Hello, I'm Keren Poliah, and I am thrilled to say that I am the new Impact and Engagement Fellow for our project! Our lovely Dr Hannah Helm has been doing the most amazing job - she is currently on maternity leave. I was recently appointed via Follow-on-Funding from the AHRC and started in September 2024. Here is a little bit about who I am.
I am from the tropical African island of Mauritius and came to the UK in 2017 to study an undergraduate degree at the University of Northampton. I later went on to do a PhD at the University of Salford under the wing of Prof. Ursula K. Hurley. For the past few years, my focus has been on research interests arising from my doctoral journey. I am fascinated by Indigenous research and delve into Deep Listening (Dadirri) to ground myself and listen attentively to the voices of the marginalised. I strive to decolonise my Self, and like Paulo Freire, recognise this effort as an act of love towards my people and ancestors who have a painful colonial past. These interests have led me to this current role as well as my position as project coordinator for the DEEP Global Decolonizing Circle. In fact, Mauritius is a multicultural island and as an African-born of Telugu-Tamil origin, I have grappled with my identity for a very long time and sought out ways to co-create with others sharing a colonial past.
I must confess that I also have different interests like cooking and more secretive ones like sitting in the dark to write about occult practices. In truth, I am a creative writer of poetry, short stories, scripts, and novel-length experimental writing. My first nonfiction book (forthcoming publication) is about uncanny and Gothic tropes within lived occult narratives from my people. I have researched enough about the occult practices of Mauritians to write at least three books, and I know that it will be a long learning journey. In my first book, I develop the lived narratives using a most uncanny writing practice I recognise as method writing. Method writing is when I step into the shoes of the people I write about and perform an act of ventriloquism in order to write their stories as authentically as possible.
Since I enjoy testing the limits of my writing craft and approaches, I also delight in discovering and reading different writers from different cultures to observe who they are and how they write. This makes for very engaging discussions within and beyond the classroom, with students and teachers. I have been teaching on the project South African Modernism: Decolonising Literary Studies In and Beyond the Classroom and it has been a wonderful experience to connect with students by reflecting on the importance of cultural knowledge with a non-judgmental view and a spirit of acceptance.
I look forward to this role mainly because it aligns with my views on decolonising teaching, learning, and English Literature. On this journey to decolonising my Self, I look forward to everything I can learn with and from my team and everyone I will meet.
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