Dr Jenny Bavidge
Biography
I’m the Academic Director for English Literature at PACE and I teach across all our literature courses, both online and in-person. I started my teaching career at the University of Greenwich after completing my BA in English at the University of Oxford and a PhD at Royal Holloway, University of London. I joined PACE in 2011 and became a Fellow of Murray Edwards College in 2012.
I teach literature from 1830 to the present day and my particular research interests lie in contemporary fiction, ecocriticism, children's literature, and thinking about how literature represents urban life. In 2016, I was elected a Fellow of the English Association which supports and advocates for English as an important subject in schools, universities and wider cultural life. I really believe in the value of reading and writing for everyone, no matter what stage of life you're at or what brought you back to study. Contact with great ideas, moving stories, knotty problems, humour, tragedy - all the things we find in poetry, drama and novels - sharpens your thinking and enriches everyday life.
What I enjoy most about teaching at PACE is the passion and commitment of my students. Our learners are often returning to study after time away or are exploring new directions and are following a long-standing love of literature. Their varied interests and life experiences make for rich, open, and exciting discussions.
Book chapters
- Bavidge, J. and Alder E. (2020). 'Ecocriticism and the Genre'. In C. Bloom (Ed.) The Palgrave Handbook of Contemporary Gothic (pp. 225-242). Palgrave Macmillan., 2020
- 'Bavidge, J. (2017) 'Hilary Mantel'. In Eaglestone, R. and O'Gorman, D. (Eds.) The Routledge Companion to Twenty-First Century Literary Fiction (pp. 415–423). Routledge., 2017
- Bavidge, J. (2016). 'Brontë Soundscapes: The Role of Soundtracks in Adaptations of Wuthering Heights in Brontë Heritage Discourses'. In Habermann. I & Keller, D. (Eds.) English Topographies in Literature and Culture: Space, Place, and Identity (pp. 116–133). Brill-Rodopi, 2016
- Bavidge, J. (2014) 'Cities Will Sing": Natural New York’. In P. Whyte & K. O'Sullivan (Eds.) Children’s Literature and New York City (pp. 57-72). Routledge., 2014
- Bavidge J. (2012) ‘Vital Victims: Senses of Children in the Urban’. In Lesnik-Oberstein. K, (Ed.) Children in culture, revisited : further approaches to childhood. Palgrave. (pp. 208-222), 2012
- Bavidge, J. (2010) ‘Rats, Floods and Flowers: London’s Eco-Gothic’. In Phillips, L. & Witchard, A. (Eds.) London Gothic. Continuum., 2010
Books
- Bavidge J, and Bond, R. (Eds.) (2007) City Visions: The Work of Iain Sinclair, Cambridge Scholar's Press., 2007