Dr Sean Seeger
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Email
saseeg@essex.ac.uk -
Location
5NW.5.18, Colchester Campus
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Academic support hours
Autumn Term/Spring Term/Summer Term
Profile
Biography
Dr Sean Seeger is Senior Lecturer in Modern and Contemporary Literature. Before his appointment at Essex in 2016, he taught at Goldsmiths, University of London. Sean’s research focuses on modernism, speculative fiction, utopian studies, and queer studies. His work also engages with cinema and cultural theory. His first book, Nonlinear Temporality in Joyce and Walcott: History Repeating Itself with a Difference (2017), was the first comparative critical study of James Joyce and Derek Walcott. His second book, Utopian Variations: Utopia in Literature, Film, and Popular Culture (2025), considers forms of utopia and utopianism that have received less attention within utopian studies. A companion volume, Dystopian Variations, is currently underway. Since 2019, Sean has also been collaborating with the sociologist Daniel Davison-Vecchione (University of Cambridge) on a series of journal articles on speculative fiction and social theory, which they are now in the process of adapting into a book. Sean has previously been Visiting Professor at the University of Konstanz and the University of Bergamo, and has received research funding from the Arts and Humanities Research Council and the British Centre for Literary Translation. He has supervised numerous PhDs and welcomes research proposals in any of his areas of interest. He is a Senior Fellow of the Higher Education Academy and 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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Contemporary Texts and Contexts (LT109)
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Origins and Transformations in Literature and Drama (LT111)
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Approaches to Film and Media (LT121)
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Black Lives Represented: Writing, Art, Politics and Society (LT218)
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Dystopias (LT250)
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Possible Worlds: Science Fiction, Speculative Fiction, and Alternate History (LT321)
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Independent Literature Project (LT831)
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Independent Creative Writing Project (LT832)
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Dissertation Preparation: Postgraduate Research and Writing Skills (LT901)
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The Modern City: From Modernism to Postmodernism (LT922)
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Queer: Literature, Culture, History (LT976)
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Dissertation (LT981)
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Dissertation: MA Film Studies (LT983)
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Dissertation - Wild Writing (LT988)
Previous supervision
Degree subject: Literature
Degree type: Doctor of Philosophy
Awarded date: 13/11/2023
Degree subject: Literature
Degree type: Doctor of Philosophy
Awarded date: 3/5/2022
Degree type: Occasional Postgraduate Study
Awarded date: 1/10/2020
Publications
Journal articles (21)
Seeger, SA., (2025). Speculative Queerness: Non-Normative Bodies, Genders, and Sexualities in David Cronenberg’s Crimes of the Future. Utopian Studies. 36 (1), 119-136
Seeger, SA. and Davison-Vecchione, D., (2023). Setting the Agenda: Social Forecasting in the Speculative Fiction of Rose Macaulay and Sinclair Lewis. Vector. 2023 (297), 70-80
Seeger, S. and Davison-Vecchione, D., (2023). Daniel Bell, Social Forecasting, and Science Fiction. Extrapolation. 64 (2), 167-187
Seeger, S., (2023). The Post-Critical Utopia. Utopian Studies. 34 (1), 1-15
Seeger, S., (2022). L’Utopia, o quel che resta del futuro [Utopia, or What is Left of the Future?]. Frontiere della psicoanalisi. 1 (2), 481-494
Seeger, SA., (2021). Book review: Influx and Efflux by Jane Bennett. Green Letters: Studies in Ecocriticism. 25 (1)
Seeger, SA. and Davison-Vecchione, D., (2021). Ursula Le Guin’s Speculative Anthropology: Thick Description, Historicity and Science Fiction. Theory, Culture and Society: explorations in critical social science. 40 (7-8), 119-140
Seeger, SA., (2021). Book review: The American Weird: Concept and Medium, eds., Julius Greve and Florian Zappe. Pulse: The Journal of Science and Culture. 8, 1-4
Seeger, SA., (2020). Contemporary Fiction as Weltliteratur: Adam Kirsch’s The Global Novel. Papers on Language and Literature. 56 (1)
Seeger, SA., (2019). Book review: James Joyce's Silences, eds., Jolanta Wawrzycka and Serenella Zanotti. The James Joyce Broadsheet. 2 (112)
Seeger, SA., (2019). From Capitalist Realism to Acid Communism: The Collected and Unpublished Writings of Mark Fisher. LSE Review of Books (February, 2019)
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). Book review: The Practices of Hope by Christopher Castiglia. Modernism/modernity. 25 (4)
Seeger, SA., (2018). Book review: J. G. Ballard by D. Harlan Wilson. The British Society for Literature and Science (July, 2018)
Seeger, SA., (2018). Why Read Science Fiction?. The Huffington Post (August 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. 3 (2)
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?. Assemblage. 2 (5)
Books (2)
Seeger, SA., Utopian Variations: Utopia in Literature, Film, and Popular Culture. Peter Lang
Seeger, SA., (2017). Nonlinear Temporality in Joyce and Walcott: History Repeating Itself with a Difference. Routledge. 1351180096. 9781351180092
Book chapters (4)
Seeger, SA., Pessimistic Utopianism. In: Utopian Myths. Editors: Leggatt, M.,
Seeger, S., (2023). “Whatever comes after human progress”: Transhumanism, Antihumanism, and the Absence of Queer Ecology in Lidia Yuknavitch’s The Book of Joan. In: Age and Ageing in Contemporary Speculative and Science Fiction. Editors: Oró Piqueras, M. and Falcus, S., . Bloomsbury. 9781350230675
Seeger, SA., (2020). Utopia, Dystopia, and Human Flourishing. In: Health and Wellbeing: A Reader. Editors: Boncori, I. and Loughran, T., . 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
Other (1)
Seeger, SA., (2021).Queer Theory and Utopianism. Ideology, Theory, Practice. 1(2),Ideology, Theory, Practice
Contact
Academic support hours:
Autumn Term/Spring Term/Summer Term
