Dr Kate Houlden
Small Group Project 2016-17
The Marlon James conundrum: Perceptions of masculinity and anti-gay prejudice in Jamaica
With Keon West
This research will investigate whether and how a successful, gay, Jamaican such as Marlon James can challenge existing models of masculinity and reduce anti-gay prejudice. Its thesis is that exposure to alternative models of gendered behaviour (as represented by both James and his fiction), will reduce anti-gay prejudice through a shift in the cultural understanding of masculinity.
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Biography
Kate Houlden is Senior Lecturer in English Literature at Brunel University of London.
Kate's research focuses on the intersections between queer studies, materialist feminism and world-literature. She is currently writing a monograph, Female Migrant Domestic Workers in Post-Millennial Global Fiction for the Palgrave series, New Comparisons in World Literature.
With Sharae Deckard, she has a special issue in Feminist Theory on 'Social Reproduction Feminism and World-Culture’ (2024), including her own essay on the gendered precarity of neoliberalisation as seen in the work of Pat Barker and Mike McCormack. She also has a chapter on 'Commodifying Care: Migrant Literature and Materialist Feminism' in Commodities and Literature (CUP; 2025), and another forthcoming on 'Cleaning in the Context of Financial Crisis: Stephanie Land’s Maid (2019) and Michelle Kirsch’s Clean (2019)' in Women in World-Literature (LUP; 2025).
Kate is a Senior Fellow of the Higher Education Academy and has over a decade of teaching experience across UK Higher Education. In 2024, she was nominated by students for the Ken Darby-Dowman Memorial Prize for contribution to student experience and, in 2025 was nominated in the student-led awards for EDI Champion of the year. Across various institutions, she has been nominated for and/or won student-led awards for 'Excellent Teaching', 'Excellent Module', 'Outstanding Personal Tutor' and 'Inclusive Lecturer'.
Kate's research focuses on the intersections between queer studies, materialist feminism and world-literature. She is currently writing a monograph, Female Migrant Domestic Workers in Post-Millennial Global Fiction for the Palgrave series, New Comparisons in World Literature.
With Sharae Deckard, she has a special issue in Feminist Theory on 'Social Reproduction Feminism and World-Culture’ (2024), including her own essay on the gendered precarity of neoliberalisation as seen in the work of Pat Barker and Mike McCormack. She also has a chapter on 'Commodifying Care: Migrant Literature and Materialist Feminism' in Commodities and Literature (CUP; 2025), and another forthcoming on 'Cleaning in the Context of Financial Crisis: Stephanie Land’s Maid (2019) and Michelle Kirsch’s Clean (2019)' in Women in World-Literature (LUP; 2025).
Kate is a Senior Fellow of the Higher Education Academy and has over a decade of teaching experience across UK Higher Education. In 2024, she was nominated by students for the Ken Darby-Dowman Memorial Prize for contribution to student experience and, in 2025 was nominated in the student-led awards for EDI Champion of the year. Across various institutions, she has been nominated for and/or won student-led awards for 'Excellent Teaching', 'Excellent Module', 'Outstanding Personal Tutor' and 'Inclusive Lecturer'.
Biographical details correct as of 21.05.26