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Ms Julia Bell

Positions held:
  • Reader in Creative Writing, School of Creative Arts, Culture and Communication
  • Overview

    Overview

    Biography

    Julia Bell is a writer and Reader in Creative Writing at Birkbeck, London where she convenes the MA in Creative Writing and is Project Director of the website MIROnline. She is the author of three novels, Massive, Dirty Work and most recently The Dark Light all published by Macmillan, the co-editor of the Creative Writing Coursebook (Macmillan) re-issued and updated in 2018.

    Her essays and short stories have appeared in the TLS, The White Review, The Paris Review and have been broadcast on the BBC. Her essay-length book Radical Attention was published by Peninsula Press in 2021 and her most recent book Hymnal is a memoir in verse, published by Parthian in 2023.

    You can read some of her work online at her website www.juliabell.net

  • Supervision and teaching

    Supervision and teaching

    Supervision

    Supervisions within Birkbeck:
    7

    Julia welcomes applications for PhD study from students who are committed to producing a body of prose-based creative work in conjunction with academic supervisors from English & Humanities. If you are interested in making an application please contact her in the first instance with your proposal.

    Current doctoral researchers

    • CHARLOTTE NORTHALL
      Nature of supervision:
      Joint Principal Supervisor, onwards
    • MATTHEW BATES
      Nature of supervision:
      Joint Principal Supervisor, onwards
      Title of thesis:
      Writing Chemsex: Unlocking the syndetic of a gay male subculture
      Description:

      Although considerable advances have been made within academia to situate and understand the chemsex subculture, clinical studies focus mainly on behaviours, risk, and health prevention with minimal investigation into the empirically orientated or written testimonies that could potentially unlock some of the questions posed by such studies. Similarly, the current cultural and sociological responses are, for the majority, concerned with situating the cause of the rising chemsex ‘epidemic’ within a socio-political context.

      Any research into chemsex is, by immediate default, compressed and obscured by the syndetic itself: ‘chemsex’. This compound word can become a reductive label which represses, omits, neglects, erases, and calcifies its participants.. It allows zero space for the user to articulate their trauma, shame, repression, vulnerability, abjection and resignation. My thesis will insist on the validity of a wider subjective experience as a method to understanding the complexities that surround user participation in chemsex.

      The outcome of this research project will consist of a creative work (70%) and a critical essay (30%).

    • MELANIE JONES
      Nature of supervision:
      Joint Principal Supervisor, onwards

    Doctoral alumni since 2013-14

    • LILY DUNN
      Nature of supervision:
      Joint Principal Supervisor
      Title of thesis:
      The Aesthetic of Hybrid Literary Memoir, and its Relationship to Healing: Is There a Contradiction Between Writing Well and Writing to Get Well?
      Awarded:
      2023
    • KEITH JARRETT
      Nature of supervision:
      Joint Principal Supervisor,
      Title of thesis:
      Led by the Spirit: exploring the migration of cultural identity through Oneness Pentecostalism, from the Caribbean to London
      Awarded:
      2021
    • GOLNOOSH NOURPANAH
      Nature of supervision:
      Joint Principal Supervisor
      Title of thesis:
      The Iranian Queer
      Awarded:
      2019

    Teaching

    Teaching modules

    • Creative Writing Summer Term Lecture Series (AREN227Z7)
    • Creative Non-Fiction (ENHU002S7)
    • Writing Workshop (ENHU039S7)
    • Writing in the Workplace (SC04008S5)
  • Publications

    Publications

    Article

    Book

    • Bell, Julia (2023) Hymnal. Parthian. ISBN 9781914595110.
    • Bell, Julia (2020) Radical attention. Peninsula Press. ISBN 9781999922375.
    • Bell, Julia (2015) Massive. Basingstoke, UK: Pan Macmillan. ISBN 9781447290353.
    • Bell, Julia (2015) The dark light. Basingstoke, UK: Pan Macmillan. ISBN 9781447283034.
    • Bell, Julia (2015) Dirty work. Basingstoke, UK: Pan Macmillan. ISBN 9781447290360.

    Book Section

    • Bell, Julia (2019) Fear in your water. In: Page, R. (ed.) Resist: Stories of Uprising. Comma Press. ISBN 9781912697076.

    Other

    • Bell, Julia (2019) Fairy. London, UK: BBC Radio 4.