Dr Jak Peake

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Email
jrpeak@essex.ac.uk -
Telephone
+44 (0) 1206 874460
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Location
5NW.6.5, Colchester Campus
Profile
Biography
Jak joined the Department in 2011 while completing his doctorate at 糖心Vlog, which formed part of the AHRC-funded 鈥楢merican Tropics鈥 project. His principal research covers American literature in the continental sense, including United States and Caribbean literature in particular, from around the nineteenth century to the twenty first century. His research interests also include the 鈥楴ew Negro鈥, the Black or Harlem Renaissance, postcolonialism, colonialism, black diaspora and black British writing, travel writing and ecocriticism. His book, Between the Bocas: A Literary Geography of Western Trinidad, examines writing of and about Trinidad from the nineteenth to the twenty first century. This study places works by well-known authors such as V. S. Naipaul and Samuel Selvon, alongside writing by Michel Maxwell Philip, Marcella Fanny Wilkins, E. L. Joseph, Earl Lovelace, Ismith Khan, Monique Roffey, Arthur Calder-Marshall and the largely neglected novelist, Yseult Bridges, who is almost entirely forgotten today. His most recent research focuses on the New Negro and Black Modernism (or the Harlem Renaissance) in the 1910-1940 period 鈥 what鈥檚 commonly termed the jazz age. In particular he is interested in trans-American connections and networks between the United States and the Caribbean as manifested in early twentieth-century print culture: illustrated magazines, journals, anthologies, books, newspapers, pamphlets and so on. Jak would particularly welcome PhD applications in the following areas: 鈥 Caribbean literature 鈥 United States literature 鈥 Black Modernism or the Harlem Renaissance (1910s-1940s) 鈥 Modernism 鈥 Twentieth-Century Print Culture 鈥 Postcolonial/Colonial Studies 鈥 Black diaspora / Black British writing 鈥 Travel Writing 鈥 Ecocriticism
Qualifications
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BA London
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MA London
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PhD 糖心Vlog
Research and professional activities
Conferences and presentations
Bound Together: Magazines and Anthologies
Modernist Studies Association Annual Conference - Seminar participant (New Work in Old Mags), Chicago, United States, 10/11/2024
Revolutionary Agenda, Traditional Form: Claude McKay: Modernist Poet? Radical Lyricist?
Modernist Studies Association Annual Conference Panel Presentation, The Drake, Chicago, United States, 7/11/2024
In the Whirlpool of Modernism, 鈥渢he English of Empire鈥: Reflections on Claude McKay鈥檚 Poetry
Invited presentation, Modernism Seminar - Modernism, Empire and the Harlem Renaissance, London, United Kingdom, 11/5/2024
J. A. Rogers, the Harlem Renaissance and the Threat of Fascism
Invited presentation, Post45 Editorial Board Symposium, Canterbury, United Kingdom, 19/6/2015
Teaching and supervision
Current teaching responsibilities
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Contemporary Texts and Contexts (LT109)
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I, too, sing America: Identity, Diversity, and Voice in United States Literature (LT203)
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Black Lives Represented: Writing, Art, Politics and Society (LT218)
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There is a Continent Outside My Window : United States and Caribbean Literatures in Dialogue (LT380)
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Independent Literature Project (LT831)
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Literature - Completion (LT997)
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Introduction to United States Literature (LT161)
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Introduction to Caribbean Literature (LT262)
Previous supervision

Degree subject: Literature
Degree type: Doctor of Philosophy
Awarded date: 22/12/2022

Degree subject: Literature
Degree type: Doctor of Philosophy
Awarded date: 12/7/2021

Degree subject: Literature
Degree type: Doctor of Philosophy
Awarded date: 5/7/2019

Degree subject: Literature
Degree type: Master of Arts (by Dissertation)
Awarded date: 13/6/2019

Degree subject: Literature
Degree type: Doctor of Philosophy
Awarded date: 29/5/2019

Degree subject: Literature
Degree type: Doctor of Philosophy
Awarded date: 21/4/2017

Degree subject: Literature
Degree type: Doctor of Philosophy
Awarded date: 10/6/2016
Publications
Journal articles (6)
Peake, J. and McMahon, W., (2019). . Comparative American Studies: An International Journal. 15 (3-4), 99-116
Peake, J., (2018). . Radical Americas. 3 (1)
Peake, J., (2016). Pathologies of Paradise: Caribbean Detours, written by Supriya M.聽Nair. New West Indian Guide. 90 (1-2), 153-154
Peake, J., (2015). Book Review: Ismith Khan: The Man & his Work, written by Roydon Salick. New West Indian Guide. 89 (1-2), 180-181
Peake, J., (2013). . Moving Worlds: A Journal of Transcultural Writings. 13 (1), 102-117
Peake, J., (2011). . Sargasso, A Journal of Caribbean Literature, Language, and Culture. 201011 (I & II), 69-87
Books (3)
Peake, J., Hulme, P. and Susan, G., (2026). The Tropics in New York: Race and Empire in Print Culture, 1919-1928. University of Massachussetts Press
Peake, J. and Walters, T., (2026). The Bloomsbury Encyclopedia of Black British Writing: Volume 2 (1915-1980). Bloomsbury
Peake, J., (2017). . Liverpool University Press. 9781781382882
Book chapters (9)
Peake, J., (2027). Jamaica in McKay's Writing. In: Claude McKay in Context. Editors: Holcomb, G., . Cambridge University Press
Peake, J., (2025). Elusive 鈥淪un-Bright Hardness鈥? Reviewing Black Renaissance Fiction: Caribbean Horizons in an Age of a Rising, Yet Obscure, US Empire. In: Cambridge Companion to American Literature and Empire. Editors: Gillman, S. and Brickhouse, A., . Cambridge University Press
Peake, J., (2022). . In: Revolutionary Lives of the Red and Black Atlantic. Editors: Featherstone, D., H酶gsbjerg, C. and Rice, A., . Manchester University Press. 978-1-5261-4478-2
Peake, J., (2021). . In: A History of the Harlem Renaissance. Editors: Farebrother, R. and Thaggert, M., . Cambridge University Press. 211- 232. 9781108493574
Peake, J., (2018). . In: Teaching the Harlem Renaissance. Editors: Patton, VK., . MLA
Peake, J., (2014). . In: Postscripts Caribbean Perspectives on the British Canon from Shakespeare to Dickens. Editors: Rampaul, G. and Lalla, B., . University of the West Indies Press. 98- 123. 978-976-640-462-8
Peake, J., (2013). . In: Surveying the American Tropics: A Literary Geography from New York to Rio. Editors: Fumagalli, MC., Hulme, P., Robinson, O. and Wylie, L., . Liverpool University Press. 9781846318900
Peake, J., (2012). . In: Going Caribbean. New perspectives on Caribbean Literature and Art. Editors: Van Haesendonck, K., . Hu?mus. 61- 75. 9789898549068
Peake, J., (2011). . In: The Caribbean Short Story: Critical Perspectives. Editors: McWatt, M., Evans, L. and Smith, E., . Peepal Tree Press. 183- 198. 9781845231262