Oli Belas: Academic Profile
Research Focuses
· Philosophy of Education (language, identity, English studies, moral education)
· Secondary English studies
· Creative writing in the classroom
· Creative writing (practitioner – fiction & non-fiction)
· Founding member of Royal Holloway Alumni Education Network (English Dpt.)
Forthcoming Articles and Presentations
· Invited speaker, Bath branch, Philosophy of Education Society of Great Britain, TBC
· Invited speaker, Bedford branch, Philosophy of Education Society of Great Britain, January 2016
· “Truth, Knowledge, and Secondary English,” British Education Research Association Annual Conference (Belfast, Ireland), 15-17 September 2015
· “Secondary English, Creative Writing, and Moral Education,” submitted to Journal of Philosophy of Education
· “Metaphorically Speaking, Literally Meaning: Metaphor and Literality After Davidson,” submitted to Contemporary Pragmatism
· “Scrap- and Sketch-Book: A Vocabulary,” flash fiction collection, submitted to FirthForth Books
Publications
· “If the government is serious about the study of our literary canon, why abolish Creative Writing A Level?”, TES online, https://news.tes.co.uk/b/opinion/2015/04/05/39-if-the-government-is-serious-about-the-study-of-our-literary-canon-why-abolish-creative-writing-a-level-39.aspx, published 05/04/15
· “Creative Writing Under Threat,” LKMCo, https://www.lkmco.org/article/creative-writing-under-threat-05042015?page=2, published 05/04/15
· “Gove’s Marbles: English Literature and Moral Education,” Litro (online, 27 June & 15 July 2014); part I, http://www.litro.co.uk/2014/06/goves-marbles-english-literature-and-moral-education-part-i/; part II, http://www.litro.co.uk/2014/07/goves-marbles-english-literature-and-moral-education-part-ii/
· “Popular Science, Pragmatism, and Conceptual Clarity,” European Journal of Pragmatism and American Philosophy VI.i (2014), http://lnx.journalofpragmatism.eu/wp-content/uploads/2014/07/EJPAP-2014-6-1-Belas.pdf
· “Vignette: The Colonel and His Wife (Catterick, North Yorkshire) [fiction], Litro (online, 22 December 2013), http://www.litro.co.uk/2013/12/family-vignette-the-colonel-and-his-wife-catterick-north-yorkshire/
· “Aesthetic Theory and Literary Study,” emagazine [journal of the English and Media Centre] 60 (April 2013) pp.41-42
· “The Enduring Appeal of the Mystery Story,” Litro #123, 6 March 2013 [print journal]; the opening of this essay can be read here http://www.litro.co.uk/2013/03/the-enduring-appeal-of-the-mystery-story/
· “Genre,” The Encyclopedia of Literary and Cultural Theory, vol. II, ed. Michael Ryan (Chichester: Wiley-Blackwell, 2011)
· “Performativity,” Encyclopedia of Literary and Cultural Theory, vol. II, ed. Ryan
· “Chester Himes’s The End of a Primitive: Exile, Exhaustion, Dissolution,” Journal of American Studies 44.2 (2010), pp. 377-390
Conferences & Seminars
· “Secondary English, Creative Writing, and Moral Education,” conference paper, Philosophy of Education Society of Great Britain Annual Conference, 29/03/15
· Philosophy of Education Society of Great Britain Research and Writing Retreat, 02-04/09/14
· Co-Organizer, with Professor Tim Armstrong (Royal Holloway) and Dr. Elizabeth English (Cardiff Met.), of Rethinking Genre: The Politics of Cultural Form, 26-27/06/08
· “If This Is Protest...: The End of a Primitive and Chester Himes’s Turn to Genre Fiction,” Rethinking Genre, Royal Holloway, 27/06/08
· “Octavia Butler’s Fledgling: Vampires, Race, and Writing in the Era of the ‘War on Terror,’” BAAS Annual Conference, University of Leicester, 21/04/07
· “Politics, Ambivalence, and Tolerance in the Work of Octavia Butler,” Cultural Fictions II, Goldsmiths College (University of London), 16/06/06
· “Science Fiction as Metaphor, and Metonymy in Octavia Butler’s Xenogenesis,” Forensic Futures: Interrogating the Posthuman Subject, Birkbeck College (University of London), 18/03/06
· Respondent, Dramas and Trauma: Writers Responding to War, video conference, British Council Conversations programme, 03/10/07
· Philosophy of Education (language, identity, English studies, moral education)
· Secondary English studies
· Creative writing in the classroom
· Creative writing (practitioner – fiction & non-fiction)
· Founding member of Royal Holloway Alumni Education Network (English Dpt.)
