Alison Light, (born 4 August 1955) is a writer, critic and
independent scholar
A scholar is a person who pursues academic and intellectual activities, particularly academics who apply their intellectualism into expertise in an area of study. A scholar can also be an academic, who works as a professor, teacher, or researche ...
. She is the author of five books to date. In 2020 ''A Radical Romance'', was awarded the Pen Ackerley prize, the only prize for memoir in the UK. ''Common People: The History of an English Family'' (2014) was shortlisted for the Samuel Johnson (now Baillie Gifford) prize. She has held a number of academic posts and is currently an Honorary Fellow in History and English at
Pembroke College, Oxford
Pembroke College, a constituent college of the University of Oxford, is located at Pembroke Square, Oxford. The college was founded in 1624 by King James I of England, using in part the endowment of merchant Thomas Tesdale, and was named aft ...
. She is also an
Honorary Professor
Honorary titles (professor, reader, lecturer) in academia may be conferred on persons in recognition of contributions by a non-employee or by an employee beyond regular duties. This practice primarily exists in the UK and Germany, as well as in m ...
in the Department of English,
University College, London
, mottoeng = Let all come who by merit deserve the most reward
, established =
, type = Public research university
, endowment = £143 million (2020)
, budget = ...
and an
Honorary
An honorary position is one given as an honor, with no duties attached, and without payment. Other uses include:
* Honorary Academy Award, by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, United States
* Honorary Aryan, a status in Nazi Germany ...
Professorial Fellow in the Department of English,
Edinburgh University
The University of Edinburgh ( sco, University o Edinburgh, gd, Oilthigh Dhùn Èideann; abbreviated as ''Edin.'' in post-nominals) is a public research university based in Edinburgh, Scotland. Granted a royal charter by King James VI i ...
. She is a founding member of the Raphael Samuel Archive and History Centre in London.
Early career
Light grew up in
Portsmouth
Portsmouth ( ) is a port and city status in the United Kingdom, city in the ceremonial county of Hampshire in southern England. The city of Portsmouth has been a Unitary authorities of England, unitary authority since 1 April 1997 and is admi ...
, England, and read English at
Churchill College, Cambridge
Churchill College is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge, England. It has a primary focus on science, engineering and technology, but still retains a strong interest in the arts and humanities.
In 1958, a trust was establis ...
from 1973 to 1976, where she was awarded a B.A. and was a University Scholar. She worked as a school teacher, a cleaner, a researcher for the National Association for Gifted Children, and as a studio manager at the
BBC #REDIRECT BBC
Here i going to introduce about the best teacher of my life b BALAJI sir. He is the precious gift that I got befor 2yrs . How has helped and thought all the concept and made my success in the 10th board exam. ...
, before taking an M.A. and D.Phil. at
Sussex University
, mottoeng = Be Still and Know
, established =
, type = Public research university
, endowment = £14.4 million (2020)
, budget = £319.6 million (2019–20)
, chancellor = Sanjeev Bhaskar
, vice_chancellor = Sasha Roseneil
...
in 1991. She also taught for the
Workers' Educational Association
The Workers' Educational Association (WEA), founded in 1903, is the UK's largest voluntary sector provider of adult education and one of Britain's biggest charities. The WEA is a democratic and voluntary adult education movement. It delivers lea ...
, at the
Open University
The Open University (OU) is a British Public university, public research university and the largest university in the United Kingdom by List of universities in the United Kingdom by enrolment, number of students. The majority of the OU's underg ...
and as a lecturer in English at
Brighton Polytechnic
The University of Brighton is a public university based on four campuses in Brighton and Eastbourne on the south coast of England. Its roots can be traced back to 1858 when the Brighton School of Art was opened in the Royal Pavilion. It ach ...
from 1984 to 1990. She published her first reviews and early fiction in the feminist magazine, ''
Spare Rib
''Spare Rib'' was a Second-wave feminism, second-wave feminist magazine, founded in 1972 in the United Kingdom, that emerged from the Counterculture of the 1960s, counter culture of the late 1960s as a consequence of meetings involving, among ot ...
'' and was for several years a member of the editorial collective of ''Feminist Review'', an academic journal of the British women’s movement. Her first academic article on romance fiction in 1984 helped open up the field of British popular culture to serious study and has been much anthologised. Her first book, ''Forever England: Literature, Femininity and Conservatism between the Wars'' is related to interwar studies and studies of "Englishness". It argued that it was impossible to understand ideas about English character in the period, or the changes within literary culture, without recognising the extent to which the female population represented the nation between the wars.
Raphael Samuel
In 1987, Light married
Marxist historian
Marxist historiography, or historical materialist historiography, is an influential school of historiography. The chief tenets of Marxist historiography include the centrality of social class, social relations of production in class-divided s ...
Raphael Samuel, with whom she worked closely. From 1984 to 1995, she was a member of History Workshop Popular Literature Group which organised several workshops held at
Ruskin College, Oxford, including "The Future of English" (1991), involving over 200 policy-makers, schoolteachers and academics teaching English. In the 1990s, Light also wrote reviews and articles regularly for the ''
New Statesman
The ''New Statesman'' is a British political and cultural magazine published in London. Founded as a weekly review of politics and literature on 12 April 1913, it was at first connected with Sidney and Beatrice Webb and other leading members o ...
