Dr Abby Bentham
School of Arts, Media and Creative Technologies
Current positions
Lecturer in Performance
Biography
I have taught at the University of Salford since 2014, first as an Associate Lecturer in English, then as Lecturer in English and Theatre. I have also taught at Keele University and worked as a freelance journalist, writing predominantly for crime magazines. Beyond the university, I lead an annual, international conference on Evil Women: Women and Evil and am a board member at Progressive Connexions, a not-for-profit network that runs global, interdisciplinary research projects.
In addition to my academic and writing work, I have more than 15 years’ commercial experience, gained as an account director, consultant and copywriter in a variety of advertising, marketing and PR agencies in London and the north west. The diverse strands of my working life to date are united by a common focus on written and visual communication and their power to entertain, educate, move, and influence.
Areas of Research
My research interrogates representations of aberrant psychology and crime on page, stage, and screen, with a particular focus on the creative techniques that encourage empathetic identification with challenging and transgressive figures. My broader research interests include gender, psychoanalysis, evil, the aesthetics of violence, true crime, popular culture, and transmedia.
Professional Memberships:
- International Crime Fiction Association
- Madness & Literature Network
- International Gothic Association
- Crime Studies Network
- Association of Adaptation Studies
Areas of Supervision
I am available to supervise research projects on crime and transgression, evil, violence, empathy, gender, madness and aberrant psychology, narrative poetics, adaptation, and popular culture. Please feel free to contact me about projects which align with these broad topics, or any of my teaching or research interests.
I teach, or have taught, on:
Level 4
Performance in Context (core, Module Leader)
Critical and Textual Studies (core)
Narrative Fiction and the Novel (core)
Theory and Practice (core)
Level 5
Literature, Adaptation, and the Screen (Module Leader)
Work Placement (Module Leader)
Performance Studies (core)
The Female Gothic
21st Century Women’s Writing
The Test of Evil
Utopias & Dystopias
Level 6
Scriptwriting for TV and Film (Module Leader)
Careers and Professional Pathways (Co-Module Leader)
Dissertation
Research and Professional Development Portfolio
Level 7
Crime Writing (Module Leader)
Writing Sex and Gender
As a holder of the Postgraduate Certificate of Academic Practice and a Fellow of the Higher Education Academy, I am trained in: Teaching and Learning for HE; Assessment for Learning; Blended and Inclusive Curriculum Design.
Qualifications
-
Postgraduate Certificate in Academic Practice
2020 -
PhD
2014 -
MA: Literature, Culture, and Modernity
2009 -
BA (Hons): English
1997