HOME

TheInfoList



Click Here for Items Related To - Alison Light
OR:
Alison Light on:   [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Amazon]

Alison Light, (born 4 August 1955) is a writer, critic and
independent scholar A scholar is a person who pursues academic and intellectual activities, particularly academics who apply their intellectualism into expertise in an area of study. A scholar can also be an academic, who works as a professor, teacher, or researcher ...
. She is the author of five books to date. In 2020 ''A Radical Romance'', was awarded the Pen Ackerley prize, the only prize for memoir in the UK. ''Common People: The History of an English Family'' (2014) was shortlisted for the Samuel Johnson (now Baillie Gifford) prize. She has held a number of academic posts and is currently an Honorary Fellow in History and English at
Pembroke College, Oxford Pembroke College, a constituent college of the University of Oxford, is located at Pembroke Square, Oxford. The college was founded in 1624 by King James I of England, using in part the endowment of merchant Thomas Tesdale, and was named after ...
. She is also an
Honorary Professor Honorary titles (professor, reader, lecturer) in academia may be conferred on persons in recognition of contributions by a non-employee or by an employee beyond regular duties. This practice primarily exists in the UK and Germany, as well as in m ...
in the Department of English,
University College, London , mottoeng = Let all come who by merit deserve the most reward , established = , type = Public research university , endowment = £143 million (2020) , budget =  ...
and an Honorary
Professorial Fellow A research fellow is an academic research position at a university or a similar research institution, usually for academic staff or faculty members. A research fellow may act either as an independent investigator or under the supervision of a pr ...
in the Department of English,
Edinburgh University The University of Edinburgh ( sco, University o Edinburgh, gd, Oilthigh Dhùn Èideann; abbreviated as ''Edin.'' in post-nominals) is a public research university based in Edinburgh, Scotland. Granted a royal charter by King James VI in 1582 ...
. She is a founding member of the Raphael Samuel Archive and History Centre in London.


Early career

Light grew up in
Portsmouth Portsmouth ( ) is a port and city in the ceremonial county of Hampshire in southern England. The city of Portsmouth has been a unitary authority since 1 April 1997 and is administered by Portsmouth City Council. Portsmouth is the most dens ...
, England, and read English at
Churchill College, Cambridge Churchill College is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge, England. It has a primary focus on science, engineering and technology, but still retains a strong interest in the arts and humanities. In 1958, a trust was establish ...
from 1973 to 1976, where she was awarded a B.A. and was a University Scholar. She worked as a school teacher, a cleaner, a researcher for the National Association for Gifted Children, and as a studio manager at the
BBC #REDIRECT BBC #REDIRECT BBC Here i going to introduce about the best teacher of my life b BALAJI sir. He is the precious gift that I got befor 2yrs . How has helped and thought all the concept and made my success in the 10th board exam. ...
...
, before taking an M.A. and D.Phil. at
Sussex University , mottoeng = Be Still and Know , established = , type = Public research university , endowment = £14.4 million (2020) , budget = £319.6 million (2019–20) , chancellor = Sanjeev Bhaskar , vice_chancellor = Sasha Roseneil , ...
in 1991. She also taught for the
Workers' Educational Association The Workers' Educational Association (WEA), founded in 1903, is the UK's largest voluntary sector provider of adult education and one of Britain's biggest charities. The WEA is a democratic and voluntary adult education movement. It delivers lea ...
, at the
Open University The Open University (OU) is a British public research university and the largest university in the United Kingdom by number of students. The majority of the OU's undergraduate students are based in the United Kingdom and principally study off- ...
and as a lecturer in English at
Brighton Polytechnic The University of Brighton is a public university based on four campuses in Brighton and Eastbourne on the south coast of England. Its roots can be traced back to 1858 when the Brighton School of Art was opened in the Royal Pavilion. It achiev ...
from 1984 to 1990. She published her first reviews and early fiction in the feminist magazine, ''
Spare Rib ''Spare Rib'' was a second-wave feminist magazine, founded in 1972 in the United Kingdom, that emerged from the counter culture of the late 1960s as a consequence of meetings involving, among others, Rosie Boycott and Marsha Rowe. ''Spare Rib' ...
'' and was for several years a member of the editorial collective of ''Feminist Review'', an academic journal of the British women’s movement. Her first academic article on romance fiction in 1984 helped open up the field of British popular culture to serious study and has been much anthologised. Her first book, ''Forever England: Literature, Femininity and Conservatism between the Wars'' is related to interwar studies and studies of "Englishness". It argued that it was impossible to understand ideas about English character in the period, or the changes within literary culture, without recognising the extent to which the female population represented the nation between the wars.


