Renée Landell

Renée Landell is a fully funded doctoral researcher in the School of Humanities at Royal Holloway, University of London. Her research explores the relationship between the Black Caribbean Body and the Caribbean environment from the point of slavery, through a critical analysis of anti-Black stereotypical images. Bringing post-colonial scholarship and eco-criticism into one sustained dialogue, the relationship between the degradation of the body and the desecration of environment is expounded for a more comprehensive understanding of the experiences and long-lasting effects of slavery and colonialism.

Renée has published in academic Caribbean and Literary journals and also various online journalistic platforms including The Conversation, Environmental History Now, and The London Student. Renée has also made guest appearances on news channels, including the BBC and Al Jazeera News. In 2021, Renée signed to leading UK literary agency, Mushens Entertainment. In 2022, she submitted a paper for The Olivette Otele Prize, Institute of Historical Research with which she became a shortlisted author. She is also the recipient of the Doctoral School Research Award and Driver Prize. As an academic, she has been invited to speak about her research or research interests at States Book Festival, Black in Academia Festival, and the Society for Caribbean Studies Annual Conference. She has also presented at various universities including Cambridge, Bath, Winchester, Brighton, and Royal Holloway.

Alongside her study at Royal Holloway, Renée has served as BME officer in the student’s union twice; and was also a member of the harassment and violence working group and a member of the race equality charter self-assessment Team, among many other EDI roles while at the institution. In 2018, she became the founder of ‘Beyond Margins UK’, a race equity and justice movement, for which she has won multiple awards, most notably from the National Union of Student’s (NUS), and with a nomination for the National Diversity Awards (NDA) in association with ITV news. In 2020, she co-founded ‘Black in Arts and Humanities’—a global online network of Black scholars, practitioners/professionals in the fields of arts and humanities.