Dr Joseph Ford

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Research Summary and Profile

Research interests:

Colonies & Colonization, emigration & immigration, Cultural memory, Culture, Globalization & Development, Language and Literature (French), Literatures in a modern language

Regions:

Africa, Europe

Summary of research interests and expertise:

I joined the IMLR in January 2019 as Early Career Researcher, where I lead in the facilitation and support of UK-wide research, public engagement and widening participation in French Studies. I previously taught at Durham University (2016–19), the University of Leeds (2014–15) and Université Paris-Est (2015–16).

I specialise in contemporary French and Francophone Literature and Culture, with specific interests in Algeria and what has become known as the Algerian Civil War or "Black Decade" of the 1990s. My wider research interests are in postcolonial studies, world literature, literary translation, and French and Francophone intellectual culture of the 20th and 21st centuries.

My monograph, Writing the Black Decade: Conflict and Criticism in Francophone Algerian Literature (Lexington Books, 2021), studies how literature – and the way we read, classify and critique literature – impacts our understanding of the world at a time of conflict. I argue that, while it is frequently understood as an illuminating and emancipatory mode, literature – and the ideas we have about it – can in fact restrain our understanding of the world at a time of crisis, as well as further entrench the kinds of polarized discourses that lead to conflict in the first place. Foregrounding the notion of "the literary" and the aesthetic, I move beyond sociological readings of Algerian writers’ works and ultimately show how writers engage with and anticipate academic readings of their work, particularly in postcolonial studies and world literature. 

I have published articles on Mustapha Benfodil, Maïssa Bey, Salim Bachi and Kamel Daoud, translated a book-length collection of poems by Mustapha Benfodil (Hesterglock Press, 2018) and am completing an article on the theory and practice of "world literature" in the work of the Algerian writer Kaouther Adimi (see publications list below).

At the IMLR, I am Director of the Centre for the Study of Cultural Memory (CCM), co-General Editor (with Charles Burdett) of the Journal of Romance Studies and convenor of the Convocation Seminars in World Literature and Translation (co-convened with LINKS).

Publication Details

Related publications/articles:

Date	Details
01-Jun-2022	(with Adi Saleem Bharat), Contextualizing Apostasy and ‘Ex-Muslims’ in France and North Africa Journal articles Contemporary French Civilization 47.2 (2022), in press.
01-Jun-2022	(with Adi Saleem Bharat), A Roundtable Discussion with Salim Bachi Journal articles Contemporary French Civilization 47.2 (2022), in press.
01-Jan-2021	Writing the Black Decade: Conflict and Criticism in Francophone Algerian Literature Monographs Lanham, MD: Lexington Books, forthcoming 2021
01-Nov-2020	Deconstructing the Grotesque in Contemporary Francophone Algerian Literature, or: How to move beyond the ‘zombified’ State? Journal articles Irish Journal of French Studies, 20 (2020), 48–71.
01-Nov-2020	Revisiting the Grotesque in Francophone African Literature Edited Book Special issue of the Irish Journal of French Studies, 20 (2020), 1–172.
01-Nov-2020	(with Sarah Arens) Introduction: Revisiting the Grotesque in Francophone African Literature Journal articles Irish Journal of French Studies, 20 (2020), 1–13.
27-Apr-2020	Encountering COVID-19: Lessons from Languages Articles In Living Languages, IMLR blog/Talking Humanities
01-Dec-2019	Borders and Boundaries: Academic conferences and schools outreach: an integrated approach in Modern Languages Articles in Borders and Boundaries, SAS Annual Review (2019), pp. 34-35.
06-Jun-2019	Academic Conferences and Schools Outreach: An Integrated Approach in Modern Languages Articles Talking Humanities blog post
01-Mar-2018	Cocktail Kafkaine: Dark Poetry [bilingual edition] Edited Book Translated and edited book of poems by Mustapha Benfodil (Bristol: Hesterglock Press, 2018).
01-Jan-2017	Kamel Daoud: (im)possibilités de lecture Chapters  In: Kamel Daoud, esquisse d’un phénomène postcolonial algérien, ed. by Boukhalfa Laouari (Tizi Ouzou: Editions Frantz Fanon, 2017), pp. 60-75.
01-Jan-2016	Rethinking urgence: Algerian Francophone literature after the ‘décennie noire' Journal articles Francosphères, 5, 1 (2016), pp. 39-58.
01-Jan-2015	Introduction: Transnational Memory and Traumatic Histories Journal articles Forum: University of Edinburgh Postgraduate Journal of Culture and the Arts, Special Issue 4 (2015).
01-Jan-2014	Algiers, Paris, New York: migrating terror Journal articles Bulletin of Francophone Postcolonial Studies 5, 2 (2014), pp. 10-15.
01-Jan-2014	Figuring Camus in recent Algerian writing: between the mother and (in)justice Journal articles Journal of Camus Studies (2014 issue), pp. 45-60.

