MA Candidates
Beth Chapman
Pearl Gray
James McCulloch
Orion Carey-Clark
Nat Moore
Virginia Sutherland
Beth Chapman
BA English Studies (Otago)
Topic: Animal Language: Interspecies Interactions in the Works of Clarice Lispector and Jorie Graham
Beth can be contacted at chabe361@student.otago.ac.nz
Pearl Gray
BA English Studies (Otago)
Topic: Beyond the Psychoanalytic: The Critical and Historical Representation of Undiagnosed Mental Illness in Fiction
Pearl can be contacted at grape238@student.otago.ac.nz
Nat Moore
BA English Studies (Otago)
MA Topic: Computational Poetry
Nat can be contacted at moona740@student.otago.ac.nz
James McCulloch
BA English Studies (Otago)
MA Topic: Irish Science Fiction: A Comparative Cultural Study with America, Comparing Irish Science Fiction between 1929-1969
Research Interests: science fiction, Irish studies, cultural studies, literature/literary theory, pulp magazines, history of publishing
James can be contacted at either PomiJames@gmail.com or mccja027@student.otago.ac.nz
Orion Carey-Clark
BA Hons (Otago)
MA Topic: Violence in the Theatre and Film of Martin McDonagh
Research Interests: Irish Theatre and film, Martin McDonagh, Representation of violence in Irish theatre, Irish theatre history,
Orion can be contacted at orioncareyclark@gmail.com
Virginia Sutherland
Virginia can be contacted at sutvi047@student.otago.ac.nz
PhD Candidates
Demi Chen
Majella Cullinane
Judith Dobson
Sarper Dorter
Jasmine Gallagher
Roberto Gomez
Stephanie Kaefer
Paramjeet Kaur
Claire Lacey
Emer Lyons
Robyn Maree Pickens
April Salchert
Suzanne Sun
Elizabeth Wilson
Sue Wootton
Yu Zhang
Demi Chen 
MA English (Shenzhen University)
PhD Topic: Cross-cultural encounters in contemporary Chinese long poems
Research Interests: comparative literature; poetry and music; T. S. Eliot; modernism; intertextuality; feminism
Demi can be contacted at demichancxm@gmail.com
Majella Cullinane 
BA English and Italian (University College Dublin) HDipELT (University of Limerick) MA Publishing (Oxford Brookes University) MLitt in Creative Writing (St Andrews University)
PhD Topic: Representations of the island in Irish fiction, with particular focus on the short story. My PhD is in Creative Practice, and will comprise of critical and creative writing.
Research Interests: Short story, poetry, fiction, and creative writing pedagogy
Majella can be contacted at culma285@otago.ac.nz
Judith Dobson
MA English (Otago)
PhD Topic: The Feminine as Illuminatrix: The Gnostic connection in Romantic literature
Research Interests: Feminism; Romanticism; 18th-century literature; radical religion and esoteric thought in Romantic literature
Judith can be contacted on dobju901@student.otago.ac.nz
Sarper Dorter
Topic: From Yesterday’s Rubble to the Futuer Edgelands: Designated Temporalities and the Ruinscapes of Africa
Sarper can be contacted at dorsa219@student.otago.ac.nz
Jasmine Gallagher
PhD Topic: The New Sincerity in Contemporary New Zealand Poetry and Art
Jasmine can be contacted at galja734@student.otago.ac.nz
Roberto Gomez
(or Robert if you prefer that)
Topic: Women’s Laughter in Classical and Medieval Literature and Culture
Roberto can be contacted at suaro026@student.otago.ac.nz
Stephanie Kaefer 
BSc Linguistics, BA (Hons) Classics and History (University of Canterbury), PostgradDip Archives & Records Management (Victoria University Wellington), MA Linguistics (University of Canterbury)
PhD Topic: Codeswitching and multilingualism in 14th and 15th century manuscripts
Research Interests: Socio-linguisitcs, historical linguisitcs, philology, manuscript tradition, palaeography, archiving, history of writing, culture, history and language of classical antiquity, and the history of the Latin language
Stephanie can be contacted at kaest868@student.otago.ac.nz
Paramjeet Kaur 
BSc (University of Delhi, India), MA in English Literature (Shiv Nadar University, India)
PhD Topic: Dynamics of spectacular theatrical violence in early modern tragedies
Research Interests: Early modern history and drama (tragedies specifically), violence and spectacle, punitive measures of the early modern times
Paramjeet can be contacted on kaupa962@student.otago.ac.nz.
