So I’ve got two major research interests. The first is the American poet Walt Whitman, and I look at the influence that he had on 19th century socialist thought and art and culture. But the second, and this relates more to my work within the [Liberal Arts] Department, is in the field of Utopian Studies, and it’s really focused on one particular problem which is: how can we make better societies for our people to live in? This one overarching problem connects to a whole load of sub-problems to do with say: labour, crime and punishment, education, gender.

So as I’ve developed my research interests and written conference papers and articles along this theme, I’ve at the same time developed a Liberal Arts optional module so our students also have the opportunity to explore these ideas and to think creatively about how they would construct their own utopias.