Raphael Samuel

In 1987, Light married
Marxist historian Marxist historiography, or historical materialist historiography, is an influential school of historiography. The chief tenets of Marxist historiography include the centrality of social class, social relations of production in class-divided so ...
Raphael Samuel Raphael Elkan Samuel (26 December 19349 December 1996) was a British Marxist historian, described by Stuart Hall as "one of the most outstanding, original intellectuals of his generation". He was professor of history at the University of East L ...
, with whom she worked closely. From 1984 to 1995, she was a member of History Workshop Popular Literature Group which organised several workshops held at
Ruskin College, Oxford Ruskin College, originally known as Ruskin Hall, Oxford, is an independent educational institution in Oxford, England. It is not a college of Oxford University. It is named after the essayist, art and social critic John Ruskin (1819–1900) an ...
, including "The Future of English" (1991), involving over 200 policy-makers, schoolteachers and academics teaching English. In the 1990s, Light also wrote reviews and articles regularly for the ''
New Statesman The ''New Statesman'' is a British political and cultural magazine published in London. Founded as a weekly review of politics and literature on 12 April 1913, it was at first connected with Sidney and Beatrice Webb and other leading members ...
'' and the film magazine ''
Sight & Sound ''Sight and Sound'' (also spelled ''Sight & Sound'') is a British monthly film magazine published by the British Film Institute (BFI). It conducts the well-known, once-a-decade ''Sight and Sound'' Poll of the Greatest Films of All Time, ongoing ...
''. She held a full-time Lectureship in English at
Royal Holloway College Royal Holloway, University of London (RHUL), formally incorporated as Royal Holloway and Bedford New College, is a public research university and a constituent college of the federal University of London. It has six schools, 21 academic departm ...
from 1991 to 1995 and a Research Fellowship in the Department of English at University College London from 1995 to 2003 where she also lectured in 20th century English and American literature. After Samuel's death in 1996, Light assembled and donated his papers to create the Raphael Samuel Archive, now held by
Bishopsgate Institute Bishopsgate Institute is a cultural institute in the Bishopsgate Without area of the City of London, located near Liverpool Street station and Spitalfields market. The institute was established in 1895. It offers a cultural events programme, c ...
in London. She was also a member of the initial team which established the Raphael Samuel History Research Centre, now a public history centre jointly operated by
University of East London , mottoeng = Knowledge and the fulfilment of vows , established = 1898 – West Ham Technical Institute1952 – West Ham College of Technology1970 – North East London Polytechnic1989 – Polytechnic of East London ...
, Birkbeck and Queen Mary colleges,
London University The University of London (UoL; abbreviated as Lond or more rarely Londin in post-nominals) is a federal public research university located in London, England, United Kingdom. The university was established by royal charter in 1836 as a degree- ...
, and the Bishopsgate Institute. Light also donated materials relating to Samuel's mother, the composer and Communist activist
Minna Keal Minna Keal, ''née'' Mina Nerenstein (22 March 1909 – 14 November 1999) was a British composer. After early compositions as a student, she only returned to composing at the end of her life. Aged 80 when her music was first performed at the Pro ...
(1909–99). Light edited a posthumous volume of Samuel's essay, ''Island Stories'' (Verso 1998) and published a collection of his essays from ''
New Left Review The ''New Left Review'' is a British bimonthly journal covering world politics, economy, and culture, which was established in 1960. History Background As part of the British "New Left" a number of new journals emerged to carry commentary on m ...
'', ''
The Lost World of British Communism ''The Lost World of British Communism'' is a book by Raphael Samuel first published, posthumously, in 2006 by Verso Books. Content The book is composed of a series of essays that were collected together to mark the ten year anniversary of Samuel's ...
'' (Verso 2006). In 2003 she was given a personal Visiting Professorship at the University of East London and from 2006 to 2009 was appointed a Research Professor (part-time) attached to the History Centre, based in the School of Cultural and Media Studies.


Recent work

In 2006, Light took up a personal Chair as Professor of Modern English Literature and Culture (part-time) at Newcastle University, where she taught courses on modernism but also developed work on life writing. She published an edition of ''Flush'' by Virginia Woolf, with introduction and notes for
Penguin Classics Penguin Classics is an imprint of Penguin Books under which classic works of literature are published in English, Spanish, Portuguese, and Korean among other languages. Literary critics see books in this series as important members of the Western ...
(2005) and gave the annual birthday lecture for the Virginia Woolf Society of Great Britain in 2007. Light’s second book, ''Mrs Woolf and the Servants'' (Fig Tree/Penguin 2007; Bloomsbury USA 2008), was both an original study of the servants who worked for the Bloomsbury circle and a social history of domestic service. It won second prize at the Longman History Today Awards and was longlisted for the
Samuel Johnson Prize The Baillie Gifford Prize for Non-Fiction, formerly the Samuel Johnson Prize, is an annual British book prize for the best non-fiction writing in the English language. It was founded in 1999 following the demise of the NCR Book Award. With its m ...
. Light's ''A Radical Romance: A Memoir of Love, Grief and Consolation'' was published in 2019. In August 2020, it was announced winner of the 2020
PEN/Ackerley Prize PEN Ackerley Prize (or, J. R. Ackerley Prize for Autobiography) is awarded annually by English PEN for a literary autobiography of excellence, written by an author of British nationality and published during the preceding year. The winner receiv ...
. She is currently the co-editor of a series for Edinburgh University Press, The Feminist Library, which launched with her own volume, 'Inside History: From Popular Fiction to Life-writing'. ref: https://edinburghuniversitypress.com/book-alison-light-inside-history.html In 2005 she married John O'Halloran.


Honours

In 2021 Light was elected a
Fellow of the British Academy Fellowship of the British Academy (FBA) is an award granted by the British Academy to leading academics for their distinction in the humanities and social sciences. The categories are: # Fellows – scholars resident in the United Kingdom # C ...
, of the
Royal Society of Literature The Royal Society of Literature (RSL) is a learned society founded in 1820, by George IV of the United Kingdom, King George IV, to "reward literary merit and excite literary talent". A charity that represents the voice of literature in the UK, th ...
, and of the Royal Historical Society .


References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Light, Alison 1955 births Living people Writers from Portsmouth Alumni of Churchill College, Cambridge Academics of Newcastle University Academics of Sheffield Hallam University Alumni of the University of Sussex Academics of the University of Brighton English literary historians Independent scholars