Lara Choksey

Lara Choksey is a Lecturer in Colonial and Postcolonial Literatures in English (1800–present) at University College London, where she is also a Faculty Associate at the Sarah Parker Remond Centre for the Study of Racism and Racialisation. Her research bridges literature, science and technology studies, and political philosophy, focusing on how genomic and biotechnological narratives shape conceptions of human identity and temporality.

• Education
• BA in English, University of Leeds (2010)
• MA in Cultural Studies, Goldsmiths College (2011)
• PhD in English and Comparative Literary Studies, University of Warwick (2017)

Choksey’s work interrogates the intersections of colonialism, postcolonialism, and scientific discourse. Her book Narrative in the Age of the Genome: Genetic Worlds (2021) explores how DNA sequencing technologies influence speculative fiction and bioethical frameworks, earning a shortlisting for the British Society for Literature and Science Book Prize. She is a series editor for Bloomsbury's Explorations in Science and Literature.

Recent publications engage ecological collapse, racialized environments, and welfare systems, reflecting her interest in transnational narratives and material histories. She has held postdoctoral fellowships at the University of Exeter's Wellcome Centre for Cultures and Environments of Health (2018–21) and the University of Warwick's Institute of Advanced Study (2017–18).

• Scientific Awards
• Shortlisted, British Society for Literature and Science Book Prize (2021)

As a supervisor, Choksey guides PhD projects on James Baldwin and visual culture, pandemic fiction in American literature, and Brian Catling's novels. Her professional activities include media engagements on colonialism, soil science, and agricultural history, alongside talks on AI’s colonial legacies and decolonizing literary canons.