Research output per year
Research output per year
Personal profile
Research interests
My main research areas span from late eighteenth-century to contemporary literature and culture. Research interests include oral history, reading, memory, and libraries, relating to my work as Principal Investigator of the AHRC-funded projects Memories of Fiction: An Oral History of Readers' Life Stories and Living Libraries (2014-20).
Long-standing interests in sound feed into my work in oral history and literature, going back to Senses of Vibration: A History of the Pleasure and Pain of Sound (Bloomsbury, 2012) (shortlisted for the British Society for Literature & Science Book Prize; listed as an ICA Book of the Year and Sensory Studies Book of Note).
Research interests in oral history, place and nation, and ghosts, have taken shape in publications including Place, Writing, and Voice in Oral History (Palgrave 2011), and Rocks of Nation: The Imagination of Celtic Cornwall (Manchester UP 2015) (won an honourable mention at the 2016 ESSE Book Awards). These publications derived from my work as researcher on the AHRC-funded project Mysticism, Myth, and 'Celtic' Nationalism at the University of Exeter (2008-11). These publications also illustrate my ongoing interest in/concern about the environment; my future plans involve interviewing environmental activists and exploring the relationship between reading and action.
My next monograph is Sound Writing: Voices, Authors, and Readers of Oral History (forthcoming with Oxford University Press 2022).
PhDs
Sarah Pyke, 'Textual preferences: The queer afterlives of childhood reading' (awarded 2019)
Sarah Hesketh (awarded 2021), '2016: A Voice Work' (making poetry from oral history)
Jamie Walker (started Sept 2020), creative writing/life writing
Rachel Heald (Jan 2022), oral history, reading
Professional affiliations
Member of AHRC Peer Review College
Fellow of the Higher Education Academy
Committee Member and Trustee of the Oral History Society
Member of the Association for the Study of Literature and the Environment
Qualifications
PhD and MA (Birkbeck, University of London)
BA Hons (Bath Spa University)
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Reading, Race, and Remembering Childhood Abuse—Returning to Maya Angelou’s I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings (1969)
Trower, S., 27 Dec 2021, (E-pub ahead of print) In: Life Writing. p. 1-8 8 p.Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review
Open Access5 Downloads (Pure) -
Forgetting Fiction: An Oral History of Reading
Trower, S., 22 Oct 2020, In: Book History. 23, p. 269-298 30 p.Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review
Open AccessFile22 Downloads (Pure) -
Vibrations
Trower, S., 2020, Literature and Sound. Cambridge University PressResearch output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceeding › Chapter
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Interviews and Reading
Trower, S., Tooth Murphy, A. & Smith, G., May 2019, Participations Journal of Audience & Reception Studies.Research output: Book/Report › Edited Book › peer-review
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Interviews and Reading
Trower, S., Smith, G. & Tooth Murphy, A., 15 May 2019, Participations Journal of Audience and Reception Studies, 16, 1, p. 510-529.Research output: Contribution to specialist publication › Special issue
Open AccessFile74 Downloads (Pure)
Prizes
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European Society for the Study of English Biannual Book Awards - shortlisted and received an 'honorable mention'
Trower, Shelley (Recipient), 2016
Prize: Prize (including medals and awards)
Activities
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International Oral History Association conference, 'Memory and Narration'
Shelley Trower (Keynote/plenary speaker)
18 Jun 2018 → 21 Jun 2018Activity: Participating in or organising an academic event › Participation in academic conference
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Chartered Institute for Librarians and Information Professionals, Presidential Debate - Divided we fall: Are public libraries a national network or a local service?
Shelley Trower (Advisor)
30 Jun 2021Activity: Public engagement and outreach › Public speaking engagements
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Launch of Roehampton Climate Network
Molly Scott Cato (Participant), Jérémie Gilbert (Participant), Anne Robertson (Participant), Shelley Trower (Participant) & Sunitha Narendran (Chair)
22 Apr 2021Activity: Public engagement and outreach › Public speaking engagements
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Oral History Society (External organisation)
Shelley Trower (Member)
Aug 2018 → …Activity: Membership › Membership of committee
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The Audible Spectrum: Sound Studies, Cultures of Listening and Sound Art (conference)
Shelley Trower (Speaker)
7 Jun 2018Activity: Talk or presentation for an academic audience › Invited talk for an academic audience