Dr Meg Jensen

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Meg Jensen
About
Teaching and learning
Research
Videos of my work

About

My research focuses on representations of human rights violation and/or traumatic experience in narrative form, and the social, cultural, gendered and familial contexts in which such works are produced. 

Recent applied projects, funded by the UK Foreign and Commonwealth Office and the UNDP, assessed the effectiveness of Expressive Writing methodologies in supporting the well-being of women victims of sexual violence in conflict in Iraq and AHRC funded work with communities in crisis across Lebanon.

My most recent publications including the monograph The Art and Science of Trauma and the Autobiographical: Negotiated Truths, Palgrave 2019, evaluate a range of life narrative forms that represent traumatic experience (memoir, testimony, poetry, graphic novels, monuments, autobiographical novels, etc) and consider the relationship between such works and current behavioural, psychological, and neurochemical approaches to diagnosing and treating traumatic disorders.

Finally, my practice-based research takes the form of creative non-fiction and autobiographical novels concerned with representations of traumatic experience.

Academic responsibilities

Professor in English Literature and Creative Writing

Qualifications

  • BA Liberal Arts, Sarah Lawrence College, New York (1985)
  • MA English Literature (Distinction), New York University, 1991
  • PhD English Literature Queen Mary, University of London, 1996
  • Senior Fellow Higher Education Academy (SFHEA) 2017

Teaching and learning

Because my main area of research interest is reflecting on how stories of trauma and conflict are represented in texts of all kinds, I teach in a wide range of subject areas. In Creative Writing at BA, MA, MFA and PhD, I work with students on the development of their own voice and specialize in autobiographical forms of writing. In English Literature, I teach across several time periods from the late 18th Century to the present, in genres from fiction, to non-fiction to poetry to graphic forms of writing, written by authors from all over the world: from 19th century British novels to post-colonial short stories, to modernist poetry and prose and beyond. I am particularly interested in writing that challenges dominant narratives - stories and poems and non-fiction that speaks from the "outsider's" point of view. 

Undergraduate courses taught

Postgraduate courses taught

Research

I publish widely on the relationship between memory, trauma, the autobiographical and the advancement of human rights and conduct funded interdisciplinary applied research on the uses of Expressive Writing for supporting well-being in survivors of traumatic experiences. 

Funded Projects include: 

Expressive Life Writing and Telling During Crisis: Addressing Urgent Needs in the Akkar Governate, Lebanon

December 2020: AHRC Research Grant £25,000 as Co-I

The primary research question of this project is: "How can Expressive Life Writing be deployed during an acute crisis to support well-being for social workers and their most vulnerable clients especially women and girls?"The secondary research questions of this project are: "What are the most effective means of reaching vulnerable subjects isolated by crisis situations with ELW -online, with an App, by phone?" and "How can ELW be taken to scale as part of a well-being centered response to building resilience in the face of a crisis?"If the research provides satisfactory answers to these questions, then this project will produce a universally available, stress tested, step change in the use of ELW as a form of rapidly deployable assistance for the trauma, stress and pressure of quickly evolving crisis situations. 

Expressive Writing: support for Front Line Health Care Workers during and after the COVID-19 Outbreakhttps://www.kingston.ac.uk/news/article/2393/12-oct-2020-expressive-writing-project-from-kingston-university-to-help-covid19-healthcare-workers-overcome-traumatic-experiences/

April 2020: awarded £10,000 by Viaro Energy, Ltd. to research, develop and deliver support to Front Line Health Care Workers during the COVID-19 outbreak. The research project will also test the efficacy of an innovative multilingual, freely accessible digital model for the successful dissemination of Expressive Writing training and exercises, gathering feedback via online surveys.

AHRC Global Research Funding £21,000 in 2018 and £26,000 in 2019

Expressive Writing Capacity Building with Akkar Network for Development (AND), Beirut

United Nations Development Programme SIRI project, Iraq, £1,500 in 2017. Expressive Writing Capacity Building   https://www.iq.undp.org/content/iraq/en/home/presscenter/pressreleases/2018/11/04/undp-supporting-women-crsv-and-sgbv-survivors-of-trauma.html 

Dear Diary Exhibition: Somerset House June 2017 Produced and exhibited filmed refugee diaries: http://tsrnetwork.org/news-network/publications/

UK Cabinet Office Countering Violent Extremism Programme, £7,400 in 2017

UK Foreign and Commonwealth Office Human Rights Fund, Stigma Project: £2,400 in 2016    http://www.inmaairaq.com/drejae.aspx?=hewal&jmare=86&Jor=1

                                                                

Research student supervision

Main supervision

Other supervision

Publications

Jump to: Article | Book | Book Section | Conference or Workshop Item | Performance/Live Event
Number of items: 35.

