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, he taught in the Department of English and Comparative Literature at Goldsmiths, University of London. Sean’s research and teaching are concerned with modern literature and theory. His main areas of interest are twentieth-century literature, modernism, utopias and dystopias, and cultural studies. 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. His current research focuses on utopian and dystopian literature and the ways in which these forms of writing intersect with social and political thought. Since 2019, he has been collaborating with the sociologist Daniel Davison-Vecchione (University of Cambridge) on a series of journal articles on the relationship between speculative literature and social theory. He has now started work on a book-length study on a related topic. Sean supervises and teaches three undergraduate modules: LT248 Modernism (on modernist literature and art); LT250 Dystopias (on dystopian literature and film); and LT321 Possible Worlds (on science fiction and related literatures). In 2020, he introduced a new MA module: LT976 Queer (on queer literature, history, and theory). Sean welcomes research proposals relating to any of the following topics: modern and contemporary literature, modernism, utopias and dystopias, speculative/science fiction, LGBTQ literature, literature and social theory, literature and politics, and cultural studies. 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. Sean is an Editor at the Literary Encyclopedia and a Fellow of the Higher Education Academy. He has previously been awarded research funding from the Arts and Humanities Research Council and the British Centre for Literary Translation. He is a recipient of the University of Essex Excellence in Education Award.
Research and professional activities
Conferences and presentations
Association for the Study of Literature and Environment
California, United States, 2019
Institute of Modern Languages Research
London, United Kingdom, 2019
London Science Fiction Research Community
London, United Kingdom, 2019
British Society for Literature and Science
Oxford, United Kingdom, 2018
Institute for World Literature
Tokyo, Japan, 2018
Open Seminar, University of Konstanz
Konstanz, Germany, 2017
Cornell School of Criticism and Theory
New York, United States, 2016
Association of Graduate Careers Advisory Services
Chester, United Kingdom, 2016
Open Seminar, Goldsmiths, University of London
London, United Kingdom, 2016
Symposium, Ludwig Maximilian University
Munich, Germany, 2015
Open Seminar, University of Essex
Essex, United Kingdom, 2015
Oxford English Graduate Conference
Oxford, United Kingdom, 2015
British Centre for Literary Translation
East Anglia, United Kingdom, 2014
Institute for World Literature
Hong Kong, 2014
British Comparative Literature Association
Essex, United Kingdom, 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, Cultural, Political & Environmental 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 (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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The Modern City: From Modernism to Postmodernism (LT922)
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Independent Theatre Studies Project (TH836)
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Shakespeare and the History Play (LT360)
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Law and Literature (LT394)
Current supervision
Publications
Journal articles (11)
Seeger, SA., (2020). Contemporary Fiction as Weltliteratur: Adam Kirsch’s The Global Novel. Papers on Language and Literature. 56 (1), 92-99
Seeger, SA., (2019). Review: Jolanta Wawrzycka and Serenella Zanotti, eds., James Joyce's Silences. The James Joyce Broadsheet. 2 (112)
Davison-Vecchione, D. and Seeger, SA., (2019). Dystopian Literature and the Sociological Imagination. Thesis Eleven. 155 (1), 45-63
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 (August, 2018)
Contact
Academic support hours:
Autumn: Tuesday, 2–3 / Spring: Thursday, 3–4