Professor Sara Upstone
Faculties, departments and locations
- Kingston School of Art
- Department of Humanities
- School of Creative and Cultural Industries
Faculty Director of Postgraduate Research and Professor of Contemporary Literature
- Email:
- [email protected]
About
I am Professor of Contemporary Literature and Faculty Director of Postgraduate Research. I coordinate the provision of and have overall management responsibility for PhD and research MA programmes across Kingston School of Art. I am also currently the Faculty Athena Swan Lead, and a member of the Faculty EDI Committee.
I teach creative writing, English literature, and film studies and accept proposals for PhD research in these areas. I welcome all proposals, but as a disabled scholar with a working-class background, I am very keen to offer project development support to groups who are underrepresented in academia. Please get in touch if I can help.
I've worked at Kingston since 2005. Before being Faculty Director of PGR, I was Head of the School of Arts, Culture and Communication, Head of Department of Humanities, and a School Director of Learning and Teaching.
Qualifications
- PhD English Literature
- MA English Literary Research
- BA English Literature with History
- Postgraduate Certificate in Learning and Teaching in Higher Education (PGCLTHE)
Domains
My research focuses on the politics of form in contemporary literature and its relationship to questions of identity, with a particular focus on race, spatial justice, and community.
My previous work has examined how literary genres and subjectivities intersect, in particular through a focus on utopian realism and its relationship to the British novel's representation of race, magical realism and postcolonial fiction, and spatial justice in contemporary reworkings of fairy-tale.
I am currently researching the 'transglossic' form of the contemporary novel, arguing that its potential to speak across different subject positions works in the service of a radical empathy. This project aims, in particular, to question the ongoing dominance of concepts of 'post-postmodernisms' in contemporary literary criticism. I am also exploring these ideas through creative writing practice, focused on forms of autotheory and lyrical nonfiction.
My personal website can be found at saraupstone.com
Specialisms
- Contemporary literature
- Creative non-fiction
- Creative fiction
- Genre
- Race studies
Scholarly affiliations
- Literary London Society Committee
Publications
Howard Ashman, Stephen Sondheim and the queering of magical realist space
Upstone, Sara, 2025, Marvels and Tales, Accepted/In press
The transglossic: contemporary fiction and the limitations of the modern
Shaw, Kristian and Upstone, Sara, 2021, English Studies (102), 5pp 573-600, Published
Against walls
Upstone, Sara, 2019, Versopolis : the European Review of Poetry, Books and Culture, Published
Against kindness
Upstone, Sara, 2019, Versopolis : the European Review of Poetry, Books and Culture, Published
Against drinking
Upstone, Sara, 2019, Versopolis : the European Review of Poetry, Books and Culture, Published
Against food
Upstone, Sara, 2019, Versopolis : the European Review of Poetry, Books and Culture, Published
Against people
Upstone, Sara, 2019, Versopolis : the European Review of Poetry, Books and Culture, Published
Against culture
Upstone, Sara, 2019, Versopolis : the European Review of Poetry, Books and Culture, Published
Some interventions in the question of living
Upstone, Sara, 2018, Versopolis, E-pub ahead of print
Beyond the bedroom: Motherhood in E. L. James's Fifty Shades of Grey trilogy
Upstone, Sara, 2016, Frontiers : a Journal of Women Studies (37), 2pp 138-164, Published