Forthcoming Articles and Presentations
· Invited speaker, Bath branch, Philosophy of Education Society of Great Britain, TBC
· Invited speaker, Bedford branch, Philosophy of Education Society of Great Britain, January 2016
· “Truth, Knowledge, and Secondary English,” British Education Research Association Annual Conference (Belfast, Ireland), 15-17 September 2015
· “Secondary English, Creative Writing, and Moral Education,” submitted to Journal of Philosophy of Education
· “Metaphorically Speaking, Literally Meaning: Metaphor and Literality After Davidson,” submitted to Contemporary Pragmatism
· “Scrap- and Sketch-Book: A Vocabulary,” flash fiction collection, submitted to FirthForth Books
Publications
· “If the government is serious about the study of our literary canon, why abolish Creative Writing A Level?”, TES online, https://news.tes.co.uk/b/opinion/2015/04/05/39-if-the-government-is-serious-about-the-study-of-our-literary-canon-why-abolish-creative-writing-a-level-39.aspx, published 05/04/15
· “Creative Writing Under Threat,” LKMCo, https://www.lkmco.org/article/creative-writing-under-threat-05042015?page=2, published 05/04/15
· “Gove’s Marbles: English Literature and Moral Education,” Litro (online, 27 June & 15 July 2014); part I, http://www.litro.co.uk/2014/06/goves-marbles-english-literature-and-moral-education-part-i/; part II, http://www.litro.co.uk/2014/07/goves-marbles-english-literature-and-moral-education-part-ii/
· “Popular Science, Pragmatism, and Conceptual Clarity,” European Journal of Pragmatism and American Philosophy VI.i (2014), http://lnx.journalofpragmatism.eu/wp-content/uploads/2014/07/EJPAP-2014-6-1-Belas.pdf
· “Vignette: The Colonel and His Wife (Catterick, North Yorkshire) [fiction], Litro (online, 22 December 2013), http://www.litro.co.uk/2013/12/family-vignette-the-colonel-and-his-wife-catterick-north-yorkshire/
· “Aesthetic Theory and Literary Study,” emagazine [journal of the English and Media Centre] 60 (April 2013) pp.41-42
· “The Enduring Appeal of the Mystery Story,” Litro #123, 6 March 2013 [print journal]; the opening of this essay can be read here http://www.litro.co.uk/2013/03/the-enduring-appeal-of-the-mystery-story/
· “Genre,” The Encyclopedia of Literary and Cultural Theory, vol. II, ed. Michael Ryan (Chichester: Wiley-Blackwell, 2011)
· “Performativity,” Encyclopedia of Literary and Cultural Theory, vol. II, ed. Ryan
· “Chester Himes’s The End of a Primitive: Exile, Exhaustion, Dissolution,” Journal of American Studies 44.2 (2010), pp. 377-390
Conferences & Seminars
· “Secondary English, Creative Writing, and Moral Education,” conference paper, Philosophy of Education Society of Great Britain Annual Conference, 29/03/15
· Philosophy of Education Society of Great Britain Research and Writing Retreat, 02-04/09/14
· Co-Organizer, with Professor Tim Armstrong (Royal Holloway) and Dr. Elizabeth English (Cardiff Met.), of Rethinking Genre: The Politics of Cultural Form, 26-27/06/08
· “If This Is Protest...: The End of a Primitive and Chester Himes’s Turn to Genre Fiction,” Rethinking Genre, Royal Holloway, 27/06/08
· “Octavia Butler’s Fledgling: Vampires, Race, and Writing in the Era of the ‘War on Terror,’” BAAS Annual Conference, University of Leicester, 21/04/07
· “Politics, Ambivalence, and Tolerance in the Work of Octavia Butler,” Cultural Fictions II, Goldsmiths College (University of London), 16/06/06
· “Science Fiction as Metaphor, and Metonymy in Octavia Butler’s Xenogenesis,” Forensic Futures: Interrogating the Posthuman Subject, Birkbeck College (University of London), 18/03/06
· Respondent, Dramas and Trauma: Writers Responding to War, video conference, British Council Conversations programme, 03/10/07