Helen Pleasance

I teach on modules: Writing to Order; Varieties of Writing: Prose; Writing Reality; MA in Creative Writing.

I hold a BA (First Class) in English in the School of Cultural and Community Studies from the University of Sussex; an MA (Distinction) in Cultural Studies from the Centre for Contemporary Cultural Studies at the University of Birmingham; an MA (Distinction) in Creative Writing and PhD in Creative and Critical Writing from Manchester Metropolitan University. She has previously taught Literature, Critical and Cultural Theory and Creative Writing at the University of Birmingham, the University of Derby and the Open University.

Research Interests

I am currently working on a memoir/history hybrid, Ghosts on the Hill, and an academic article about the Moors murders and the poetics of working-class decency, both based on her PhD research into the Moors murders. I am also researching a short story collection, From Peterloo to Primark, which aims to use fiction to provide an historical imaginary map of Manchester.

My other research interests include: creative non-fiction and the borders between fiction and non-fiction; photography and (particularly women's) embodied identity; popular culture; archival research and memory.