You never let me leave
Upstone, Sara, 2015, Bloodstone Review (1), 1pp 36-40, Published
Education should be a right for all
Dixon, Paul, Favretto, Ilaria, Finn, Peter, Smart, Jackie, Spencer, Philip, Stockhammer, Engelbert, Stuart, John, Suess, Eleanor, Giaxoglou, Korina, Goldsmith, Carlie, Hallward, Peter, Hawkins, Sue, Swift, Allan, Upstone, Sara, Vallee-Tourangeau, Frederic, Wells, Julian, Wilson, Scott, Haywood, Peter, Higginbottom, Andrew, Ichijo, Atsuko, Isaac, Marina, Jensen, Meg, Kayyali, Reem, Kettyle, Ann, Lambrou, Marina, Latimer, Amanda, Linton, Marisa, Lipsedge, Karen, Malabou, Catherine, O Maoilearca, John, McQuillan, Martin, Micklethwaite, Paul, Morgan Wortham, Simon, O'Brien, Catherine, Blackburn, Robert, Botting, Fred, Brady, Mary, Osborne, Peter, Pinnock, Winsome, Piper, Jason, Choat, Simon, Chu, Jonathan, Cinpoes, Radu, Coultas, Valerie, Dines, Martin, Caygill, Howard, Chadwick, Howard, Chanter, Tina, Roberts, Mike, Rogers, David, Sandford, Stella, Searby, Michael, Siddiki, Jalal Uddin, Ponto, Maria, Raphael, Sam, Reid, Trish, Agnew, Eadaoin, Alliez, Eric and Auerbach, Paul, 2014, The Guardian, Published
You are what you eat: postcolonial eating in the novels of Salman Rushdie
Upstone, Sara, 2009, South Asian Review (30), 2pp 119-135, Published
"Same old, same old": Zadie Smith's 'White teeth' and Monica Ali's 'Brick Lane'
Upstone, Sara, 2007, Journal of Postcolonial Writing (43), 3pp 336-349, Published
Domesticity in magical-realist postcolonial fiction: reversals of representation in Salman Rushdie's Midnight's Children
Upstone, Sara, 2007, Frontiers (28), 1 & 2pp 260-284, Published
The fulcrum of instabilty: Salman Rushdie's The Ground Beneath her Feet and the postcolonial traveller
Upstone, Sara, 2006, Wasafiri (21), 1pp 34-38, Published
Anancy as trickster: magical space in the fiction of Wilson Harris
Upstone, Sara, 2004, World Literature Written in English (40), 2pp 23-39, Published
Writing the post-colonial space: Ben Okri's magical city and the subversion of imperialism
Upstone, Sara, 2004, Partial Answers: Journal of literature and the history of ideas (2), 2pp 139-159, Published
Toni Morrison and the magical re-visioning of space
Upstone, Sara, 2003, U.S. Studies Online: The BAAS Postgraduate Journal (3), Published
Applicability and truth in The hobbit, The lord of the rings, and The silmarillion: readers, fantasy, and canonicity
Upstone, Sara, 2002, Mythlore (23), 4pp 50-66, Published
Book review of 'Conversations with Salman Rushdie' by Michael R. Reder
Dailey, Sara, 2001, Ariel (32), 4pp 258-259, Published
Hari Kunzru
(2023). Manchester: [Published]
Community in contemporary British fiction: From Blair to Brexit
(2022). London: [Published]
Against
Upstone, Sara (2020). Kingston upon Thames, U.K.: [Published]
Literary theory: a complete introduction
Upstone, Sara (2017). London, U.K.: [Published]
Rethinking race and identity in contemporary British fiction
Upstone, Sara (2017). New York, U.S.: (Routledge) [Published]
Postmodern literature and race
(2015). New York, U.S.A.: [Published]
Researching and representing mobilities: transdisciplinary encounters
(2014). Basingstoke, U.K.: [Published]
Postcolonial spaces: the politics of place in contemporary culture
(2011). Basingstoke, U.K.: [Published]
British Asian fiction: twenty-first-century voices
Upstone, Sara (2010). Manchester, U.K.: [Published]
Spatial politics in the postcolonial novel
Upstone, Sara (2009). Farnham, U.K.: [Published]
Utopian realism and race
Upstone, Sara (2026). In: Edwards, Caroline, (eds.), Cambridge, U.K.: Cambridge University Presspp 197-220 [Published]
'An inevitable course‘ Political responsibility in 'The Remains of the Day'
