Mariane Gallet
Thesis title: “Scrutiny of now”: Black American Poetics of Resilience, 1927-2020.
PhD supervisors:
Background
Mariane's research is concerned with questions of literary aesthetic, ethics of archival memory, and transatlantic circuits of thought and literary influence. Her PhD research pursues an interdisciplinary approach on the systemic legacies of the institution of slavery. She holds an MLitt in American Literature from the University of Glasgow, as well as a joint honours degree (MAHons) from the University of Edinburgh. Mariane's research, which specialises in politics of memory and cultural heritage in the present, focuses on the intersection of antiracist, environmental and social justice activism.
Through years of scholarly practice building upon training in France, the UK and the US, Mariane possesses a strong background in the study and teaching of Literary Studies, and in joining transnational contextual perspectives in the study of English Literature and critical theory in a global anglophone literary context. She is thoroughly invested in teaching and transmission.
Mariane's research has featured in academic research showcases and workshops (GenderED, UCLA Centre for the Study of Women). She has regularly contributed to conversations in international conferences (ASA, CAAS, BAAS). She also contributed to the online exhibition featured in The Guardian, “Crossed-Lines” (2020). Mariane completed research as a visiting scholar at the Centre for the Study of Race and Ethnicity in America (CSREA) at Brown University supervised by Professor Andre C. Willis (Oct-Nov 2024). Her chapter “Feminist Utopias: Narrative Eco-Ethics for Surviving Dystopian Realities in Octavia Butler’s Parable Series,” in the edited collection, Decolonial Approaches: Decolonizing the Ecological Imaginary, is pending publication with Bloomsbury Academic.
Qualifications
PhD American Literature, University of Edinburgh (UK) 2022-2026
- Supervisors (Edinburgh): Dr Keith Hughes, Prof Andrew Taylor.
- Consultation (Brown University, RI USA): Prof Andre Willis, Prof Tricia Rose.
- Thesis: “Scrutiny of now”: Black American Poetics of Resilience, 1927-2020.
- Research focus: African American modern and contemporary literature (1920s-2020s), contemporary legacies of the institution of slavery, American democracy, memory studies. Archival research.
MA American Modern Literature, University of Glasgow (UK) 2020-2021
- Supervisor (Glasgow): Dr Chris Gair.
- Dissertation: Logics of Institutional Racism and Poetics of Resistance, Art for the People, By the People.
- Focus: intermediality in modes of artistic resistance in and across artistic media in African American Literature and Visual Arts. Muralism, poetry, intermediality, American Modern Literature.
- Affiliation: Andrew Hook Research Centre (University of Glasgow).
MAHons English Language and Literature (Joint Honours), University of Edinburgh (UK) 2016-2020
- Focus: phonology and language acquisition; American modern and contemporary Literature, Modernism and Empire, American War Fiction, Black Atlantic Literature.
- Dissertation: Life in the Wake, Selfhood and Poetics of Racial Trauma.
- Focus: 20th Century African American Literature, memory studies, Critical Race Theory, personal identity and national citizenship.
Classe Préparatoire, Lycée du Parc, Lyon (France) 2015-2016: Preparatory School for the French École Normale Supérieure (ENS).
Undergraduate teaching
Undergraduate Teaching, The University of Edinburgh 2023-2026: Tutor, School of Literatures, Languages and Cultures. Led four tutorials per semester (2023 to 2025), marking and assessment (continued 2026).
Literary Studies 1A, Critical Close Reading: Poetry and Drama - First-year course introducing students to reading literature at university level. Focus on genres of poetry and drama (UK and US Literature). Practice in close reading analysis, teaching key specialist terms and concepts related to each genre, and academic writing skills.
Literary Studies 2B: English Literature and the World, post 1789 - Second-year course. Focus on interdisciplinary approaches to global anglophone literatures in transnational historical, socio-cultural and political contexts. Study diasporic Anglophone literatures in territories affected by British imperialism. Developing academic writing skills.
French 1B Literature and Civilisation - First-year course. Focus on Literature, Film and Politics of France from WWII in a global context. Cross-disciplinary study of diasporic French artistic productions.
French 2 Literature - Second-year course. Focus on literary, historical and cultural developments from the twelfth to nineteenth Century.
Postgraduate teaching
Postgraduate Teaching (The University of Edinburgh): Guest-lead Tutor English Literature MSc, School of Literatures, Languages and Cultures.
English Literature, Literature and Modernity: 1900 to the Present (MSc): Independent development of a single two-hour seminar as guest-lead tutor. Focus on Toni Morrison’s 1987 novel Beloved.