Article

Jensen, Meg (2020) Book Review of: 'Women writers of the Beat era : autobiography and intertextuality' by Mary Paniccia Carden. Life Writing, 17(4), pp. 609-611. ISSN (print) 1448-4528

Jensen, Meg [Reviewer] (2017) Book Review of: 'Speaking pictures : neuropsychoanalysis and authorship in film and literature' by Alistair Fox. Viewfinder, 106, p. 23. ISSN (print) 0952-4444

Jensen, Meg (2016) Surviving the wreck : post-traumatic writers, bodies in transition and the point of autobiographical fiction. Life Writing, 13(4), pp. 431-448. ISSN (print) 1448-4528

Agnew, Eadaoin, Alliez, Eric, Auerbach, Paul, Blackburn, Robert, Botting, Fred, Brady, Mary, Caygill, Howard, Chadwick, Howard, Chanter, Tina, Choat, Simon, Chu, Jonathan, Cinpoes, Radu, Coultas, Valerie, Dines, Martin, Dixon, Paul, Favretto, Ilaria, Finn, Peter, Giaxoglou, Korina, Goldsmith, Carlie, Hallward, Peter, Hawkins, Sue, 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, Osborne, Peter, Pinnock, Winsome, Piper, Jason, Ponto, Maria, Raphael, Sam, Reid, Trish, Roberts, Mike, Rogers, David, Sandford, Stella, Searby, Michael, Siddiki, Jalal Uddin, Smart, Jackie, Spencer, Philip, Stockhammer, Engelbert, Stuart, John, Suess, Eleanor, Swift, Allan, Upstone, Sara, Vallee-Tourangeau, Frederic, Wells, Julian and Wilson, Scott (2014) Education should be a right for all. The Guardian,

Jensen, Meg (2014) Post-traumatic memory projects : autobiographical fiction and counter-monuments. Textual Practice, 28(4), pp. 701-725. ISSN (print) 0950-236X

Jensen, Meg (2012) Something beautiful for Mary. New Writing: The International Journal for the Practice and Theory of Creative Writing, 9(3), pp. 337-341. ISSN (print) 1479-0726

Jensen, Meg (2012) The writer's diary as borderland: the public and private selves of Virginia Woolf, Katherine Mansfield, and Louisa May Alcott. Life Writing, 9(3), pp. 315-325. ISSN (print) 1448-4528

Jensen, Meg (2011) Getting to know me in theory and practice: negotiated truth and mourning in autobiographically-based fiction (J.G. Ballard, Virginia Woolf, Katherine Mansfield, Jack Kerouac, Louisa May Alcott and me). Literature Compass, 8(12), pp. 941-950. ISSN (online) 1741-4113

Jensen, Meg and Jolly, Margaretta (2011) Introduction: life writing and critical practice. Literature Compass, 8(12), pp. 875-877. ISSN (online) 1741-4113

Jensen, Meg (2009) Separated by a common language: the (differing) discourses of life writing in theory and practice. a/b: Auto/Biography Studies, 24(2), pp. 299-314. ISSN (print) 0898-9575

Jensen, Meg (2009) Book Review of: The unbearable Saki: the work of H. H. Munro by Sandie Byrne. Modern Language Review, 104(1), pp. 192-193. ISSN (print) 0026-7937

Jensen, Meg (2008) Book Review of: Original copy: plagiarism and originality in nineteenth-century literature by Robert MacFarlane. Modern Language Review, 103(3), pp. 839-840. ISSN (print) 0026-7937

Jensen, Margaret (2007) Book Review of: Quixotic fictions of the USA 1792-1815 by Sarah F. Wood. Modern Language Review, The, 102(3), p. 842. ISSN (print) 0026-7937

Jensen, Meg (2007) The anxiety of daughterhood: re-examining Bloom's theory of influence in the work of Louisa May Alcott and Virginia Woolf. Literature Compass, 4(4), pp. 1208-1226. ISSN (online) 1741-4113

Book

Mansfield, Katherine and Jensen, Meg [Editor] (2021) Prelude & other stories. London, U.K. : Macmillan Collector's Library. 266p. ISBN 9781529045604

Jensen, Margaret (2019) The art and science of trauma and the autobiographical : negotiated truths. Basingstoke, U.K. : Palgrave Macmillan. 299p. (Palgrave Studies in Life Writing) ISBN 9783030061067

Jensen, Meg and Campbell, Siobhan (2016) The expressive life writing handbook. Edinburgh, U.K. : Beyond Borders Scotland. 89p. ISBN 9781526202604

Jensen, Meg and Jolly, Margaretta, eds. (2014) We shall bear witness : life narratives and human rights. Madison, WI, U.S. : University of Wisconsin Press. 332p. (Wisconsin Studies in Autobiography) ISBN 9780299300142

Jensen, Meg and Jordan, Jane, eds. (2009) Life writing: the spirit of the age and the state of the art. Newcastle upon Tyne, U.K. : Cambridge Scholars Publishing. 238p. ISBN 9781443805261

