The Centre for American Studies is pleased to welcome Professor Monica Manolescu as an honorary research fellow for the academic year 2016-17. Monica is an Associate Professor of English at the University of Strasbourg, France, working on 20th century and contemporary American literature and art. She has published books and articles on Vladimir Nabokov and other American writers and artists, and has been a visiting scholar at the Institute for Advanced Study at Princeton.
The main focus of Professor Manolescu’s research is on the ways in which space is imagined, experienced and invested in 20th century American literature and art. Her current research project, entitled Urban Cartographies: Reimagining the American City, considers the urban site as seminal topos and catalyst in the experimental discourses and practices of a variety of post-war American artists and practitioners of space up to today (Vito Acconci, Robert Smithson, Gordon Matta-Clark, Trisha Brown, Fluxus, contemporary situationist projects, locative artworks, collaborative atlases of critical cartography). Given the hybrid nature of the artistic production of these artists who combined text, photography, actual movement, maps, sometimes even fragments of the built environment, the project is situated at the intersection of art history, urban studies, architectural discourse, cartography and literature.
Monica will visit The Centre for American Studies at the University of Kent several times during the course of the year to offer lectures, seminars and workshops for staff and students.