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Lecturer in English Literature, Bath Spa University

Mike Witcombe joined Bath Spa in September 2017 from the University of Southampton, where he completed his PhD in 2015. Mike’s research focuses on representations of gender and sexuality in contemporary Jewish-American fiction, focusing on emergent writers since the retirement of Philip Roth in 2012. This builds on work Mike has undertaken for his AHRD-funded PhD project, which focused on three of Roth’s books in particular - the “Kepesh” novels.

Mike has published widely on Jewish literature; most notably, in recent years he has published an article on Michael Chabon and Howard Jacobson in the Jewish Studies journal Shofar, and an article on Philip Roth’s unpublished material in Philip Roth Studies. He has additional research interests in a number of related fields, including psychoanalytic theory, baseball fiction, and videogames.

Mike has played a key role in the continuing success of the journal "Philip Roth Studies" in recent years by compiling annual bibliographies of scholarship, and has contributed invited reviews to several journals. He has also recently published a co-edited collection on contemporary Jewish-American Literature through the open-access platform Open Library of Humanities. His first monograph project is ongoing.

Experience

  • –present
    Lecturer in English Literature, Bath Spa University