Researcher: Alex Millen
Supervised by: Dr. Nick Lawrence
Home department: English and Comparative Literary Studies
Expected start date: 01/06/2015
Expected end date: 17/07/2015

I have just completed my undergraduate degree in English. In October I will begin my Masters degree, again in English, (MSt 1900 - Present day) at the University of Oxford. My main academic interests include critical theory, the novel, contemporary American fiction, and Marxism. After my graduate studies, I hope to pursue a career in academia.

My research seeks to reconcile two theories of ecology: 'world-ecology' as theorised by Jason W. Moore; and 'media ecology', which emerged out of NYU in the late 1960s, spearheaded by Neil Postman. Positing myself between these two schools, I will take my findings and apply them to Roberto Bolaño's novel, 2666. In order to do this I am compiling both an annotated bibliography of secondary reading and an indexed gloss of 2666.

A quick word about the theories: 'world-ecology' is animated by the conviction that the nature-society binary that we are often guilty of indulging (the very idea of a 'carbon footprint' is an excellent example: we societal humans imprint on the natural world, as if we are somehow distinct from it). Rather than think of capitalism (society) outside of nature, Moore argues that we ought to think in terms of capitalism-in-nature. Media ecology, on the other hand, is concerned with communication systems - not just technological, so, the brain, language, and technological systems - as environments. I find both of these theories fascinating and hope my work goes some way to find a connection between them.