Dr Michael Perfect
Humanities and Social Science
Faculty of Arts Professional and Social Studies
Email: M.J.Perfect@ljmu.ac.uk
Telephone: 0151 231 3083
I am a Reader in Contemporary Literature and Culture. I hold a PhD from the University of Cambridge, and before joining LJMU in 2016 I taught at Bilkent University in Ankara, at Cambridge, and in London. My main research and teaching interests are in twentieth- and twenty-first-century literature and culture, with particular emphases on contemporary British literature, postcolonial studies, modernist and postmodernist literature, film and adaptation studies, and theory. I am regarded as a leading expert on the celebrated, award-winning writer Andrea Levy, and am currently carrying out externally-funded research on her archive. I have also co-edited some of Levy's previously unseen work for posthumous publication. My book "Contemporary Fictions of Multiculturalism: Diversity and the Millennial London Novel" was published in 2014. My work has also appeared in publications such as ARIEL: A Review of International English Literature, the Journal of Commonwealth Literature, The Journal of Postcolonial Writing, The Journal for Cultural Research, The Dictionary of Literary Biography, The Literary Encyclopedia, and a number of edited collections. I am currently writing a book on Levy for Manchester UP, and am also working on a project that relates to screen adaptations of contemporary transnational fiction. I have appeared on local and national radio, and have written for the Guardian's Higher Education Network.
I currently lead three undergraduate modules at LJMU: 'Literary and Cultural Theory', 'Writing Race in Britain', and 'Migrants to the Screen'. I also teach on the undergraduate module 'Post-Millennial British Fiction', and the postgraduate module 'Mobilities'. I supervise undergraduate dissertations, postgraduate dissertations, and PhD theses. I welcome enquiries from students considering doctoral research in any of my areas of interest.
My various jobs prior to becoming a full-time academic included: working in the sixth form of a school in Southwark, London, teaching A Level English Literature and, as the Higher Education Lead, supporting non-privileged students with their university applications; teaching English as a second language for numerous years on insecure, zero-hours contracts; tutoring A Level and GCSE students; serving as the Finance Officer of a hospital for adults with learning disabilities; working in Human Resources departments; working in a supermarket, monitoring and ordering stock, stacking shelves, and working on checkouts; doing data entry as a temp; serving refreshments and cleaning in a café/restaurant.
Degrees
2011, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, United Kingdom, PhD English Literature
2006, University of Nottingham, Nottingham, United Kingdom, MA (Distinction) in Twentieth-Century and Contemporary Literature
2004, University of East Anglia, Norwich, United Kingdom, BA (First Class) in English Literature
Academic appointments
Reader in Contemporary Literature and Culture, Liverpool John Moores University, 2022 - present
Lecturer/Senior Lecturer in English Literature, Liverpool John Moores University, Liverpool, 2016 - 2022
Assistant Professor of English Literature, Bilkent University, Ankara, 2014 - 2016
Supervisor (part time), University of Cambridge, 2007 - 2012
Highlighted publications
Perfect MJ. 2022. Some Unsung Songs: Andrea Levy’s Late, Unpublished Work ARIEL, 53 :257-291 DOI Author Url Publisher Url Public Url
Perfect M. 2014. Contemporary Fictions of Multiculturalism: Diversity and the Millennial London Novel Palgrave Macmillan. Basingstoke 978-1-349-45543-0 DOI Author Url Publisher Url
Chapters
Perfect M. 2024. Hanif Kureishi: Fundamentalism and Multiculturalism Taunton M, Potter R. The British Novel of Ideas: George Eliot to Zadie Smith Cambridge University Press (forthcoming)
Perfect M. 2021. Monica Ali Bradford R. The Wiley-Blackwell Encyclopedia of Contemporary British and Irish Literature :471-480 Wiley-Blackwell. The Wiley-Blackwell Encyclopedia of Contemporary British and Irish Literature 9781119099796 DOI Author Url Publisher Url