Jensen, Margaret M. (2002) The open book: creative misreadings in the works of selected modern authors. New York; Basingstoke : Palgrave Macmillan. 236p. ISBN 0312293534

Book Section

Jensen, Meg (2021) Introduction. In: Jensen, Meg, (ed.) Prelude & other stories. London, U.K. : Macmillan Collector's Library. pp. vii-xvi. ISBN 9781529045604

Jensen, Meg (2020) Speaking trauma and history : the collective voice of testimonial literature. In: Hammond, Andrew, (ed.) The Palgrave handbook of Cold War literature. Cham. Switzerland : Palgrave Macmillan. pp. 323-343. ISBN 9783030389727

Jensen, Margaret and Campbell, Siobhan (2019) Negotiated truths and iterative practice in action : the Women in Conflict expressive life writing project. In: Douglas, Kate and Barnwell, Ashley, (eds.) Research Methodologies for Auto/Biography Studies. New York, NY : Routledge. pp. 149-160. (Routledge Auto/Biography Studies, 1) ISBN 9780367255688

Jensen, Meg (2018) How art constitutes the human : aesthetics, empathy, and the interesting in autofiction. In: Dix, Hywel, (ed.) Autofictions in English. London, U.K. : Palgrave Macmillan. pp. 65-83. (Palgrave studies in life writing) ISBN 9783319899015

Jensen, Meg (2016) The legible face of human rights in autobiographically based fiction. In: McClennen, Sophia A. and Schultheis Moore, Alexandra, (eds.) The Routledge Companion to Literature and Human Rights. Abingdon, U.K. : Routledge. pp. 184-192. (Routledge Literature Companions) ISBN 9780415736411

Brivati, Brian, Jensen, Meg, Jolly, Margeretta and Moore, Alexandra Schultheis (2014) Using life narrative to explore human rights themes in the classroom. In: Jensen, Meg and Jolly, Margaretta, (eds.) We shall bear witness : life narratives and human rights. Madison, WI, U.S. : University of Wisconsin Press. pp. 267-280. ISBN 9780299300142

Jensen, Meg (2014) The fictional is political : forms of appeal in autobiographical fiction and poetry. In: Jensen, Meg and Jolly, Margaretta, (eds.) We shall bear witness : life narratives and human rights. Madison, WI, U.S. : University of Wisconsin Press. pp. 141-157. ISBN 9780299300142

Jensen, Meg (2009) Introduction: do you speak life narrative? In: Jensen, Meg and Jordan, Jane, (eds.) Life writing: the spirit of the age and the state of the art. Newcastle upon Tyne, U.K. : Cambridge Scholars Publishing. pp. xxvii-xxxiii. ISBN 9781443805261

Jensen, Meg and Jordan, Jane (2009) State of the art: the spirit of the age collection. In: Jensen, Meg and Jordan, Jane, (eds.) Life writing: the spirit of the age and the state of the art. Newcastle upon Tyne, U.K. : Cambridge Scholars Publishing. pp. xxxiv-xxxvii. ISBN 9781443805261

Jensen, Meg (2007) Tradition and revelation: moments of being in Virginia Woolf's major novels. In: Shiach, Morag, (ed.) The Cambridge companion to the modernist novel. Cambridge, UK : Cambridge University Press. pp. 112-125. (Cambridge companions to literature) ISBN 0521670748

Jensen, Meg (2004) Roper, Esther Gertrude (1868-1938). In: Goldman, Lawrence, (ed.) Oxford dictionary of national biography. Oxford, UK : Oxford University Press. ISBN 9780198614111

Jensen, Meg (2004) Stephen, Caroline Emelia [Milly] (1834-1909). In: Goldman, Lawrence, (ed.) Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. Oxford, UK : Oxford University Press. ISBN 9780198614111

Conference or Workshop Item

Jensen, Meg [Speaker] (2010) Writers' diaries and their fiction. In: Kingston Reader's Festival; 01 May 2010, Kingston upon Thames, U.K.. (Unpublished)

Jensen, Meg [Speaker] (2009) Behind a mask: the unknown thrillers of Louisa May Alcott. In: Kingston Reader's Festival; 23 Apr - 22 May 2009, Kingston upon Thames, U.K.. (Unpublished)

Performance/Live Event

Jensen, Meg (2018) Forgetting. Forgetting, Kingston Writers' Centre. 25 Jan 2018, Kingston Upon Thames, U.K.

This list was generated on Wed Sep 13 06:39:36 2023 BST.

Videos of my work

Nordic Pizza by Meg Jensen

Writers Kingston Nordic Poetry Festival November 2019

Introduction to Katherine Mansfield

Hauntology: History, Culture, Trauma

Introduction to Life Writing

Writers Centre Kingston Event on Forgetting Jan 2018

Life Writing Course

Interview Rachel Cusk on Outline, Beyond Borders Festival

Hauntology Poem for Writers Kingston November 2020

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