Professor Hywel Dix
- 01202 966679
- hdix at bournemouth dot ac dot uk
- http://orcid.org/0000-0002-3584-5199
- Professor of English and Communication
- Weymouth House W322, Talbot Campus, Fern Barrow, Poole, BH12 5BB
Biography
In my time at BU I have taught on BA Communication and Media, BA Multimedia Journalism, BA English, MA Literary Media and MA Creative Writing, as well as supervising doctorates in English, Creative Writing and History.
As a researcher I am interested in how creative writing can be used to enhance feelings of mental and physical wellbeing and have run numerous projects providing opportunities for diverse stakeholders to benefit from this work. These activities build on my research expertise in autofiction and life writing, in which I am a leading international scholar. My 2018 edited collection ‘Autofiction in English’ broke new ground in the study of autofiction in the Anglophone world and built on an earlier extended research project about literary careers. Drawing on the theories, concepts and critical approaches of Career Construction Theory has enabled me to develop a new understanding of the material properties of authorial careers, which are written up in my monograph ‘The Late-Career Novelist’ (2017)...
I am also interested in the relationship between cultural production and social and political change in the contemporary United Kingdom, and have explored these in my books ‘Autofiction and Cultural Memory’ (2023), ‘Compatriots or Competitors? Welsh, Scottish, English and Irish Writing in the aftermath of Brexit’ (2022), ‘Multicultural Narratives: Traces and Perspectives’ (2018), ‘After Raymond Williams: Cultural Materialism and the Break-Up of Britain’ (2013) and ‘Postmodern Fiction and the Break-up of Britain’ (2010).
I believe that effective interdisciplinary work is vital to the success of any organisation and have actively created opportunities to work with colleagues outside my department to achieve this. As a leading member of BU’s Quality Assurance and Enhancement Group (QAEG) I have oversight of new programme proposals as well as periodic reviews. This work is vital to the long-term planning and organisation of the university because it ensures that our educational provision is current, relevant, diverse, innovative and marketable. In this work, I have been responsible for helping ensure that programmes around the university meet the requirements laid down internally by Academic Quality and externally by the QAA benchmarks, and by discipline-specific Professional, Statutory and Regulatory Bodies (PSRBs). I have also been able to ensure that examples of innovation and good practice are shared between schools, to the mutual enhancement of all.
As Faculty lead for TeachBU, the internal means by which colleagues can seek professional recognition via Fellowship of AdvanceHE (formerly the Higher Education Academy), I have played a key part in contributing to the university’s KPI of ensuring that every member of academic staff has either a teaching qualification or professional accreditation. In addition, I have run a number of Action Learning sets for both academic and professional service colleagues as part of the organisation’s staff development programme. My delivery of this long-term programme is strong evidence of my commitment both to my own professional development and that of colleagues around the institution.
The many different university-wide panels and working groups on which I have served or chaired have enabled me to forge effective relationships across the institution and beyond, and this in turn has enabled me to operate more effectively in my own roles. E.g. Student Voice Task and Finish Group; Sharing Excellence in Education Forum; Subject-level TEF working group; Generic Assessment Criteria Working Group; Integrated Master’s Working Group; International Year One. In all of these forums I have taken a leading role in BU-wide initiatives to improve and enhance pedagogic practice, bringing my own intellectual acumen and educational experience to bear of the work of other faculties while also bringing examples of good practice back to improve the work of my own school.
moreResearch
Books
- British Covid Fictions: Reading Pandemic Politics. 2025.
- Autofiction and Cultural Memory. 2023.
- Compatriots or Competitors: Welsh, Scottish, English and Northern Irish Writing and Brexit in Comparative Contexts. 2022.
- The Late-Career Novelist: Career Construction Theory, Authors and Autofiction. 2017.
- After Raymond Williams: Cultural Materialism and the Break-Up of Britain. 2nd ed, 2013.
- Postmodern Fiction and the Break-Up of Britain. 2010.
Edited Books
- Career Construction Theory and Life Writing: Narrative and Autobiographical Thinking across the Professions. 2020.
- Autofiction in English. 2018.
- Multicultural Narratives: Traces and Perspectives (co-ed). 2018.