Upstone, Sara (2023). In: Shaw, Kristian, Sloane, Peter, (eds.), Manchester, U.K.: Manchester University Press [Published]
Eyes, ears, head, memory, heart: transglossic rhythms in Memory Palace and Twice Upon a Time
Upstone, Sara (2023). In: Shaw, Kristian, Upstone, Sara, (eds.)[Published]
Even the ghosts: community in the wake
Upstone, Sara (2022). In: Upstone, Sara, Ely, Peter, (eds.)[Published]
Spaces: the magically real spaces of twentieth- and twenty-first-century fairy tale
Upstone, Sara (2021). In: Teverson, Andrew, (eds.), London, U.K.: Bloomsbury Academicpp 137-158 [Published]
Post-ethnicity and the politics of positionality
Upstone, Sara (2020). In: Nasta, Sushelia, Stein, Mark U., (eds.), Cambridge, U.K.:pp 650-662 [Published]
Black British literature
Upstone, Sara (2019). In: O'Gorman, Daniel, Eaglestone, Robert, (eds.), Abingdon, U.K.: Routledge [Published]
The 'post' in 'postcolonial'
Upstone, Sara (2016). In: McHale, Brian, Platt, Len, (eds.), Cambridge, U.K.:pp 262-277 [Published]
Postcolonial and diasporic voices - bringing Black to the Union Jack: ethnic fictions and the politics of possibility
Upstone, Sara (2015). In: Hubble, Nick, Tew, Philip, Wilson, Leigh, (eds.), London, U.K.: Bloomsbury Academicpp 123-148 [Published]
'Some kind of black': black British historiographic metafictions and the postmodern politics of race
Upstone, Sara (2015). In: Platt, Len, Upstone, Sara, (eds.), New York, U.S.A.:pp 279-294 [Published]
'Footprints are the only fixed point': mobilities in postcolonial fiction
Upstone, Sara (2014). In: Murray, Lesley, Upstone, Sara, (eds.), Basingstoke, U.K.:pp 39-56 [Published]
Mobilising representations: dialogues, embodiment and power
Murray, Lesley and Upstone, Sara (2014). In: Murray, Lesley, Upstone, Sara, (eds.), Basingstoke, U.K.:pp 1-20 [Published]
(In)fusion and the 'postcolonial‘: Salman Rushdie‘s 'Shame' as ethical-political fiction
Upstone, Sara (2012). In: Ghosh, Ranjan, (eds.), New York, U.S.:pp 132-148 [Published]
Iris Murdoch, Ian McEwan and the place of the political in contemporary fiction
Rowe, Anne and Upstone, Sara (2012). In: Rowe, Anne, Horner, Avril, (eds.), Basingstoke, U.K.:pp 59-73 [Published]
Representation and realism: Monica Ali‘s 'Brick Lane'
Upstone, Sara (2012). In: Ahmed, Rehana, Morey, Peter, Yaquin, Amina, (eds.) Routledgepp 164-179 [Published]
The history house: the magic of contained space in Arundhati Roy‘s 'The God of Small Things'
Upstone, Sara (2012). In: Ghosh, Ranjan, Navarro-Tejero, Antonia, (eds.), Abingdon, U.K.: Routledgepp 71-79 [Published]
Introduction
Teverson, Andrew and Upstone, Sara (2011). In: Teverson, Andrew, Upstone, Sara, (eds.), Basingstoke, U.K.:pp 1-13 [Published]
9/11, British Muslims, and popular literary fiction
Upstone, Sara (2010). In: Birkenstein, Jeff, Froula, Anna, Randell, Karen, (eds.), London, U.K.:pp 35-44 [Published]
Negotiations of London as imperial urban space in the contemporary postcolonial novel
Upstone, Sara (2006). In: Lindner, Christoph, (eds.), London, UK: Routledgepp 88-100 [Published]
For Dawit Isaak
Upstone, Sara(2018). [Published]
JRR Tolkien and the Great War
Upstone, Sara(2014). [Published]
Planetary (post)humanism in Neil Gaiman's 'Anansi boys'
Upstone, Sara(2013). [Published]
Past is future: Utopian diasporic histories in contemporary British fiction
Upstone, Sara(2013). [Published]
Can literature save the world?
Upstone, Sara(2009). [Published]
From postcolonial to British Asian: public and private space in Monica Ali's Brick Lane
Upstone, Sara(2007). [Published]
Preoccupied with the past: negotiations of migrant London in Zadie Smith's 'White teeth' and Monica Ali's 'Brick Lane'
Upstone, Sara(2005). [Published]