People

Dr Sean Seeger

Senior Lecturer
Department of Literature Film and Theatre Studies (LiFTS)
Dr Sean Seeger
  • Email

  • Telephone

    +44 (0) 1206 874502

  • Location

    5NW.5.18, Colchester Campus

  • Academic support hours

    Autumn Term/Spring Term/Summer Term

Profile

Biography

Sean Seeger is Senior Lecturer in Modern and Contemporary Literature. His research and teaching focus on modernism, speculative fiction, utopian studies, and queer studies. His work also draws on social and cultural theory. His publications include books and journal articles on nonlinear temporality in modernist literature; utopian socialism in contemporary fiction; dystopia and the sociological imagination; and speculative fiction and queer theory. He is currently completing work on two books: one on utopia in literature and film, and another on speculative fiction and social theory, co-authored with the sociologist Daniel Davison-Vecchione (University of Cambridge). Sean has previously been Visiting Professor at the University of Konstanz and the University of Bergamo, and has received research funding from the Arts and Humanities Research Council and the British Centre for Literary Translation. He has supervised numerous PhDs and welcomes research proposals in any of his areas of interest. He is a Senior Fellow of the Higher Education Academy and a recipient of the University of Essex Excellence in Education Award.

Research and professional activities

Conferences and presentations

Association for the Study of Literature and Environment

California, United States, 2019

Institute of Modern Languages Research

London, United Kingdom, 2019

London Science Fiction Research Community

London, United Kingdom, 2019

British Society for Literature and Science

Oxford, United Kingdom, 2018

Institute for World Literature

Tokyo, Japan, 2018

Open Seminar, University of Konstanz

Konstanz, Germany, 2017

Cornell School of Criticism and Theory

New York, United States, 2016

Association of Graduate Careers Advisory Services

Chester, United Kingdom, 2016

Open Seminar, Goldsmiths, University of London

London, United Kingdom, 2016

Symposium, Ludwig Maximilian University

Munich, Germany, 2015

Open Seminar, University of Essex

Essex, United Kingdom, 2015

Oxford English Graduate Conference

Oxford, United Kingdom, 2015

British Centre for Literary Translation

East Anglia, United Kingdom, 2014

Institute for World Literature

Hong Kong, 2014

British Comparative Literature Association

Essex, United Kingdom, 2013

Teaching and supervision

Current teaching responsibilities

  • Contemporary Texts and Contexts (LT109)

  • Origins and Transformations in Literature and Drama (LT111)

  • Approaches to Film and Media (LT121)

  • Black Lives Represented: Writing, Art, Politics and Society (LT218)

  • Dystopias (LT250)

  • Possible Worlds: Science Fiction, Speculative Fiction, and Alternate History (LT321)

  • Independent Literature Project (LT831)

  • Independent Creative Writing Project (LT832)

  • Dissertation Preparation: Postgraduate Research and Writing Skills (LT901)

  • The Modern City: From Modernism to Postmodernism (LT922)

  • Queer: Literature, Culture, History (LT976)

  • Dissertation (LT981)

  • Dissertation: MA Film Studies (LT983)

  • Dissertation - Wild Writing (LT988)

Previous supervision

Catriona Mary Chappell Gilmour
Catriona Mary Chappell Gilmour
Thesis title: Forecasting the Past and Recalling the Future: Lemniscate Narratives in the Work of Richard Powers
Degree subject: Literature
Degree type: Doctor of Philosophy
Awarded date: 13/11/2023
Yit Ho Joshua Ang
Yit Ho Joshua Ang
Thesis title: To the Ends of the Earth: Post-Anthropocene Cosmopolitanism in the Novels of Kazuo Ishiguro, Margaret Atwood, and David Mitchell
Degree subject: Literature
Degree type: Doctor of Philosophy
Awarded date: 3/5/2022
Valentina Romanzi
Valentina Romanzi
Degree subject: Occasional Study: Literature (Research)
Degree type: Occasional Postgraduate Study
Awarded date: 1/10/2020

Publications

Journal articles (20)

Seeger, SA. and Davison-Vecchione, D., (2023). Setting the Agenda: Social Forecasting in the Speculative Fiction of Rose Macaulay and Sinclair Lewis. Vector. 2023 (297), 70-80

