Under Construction @ Keele 2016 Volume 1 Issue 1

52 ! Notes on Contributors KIMBERLEY BRAXTON is a first year PhD candidate in the English Department at Keele. The Brontë family have been a source of interest throughout her entire academic life, and her research aims to interrogate preconceived ideas about the Brontës and their writing. Forever portrayed as a collective an assumed connection and similarity has long been established throughout their work. However, Kimberley argues that these similarities are simply accepted and aims to discover whether there are actually enough connections within their work to condone them being sold, portrayed and taught as they are. In her research up until this point Kimberley has argued that the Brontë ‘Brand’ has actually had rather negative connotations for each Brontë, especially Anne. Anne is of particular interest to Kimberley and she aims to give her work particular focus as she is the least read and studied of the sisters. Kimberley will also cover the writing of Patrick Brontë, Maria Brontë and Patrick Branwell Brontë so an assessment of the writing of the entire family can be taken into account. AMANDINE COQUAZ is currently working on her MA dissertation, which will either be an autobiographical novel focused on her time as an au pair or a fictional novel centering on a young woman facing single motherhood. Both would deal with motherhood, though in different ways. In the future, she hopes to carry out further research into motherhood and family. Amandine would be particularly interested in looking at the ways in which Canadian literature (Munro, Atwood,...) challenges traditional ideas about family. Topics that she is also currently considering include: absent fathers, unfaithful mothers, single mothers, alternative mothering... JONATHAN HEAD is a PhD candidate and GTA at Keele University. He has wideranging interests in the history of modern philosophy and contemporary philosophy of religion, and is writing a thesis on Kant’s philosophy of religion, with a particula

Under Construction @ Keele 2016 Volume 1 Issue 1 | Page 62