Rick Crownshaw

Dr Rick Crownshaw is a Senior Lecturer in English and Creative Writing at Goldsmiths, University of London. He holds a DPhil in American Literature from the University of Sussex and has held academic positions at Keele University and Manchester Metropolitan University before joining Goldsmiths in 2005. His research focuses on memory and trauma studies, American literature, and the Environmental Humanities, particularly examining intersections between climate change, fossil capitalism, and cultural narratives.

• Academic Qualifications:
  • BA English and American Studies (Keele University, 1993)
  • MA Post-1945 American Literature & Literary Theory (University of Sussex, 1994)
  • DPhil American Literature (University of Sussex, 2000)
  • Postgraduate Certificate in Teaching & Learning in Higher Education (Open University, 2001)

Research interests include Holocaust memory transmission, climate change fiction's temporal dynamics, and the ethical dimensions of perpetrator narratives. His monograph The Afterlife of Holocaust Memory in Contemporary Literature and Culture (2010) critiques universalizing memory practices. Recent work explores the Anthropocene through war literature and speculative fiction, addressing climate justice and racialized environmental crises.

He edits special journal issues (e.g., Studies in the Novel on climate fiction) and chairs the MA Teaching and Learning Committee. Supervised doctoral research covers posthumanism, Holocaust memorialization, and climate narratives.

Key publications include edited collections on transcultural memory and contributions to Resilience: A Journal of the Environmental Humanities. His work appears in interdisciplinary forums addressing memory studies, ecocriticism, and contemporary American fiction.