I work as a lecturer in Fine Art Critical Studies (FACS) and Design History and Theory (DH&T). I also teach a postgraduate elective course, 'Worlding Fictions and Fictional Worlds'. As a poet with an academic background in postcolonial theory, I have collaborated across art forms on projects which explore issues of belonging, subjectivity, race and gender. My poetry and projects often focus on place, memory and stories (historical, fictional, mythical); and how they shape one’s sense of self or changing subjectivity. In 2008 I graduated from Glasgow University with a PhD on Jean Rhys’s novels and postcolonial theory, incorporating film theory, French feminism, and psychoanalysis. In addition to being widely published in magazines and anthologies, I have had four short poetry collections published, the first of which, Skirlags, was shortlisted for the Callum MacDonald Award in 2010. As George Mackay Brown Writing Fellow in Orkney (2009-10), I led collaborative projects, working with Orkney traditional dancers, musicians, actors, archaeologists and the RSPB. I have engaged in community projects in Glasgow, using stories from asylum seekers and refugees, as well as intergenerational stories from the South Asian diaspora, to write poetic pieces for stage performances. These include collaborations with Indian classical dancers and were performed at the Citizens Theatre (Ankur Ha-Ha, 2012) and the Tron Theatre (Mayfesto, 2013). I have led on knowledge exchange with Creative Writing workshops, residencies and participation in literature festivals, in Scotland (including Orkney and Shetland), Finland (Lahti International Writers’ Reunion, 2019), France (Robert Louis Stevenson Fellowship, 2017) and India (Apeejay Kolkata Literary Festival, 2018). My poetry pamphlet The Raven’s Song was published in 2015 with funding from Ankur Productions (Creative Scotland) and was produced in collaboration with artist Catherine Hiley. Our limited-edition print of the poem ●●●● about Hrafn Floki (the first Norseman to sail deliberately from Norway to Iceland) was produced for The Written Image, with Edinburgh Printmakers Studio and the Scottish Poetry Library, forming part of EP’s Christmas exhibition in December 2013. A copy was sold to the Gallery of Modern Art, Edinburgh, for their Special Books Collection in 2014. In 2015 I received a Tom McGrath Award and Creative Scotland funding for the development of my poetic stage performance, Beyond the Mud Walls, highlighting the life of Freda Bedi (an English woman who fought for India’s independence, and went on to become a Buddhist nun). The performance was developed partly in a residency at DanceBase, Edinburgh; and was showcased at the Traverse Theatre for Stellar Quines in 2016. In 2019 I was commissioned by Enough! Scotland to join their artists’ collective, taking part in a range of creative works, including film-poems, talks and an exhibition (Komplex Gallery, Nov. 2021). These were mostly in response to the climate crisis. I am currently working with Dr Gina Wall (GSA Altyre) on a project that explores connections between Orkney and India via Duleep Singh and John Login. The collaborative exhibition will see its first iteration in Spring 2027 at the Garnethill Gallery. In autumn 2025 I was commissioned to write poetry for the Three Rivers Festival, Stirlingshire, a new, national music chamber music festival. The poem will be used as inspiration for a newly composed song cycle, which will be performed at the festival in July 2026.
My research interests include landscapes, myth, diaspora, dualities, mirroring, identities, and alternative histories.
RDF Funding received for field work with Dr Gina Wall for trip to Orkney for initial stages of current project on Duleep Singh and John Login. We travelled to Orkney for a few days in April 2024, engaging in walks, studies of the landscape, finding the grave of Login's ancestors, discussing theory (e.g., entanglement) in relation to the themes of the project, and initial writing (creative prose from myself); notes by both.
I would be interested in supervising students exploring issues of race, identity/subjectivity, belonging; utilising any of a range of theories from Bhabha to Spivak to Fanon, among others.
I currently teach Y4 undergraduates in FACS and DH&T; as well as my own UG elective courses:-
Postcolonial Theory: Where the Margins Meet the Centre (FACS Y3)
Postcolonial Theory and Design (DHT Y3)
In addition, I teach a PG elective Course: Worlding Fictions and Fictional Worlds.
I deliver one Y1 lecture per year in FACS.
