Harriet Smith Hughes

My doctoral research looks at ‘the personal’ and ‘the impersonal’ across four intersecting genres of late-20th and early-21st century North American criticism. In the first chapter, I consider the function of Eve Sedgwick’s critical ‘I’, and her projection of a charismatic personality that has shaped institutionalised queer critique. In the second, I read the memoir alongside and against the manifesto in the discourse of Afro-pessimism. The third considers the ‘aporias’ of racialised subjectivity in the modern American Lyric; and the final, the politics of the late-20th century essay anthology. 

I’m one of the co-convenors of the TORCH-funded Queer Intersections Network at Oxford, which organises bi-weekly research lunches for speakers in- and outside of academia to present on their work in queer studies, as well as regular panel discussions, book talks, and colloquia with researchers and activists from around the world. 

Research interests include: 20th and 21st century North American literary criticism; queer theory; queer of colour critique; Afro-pessimism; personality and impersonality; affect theory; lyric; memoir; anthology; essay; manifesto; institutionality and the university.