Perfect M. 2016. “He wished to defend a country that wasn’t his”: British Subjects and Servicemen in Andrea Levy’s Small Island and Zadie Smith’s White Teeth Rau P. Long Shadows: The Second World War in British Fiction and Film :241-262 Northwestern University Press. Evanston 978-0-8101-3335-8 Author Url Publisher Url
Perfect M. 2015. The Enigma of Abandonment: Re-thinking the Importance of Hanif Kureishi’s Work for Multiculturalism Fischer SA. Hanif Kureishi: Contemporary Critical Perspectives :7-20 Bloomsbury. London 9781472513342 Author Url Publisher Url
Perfect M. 2015. Salman Rushdie Ue T. Dictionary of Literary Biography 377: Twenty-first Century British Novelists 377 :258-283 Gale. Farmington, MI 9780787696528 Author Url Publisher Url
Perfect M. 2015. Reluctant Fundamentalist, Eager Host? Cross-cultural Hospitality and Security Anxieties in Mohsin Hamid's Novel of Uncertainty Clapp J, Ridge E. Security and Hospitality: New Literary and Cultural Perspectives :190-205 Routledge. London 9781138915848 DOI Author Url Publisher Url
Perfect MJ. 2015. Lives of Pi: on Turning Booker Prizes into Academy Awards Flajšarová P, Flajšar J. Anglophone Culture Across Centuries and Borders :51-61 University of Palacky Press. Olomouc: Univerzita Palackeho 978-80-244-4732-2 Author Url Publisher Url Public Url
Perfect M. 2014. Existing in more than one plane of time: Memory and Narrative Form in Every Light in the House Burnin’ Baxter J, James D. Andrea Levy: Contemporary Critical Perspectives :39-52 Bloomsbury. London 9781441113603 Author Url Publisher Url
Other
Perfect M, Saroukhani H, Lawson Welsh S. 2023. ‘The Death of an Author’ ARIEL, 54 :131-134 Publisher Url
Perfect M. 2022. Introduction to Andrea Levy’s 'Selected Excerpts from The Adventures of Mrs Seacole' ARIEL, 53 :293-294 DOI Author Url Publisher Url
Journal article
Perfect MJ. 2022. Some Unsung Songs: Andrea Levy’s Late, Unpublished Work ARIEL, 53 :257-291 DOI Author Url Publisher Url Public Url
Saroukhani H, Lawson Welsh S, Perfect MJ. 2022. Afterlives, Aftermaths: Levy Studies in the Twenty-First Century ARIEL, 53 :7-24 DOI Author Url Publisher Url Public Url
Perfect MJ. 2019. "Black holes in the fabric of the nation": Refugees in Mohsin Hamid’s "Exit West". Journal for Cultural Research, DOI Author Url Publisher Url Public Url
Perfect M. 2010. “Fold the paper and pass it on”: Historical Silences and the Contrapuntal in Andrea Levy’s Fiction Journal of Postcolonial Writing, 46: 1 :31-41 DOI Author Url Publisher Url
Perfect M. 2008. The Multicultural Bildungsroman: Stereotypes in Monica Ali’s Brick Lane Journal of Commonwealth Literature, 43: 3 :109-120 DOI Author Url Publisher Url
Internet publication
Perfect M. 2020. More vital now than ever: my research on Andrea Levy’s fiction Author Url Publisher Url
Perfect M. 2020. Andrea Levy Author Url Publisher Url
Perfect M. 2020. Andrea Levy: The Long Song Author Url Publisher Url
Perfect M. 2016. Salman Rushdie: Haroun and the Sea of Stories Author Url Publisher Url
Perfect M. 2014. Studying for a humanities PhD can make you feel cut off from humanity Author Url Publisher Url
Perfect M. 2012. Don DeLillo: Underworld Author Url Publisher Url
Perfect M. 2010. Andrea Levy: Small Island Author Url Publisher Url
Book review
Perfect MJ. 2015. Review of Davison, Sarah, Modernist Literatures (Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan, 2014) The Literary London Journal, 12: 1- Author Url Publisher Url Public Url
Perfect MJ. 2015. Review of Sadiakli, Tamim, Dear Infidel (London: Hansib, 2014) The Literary London Journal, 12: 1- Author Url Publisher Url Public Url
Perfect M. 2015. Review of Flajsavora, Pavlina, Diaspora in the Fiction of Andrea Levy (Olomouc: Palacky University, 2014) Journal of Postcolonial Writing, 51: 6 :752-753 Author Url Publisher Url
Perfect MJ. 2013. Review of Colombino, Laura, Spatial Politics in Contemporary London Literature: Writing Architecture and the Body (Oxford: Routledge, 2013) The Literary London Journal, 10: 2 Author Url Publisher Url Public Url
