Professor Ian Davidson

Professor of Modern and Contemporary Literature, Northumbria University

On the Road Again: Mobility and Subjectivity in American Writing After 1945

When: 6.30pm – 7.30pm, Wednesday, 2 March 2016.

Where: Presentation Hall, Design Building,

City Campus East, Northumbria University, Newcastle

Refreshments will be available from 6.00pm

Free admission

Professor Davidson, will explore why the mobility of people in post-war society has reinforced and developed social structures and new suburban lifestyles and how these have become an essential part of work and family life. He will consider the ways that these structures have challenged a stifling social conformity and domesticity, and provided a potential escape from routine.

This lecture will explore increased mobility and demonstrate how this can threaten conformism: encouraging rebellion, permitting transgressive behavior and social injustice in the treatment of gender, sexuality and race as well as challenging established perspectives and relationships.

Professor Davidson will also discuss the impact that these factors have on the types of literary works produced, examples of writing that challenge established genres and individual and collective movements that have been instrumental in bringing about change.

About the Speaker

Professor Davidson became Reader in English at Northumbria University in 2011 and was appointed as Professor of Modern and Contemporary Literature and Research Lead for the English Subject Group in 2013.

Professor Davidson’s research interests include English Literature, American Studies and Creative Writing. He has published widely on spatial theory and poetry, and more recently on mobility, automobility and writing.

He was the co-editor of Skald Magazine and was previously the poetry editor for the English Journal. He is currently working on a range of post-war writers in the USA in order to examine relationships between mobility, literary form and subjectivity.

To register for the event, visit: www.northumbria.ac.uk/publiclectures