Steven Connor

Steven Kevin Connor, FBA (born 11 February 1955) is a British literary scholar. Since 2012, he has been the Grace 2 Professor of English in the University of Cambridge and a Fellow of Peterhouse, Cambridge. He was formerly the academic director of the London Consortium and professor of modern literature and theory at Birkbeck, University of London.

Steven Connor

FBA
Born
Steven Kevin Connor

(1955-02-11) 11 February 1955
Sussex, England
NationalityBritish
Academic background
EducationChrist's Hospital
Bognor Regis School
Alma materWadham College, Oxford
ThesisProse fantasy and myth-criticism 1880–1900 (1980)
Academic advisorsTerry Eagleton
Academic work
DisciplineLiterature
Sub-discipline
Institutions

Early life and education

Connor was born on 11 February 1955 in Chichester or Bognor Regis, both in Sussex, England.[1][2] From 1966 to 1972, he was educated at Christ's Hospital, then an all-boys private school in Horsham, Sussex.[2] Having been expelled from Christ's Hospital,[2] he attended Bognor Regis School, a comprehensive school in Bognor Regis.[1] In 1973, he matriculated into Wadham College, Oxford to study English; his tutor was Terry Eagleton.[2][3] He graduated with a first class Bachelor of Arts (BA) degree in 1976.[1] He remained at Oxford to study for a Doctor of Philosophy (DPhil) degree in English.[3] He completed his doctorate in 1980 with a thesis titled "Prose fantasy and myth-criticism 1880–1900".[4]

Academic career

In 1979 or 1980, Connor joined Birkbeck College, University of London, as a lecturer in English.[1][3][5] He was promoted to senior lecturer in 1990, made Reader in Modern English Literature in 1991, and appointed Professor of Modern Literature and Theory in 1994.[5] He held two senior positions at the college: he was Pro-Vice-Master for International and Research Students between 1998 and 2001; and College Orator between 2001 and 2012.[6] From 2002 to 2012, he additionally served as Academic Director of the London Consortium, a graduate school of the University of London that specialised multidisciplinary programs.[2]

In October 2012, Connor was appointed the Grace 2 Professor of English in the Faculty of English, University of Cambridge.[3][5] He was also elected a Fellow of Peterhouse, Cambridge.[1][7]

Personal life

In 1984, Connor married Lindsey Richardson. Together they had one daughter. They divorced in 1988. In 2005, Connor married Lynda Nead. Together they have two sons.[1] Nead is an art historian and academic.[8]

Honours

In 2012, Connor was elected an Honorary Fellow of Birkbeck, University of London.[9] In July 2016, he was elected a Fellow of the British Academy (FBA), the United Kingdom's national academy for the humanities and social sciences.[10]

Selected works

Books
  • Charles Dickens (Oxford: Basil Blackwell, 1985)
  • Samuel Beckett: Repetition, Theory and Text (Oxford: Basil Blackwell, 1988)
  • Postmodernist Culture: An Introduction to Theories of the Contemporary (1989) 2nd, revised and enlarged edn (Oxford: Blackwell, 1996)
  • Theory and Cultural Value (1992)
  • The English Novel in History 1950–1995 (1995)
  • James Joyce (Exeter: Northcote House, 1996)
  • Dumbstruck – A Cultural History of Ventriloquism (2000)
  • The Book of Skin (2003)
  • Fly (London: Reaktion, 2006)
  • The Matter of Air: Science and Art of the Ethereal (London: Reaktion, 2010)
  • (ed.) Samuel Beckett: The Unnamable (London: Faber, 2010)
  • Paraphernalia: The Curious Lives of Magical Things (London: Profile, 2011)
  • A Philosophy of Sport (London: Reaktion, 2011)
  • Beyond Words: Sobs, Hums, Stutters and Other Vocalizations (London: Reaktion, 2014)
  • Beckett, Modernism and the Material Imagination (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2014)
  • Living By Numbers: In Defence of Quantity (London: Reaktion, 2016)
  • Dream Machines (London: Open Humanities Press, 2017)
  • The Madness of Knowledge: On Wisdom, Ignorance and Fantasies of Knowing (London: Reaktion, 2019)
  • Giving Way: Thoughts on Unappreciated Dispositions (Stanford: Stanford University Press, 2019)
  • A History of Asking (London: Open Humanities Press, 2023)
  • Dreamwork: Why All Work Is Imaginary (London: Reaktion, 2023)
  • Styles of Seriousness (Stanford: Stanford University Press, 2023)


Articles
  • 'Next to Nothing', Tate Etc., 12 (2008): 82–93.
  • 'The Shakes: Conditions of Tremor', The Senses and Society, 3 (2008): 205–20.
  • ‘On Such and Such a Day…In Such a World': Beckett’s Radical Finitude. In Borderless Beckett/Beckett sans frontières, Samuel Beckett Today/Aujourd’hui, 19 (2008): 35–50.
  • ‘Le Voci Dentro e Fuori di Noi’, (interview with Enzo Mansueto), Rodeo, 43 (2008): 66.
  • 'The Right Stuff', Modern Painters (March 2009): 58–63.
  • 'Strings in the Earth and Air', New Formations (Special Issue on Postmodernism, Music and Cultural Theory, ed. David Bennett ), 66 (2009), 58–67.
  • 'Pulverulence', Cabinet, 35 (2009): 71–77.
  • 'Absolute Levity', Comparative Critical Studies, 6 (2009): 411–27.
  • Steven Connor (14 February 2009). "Earslips: Of Mishearings and Mondegreens".

References
  1. 'CONNOR, Prof. Steven Kevin', Who's Who 2017, A & C Black, an imprint of Bloomsbury Publishing plc, 2017; online edn, Oxford University Press, 2016; online edn, Nov 2016 accessed 15 Nov 2017
  2. "Biography – Steven Connor". stevenconnor.com. Retrieved 15 November 2017.
  3. "People: Prof Steve Connor, Peterhouse". Faculty of English. University of Cambridge. Retrieved 15 November 2017.
  4. Connor, Steven (1980). Prose fantasy and myth-criticism 1880–1900. E-Thesis Online Service (Ph.D). The British Library Board. Retrieved 15 November 2017.
  5. "Professor Steve Connor". Birkbeck, University of London. Retrieved 15 November 2017.
  6. "College oration for Professor Steven Connor" (PDF). Birkbeck, University of London. 2012. Retrieved 15 November 2017.
  7. "Professor Steven Connor". Peterhouse. University of Cambridge. Retrieved 15 November 2017.
  8. "Professor Lynda Nead". Department of History of Art. Birkbeck, University of London. Retrieved 15 November 2017.
  9. "Fellows of the College". Birkbeck, University of London. Retrieved 15 November 2017.
  10. "British Academy announces new President and elects 66 new Fellows". British Academy. 15 July 2016. Retrieved 15 November 2017.
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