Research summary
Mariane's research focuses on the intersection of antiracist, environmental and social justice activism in modern and contemporary African American Literature and social movement activism. Analysing the legacies of the institution of slavery in contemporary American democracy, she highlights unique narrative strategies of memory and history to describe the adaptive nature of systemic racism in the United States, revealing a century-long engagement with the structural, not just individual, dimensions of racism. Documenting ways that Black writers from the early twentieth century to the contemporary period have addressed systemic racism and singularly evidenced its institutional hold, she works towards contextualising literary visions of intimate and communal freedom, vitally engaging with politics of memory and cultural heritage in the present. Interweaving formally unique and contemporarily highly relevant texts, her work sheds new light on Black literary poetic engagement with the hold of systemic discriminations.
Knowledge exchange
Co-organiser Black History in the City Walking Tour 2025 Race, Empire and Memory: Edinburgh’s Black Histories and The University of Edinburgh. With Lisa Williams.
Work in Progress Seminar co-organiser 2023-2024, LLC The University of Edinburgh. Organization of departmental conference. Funded by the U. of Edinburgh Student Experience Grant (£250).
Project activity
Publications:
Upcoming Chapter in Edited Collection – Gallet, Mariane. “Feminist Utopias: Narrative Eco-Ethics for Surviving Dystopian Realities in Octavia Butler’s Parable Series” in Decolonial Approaches: Decolonizing the Ecological Imaginary, Bloomsbury Academic (upcoming, 2026).
Research:
Visiting Scholar, Brown University (RI, USA), Fall 2024: Center for the Study of Race and Ethnicity in America (CSREA), dir. Prof. Prudence Carter (sociologist). Consultation with Prof. Tricia Rose. Supervised by Prof. Andre C. Willis, department of Religious Studies. Attended Religion and Critical Thought course.
Academic engagements, communication and outreach:
Co-organiser Black History in the City Walking Tour 2025 Race, Empire and Memory: Edinburgh’s Black Histories and The University of Edinburgh. With Lisa Williams.
Treasurer Scottish Association for the Study of America, 2024-present: committee member and treasurer. Network Coordination, Ellen Craft Essay Prize juror.
- 2025, 2026: Co-organizer of the Annual Conference of the Scottish Association for the Study of America. SASA 2025 at The University of Edinburgh. SASA 2026 at The University of the Highlands and Islands of Scotland, with the Association for the Australian and New Zealand American Studies Association.
Assistant Editor, FORUM 2024, 2025: Peer-reviewed Postgraduate Journal of Culture and the Arts, The University of Edinburgh.
Writer Gifford Lecture Series 2024: blog contributor for the 2024 Gifford Lecture Series delivered by Dr Cornel West - 'A Jazz-soaked Philosophy for our Catastrophic Times: From Socrates to Coltrane.' [Link].
Prize Juror James Tait Black Prize 2024 reader and juror in fiction.
Work in Progress Seminar co-organiser 2023-2024, LLC The University of Edinburgh. Organization of departmental conference. Funded by the U. of Edinburgh Student Experience Grant (£250).
Writer Gender.ED 2022 Feminist Research Workshop, SGSSS, SGSAH, SUFRN Jul 2022: Blog contributor, reflections and poetry: ‘Reflections: “We were all poets, if only for a moment,”’ and ‘Aren’t we all relevant bodies?’. [Link].
American Studies Reading Group Network co-founder and co-host Andrew Hook Research Centre 2020-2021, The University of Glasgow. Discussion and seminar co-lead.
Writer Crossed Lines online exhibition contributor May 2020. AHRC funded research project led by Dr Sarah Jackson, Nottingham Trent University (UK). [Link].
Volunteer Bilingualism Matters research network, annual book festival volunteer, 2018-2020 The University of Edinburgh.
Volunteer Pint of Science Festival 2017, Edinburgh. Volunteer organiser. Organiser of the first Science and Humanities event of the festival.
Additional training:
Oct -Dec 2025: Way Out of No Way Workshop by Prof Tricia Rose on Systemic Racism. By Gathering Ground, Elevating Equality. Online.
Jun 2023: Scottish Graduate School of Social Science Summer School.
Jan 2022: Scottish Graduate School of Social Science & Gender.ED Workshop: Doing Feminist Research. Gender.ED, hub for the interdisciplinary study of gender and sexualities, Edinburgh.
Nov 2021: Graduate Teaching Assistant qualification completed, The University of Glasgow.
Past project grants
Travel Grant, Heidelberg Center for American Studies 300€ (2026).
