Founded in 2015, the Centre for Contemporary Literature and Culture provides a home for staff and students working on mid-twentieth to early twenty-first-century literature, film, TV, theory, and popular culture. Based at the University of Birmingham, CCLC regularly hosts visiting speakers, public lectures, conferences, and symposia, as well as reading groups, workshops, and other public events.
Our academics and students work on everything from the state sponsorship of British literature, postcolonial theory and fiction, sound in contemporary American fiction, popular romance fiction, the depiction of women in contemporary TV, Islamophobia and anti-Muslim prejudice in the novel, and recent gender, queer, and disability theories. We welcome all inquiries and applications for postgraduate study and our events are open to all, regardless of academic record or experience.
Please contact the centre directors Amy Burge and Rachel Sykes with inquiries or to be added to our mailing list.
What kind of events do we run?
The CCLC Annual lecture, previously given by Sara Ahmed, Testament, and Nikesh Shukla
CCLC is proud to represent the vibrant and diverse research conducted on contemporary literatures and cultures across EDACS and the wider Birmingham area. Our aim is to develop connections with local artists and venues, taking our events beyond the university campus to showcase and share new projects and intellectual work while also developing skills and meeting the training needs of both our members and the wider community.
Our understanding of ‘literature’ and ‘culture’ is expansive and inclusive and our central aims are to develop critical methods that facilitate productive encounters with contemporary literature, culture, and the city around us. We, therefore, welcome inquiries about collaboration on future projects and events, particularly from other institutions, local writers, artists, and activists, as well as non-academic organisations.