Matthew Lear

Thesis title: Gathering the Mess: Repurposed Poetics and Anthropocene Time

English Literature

Year of study: 3

English Literature
School of Literatures, Languages and Cultures

Email: M.J.Lear@sms.ed.ac.uk

ORCID

PhD supervisors:

Biography

Background

Matthew studied English as an undergraduate at the University of Exeter, receiving the Dean’s Commendation for Exceptional Academic Performance. After working as an English teacher in Yamaguchi Prefecture, Japan, he studied for an MPhil in English Studies: Criticism & Culture at the University of Cambridge.

He is a third year PhD student and his project on 'Repurposed Poetics and Anthropocene Time' is funded by the Scottish Graduate School for Arts & Humanities AHRC Doctoral Training Partnership. A recent Scotland-based scholar selected for the British Council’s international 'EARTH' scholarship programme, Matthew also convened the Edinburgh Environmental Humanities Network, leading the organisation of the Biennial ASLE-UKI ECR Conference. He has won multiple grants for the network, directed its PhD Lab, and led collaborative events with the universities of St Andrews, Oslo, Utrecht, Dundee, Aberdeen, Bristol, and Oxford.

He has published work in ISLE: Interdisciplinary Studies in Literature and Environment (Oxford University Press).

In 2025, Matthew will continue his research as a Visiting Fellow at Harvard University.

Qualifications

MPhil English Studies, University of Cambridge, 2021.

BA (Hons) English (1:1), University of Exeter, 2019.

Responsibilities & affiliations

Visiting Fellow - Harvard University

Landhaus Fellow - Rachel Carson Center for Environment and Society (LMU Munich & Deutsches Museum).

Postgraduate Convenor - Edinburgh Environmental Humanities Network

SGSAH Doctoral Research Committee - Discipline+ Literature Catalyst

Assistant Editor - FORUM: Postgraduate Journal

Conference Organiser & Member - ASLE-UKI

Reader - The James Tait Black Prize (Fiction)

Early Career Network Member - Centre for Adapting to Changing Environments (ACE)

Teaching & PhD supervision

Undergraduate teaching

Literary Studies 1B (2023-24)
Literary Studies 1A (2024-25)

Research

Research summary

Matthew's research focuses on the notion of ‘repurposed’ poetics, whereby writing is recycled – both textually and materially – to think dynamically about environmental histories in the Asia-Pacific region. Concentrating on literature from Hawai'i, Guåhan, the Marshall Islands, and California, his research considers how various modes repurposing can highlight ecological change as it unfolds, parsing attuned ethical and political possibilities. For his doctoral project, Matthew has been awarded internal and external research grants to conduct fieldwork in San Francisco and Honolulu.

Past research interests

Matthew has presented conference papers internationally on: 1) the 'Philosophy of Attention' in the works of Iris Murdoch, Miklós Vető, and Simone Weil; 2) infrastructural crises in Celtic Tiger Irish fiction.

Affiliated research centres

Projects

Current project grants

AHRC Doctoral Training Partnership Studentship - Scottish Graduate School for Arts & Humanities (2022-2026)
Visiting Doctoral Research Award (Harvard University) - Scottish Graduate School for Arts and Humanities (2025)
Landhaus Fellowship - Rachel Carson Center for Environment and Society (2025)

Past project grants

Cohort Development Fund Award - Scottish Graduate School for Arts and Humanities (2024-25)
PhD Travel Grant - School of Literatures, Languages and Cultures, University of Edinburgh (2024)
Edinburgh Environmental Humanities Network PhD Lab - University of Edinburgh Student Experience Grant (2024)
Engagement Funding Grant - Scottish Graduate School for Arts and Humanities (2023-24)
Edinburgh Environmental Humanities Network PhD Lab - University of Edinburgh Student Experience Grant (2023)
Una Europa One Health Deep Dive Programme: KU Leuven, Belgium - University of Edinburgh Trust Fund Grant (2023)
Bodleian Libraries, University of Oxford - Research Grant: Fitzwilliam College, University of Cambridge (2021)

Conferences

Invited speaker

How to Start and Sustain Successful PGR Networks: SGSAH Welcome Event - The Royal Society of Edinburgh (14th November 2024)

Organiser

PhD Network Training: How to Start and Sustain Successful PGR Networks - Lead organiser (3rd December 2024)
ASLE-UKI Biennial Postgraduate Conference - Lead organiser (5th - 6th September 2024)
Edinburgh Environmental Humanities Network PhD Presentation Series - Co-organiser (Spring Term 2024)

Participant

Robert Louis Stevenson and the Pacific: A Symposium - University of Edinburgh (13th November 2023)
Po'ai Mo'olelo: Literary Arts Programme - Festival of Pacific Arts & Culture, Honolulu, Hawaiʻi (6 - 16th June 2024)
Spring into Methods: (In)tangible Inquiry: Sensory Methods in Qualitative Research - University of St Andrews (8 May 2024)
Una Europa One Health Deep Dive Summer Programme - KU Leuven, Belgium (31 July - 02 August 2023)
British Council SGSAH EARTH Scholarship Programme - Scotland (16th - 28th April 2023)
'Thinking with Water: Climate & Colonialism' Launch - Paul Mellon Centre, Yale University, London (23 February 2023)

Papers delivered

'Recasting: Poetry as Participatory Research?' - Attention and the Environment: ASLE-UKI, University of Edinburgh (5th - 6th September 2024)
'Letters, Pedagogy, and Simone Weil: Iris Murdoch’s Philosophy of Attention' - Literature and Philosophy in Dialogue, Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne (April 12th - 13th April 2024)
'(Re)presentations of Guåhan in From Unincorporated Territory' - Transpacific Studies Network Conference, Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz (9th - 10th February 2024)
'Outside the Borders' - Frontiers and Wastelands, Instituto Franklin-UAH, Universidad de Alcalá (27th - 28th November 2023)
'Repurposed Poetics' - School of Literatures, Languages and Cultures LLC Work in Progress Seminar, University of Edinburgh (10th November 2023)
'Embracing Distraction' - Concentration and Distraction: GIRES-Global Institute for Research, Education & Scholarship, Amsterdam (4th - 5th November 2023)
'Constructing Collapse' - What Happens Now: British Association for Contemporary Literary Studies (BACLS), University of Birmingham (8th September 2023)
'Thick Language and the Ecological Stuplime' - Transitions: ASLE-UKI, University of Liverpool (30th August - 1st September 2023)
'Ghost Estates and Literature after NAMA' - Haunted Landscapes: Nature, Super-Nature, and Global Environments, Falmouth University (4th - 6th July 2023)
'Housing and Infrastructure in Mike McCormack’s Solar Bones' - British Society for Literature and Science Annual Conference, Edinburgh Napier University (13th - 15th April 2023)
'Housing and Infrastructure in Mike McCormack’s Solar Bones' - Work In Progress Papers: Edinburgh Environmental Humanities Network, University of Edinburgh (24th March 2023)
'Rewriting the House: Property and Institutional Crises in Post-Celtic Tiger Irish Fiction' - Graduate Research Papers: Fitzwilliam College, University of Cambridge (May 2021)