Personal profile
Research interests
I investigate poetic form from the following perspectives: the effect of form on the writing and reading process, with a particular focus on attention; the relationship between contemporary French poetic practice and other arts and disciplines, including poetry in translation; and the connection between the form of creative works and cultures of protest.
My most recent single-authored book is the first in English to investigate major twentieth-century French poet André du Bouchet, and examines attentiveness in his poetic and critical work: André du Bouchet: Poetic Forms of Attention (Leiden: Brill, 2020).
From 2017-2020, I led a British Academy/Leverhulme-funded series of activities on responses to the protest and events of the 1968 period in cultural reviews and magazines in different parts of the world, which will result in a comparative special journal issue. Visit the project website. Together with Professor Nina Parish (University of Stirling), I directed an AHRC network on Contemporary French Poetic practice (2012-2015) which led to a number of co-authored and co-edited publications, including Writing the Real: A Bilingual Anthology of Contemporary French Poetry (London: Enitharmon, 2016). Of those intermedial connections, my particular interest lies in the ways in which writers reflect on visual art, and I published the single-authored book Writing Art: French Literary Responses to the Work of Alberto Giacometti (Oxford: Peter Lang, 2011).
Biography
I have taught at the University of Birmingham since 2006, contributing to core courses at all levels and offering specialist teaching on French poetry, experimental writing and the visual arts.
Previously I held temporary teaching posts at Trinity College, Cambridge and at the université Paris XII at Créteil. I was Research Fellow at St John's College, Cambridge from 2002-2005, having completed my PhD in French and undergraduate degree in French and German at Trinity College.
Qualifications
- PhD in modern French poetry, supervised by Jean Khalfa (Cambridge, 2003)
- MPhil in European Literature (Cambridge, 1999)
- BA Hons in Modern and Medieval Languages (Cambridge, 1998)
Education/Academic qualification
Doctor of Philosophy, Time and Forgetting in the Poetry of Andre du Bouchet, Philippe Jaccottet and Bernard Noel, University of Cambridge
1 Oct 1999 → 30 Jun 2003
Award Date: 30 Sept 2003
Keywords
- PC Romance languages
- French
- poetry
- art
- translation
- protest
Fingerprint
- 1 Similar Profiles
Collaborations and top research areas from the last five years
-
André du Bouchet: D'un siècle à l'autre
Wagstaff, E. (Editor), Augais, T. (Editor) & Belin, O. (Editor), 18 Mar 2026, (Accepted/In press) Paris: Honoré Champion.Translated title of the contribution :André du Bouchet: A Century On Research output: Book/Report › Book
-
'La Porte est ouverte': Reading André du Bouchet's Poetry as an Autistic Perspective on the World and Language
Wagstaff, E., 2 Feb 2026, (Accepted/In press) In: French Studies.Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review
Open AccessFile5 Downloads (Pure) -
Book Review: Blaise Cendrars: the invention of life, by Eric Robertson, London, Reaktion, 2022, 328 pp., £25.00 (Hardback), ISBN 9781789145205
Wagstaff, E., 1 Jan 2024, In: Modern and Contemporary France. 32, 1, p. 165Research output: Contribution to journal › Book/Film/Article review
-
'We Must Build Huts': Jean-Marie Gleize's Temporary Dwellings
Wagstaff, E., 16 Jul 2024, Dwelling: Cultural Representations of Inhabited Places. Petöcz, O. K. & Segal, N. (eds.). 1 ed. Basingstoke and New York: Palgrave Macmillan, p. 91-103 13 p.Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceeding › Chapter (peer-reviewed) › peer-review
Open AccessFile9 Downloads (Pure) -
1968 and translation in three French reviews: Europe, Action poétique, and Change
Wagstaff, E., 30 Oct 2023, In: Forum for Modern Language Studies. 59, 3, p. 426-443 18 p., cqad047.Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review
Open AccessFile41 Downloads (Pure)
Projects
- 5 Finished
-
AHRC IAA (2022) FOF: Emma Wagstaff - Creative Translation in Schools
Wagstaff, E. (Principal Investigator)
Arts and Humanities Research Council
1/01/23 → 31/05/24
Project: Research Councils
-
-
Contemporary French Poetic Practice: an interdisciplinary approach
Wagstaff, E. (Principal Investigator)
Arts and Humanities Research Council
17/09/12 → 16/03/15
Project: Research Councils
-
Writing Art: French Literary Responses to the Work of Alberto Giacometti
Wagstaff, E. (Principal Investigator)
26/02/09 → 31/08/11
Project: Research Councils
-
Writing Art: French Literary Responses to the Work of Alberto Giacometti
Wagstaff, E. (Principal Investigator)
1/07/07 → 30/06/09
Project: Research Councils
Activities
-
Poetry Reading and Q&A with Sandra Moussempes
Wagstaff, E. (Organiser)
15 May 2025Activity: Academic and Industrial events › Conference, workshop or symposium
-
A.C. Hello Poetry performance
Wagstaff, E. (Contributor)
15 Jun 2024Activity: Engagement and Public events › Engagement event
-
Platform or perimeter? Places, photos, rhythms and forms in recent books by Michèle Métail, Jean-Marie Gleize and Frank Smith
Wagstaff, E. (Keynote speaker)
20 Apr 2024Activity: Academic and Industrial events › Guest lecture or Invited talk
-
André du Bouchet Centenary Conference
Wagstaff, E. (Organiser)
12 Apr 2024 → 6 Jun 2024Activity: Academic and Industrial events › Conference, workshop or symposium
-
Place and Connection: the Real in French Poetry since 2008
Wagstaff, E. (Invited speaker)
22 Feb 2024Activity: Academic and Industrial events › Conference, workshop or symposium