I was born in Newcastle upon Tyne and retain strong links to the North-East of England. This informs much of my work, which focuses on politics and marginalisation, the North and women writers. Brought up in a Geordie matriarchy, I am especially interested in oft-forgotten places and spaces as sites of political and social activism around a range of issues – as Storm Jameson wrote ‘a mother’s meeting in Yorkshire could give points for revolutionary outlook to any singing nest of rebels in Bloomsbury or anywhere else.’ I’ve retained a lifelong interest in the types of revolutions that begin at kitchen tables.
This attraction to Jameson’s revolutionary and thoroughly northern outlook led to a Ph.D. in 2013 from Newcastle University and a lifelong interest in Yorkshire writers. In 2020 this was published as a book, War, Nation and Europe in the Novels of Storm Jameson (Bloomsbury).
As an academic, I taught for 15 years at Newcastle University, Teesside and the University of East Anglia, as well as delivering papers and lectures at universities and research institutes all over the world, from the University of Lund, Sweden to the University of Texas at Austin. I particularly love archival work and have been lucky enough to work in libraries and archives in America, Europe and the UK and led workshops on archival research for researchers and students across the country.
Nowadays I am more focussed on my writing and am a regular book reviewer and feature writer for a range of publications. I still love teaching and run workshops and classes at universities and community art spaces including UEA, East Coast College and the National Centre for Writing. A former BBC/AHRC New Generation Thinker, I am a regular chair at UEA Live and at NCW, where I also work as a producer on the community programmes. I am passionate about promoting public interest in the humanities and encouraging young people into further study in the arts and humanities. I think that the value of education reaches far beyond the instrumental and that the arts and humanities are for everyone, for life. I live in Norwich, and, when not exploring the fine city’s pubs and book/record shops, can be found sea-swimming off the Norfolk coast in all weathers.
Dr Katherine Cooper 