Seeger, S. and Davison-Vecchione, D., (2023). Daniel Bell, Social Forecasting, and Science Fiction. Extrapolation. 64 (2), 167-187

Seeger, S., (2023). The Post-Critical Utopia. Utopian Studies. 34 (1), 1-15

Seeger, S., (2022). L’Utopia, o quel che resta del futuro [Utopia, or What is Left of the Future?]. Frontiere della psicoanalisi. 1 (2), 481-494

Seeger, SA., (2021). Book review: Influx and Efflux by Jane Bennett. Green Letters: Studies in Ecocriticism. 25 (1)

Seeger, SA. and Davison-Vecchione, D., (2021). Ursula Le Guin’s Speculative Anthropology: Thick Description, Historicity and Science Fiction. Theory, Culture and Society: explorations in critical social science. 40 (7-8), 119-140

Seeger, SA., (2021). Book review: The American Weird: Concept and Medium, eds., Julius Greve and Florian Zappe. Pulse: The Journal of Science and Culture. 8, 1-4

Seeger, SA., (2020). Contemporary Fiction as Weltliteratur: Adam Kirsch’s The Global Novel. Papers on Language and Literature. 56 (1)

Seeger, SA., (2019). Book review: James Joyce's Silences, eds., Jolanta Wawrzycka and Serenella Zanotti. The James Joyce Broadsheet. 2 (112)

Seeger, SA., (2019). From Capitalist Realism to Acid Communism: The Collected and Unpublished Writings of Mark Fisher. LSE Review of Books (February, 2019)

Davison-Vecchione, D. and Seeger, SA., (2019). Dystopian Literature and the Sociological Imagination. Thesis Eleven. 155 (1), 45-63

Seeger, SA., (2018). Dystopia and Dystopian Literature. Literary Encyclopedia. 4 (5)

Seeger, SA., (2018). Book review: The Practices of Hope by Christopher Castiglia. Modernism/modernity. 25 (4)

Seeger, SA., (2018). Book review: J. G. Ballard by D. Harlan Wilson. The British Society for Literature and Science (July, 2018)

Seeger, SA., (2018). Why Read Science Fiction?. The Huffington Post (August 2018)

Seeger, SA., (2018). ‘A static that contains all the messages ever sent’: Tom McCarthy’s C, James Joyce’s Finnegans Wake, and Nonlinear Literary History. International Journal of Arts Theory and History. 13 (4), 23-32

Seeger, SA., (2017). Martin Amis, neo-Orientalism, and hubris. Postcolonial Studies. 20 (4), 494-509

Seeger, SA., (2016). The Sea as History and the Sea as Event in the Poetry of Derek Walcott. Poetry Forum. 3 (2)

Seeger, SA., (2015). Derek Walcott on What the Twilight Says. Literary Encyclopedia. 3 (1)

Seeger, SA., (2014). What is at Stake in the Damrosch-Apter World Literature Debate?. Assemblage. 2 (5)

Books (1)

Seeger, SA., (2017). Nonlinear Temporality in Joyce and Walcott: History Repeating Itself with a Difference. Routledge. 1351180096. 9781351180092

Book chapters (3)

Seeger, S., (2023). “Whatever comes after human progress”: Transhumanism, Antihumanism, and the Absence of Queer Ecology in Lidia Yuknavitch’s The Book of Joan. In: Age and Ageing in Contemporary Speculative and Science Fiction. Editors: Oró Piqueras, M. and Falcus, S., . Bloomsbury. 9781350230675

Seeger, SA., (2020). Utopia, Dystopia, and Human Flourishing. In: Health and Wellbeing: A Reader. Editors: Boncori, I. and Loughran, T., . L'Editoriale Scientifica

Seeger, SA., (2019). ‘We should own the stars’: Postcapitalism, Techno-Utopianism, and Blade Runner 2049. In: Tempest - An Anthology. Editors: Vaught, A. and Johnson, A., . Patrician Press

Other (1)

Seeger, SA., (2021).Queer Theory and Utopianism. Ideology, Theory, Practice. 1(2),Ideology, Theory, Practice

Contact

saseeg@essex.ac.uk
+44 (0) 1206 874502

Location:

5NW.5.18, Colchester Campus

Academic support hours:

Autumn Term/Spring Term/Summer Term