Claire Lacey
Topic: Poetry and Brain Injury
Claire can be contacted at laccl714@student.otago.ac.nz
Emer Lyons
Qualifications: B.A. (Joint Honours) Archaeology and Sociology, UCC, Cork, Ireland ; M.A. Sociology, UCC, Cork, Ireland
PhD Topic: Shame in Queer Contemporary Poetry in Ireland and New Zealand
Research Interests: Queer Theory, Poetic and Lyric Theory, Feminism, Affect Theory, Sociology of Emotion, Queer Theology, Irish Studies, Performance Studies.
Emer can be contacted at: lyoem484@student.otago.ac.nz / emerlyonsbandon@gmail.com
Robyn Maree Pickens
Qualifications: MA in Art History
PhD Topic: An eco-poetics of love: eros, saina and syntropy in the work of Juliana Spahr, Craig Santos Perez, Sarah Smuts-Kennedy.
Research Interests: Ecological aesthetics in critical and creative practices. Robyn's poetry and text-based work was exhibited at Artspace, Auckland in March 2018, and she curated an exhibition on ecological themes at Blue Oyster Project Space, Dunedin in May-June 2018. Robyn’s poetry has appeared in SAND (2018), Cordite (2018), Plumwood Mountain (2018), Matador Review (2017), Jacket 2 (2017), and her poetry criticism has appeared in Rain Taxi (2018) and Jacket 2 (2017). She was a finalist of the 2018 Sarah Broom Poetry Prize judged by Eileen Myles, and the winner of the takahē Monica Taylor Poetry Prize 2018.
Robyn can be contacted at: robynmareepickens@outlook.co.nz https://robynmareepickens.com/
April Salchert
BA English (University of Illinois at Chicago), MA English Literature (Uppsala University)
PhD Topic: "Encounters with the Other in Digital Fiction" examines how authors of digital fiction express Otherness, and how digital fiction may provoke or prevent empathy for the marginalized Other.
Research Interests: digital fiction, game studies, postcolonial studies, gender studies, and the digital humanities
April can be contacted at april@salchert.com.
Suzanne (Zexuan) Sun 
BA British and American Literature (Guangdong University of Foreign Studies), MA Translation (Chinese University of Hong Kong)
PhD Topic: A quest for utopia in New Zealand: A comparative study of the utopian writings and practices of James K. Baxter and Gu Cheng
Research Interests: Comparative literature, Utopian studies, translation studies, poetry and politics
Suzanne can be contacted at suzanneszx@gmail.com
Elizabeth Wilson
MNZM, BA French and German (Canterbury), MA (Hons) First Class German (Canterbury),
GradDip (Otago) Endorsed in English, DipTchg (Christchurch Teachers' College), CELTA (CCEL)
PhD Topic: Re-gendering the discourse of settler colonialism. An analysis of selected works by Robin Hyde and Elspeth Sandys and their contributions to the re-gendering of the settler colonialist discourse in New Zealand literature through metaphors related to family, marriage, motherhood, childhood, adolescence, illegitimacy and adoption, and through their depictions of a re-gendered search for personal and creative identity against the backdrop of New Zealand's settler colonial and post-colonial search for self-definition and national identity
Research Interests: New Zealand literature; settler colonialism and post-colonialism; gender and identity; autobiography and memoir
Elizabeth can be contacted at wilel912@student.otago.ac.nz
Sue Wootton 
PhD Topic: Beyond disease to human meaning: discovering illness in literature
Research Interests: Medical humanities, creative writing
Sue can be contacted at suewootton3@gmail.com
Please also see her entry on the Scottish Studies webpage and her creative writing website
Yu Zhang 张宇
PhD Topic: Reading Poetry in English through the Chinese Poetic Concept of “Idea-scape,” or yijing 意境
Yu can be contacted on zhayu888@student.otago.ac.nz