Edited Special Issue
- Career Construction Theory and Life Writing. Life Writing, 17.1 March 2020.
Chapters in Books
- The Politics of British Postmodern Fiction in The Cambridge Companion to British Postmodern Fiction ed. Nicol, 2025.
- Autofiction in Words and Images: The Visual-Verbal Dialectic in The Routledge Companion to Literary Media, ed. Ensslin, Round and BThomas. 2023.
- Autofiction in Oxford Research Encyclopedia of Literature (online). 2022.
- Autofiction, Post-conflict Narratives and New Memory Cultures in The Autofictional: Approaches, Affordances, Forms ed. Effe and Lawlor. 2021.
- ‘Welsh European’ and ‘Sowing the Seeds of Change: Raymond Williams Since 2000’ in Raymond Williams: From Wales to the World ed. Stephen Woodhams. 2021.
- ‘From vocational calling to career construction: Late-career authors and critical self-reflection’ in Researching and Writing on Contemporary Art and Artists ed... Wiley and Pace. 2020.
- ‘Conclusion: New Nodes of Intersection’ in Mapping Cultural Identities and Intersections: Imagological Readings ed. Onorina Botezat and Mustafa Kirca. 2019.
- ‘From Folk Artists to Integrated Professionals: The portrayal of tattoos in The Electric Michelangelo and Voodoo Pilchard’ in Tattoos in Crime and Detective Narratives: Making and Remaking ed. Watson and Cox. 2019.
- ‘From Tonka Beans to Magic Seeds: VS Naipaul’s Late Career Fiction of Self-Retrospect’ in Seepersad and Sons: Naipaulian Synergies ed. V.J. Maharaj. 2019.
- ‘Writing the Nations: Welsh, Northern Irish, and Scottish Literature’ in The History of British Women’s Writing, Vol. 10, 1970 – Present ed. Parker and Eagleton. 2015.
- ‘The Retrospective Stage: Late Career Fiction and Authorial Self-renewal’ in Literary Careers in the Modern Era ed. Evans and Davidson. 2015.
- ‘Cymbeline and the Display of Empire’ in Shakespeare and Tyranny: Regimes of Reading in Europe and Beyond ed. Keith Gregor. 2014.
- ‘Devolution and Cultural Catch-Up: Decoupling England and its Literature from English Literature’ in Literature of an Independent England ed. Westall and Gardiner. 2013.
- ‘“To Speak in New Ways”: Class and Poetry in Wales since 1970’ in Slanderous Tongues: Essays on Welsh Poetry in English 1970- 2000 ed. Daniel Williams. 2010.
- ‘The Pedagogy of Cultural Materialism’ in About Raymond Williams ed. Seidl and Grossberg, 2009.
Journal Articles
- ‘Telling (My) Stories: Potential Uses of Autofiction to Enhance Wellbeing in a Community Arts Setting.’ Writing in Practice 10, 2024.
- Constructions of Cosmopolitanism in the Making of Welsh Writing in English. International Journal of Welsh Writing in English 10.1 2023.
- Unfulfilled Vocations in Contemporary American Fiction. Textual Practice 36.1, 2022.
- Autofiction, Colonial Massacres and the Politics of Memory. University of Bucharest Review. 22.1, 2020.
- ‘From Writer’s Block to Extended Plot: Career Construction Theory and Lives in Writing.’ Life Writing 16, 2018.
- ‘Autofiction: The forgotten face of French theory.’ Word and Text, 7 (1), 2017.
- ‘On Balkanism and Orientalism: Undifferentiated Patterns of Perception in Literary and Critical Representations of Eastern Europe’. Textual Practice, Vol. 29 (5), 2015.
- ‘Transnational Imagery in the Poetry of Imtiaz Dharker’. Anglistik, 26(1), 2015.
moreFavourites
- Dix, H., 2023. Compatriots Or Competitors? Welsh, Scottish, English and Northern Irish Writing and Brexit in Comparative Contexts. University of Wales Press.
- Dix, H., 2022. Autofiction and Cultural Memory. Routledge.
- Autofiction in English. Palgrave Macmillan.
