Jean
Morris

Jean’s PhD is a creative-critical inquiry into how migration, particularly the movement beyond borders, is embodied. For this purpose, it re-imagines a sea-journey taken by a Jewish woman in 1492, just after the Edict of Expulsion was announced by King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella of Spain. Jean’s project explores migratory phenomena such as exile, detainment and homecoming and how these phenomena are changed or problematised by gender.

Jean’s scholarly interests are underpinned by a dedication to cultural studies and the investigation of social life through its relation to structures of power. Theoretically, her project engages with the junctures that exist between the works of Michel Foucault and Jacques Lacan (as well as Hannah Arendt, Giorgio Agamben and Julia Kristeva). Her project also considers whether ‘power’ might be destabilised as the sole organizing principle around which the social order performs. In this regard, she engages with feminist methodologies which seek to uncover the veiled ways by which patriarchy intersects with racialized, sexualised and gendered bodies, employing the work of Lauren Berlant, Sara Ahmed and Judith Butler amongst others.

Other areas of theoretical interest include:

• Discourse Theory and Biopolitics
• Psychoanalysis
• Feminism and intersectionality
• Queer Theory
• Affect Theory
• Case Studies
• New Materialist Ontologies

The social phenomena with which she is concerned include:

• Migration
• Gender-based violence
• Racism
• Historiography

Her literary interests are broad, but include:

• Medieval and Early Modern
• Spanish Literature
• Contemporary Confessional Writing and Biography
• Hybrid narratives which blend theory with fiction
• Contemporary renditions of the essay form
• Courtly Love Stories and promised land narratives
• Travel writing

Before pursuing a PhD, Jean received an MA in Cultural Studies from Goldsmiths, (University of London). Between this and her BA in English from Queen Mary (University of London), Jean worked in the publishing industry as a Commissioning Editor. She also taught Creative Writing at various organisations.