Sarah Bethany Edwards (UCL) - 2019-20 Students
sarah.edwards.19@ucl.ac.uk

How are contemporary feminist essayists influenced by emerging textual and technological materialities?

Sarah Edwards is a third-year PhD candidate at UCL. She graduated from Cambridge in 2019 with a BA in English Literature and an MPhil in Modern and Contemporary Literature. Her research explores how contemporary feminist essayists–writing in America, Britain and Canada–are influenced by the internet. This project focuses on theorising the essay in the context of fourth-wave feminism and digital publication methods and investigates claims made by fourth wave feminism about the role of digital spaces and digital platforms for feminist action. It argues that digitality, fourth wave feminism, and the essay genre are intertwined, by showing how contemporary feminist essays are crafted in ways that respond to contemporary politics online and digital habits. Sarah received The Rossetti Prize from Gonville & Caius College for a modest poetry collection and the Cambridge University T.R. Henn Prize for an original composition. Alongside her studies, she is the editor-in-chief of Moveable Type, organises community outreach events, teaches at widening participation events, and is a senior post-graduate teaching assistant at UCL.

Primary supervisor: Dr Christine ‘Xine’ Yao, UCL
Secondary supervisor: Dr Julia Jordan, UCL