- Dix, H., 2013. After Raymond Williams. Cardiff: University of Wales Press.
Journal Articles
- Dix, H., 2025. Autofiction, Colonial Massacres and The Politics of Memory. Novoe Literaturnoe Obozrenie New Literary Observer, 223-236.
- Dix, H., 2024. Telling (My) Stories: Potential Uses of Autofiction to Enhance Wellbeing in a Community Arts Setting. Writing in Practice: The Journal of Creative Writing Research, 10 (2024), 87-102.
- Dix, H., 2023. Constructions of Cosmopolitanism in the Making of Welsh Writing in English. International Journal of Welsh Writing in English.
- Dix, H., 2022. The Structure of Complex Words. AMERICAN LITERARY HISTORY, 34 (3), 1221-1224.
- Dix, H., 2020. From Writer’s Block to Extended Plot: Career Construction Theory and Lives in Writing. Life Writing, 17 (1), 11-26.
- Dix, H., 2020. Career Construction Theory and Life Writing. Life Writing, 17 (1), 1-7.
- Dix, H., 2020. Unfulfilled vocations in contemporary American fiction. Textual Practice, 1-18.
- Dix, H., 2019. AUTOFICTION, COLONIAL MASSACRES and the POLITICS of MEMORY. University of Bucharest Review Literary and Cultural Studies Series, 9 (1), 10-22.
- Dix, H., 2017. Autofiction: The forgotten face of french theory. Word and Text, 7 (1), 69-85.
- Dix, H., 2015. On Balkanism and Orientalism: Undifferentiated patterns of perception in literary and critical representations of Eastern Europe. Textual Practice, 29 (5), 973-991.
- Dix, H., 2015. Transnational Imagery in the Poetry of Imtiaz Dharker. Anglistik, 26 (1), 55-67.
- Dix, H., 2015. On Balkanism and Orientalism: undifferentiated patterns of perception in literary and critical representations of Eastern Europe. Textual Practice.
- Dix, H., 2014. ‘After Writing Back: Owen Sheers, Welsh Writing in English and the Paradigm of Postcolonial Literature’. Margins: a journal of literature and culture, Vol. IV (2014)., 30-57.
- Dix, H., 2014. The Loss of the Subject: Keywords and the language of science fiction. Foundation: The International Review of Science Fiction.
- Dix, H., 2012. Mytho-poetics for a new millennium: decoding satire in Sebastian Faulks, Amanda Craig and Jim Crace. C21 Literature: Journal of 21st-century Writings, 1 (1).
- Dix, H.R., 2012. From Markets to Metafiction: satires of the literary marketplace at the dawn of two new centuries. Textes et Contextes, 7.
- Dix, H., 2007. Raymond Williams: Cultural Materialism and the Break-Up of Britain. Key Words.
- Dix, H., 2005. Mark Twain: Freedom, Imperialism and Selective Tradition. Public Resistance, 2.1.
- Dix, H., 2004. The Permanent Tourist: Guidebooks in Travel and Education. Travel, Imagination and Myth: Proceedings of Tourism and Literature Annual Conference ed. Mike Robinson and David Picard. Sheffield: Centre for Tourism and Cultural Change.
Books
- Dix, H., 2025. British Covid Fictions: Reading Pandemic Politics. Palgrave.
- Dix, H., 2023. Compatriots Or Competitors? Welsh, Scottish, English and Northern Irish Writing and Brexit in Comparative Contexts. University of Wales Press.
- Dix, H., 2022. Autofiction and Cultural Memory. Routledge.
- Dix, H., 2020. Career Construction Theory and Life Writing: Narrative and Autobiographical Thinking Across the Professions. Abingdon: Routledge.
- Autofiction in English. Palgrave Macmillan.
- Kirca, M. and Dix, H., 2018. Multicultural Narratives Traces and Perspectives.
- Dix, H., 2017. The Late-Career Novelist Career Construction Theory, Authors and Autofiction. Bloomsbury Publishing.
- Dix, H., 2013. After Raymond Williams. Cardiff: University of Wales Press.
- Dix, H., 2010. Postmodern Fiction and the Break-Up of Britain. London: Continuum.
