Karen Simecek
Associate Professor
Deputy Chair of Faculty of Social Sciences (Education)
Profile
My research interests are in Philosophy of Poetry (including performed poetry), Philosophy of Voice and the Emotions. I am working on issues around the value of reading and performing poetry in terms of how this experience can enhance our understanding of ourselves and contribute to our sense of moral progress. You can read more about my research in this interview by Richard Marshall for 3:AM Magazine and listen to an interview by Toby Tremlett for Common Room Philosophy.
I am a Trustee of the British Society of Aesthetics. I am an associate editor for Estetika: the European Journal of Aesthetics, the Poetry category editor on Philpapers and a member of the editorial board for Bloomsbury Studies in Philosophy and Poetry (editors James Reid and Rick Furtak).
Current Projects
- AHRC research network: Embodied Voices - the ethics and politics of voice in performance
- Words, Voices, Bodies: the ethics of writing and performing poetry
Past Projects
- Empowering Young Voices with Andrew Cooper (Co-I) and Coventry Boys and Girls Club (funded by BA/Leverhulme)
Publications
Books
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Articles and book chapters
- ‘Immersive theatre, affectivity and self-understanding’ (forthcoming) Philosophy, Analytic Aesthetics and Theatre, edited by Michael Y Bennett (Routledge)
- ‘Bridging the gap between Page and Performance Poetry’ (2024) Companion to Literary evaluation, edited by Richard Bradford (Wiley)
- 'Linking Perspectives: A role for poetry in philosophical inquiry' (2022), New Directions in Metaphilosophy ed Yafeng Shan, special issue of Metaphilosophy [open access]
- 'Literary Interventions in Justice' (2021) with Kate Kirkpatrick and Rafe McGregor, Estetika: European Journal of Aesthetics 59 (2) [open access]
- 'Listen to me! The moral value of the poetry performance space' (2021) In: English, Lucy and McGowan, Jack, (eds.) Spoken Word in the UK. Routledge.
- 'Cultivating Intimacy: the use of the second person in lyric poetry' (2019), Philosophy and Literature 43 (2)
- 'New directions for the Philosophy of Poetry' (2019), Philosophy Compass 14 (6) e12593
- 'Teaching and learning guide for new directions for the Philosophy of Poetry' (2019), Philosophy Compass 14 (6) e12610
- 'The Uses of Poetry: Renewing an Educational Understanding of a Language Art' (2017) with Viv Ellis, Journal of Aesthetic Education 51 (1)
- 'Beyond Narrative: Poetry, Emotion and the Perspectival View' (2015) British Journal of Aesthetics 55 (4).
- 'On the seeming incompatibility between Poetry and Philosophical Inquiry',(2013) Estetika, The Central European Journal of Aesthetics 50 (1).
Special Journal Issues
-
The Uses of Poetry, special issue of Changing English (2016), guest edited with Kate Rumbold, vol. 23 (4)
- 'Actual Texts, Possible Meanings: The Uses of Poetry and the Subjunctification of Experience' (2016), with Andrew Green and Viv Eillis, The Uses of Poetry, Special Issue of Changing English, vol. 23 (4)
- ‘Affective and Cognitive Responses to Poetry in the University Classroom,' (2016) with Kate Rumbold, The Uses of Poetry, Special Issue of Changing English, vol. 23 (4)
Book reviews and review chapters
- 'Freeman's The Poem as Icon' (2021), British Journal of Aesthetics
- 'Affect theory' (2020), The Year's Work in Critical and Cultural Theory 28: 414-433 (also for 2019; 2018; 2017)
- Review of Michael Boylan's Ficitve Narrative Philosophy: How Fiction can act as Philosophy (2019) NDPR
- 'Bernard Harrison's What is Fiction For? Literary Humanism Restored' (2016), British Journal of Aesthetics 56 (4):424-427.
- 'John Gibson's (ed.) The Philosophy of Poetry,' (2016) British Journal of Aesthetics 56 (3):320-322
Public-facing work
- 'Are stories enough?' (2025) Psychologie Heute (May)
- 'Your life is not a story: Why narrative thinking is holding you back' (2024) Psyche Magazine (October)
- 'Of Many Voices: A Poetic Gift of Togetherness', essay with a poem by Momtaza Mehri, Poetry Review autumn 2021
- Discussion on 'What's going wrong with modern arts prizes?' for BBC Radio 4 - Front Row, 17th February 2020
- 'Should we treat loneliness with poetry?' (2020), Institute of Art and Ideas, issue 85 (February)
- 'Hearing Meaning and Poetry: In Conversation with Angela Leighton' (2014), PN Review 215, vol. 40 (3).
Tel: 024 7652 4321
Office: S2.61
Modules
Philosophy in Education (co-taught with Dr Emma Williams)
Issues in Contemporary Aesthetics
Outreach
Stratford Girls' Grammar School, 2016
The Kingsley School, 2018
Harris Academy, 2019