English Academics

Meet the academics who will be teaching you on the BA English at City University London.

Dr Patricia Moran - Programme Director
I'm delighted to welcome you to the new BA English programme at City. I'm particularly excited about working with you as we embark on a truly innovative approach to the study of literature, one which combines traditional emphasis on authors, genres and texts with sustained attention to the material contexts in which literature is produced and in which it is read. It is this innovative approach that attracted me to City myself: I bring more than thirty years of experience in teaching literature at the University of California and the University of Limerick, where I've had the opportunity of teaching subjects ranging from Dickens to Derrida, from the short story to madness narratives, and from Beowulf to Virginia Woolf. I consider myself lucky that I've been able to share my passion for reading and writing about the literature I love with generations of students. I'm looking forward to sharing that passion with you, and to welcoming you to City!

Dr Minna Vuohelainen
My research interests lie in late-19th century popular fiction, particularly gothic and crime fiction and London literatures. I have recently published on a professional author called Richard Marsh (1857–1915), in whose bestselling urban gothic novel The Beetle (1897) a shape-shifting, foreign monster – part man, part woman, part gigantic scarab! – invades London to terrorise its British victims. I will be teaching on several modules on City’s first-year English programme, including ‘Literature in Historical Context’ and ‘Reading London’; and plan to develop future modules on gothic and crime fiction, exploring vampires and detectives.

Dr David Ashford
I am delighted to be right at the start of the English BA at City University London, and I look forward to developing exciting and innovative modules as part of a vibrant new team.
I have written extensively on Modernism, philosophy and cultural geography, including London Underground (2013) and Autonomies: The invention of selfishness (published later this year by Bloomsbury), with a book on Promethean horror nearing completion. I am also a practising poet.
I will be teaching modules on City’s BA English ranging from ‘Reading London’ to poetry, and on the impact of literature on economics and the built environment.