Welcome to the new blog for the Centre for Contemporary Literature and Culture.
Founded in 2015, CCLC provides a home for staff and students working on late twentieth to early twenty-first-century literature, film, TV, theory, and popular culture. Based at the University of Birmingham, CCLC regularly hosts visiting speakers, public lectures, conferences and symposia, as well as reading groups, workshops, and other public events.
Our understanding of ‘literature’ and ‘culture’ is expansive and inclusive and our central aims are to develop critical methods that facilitate productive encounters with contemporary literature, culture, and the city around us. We therefore welcome inquiries about collaboration on future projects and events, particularly from other institutions, local writers, artists, and activists, as well as non-academic organisations.
Current research undertaken by centre members include: the state sponsorship of British literature, quietness and noise in contemporary American culture, Islamophobia and anti-Muslim prejudice in the novel, the role of affect in contemporary reading practices, forms of self-representation online, and the politics of resource scarcity in contemporary world literature.