Leeds Beckett University - City Campus,
Woodhouse Lane,
LS1 3HE
Professor Susan Watkins
Professor
Susan Watkins is Professor of Women's Writing in the School of Humanities and Social Sciences. She is an expert in contemporary women's writing and feminist theory, with particular research interests in dystopia, apocalyptic fiction, ageing and the future.
Susan's most recent book is about contemporary women’s post-apocalyptic writing. As well as her interests in Doris Lessing, Margaret Atwood, and contemporary women's dystopian and apocalyptic fiction, Susan is currently working on research projects on ageing and the future and ageing and the cultural industries. She welcomes proposals from prospective PhD students in these areas and in the broader field of women's fiction and feminist theory.
Susan is a founder member and former Chair of the Contemporary Women's Writing Association and previously a Co-Editor of the Journal of Commonwealth Literature. She was Director of the university's Centre for Culture and the Arts for 10 years.
Susan's main teaching at undergraduate level includes modules on Twentieth-Century Literature: Alienation and Dystopia (level 5) and Twentieth-Century Women Novelists: Feminist Theory into Practice (level 6). At MA level she teaches the modules Literature in Practice and Contemporary Apocalyptic Fictions.
Current Teaching
Susan's main teaching interests are in contemporary women's fiction and feminist theory. On the BA (Hons) English Literature programme she teaches Twentieth-Century Literature: Alienation and Dystopia (Level 5) and Twentieth-Century Women Novelists: Genre and Gender (Level 6 option). On the MA English: Contemporary Literature pathway, she contributes to the Creative Criticism module, leads the Literature in Practice module and teaches a specialist module on Apocalyptic Fictions.
Research Interests
Susan has previously published books on the Nobel prize-winning novelist Doris Lessing, on scandalous fictions in the twentieth century, on twentieth-century women novelists and feminist theory and on British women’s writing 1945-1975.
Ask Me About
- Contemporary women's dystopian and apocalyptic fiction
- Doris Lessing
- Margaret Atwood
- Ageing
- Culture
- Feminism
- Gender
- Literature
Selected Outputs
- Contemporary Women's Writing Association : Member
S2E1 Feat. Professor in the School of Cultural Studies and Humanities and Director of the Centre for Culture and the Arts at Leeds Beckett University, Susan Watkins
Tales From The Leeds Library - online
Welcome back to Tales from The Leeds Library! Kicking off our second season is a fascinating conversation with Susan Watkins. We talk about her work on contemporary women's post-apocalyptic fiction and what post-apocalyptic and dystopian fiction can tell us about our current world.
View moreThe Squid Game effect: Why do we seek out dystopias?
RTÉ - online
Arguably, it’s a sign of the times. "Since the start of the pandemic, dystopia, apocalypse, infection films and games [have] just been hugely popular," explains Professor Susan Watkins from the School of Cultural Studies and Humanities at Leeds Beckett University, an expert in post-apocalyptic writing.
View more‘Squid Game’: Have we become desensitized to hyper-violence?
The South African - online
“Since the start of the pandemic, dystopia, apocalypse, infection films and games [have] just been hugely popular,” says Professor Susan Watkins of Leeds Beckett University.
View moreThe Squid Game effect: Why do we seek out dystopias?
The Independent - online
Have you watched Squid Game?! HAVE YOU?? Even if you haven’t (yet) the chances are you’ve already been asked this question multiple times, by multiple people, all of whom are wired from having binged every episode in a single feverish night.
View moreEpisode 9: The Golden Notebook by Doris Lessing
Literate Podcast - online
To round things off, we interview Susan Watkins, who is a Professor in the School of Cultural Studies and Humanities at Leeds Beckett University. She draws on her expertise in Lessing’s genre-crossing oeuvre, but also in feminist theory, to discuss whether The Golden Notebook truly is a feminist novel.