Perfect M. Review of Josh Doble, Liam J. Liburd and Emma Parker (eds), British Culture After Empire (Manchester: MUP, 2023) Journal of Postcolonial Writing,
Books (authored)
Perfect M. 2014. Contemporary Fictions of Multiculturalism: Diversity and the Millennial London Novel Palgrave Macmillan. Basingstoke 978-1-349-45543-0 DOI Author Url Publisher Url
Perfect M. Andrea Levy: Contemporary World Writers Manchester University Press (forthcoming). Manchester Author Url Publisher Url
Conference presentation:
Research paper on Andrea Levy's archive, English: Shared Futures, University of Manchester, Oral presentation. 2022
Speaker at launch event for special issue of ARIEL, Common Threads: Black and Asian British Women's Writing, University of Brighton, Oral presentation. 2022
"'Black holes in the fabric of the nation': Refugees in Mohsin Hamid’s Exit West", Refugees in Literature, Film, Art, and Media: Perspectives on the Past and Present, University of Liverpool, Oral presentation. 2018
"Midnight’s Children Reborn? Rushdie’s Adaptation", BAAHE Annual Conference on Adaptation, Vrije Universiteit Brussel, Oral presentation. 2015
"Commitment Issues: Love and Relationships in Zadie Smith’s NW", Literary London, University of London, Oral presentation. 2015
"'Let us stick to what we are obviously here for': Infidelity and Identity in Zadie Smith’s Fiction’.", Zadie Smith and Her Work: 22nd METU British Novelists Conference, Middle East Technical University, Ankara, Oral presentation. 2015
"A Memory of Modernism? A Modernism of Memory? Form in Will Self’s 'Umbrella'", Will Self and the Art of the Contemporary, Roehampton University, Oral presentation. 2013
"The Enigma of Abandonment: Re-thinking the Importance of Hanif Kureishi’s Work for Multiculturalism", In Analysis: The Work of Hanif Kureishi, Roehampton University, Oral presentation. 2012
"Multicultural London in Zadie Smith’s 'White Teeth': a Celebration of Unpredictability and Uncertainty?", Literary London, University of London, Oral presentation. 2011
"The Democratization of Narrative Structure in Andrea Levy's Fiction", On Whose Terms? Critical Negotiations in Black British Literature and the Arts’, Goldsmiths, University of London, Oral presentation. 2008
Other invited event:
Invited Lecture, Online, Invited lecture for MASSOLIT on Andrea Levy. 2021
Invited Lecture, Online, Invited lecture for MASSOLIT on Mohsin Hamid. 2021
Celebrating Andrea Levy, The British Library; Leeds Lit Fest (virtual event), Public event celebrating the life and work of Andrea Levy. Hosted by the British Library, and part of Leeds Lit Fest 2021. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tjThEsmfQcE&t=44s. 2021
Mirthy Book Club Q&A, virtual event, https://www.mirthy.co.uk/event-calendar/october-book-club-event/. 2021
Searching for Culture, Palacky University, Czech Republic, Invited talk given on adaptation studies. 2015
Research Grants Awarded:
BA/Leverhulme Small Research Grant, Levy’s Legacy, Grant value (£): £6805, Duration of research project: Three years. 2020
AHRC Doctoral Research Scholarship, "Celebrated Fictions of Multicultural London of the 1990s and 2000s", Grant value (£): Approx. £50,000, Duration of research project: Three years. 2006
Membership of professional bodies:
Fellow, Higher Education Academy. 2017
Fellowships:
Fellow, Higher Education Academy. 2017
External committees:
PhD Thesis Committee, Ankara University, PhD Thesis Committee Member for a doctoral thesis being written on twentieth-century British drama and censorship. 2015
PhD Thesis Committee, Middle East Technical University, Member of the PhD Thesis Committee for a doctoral thesis on eighteenth-century British fiction and trauma theory. 2015
Media Coverage:
Article for The Guardian: ‘Studying for a humanities PhD can make you feel cut off from humanity’ 2014
Interview given on BBC Radio 5 Live on academic dissertations, October 2018
Interview given on BBC Radio Cambridgeshire on Monica Ali's novel 'Brick Lane', May 2008
Interview given on BBC Radio Merseyside on Andrea Levy and Windrush, October 2018