- Dix, H., 2008. After Raymond Williams: Cultural Materialism and the Break-Up of Britain. Cardiff: University of Wales Press.
Chapters
- Dix, H., 2025. The Politics of British Postmodern Fiction. In: Nicol, B., ed. The Cambridge Companion to British Postmodern Fiction. Cambridge University Press.
- Dix, H., 2024. ‘Conclusion: Constructions of Fear as Subject or Object’. In: Kirca, M. and Rundholz, A., eds. Fear, Risk and Safety: Post-Millenial Cultures of Fear in Literature. Cambridge Scholars Press.
- Dix, H., 2023. AUTOFICTION IN WORDS AND IMAGES: The Visual-Verbal Dialectic. Routledge Companion to Literary Media. 87-98.
- Dix, H., 2022. Autofiction, Post-conflict Narratives, and New Memory Cultures. Palgrave Studies in Life Writing. 185-203.
- Dix, H., 2021. Raça, Religão e Prãticas Contra-Hegemônicas en Empson, Williams e Freire [Race, Religion and Counter-Hegemonic Practice in Empson, Williams and Freire]. In: Paixão, A.H., Mazza, D. and Spigolon, N., eds. Centelhas de Transformações – Paulo Freire e Raymond Williams.. São José do Rio Preto: Editora HN.
- Dix, H., 2021. Sowing the Seeds of Change: Raymond Williams Since 2000. In: Woodhams, S., ed. Raymond Williams: From Wales to the World. Cardigan: Parthian.
- Dix, H., 2021. Welsh European. In: Woodhams, S., ed. Raymond Williams: From Wales to the World. Cardigan: Parthian.
- Dix, H., 2020. Introduction: Career Construction Theory and Life Writing. In: Dix, H., ed. Career Construction Theory and Life Writing. Abingdon: Routledge.
- Dix, H., 2020. ‘From vocational calling to career construction: Late-career authors and critical self-reflection’. In: Wiley, C. and Pace, I., eds. Researching and Writing on Contemporary Art and Artists Challenges, Practices, and Complexities. Cham: Springer Nature, 39-63.
- Dix, H., 2019. Conclusion: New Nodes of Intersection. In: Kirca, M. and Botezat, O., eds. Mapping Cultural Identities and Intersections Imagological Readings. Cambridge Scholars Publishing.
- Dix, H., 2019. ‘From Tonka Beans to Magic Seeds: VS Naipaul’s Late Career Fiction of Self-Retrospect'. In: Maharaj, J.V., ed. Seepersad and Sons: Naipaulian Synergies.. London: Peepal Tree Press.
- Dix, H., 2019. ‘From Folk Artists to Integrated Professionals: The portrayal of tattoos in The Electric Michelangelo and Voodoo Pilchard’. In: Watson, K. and Cox, K., eds. Tattoos in Crime and Detective Narratives: Marking and Remarking. Manchester: Manchester University Press.
- Dix, H., 2018. Introduction: Autofiction in English: The Story so Far. Palgrave Studies in Life Writing. 1-23.
- Dix, H., 2016. The retrospective stage: Late career fiction and authorial self-renewal. Literary Careers in the Modern Era. 57-73.
- Dix, H.R., 2015. Writing the Nations: Welsh, Northern Irish, and Scottish Literature. In: Eagleton, M. and Parker, E., eds. The History of British Women’s Writing, Vol. 10, 1970 – Present. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan, 195-213.
- Dix, H., 2014. Cymbeline and the Display of Empire. In: Gregor, K., ed. Shakespeare and Tyranny: A Geography of Appropriations from the 17th Century to the Present. Cambridge Scholars Publishing.
- Dix, H., 2009. The Pedagogy of Cultural Materialism: Paulo Freire and Raymond Williams. In: Grossberg, L. and Seidl, M., eds. About Raymond Williams. London: Routledge, 81-93.
- Dix, H., 2009. “You and Your stories!”: Narrating the History of the Dispossessed in Amitav Ghosh’s Hungry Tide and Salman Rushdie’s Midnight’s Children. In: Chaudry, B., ed. Amitav Ghosh: Critical Essays. New Delhi: PHI Learning.