Publications available on SAS-space:

Date

Details

Aug-2020

Deconstructing the Grotesque in Contemporary Francophone Algerian Literature, or: How to move beyond the ‘zombified’ State? PeerReviewed Taking Achille Mbembe’s theory of the grotesque as a starting point, this article examines how a series of contemporary Algerian novels deploy an aesthetic of the grotesque to contest and deconstruct the operation of State power in Algeria. The article shows how three writers of the post-civil war period (Habib Ayyoub, Salim Bachi and Mustapha Benfodil) engage in distinct yet related ways with representations of the grotesque and the obscene in a renewed effort to break out of a state of false consciousness that renders citizens and observers complicit with the structures of power in place. The article argues that one of the reasons Mbembe’s landmark essay is so important to the situation now faced by Algerian artists, writers and civil society, is because it helps us to see the failure of the grotesque as a contestatory aesthetic and hence provides new insight into the spectacle of power at work in Algerian society and politics.

Research Projects & Supervisions

Research projects:

Details
Convocation Seminars in World Literature and Translation Funded by a grant from the University of London's Convocation Trust (£2262.10), this series of 12 seminars brings together scholars, teachers and students working in languages and comparative literature across London and the UK with the aim of examining the increasingly contentious place of world literature in the study of languages, as well as languages in the study of world literature.
Decolonising Languages Network Co-convened with Dr Emanuelle Santos (University of Birmingham)
Professeur invité (Invited Scholar), Université Bordeaux-Montaigne (UBM) In March 2022, I will be a Visiting Scholar at the Université Bordeaux-Montaigne (UBM) working on my new research project, ‘Towards a Vernacular Poetics of World-Making’. Co-funded (c. £2000) by Université Bordeaux-Montaigne (UBM) and the Ministère de l’Éducation nationale and the Ministère de l’Enseignement supérieur et de la Recherche.

Current PhD topics supervised:

Dates	Details
From: 01-Oct-2020 Until: 30-Sep-2025	Pacific Island(er)s on the move: Eco-criticism and migration in Francophone and Anglophone indigenous Pacific short-form writing, 1976-2021 PhD in Modern Languages, co-supervised with Benjamin Hiramatsu Ireland (TCU)
From: 01-Oct-2020 Until: 30-Sep-2025	Double travesty of female novelists: Privatisation of urban spaces in 19th century France PhD in Modern Languages, co-supervised with Jean-Michel Gouvard (Bordeaux-Montaigne)
From: 01-Oct-2020 Until: 30-Sep-2025	Memory as resistance: a comparative study of Haitian women's rewriting PhD in Modern Languages, co-supervised with Catriona MacLeod (ULIP)

Past PhD topics supervised:

Dates	Details
From: 01-Oct-2020 Until: 01-Oct-2021	MRes supervision: 'Adapting Panurge'
From: 01-Oct-2019 Until: 01-Oct-2021	MRes supervision: 'Representations of the "insider" and "outsider" in Belle Epoque Paris: Lautrec, Maupassant and Daudet'

Available for doctoral supervision: Yes

Professional Affiliations

Professional affiliations:

Name	Activity
Higher Education Academy	Fellow
Society for Francophone Postcolonial Studies	Member
Society for French Studies	Member

Relevant Events

Other editing/publishing activities:

Date	Details
2019	Journal of Romance Studies Co-General Editor

Knowledge transfer activities:

Details
Member of the Association for Language Learning (ALL) special interest group: 'Decolonise Secondary MFL'

Consultancy & Media

Available for consultancy:

Yes

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