View moreReview: 'The Testaments' – Margaret Atwood’s Sequel to the 'Handmaid’s Tale'
The Wire - online
When Margaret Atwood was writing The Handmaid’s Tale in 1984, she felt that the main premise seemed “fairly outrageous”. She wondered: “Would I be able to persuade readers that the United States had suffered a coup that had transformed an erstwhile liberal democracy into a literal-minded theocratic dictatorship?”
View more
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Watkins S (2023) Ageing in Science, Speculative and Fantasy Fiction. In: Falcus S; Hartung H; Medina R ed. The Bloomsbury Handbook to Ageing in Contemporary Literature and Film. London: Bloomsbury Publishing, pp. 91-102.
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Watkins S (2023) Ageing, Anachronism and Perception in Dystopian Narrative: The Case of Margaret Atwood's 'Torching the Dusties'. In: Falcus S; Oro-Piqueras M ed. Age and Ageing in Contemporary Speculative and Science Fiction. London: Bloomsbury Academic, pp. 195-212.
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Watkins SM (2017) Science Fiction. In: Hanson C; Watkins S ed. The History of British Women's Writing Vol 9 1945-1975. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan UK, pp. 273-288.
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Watkins SM; Chambers C (2015) Writing Now. In: Eagleton M; Parker E ed. The History of British Women's Writing 1970-Present. London: Palgrave, pp. 247-265.
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Watkins SM (2010) Issues of Gender and Sexuality in Post-War British Fiction. In: Cockin K; Morrison J ed. The Post-War British Literature Handbook. Continuum International Publishing Group, pp. 161-176.
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Watkins S; Raisborough J; Connor R (2023) Ageing as Adaptation. Gerontologist
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Raisborough J; Watkins S (2021) Critical Future Studies and Age: attending to future imaginings of age and ageing. Culture Unbound: Journal of Current Cultural Research, 13 (2),
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Raisborough J; Watkins SM; Connor RA; Pitimson N (2021) Reduced to Curtain twitchers? Age, ageism and the careers of four women actors. Journal of Women and Aging: the multidiciplinary quarterly of psychosocial practice, theory and research
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Watkins SM (2019) Reimagining the Maternal in Jenny Diski’s and Doris Lessing’s Apocalyptic Imaginative Memoirs. Doris Lessing Studies, 36
https://dorislessingsociety.wordpress.com/doris-lessing-studies/current-issues/
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Watkins SM (2016) ‘Second World Life Writing: Doris Lessing’s Under My Skin’. Journal of Southern African Studies
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Watkins SM (2013) "Summoning Your Youth at Will": Memory, Time and Aging in the Work of Penelope Lively, Margaret Atwood and Doris Lessing'. Frontiers: A Journal of Women's Studies, 34 (2), pp. 222-224.
https://muse.jhu.edu/journals/frontiers/v034/34.2.watkins.html
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Watkins SM (2012) Future Shock: Rewriting the Apocalypse in Contemporary Women's Fiction. LIT: Literature Interpretation Theory, 23 (2), pp. 119-137.
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Watkins SM; Eagleton M (2006) The Future of Fiction: The Future of Feminism. The Journal of Gender Studies, 15 (2),
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Watkins S (2020) Contemporary Women’s Post-Apocalyptic Fiction. Palgrave Macmillan UK.
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eds. Hanson C; Watkins S (2017) The History of British Women's Writing, 1945-1975: Volume Nine. Palgrave Macmillan.
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Watkins S (2011) Doris Lessing. Manchester University Press.
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Ridout A; Watkins S (2009) Doris Lessing: Border Crossings. Continuum International Publishing Group.
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Morrison J; Watkins S (2007) Scandalous Fictions. Palgrave Macmillan.
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Watkins S (2001) Twentieth-Century Women Novelists. Palgrave Macmillan.
News & Blog Posts
Why is dystopian literature so appealing to students?
Squid Game: Why we’re so obsessed with dystopian fiction
Covid-19 and Culture - podcast mini-series
The Best Books to Read in Quarantine
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