- Dix, H.R., 2009. The pedagogy of cultural materialism: Paulo freire and raymond williams. About Raymond Williams. 81-93.
- Dix, H., 2008. “To Speak in New Ways”: Class and Poetry in Wales since 1970. Slanderous Tongues: Essays on Welsh Poetry in English 1970- 2000 ed. Daniel Williams.. Bridgend: Seren.
Conferences
- Dix, H., 2020. 'From vocational calling to career construction: Late-career authors and critical self-reflection'. In: Wiley, C. and Pace, I., eds. Writing about Contemporary Artists 20-22 October 2017 University of Surrey. Researching and Writing on Contemporary Art and Artists: Challenges, Practices and Complexities,. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan.
Profile of Teaching PG
- Dissertation/ Major Project (MA Creative Writing and Publishing)
- Writing Across Forms and Cultures (MA Creative Writing and Publishing)
- Narrating Identities (MA Creative Writing and Publishing)
- As a leading member of the Quality Assurance and Enhancement Group I chair programme reviews in all the faculties of the university, including: 2024 - MSc Financial Technology - MSc Computer Science - MSci Computer Science - MSci Computer Science (applied) - MSci Computer Science (Information Assurance) - MSci Computer Science (Artificial Intelligence) 2023 - PGDip Specialist Community Public Health Nurse – Health Visiting & School Nursing programmes 2022 - L7 Senior Leader Apprenticeship (with PG Dip and/ or MBA Top-up) 2021 - MSc Psychology and MSc Cognitive Neuroscience - MSc Medical Imaging with Management 2019 - MSc Bioarchaeology (Anthropology) (Faculty of Science and Technology) - MSc Bioarchaeology (Osteoarchaeology) (Faculty of Science and Technology) - MSc Forensic Anthropology & Archaeology (Osteology) (Faculty of Science and Technology) - MSc Forensic Anthropology & Archaeology (Search & Recovery) (Faculty of Science and Technology) - Review for closure of all 7 MSc degrees in Archaeology, Anthropology and Forensic Sciences 2018 - MSc Physician Associate Studies (Faculty of Health and Social Sciences) - 2017 - MSc Professional Development (Human Resources Management) (Faculty of Management) Earlier - MSc Social Care (Faculty of Health and Social Sciences) - MNutr Nutrition (Faculty of Health and Social Sciences) - MEng Mechanical Engineering (Faculty of Science and Technology)
Profile of Teaching UG
- Modernism and Postmodernism
- Narrative Structures (BA Communication and Media; BA English)
- As a leading member of the Quality Assurance and Enhancement Group I chair or serve as panelist for programme reviews in all 4 faculties of the university, including 2024 - BSc Sport Coaching and BSc Sport Management - LLM Law - BSc Midwifery: Change of Site (Lakeside, Portsmouth) - BSc E-sports Digital Technologies - BA Event Management - BA Marketing Communications suite (faculty internal panel) 2020 - FdSc Nursing Associate (Bournemouth and Poole College) 2019 - Faculty of Management, BA Business and Management and BSc Advertising - Review for closure, BA Business Studies programmes 2018 - BSc Nutrition (and MNutr review for Closure) - LLP Law degrees (internal faculty consideration, Faculty of Media and Communication) 2017 - FdA Business and Management (Faculty of Management) Earlier - BA Public Relations (Faculty of Media and Communication) - BSc Operating Department Practice (Faculty of Health and Social Sciences)
- Alternate Worlds
- Dissertation/ Major Project (BA Communication and Media, BA English, BA Multimedia Journalism)
- Writing for the Media (BA Communication and Media, BA English)
- Popular Texts and Intertexts (BA Communication and Media, BA English)
Invited Lectures
-
Reading Raymond Williams in the Digital Age, Batman University, Turkiye, 17 Oct 2025 more
Invited (Keynote) Speaker. 11th international conference on Language, Literature and Culture: the Humanities in the Digital Age -