The University of Edinburgh Student Experience Grant for the Black History Walking Tour £400 (2025).
Foundation for Women Graduates (FfWG) - Foundation Grant (living expenses) £1000 (2025).
British Association for American Studies-US Embassy Grant. For the Scottish Association for the Study of America partnership with the Australian and New Zealand American Studies Association £2000 (2025).
British Association for American Studies Development Fund. For the Scottish Association for the Study of America 2025 Annual Conference £900 (2025).
The University of Edinburgh Conference Travel Grant £800 (2025).
European Association for American Studies Transatlantic Grant. Grant for research residency at Brown University (Providence, RI USA) in Oct-Nov 2024, the Centre for the Study of Race and Ethnicity in America 1300€ (2024).
The University of Edinburgh Student Experience Grant for LLC WIP Seminar Series £250 (2024).
ASA Annette K. Baxter Grant $400 (2023).
The University of Edinburgh Conference Travel Grant £750 (2023).
The University of Edinburgh Conference Travel Grant £355 (2023).
Gordon Studentship Andrew Hook Research Centre for American Studies £700 (2020-2021).
Conference details
Papers delivered:
Heidelberg Center for American Studies 2026 Conference: “Architectures of this American Landscape: Lyric Conversations in Claudia Rankine’s Just Us (2020).” Authority in Crisis, Trust in Transition. Heidelberg Center for American Studies and Graduirtenkolleg Authority and Trust, May 2026. Heidelberg University. (upcoming).
British Association for American Studies 2026 Annual Conference: “‘I’m a Nationalist’: Negotiating Contemporary Conversational Ethics in Claudia Rankine’s Just Us (2020).” College of Arts and Humanities, and the Andrew Hook Research Centre for American Studies, April 2026. The University of Glasgow (UK). (upcoming).
American Studies Association 2024 Annual Meeting: “Parables of Democracy: Octavia Butler and Necropolitics, an eco-ethic of narrative grounded engagements.” ASA Nov 2024 Grounded Engagements in American Studies.’ Panel ‘Apocalypse, Dystopia, and Salvation. Baltimore, MD USA.
Canadian Association of American Studies Annual Conference 2024: “Parables of Democracy: Octavia Butler and Necropolitics.” CAAS Oct 2024 On Bothering. The University of Concordia, Montreal, QC Canada.
Institute for Advanced Studies in the Humanities Conference 2024: “Feminist Utopias: Narrative Eco-Ethics for Surviving Dystopian Realities in Octavia Butler’s Parable Series” IASH Conference May 2024 Rethinking the Ecological Imaginary: Decolonial Ecologies and Black Feminism. The University of Edinburgh. Upcoming publication (2026).
Scottish Association for the Study of America Annual Conference 2024: SASA Annual Conference Jan 2024. ‘Parables of Democracy: Necropolitics of the American Writer.’, The University of Stirling (Scotland UK).
American Studies Association 2023 Annual Meeting: “Your Feminism Will Not Protect You: Love, Morbidity, Misogyny in Zora Neale Hurston Short Stories” ASA Nov 2023 Solidarity: What Love Looks Like in Public. Montreal, QC Canada.
Irish Association for American Studies Annual Conference 2023: “‘no woman beareth the axe in Babylon’: Questioning the Inherent Errantry and (In)Security of Black Feminism in the Harlem of the Great Migration, A study of recovered Zora Neale Hurston short stories”. IAAS Apr 2023 In/Security. The University of Limerick (Ireland).
Scottish Association for the Study of America Annual Conference 2021: SASA Annual Conference March 2021. “Selfhood and Poetics of Racial Trauma: Claudia Rankine and Lyrical Hybridity” (online).
Other academic presentations:
Mar 2024: LLC Work in Progress Seminar Spring Series. “Parables of Democracy: Octavia Butler’s narrative eco-ethics and American dystopian theopolitics in the Parable series.” The University of Edinburgh.
Jan 2024: UCLA Thinking Gender 2024. Work in Progress Seminar. “Dystopian Realities, Feminist Utopias,” the UCLA Centre for the Study of Women, Barbara Streisand Centre.
May 2022: Gender.ED Annual Research Showcase. “Art for People’s Sake”: A Genealogy of Poetics of Resistance to Logics and Architectures of Institutional Racism. The University of Edinburgh, Gender.ED Research Network Annual Research Showcase.
Organiser
2025, 2026: Co-organizer of the Annual Conference of the Scottish Association for the Study of America. SASA 2025 at The University of Edinburgh. SASA 2026 at The University of the Highlands and Islands of Scotland, with the Association for the Australian and New Zealand American Studies Association.