and film, and LT321 Possible Worlds, a third-year module on science fiction, speculative fiction, and alternate histories. Sean has been the recipient of research funding from the Arts and Humanities Research Council and the British Centre for Literary Translation. He is an Editor at the Literary Encyclopedia and a Fellow of the Higher Education Academy. He received the University of Essex Excellence in Education Award in 2018. Sean welcomes PhD enquiries relating to any of his research interests. He is currently supervising doctoral research projects on early twentieth-century posthuman narratives, US dystopias in the wake of 9/11, the novels of Richard Powers, and cosmopolitanism in contemporary speculative fiction.
Research and professional activities
Conferences and presentations
Association for the Study of Literature and Environment (California)
2019
Institute of Modern Languages Research (London)
London, United Kingdom, 2019
London Science Fiction Research Community (London)
London, United Kingdom, 2019
British Society for Literature and Science (Oxford)
Oxford, United Kingdom, 2018
Institute for World Literature (Tokyo)
2018
Hauptseminare, University of Konstanz (Konstanz)
2017
Cornell School of Criticism and Theory (New York)
New York, United States, 2016
AGCAS Annual Conference (Chester)
2016
Goldsmiths Literature Seminar (London)
2016
Symposium, Ludwig Maximilian University (Munich)
2015
LiFTS Open Seminar (Essex)
2015
Oxford English Graduate Conference (Oxford)
Oxford, United Kingdom, 2015
British Centre for Literary Translation (East Anglia)
2014
Institute for World Literature (Hong Kong)
2014
British Comparative Literature Association (Essex)
2013
Teaching and supervision
Current teaching responsibilities
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Postcolonial Perspectives (LT246)
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Europe: Myth and Idea (CS102)
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The World in Question: the Social, Political and Psychological Legacies of the Enlightenment (CS201)
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Dangerous Ideas: Essays and Manifestos as Social Criticism Capstone (CS301)
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Dangerous Ideas: Essays and Manifestos as Social Criticism (CS305)
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Contemporary Texts and Contexts (LT109)
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Origins and Transformations in Literature and Drama (LT111)
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Criticism: Practice and Theory (LT204)
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Black Lives Represented: Writing, Art, Politics and Society (LT218)
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Modernism: 1890-1950 (LT248)
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Dystopias (LT250)
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Possible Worlds: Science Fiction, Speculative Fiction, and Alternate Histories (LT321)
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The Humanities Graduate: Future Pathways (LT705)
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Independent Literature Project (LT831)
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Independent Creative Writing Project (LT832)
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War, Violence and Conflict in the American Tropics (LT906)
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Literature and Performance in the Modern City (LT922)
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Independent Theatre Studies Project (TH836)
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Shakespeare and the History Play (LT360)
Current supervision
Publications
Journal articles (11)
Seeger, SA., Contemporary Fiction as Weltliteratur: Adam Kirsch’s The Global Novel (Papers on Language and Literature: forthcoming, 2020)
Seeger, SA., Review: Jolanta Wawrzycka and Serenella Zanotti, eds., James Joyce's Silences (The James Joyce Broadsheet: forthcoming, 2019)
Davison-Vecchione, D. and Seeger, SA., (2019). Dystopian Literature and the Sociological Imagination. Thesis Eleven, 072551361988866-072551361988866
Seeger, SA., (2018). Dystopia and Dystopian Literature. Literary Encyclopedia. 4 (5)
Seeger, SA., (2018). Review: Christopher Castiglia, The Practices of Hope. Modernism/modernity. 25 (4)
Seeger, SA., (2018). Review: D. Harlan Wilson, J. G. Ballard. The British Society for Literature and Science (July, 2018)
Seeger, SA., (2018). ‘A static that contains all the messages ever sent’: Tom McCarthy’s C, James Joyce’s Finnegans Wake, and Nonlinear Literary History. International Journal of Arts Theory and History. 13 (4), 23-32
Seeger, SA., (2017). Martin Amis, neo-Orientalism, and hubris. Postcolonial Studies. 20 (4), 494-509
Seeger, SA., (2016). The Sea as History and the Sea as Event in the Poetry of Derek Walcott. Poetry Forum (September, 2016)
Seeger, SA., (2015). Derek Walcott on What the Twilight Says. Literary Encyclopedia. 3 (1)
Seeger, SA., (2014). What is at Stake in the Damrosch-Apter World Literature Debate?. Assembly (November, 2014)
Books (1)
Seeger, SA., (2017). Nonlinear Temporality in Joyce and Walcott: History Repeating Itself with a Difference. Routledge. 1351180096. 9781351180092
Book chapters (2)
Seeger, SA., (2020). Utopia, Dystopia, and Human Flourishing. In: Health and Wellbeing: A Reader. L'Editoriale Scientifica
Seeger, SA., (2019). ‘We should own the stars’: Postcapitalism, Techno-Utopianism, and Blade Runner 2049. In: Tempest - An Anthology. Editors: Vaught, A. and Johnson, A., . Patrician Press. 9781999703066
Other (2)
Seeger, SA., (2019).From Capitalist Realism to Acid Communism: The Collected and Unpublished Writings of Mark Fisher. LSE Review of Books (February, 2019)
Seeger, SA., (2018).Why Read Science Fiction?,The Huffington Post
Contact
Academic support hours:
Autumn: Tuesday, 2–3 / Spring: Thursday, 3–4