Can you introduce yourself?
My name is Usha Wilbers and I am an Associate Professor of English Literature, working in the BA English Language and Culture, Master Literary Studies and the Historical, Literary and Cultural Studies Research Master. I have been teaching English literature at Radboud since 2002 and for several years now have tutored students in the Research Master. It is incredibly rewarding to help students find their way through the programme and guide them to develop their own expertise, and become more clear about their future goals - whether they be inside academia or in the wider work field.
Why did you choose to study/work in this field? What makes this field so interesting?
Ever since I read Emily Brontë's Wuthering Heights as a teenager I felt that spending my work days analysing and discussing English literature would be a dream job - and in many ways, it is!
What are you currently doing your own research on?
I started out as a periodical scholar and wrote my PhD dissertation on the American literary journal The Paris Review - an exciting project that led me from the Roosevelt Study Center in Middelburg to the Pierpont Morgan Library in New York. After I obtained my PhD, I developed expertise in reception studies and literary criticism, and since 2015 I have been working on contemporary British fiction, and literary Metamodernism especially. I am a co-founder of the European Society for Periodical Studies and of the AHRC Metamodernism Network, which has allowed me to work with researchers all over Europe - another very rewarding part of my job! At the moment I am working on a book project related to glocal metamodernisms, as well as writing about the return of Modernism in contemporary British fiction. As Metamodernism is still a relatively new concept, I haven't had a moment over the last 10 years when I wasn't working on new projects. It is exciting to be a literary scholar!
What advice do you have for students making their study choice?
As you can read from my testimonial, I was lucky enough to be able to build my work life on my passion for literature, and I would advise students to find out in which discipline or expertise they would feel most at home. I would also advise them that not knowing what that passion is, is perfectly okay: that is the benefit of doing any education - finding out who you are along the way.