'' and the film magazine ''
Sight & Sound
''Sight and Sound'' (also spelled ''Sight & Sound'') is a British monthly film magazine published by the British Film Institute (BFI). It conducts the well-known, once-a-decade ''Sight and Sound'' Poll of the Greatest Films of All Time, ongoing ...
''. She held a full-time Lectureship in English at
Royal Holloway College
Royal Holloway, University of London (RHUL), formally incorporated as Royal Holloway and Bedford New College, is a public research university and a constituent college of the federal University of London. It has six schools, 21 academic departm ...
from 1991 to 1995 and a Research Fellowship in the Department of English at University College London from 1995 to 2003 where she also lectured in 20th century English and American literature.
After Samuel's death in 1996, Light assembled and donated his papers to create the Raphael Samuel Archive, now held by
Bishopsgate Institute
Bishopsgate Institute is a cultural institute in the Bishopsgate Without area of the City of London, located near Liverpool Street station and Spitalfields market. The institute was established in 1895. It offers a cultural events programme, ...
in London. She was also a member of the initial team which established the Raphael Samuel History Research Centre, now a public history centre jointly operated by
University of East London
, mottoeng = Knowledge and the fulfilment of vows
, established = 1898 – West Ham Technical Institute1952 – West Ham College of Technology1970 – North East London Polytechnic1989 – Polytechnic of East London ...
,
Birkbeck and
Queen Mary colleges,
London University
The University of London (UoL; abbreviated as Lond or more rarely Londin in post-nominals) is a federal public research university located in London, England, United Kingdom. The university was established by royal charter in 1836 as a degr ...
, and the Bishopsgate Institute. Light also donated materials relating to Samuel's mother, the composer and Communist activist
Minna Keal (1909–99).
Light edited a posthumous volume of Samuel's essay, ''Island Stories'' (Verso 1998) and published a collection of his essays from ''
New Left Review
The ''New Left Review'' is a British bimonthly journal covering world politics, economy, and culture, which was established in 1960.
History Background
As part of the British "New Left" a number of new journals emerged to carry commentary on m ...
'', ''
The Lost World of British Communism'' (Verso 2006). In 2003 she was given a personal Visiting Professorship at the University of East London and from 2006 to 2009 was appointed a Research Professor (part-time) attached to the History Centre, based in the School of Cultural and Media Studies.
Recent work
In 2006, Light took up a personal Chair as Professor of Modern English Literature and Culture (part-time) at Newcastle University, where she taught courses on modernism but also developed work on life writing. She published an edition of ''Flush'' by Virginia Woolf, with introduction and notes for
Penguin Classics
Penguin Classics is an imprint of Penguin Books under which classic works of literature are published in English, Spanish, Portuguese, and Korean among other languages. Literary critics see books in this series as important members of the West ...
(2005) and gave the annual birthday lecture for the Virginia Woolf Society of Great Britain in 2007. Light’s second book, ''Mrs Woolf and the Servants'' (Fig Tree/Penguin 2007; Bloomsbury USA 2008), was both an original study of the servants who worked for the
Bloomsbury circle and a social history of domestic service. It won second prize at the Longman History Today Awards and was longlisted for the
Samuel Johnson Prize
The Baillie Gifford Prize for Non-Fiction, formerly the Samuel Johnson Prize, is an annual British book prize for the best non-fiction writing in the English language. It was founded in 1999 following the demise of the NCR Book Award. With its ...
.
Light's ''A Radical Romance: A Memoir of Love, Grief and Consolation'' was published in 2019. In August 2020, it was announced winner of the 2020
PEN/Ackerley Prize
PEN Ackerley Prize (or, J. R. Ackerley Prize for Autobiography) is awarded annually by English PEN for a literary autobiography of excellence, written by an author of British nationality and published during the preceding year. The winner receive ...
. She is currently the co-editor of a series for Edinburgh University Press, The Feminist Library, which launched with her own volume, 'Inside History: From Popular Fiction to Life-writing'. ref: https://edinburghuniversitypress.com/book-alison-light-inside-history.html
In 2005 she married John O'Halloran.
Honours
In 2021 Light was elected a
Fellow of the British Academy
Fellowship of the British Academy (FBA) is an award granted by the British Academy to leading academics for their distinction in the humanities and social sciences. The categories are:
# Fellows – scholars resident in the United Kingdom
# C ...
, of the
Royal Society of Literature
The Royal Society of Literature (RSL) is a learned society founded in 1820, by King George IV, to "reward literary merit and excite literary talent". A charity that represents the voice of literature in the UK, the RSL has about 600 Fellows, ele ...
, and of the Royal Historical Society .
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Light, Alison
1955 births
Living people
Writers from Portsmouth
Alumni of Churchill College, Cambridge
Academics of Newcastle University
Academics of Sheffield Hallam University
Alumni of the University of Sussex
Academics of the University of Brighton
English literary historians
Independent scholars