On Autofiction and Cultural Memory, Çankaya University, Ankara, Türkiye, 16 Oct 2025 more
EDGES Seminar, Çankaya University, Türkiye -
Literatures and Laws Symposium, Bournemouth University, 13 Apr 2024 more
Discursive Spaces in Literature, Law and Human Rights -
Auctor in Fabula Conference, Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore, Milan, 25 Mar 2024 more
Fictions of Self Retrospect: Constructing the Narratives of Authorial Careers -
‘Autofiction and Cultural Memory.’, Goldsmiths, University of London, 17 Nov 2022 more
Autofiction and Biofiction, Centre for Comparative Literature at Goldsmiths, University of London. 17 November 2022. -
Race, Religion and Counter-hegemonic Practice., UNICAMO, Sao Paulo, 26 Aug 2021 more
‘Race, Religion and Counter-hegemonic Practice in Empson, Williams and Freire.’ Paulo Freire and Raymond Williams Centenary: Sparks of Transformation, UNICAMP, Sao Paulo, Brazil. -
The Cultural Capital of Capitals of Culture, Edinburgh, 08 Dec 2020 more
‘The Cultural Capital of Capitals of Culture: European Capitals and UK Cities of Culture Before Brexit and Beyond.’ Edinburgh Heriot-Watt University, Interdisciplinary Research Centre Seminar Series. -
Autofiction: A Developing Genre, University of Surrey, Guildford., 08 May 2018 more
Invited speaker, University of Surrey, 'Cultures in Contact' research seminar. -
Literature and the Environment series., University of Koblenz-Landau, Germany, 09 Nov 2016 more
The Changing Environment of British Anglophone Literatures. Invited speaker. -
The Pedagogy of Cultural Materialism, Swansea University, 23 Nov 2015 more
- ‘The Pedagogy of Cultural Materialism: Raymond Williams and Paulo Freire’. Raymond Williams Discussion Group, Swansea University, 23 November 2015. -
'Devolutionary Identities', University of Mannheim, Germany., 13 Oct 2014 more
'Devolutionary Identities in Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales', Home and Homeland: Interdisciplinary and Comparative Perspectives, University of Mannheim, October 13 2014.
Grants
- Salman Rushdie’s Authorial Self- Positioning in his memoirs Joseph Anton and Knife (Scientific and Technological Research Council of Türkiye (TUBITAK), 01 Feb 2025). Awarded
- Writing and Wellbeing (BU QR Fund, 01 Nov 2024). Completed
- Autofiction and Cultural Memory (British Council, 14 Nov 2023). Completed
- Evaluating the Literary Components of Career Construction Theory (BU QR Fund., 01 Nov 2022). Completed
- Compatriots or Competitors? Welsh, Scottish, English and Northern Irish Writing and Brexit in Comparative Contexts. (BU Narrative, Culture and Community Research Centre (NCCR) Funding, 01 Nov 2021). Completed
- From Writer's Block to Extended Plot: Career Construction Theory and Lives in Writing (BU Open Access Fund, 01 Jun 2019). Completed
- ‘The Remains of the Day' and the Multicultural Trace. (BU QR Fund., 01 May 2017). Completed
- ‘From Tonka Beans to Magic Seeds: V.S. Naipaul’s Late Career Fiction of Self-Retrospect’. Seepersad and Sons: Naipaulian Creative Synergies. (BU QR Fund., 28 Oct 2015). Completed
- ‘Devolutionary Identities in Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales,’ Home and Homeland: Interdisciplinary and Comparative Perspectives. (University of Mannheim., 13 Oct 2014). Completed
- Fictions of Self-Retrospect (Société d’Etudes Anglaises Contemporaines (France)., 15 Feb 2013). Completed
- Raymond Williams, Cultural Materialism and the Break-Up of Britain (University of Glamorgan, 01 Oct 2003). Awarded
Public Engagement & Outreach Activities
- Write Your Future Self (01 Jun 2023-07 Jul 2023)
- Telling (My) Stories (02 Jan 2023-31 Mar 2023)
- Music for Rememberance (01 Nov 2014)
- 'The Music of Poetry: reading Britten's Intertexts' (01 Jun 2014)
- 'The Music of Poetry: Reading Britten's Intertexts' (01 Nov 2013)
Qualifications
- PhD in English (University of Glamorgan, 2006)
- MA in Literatures of Conflict (University of York, 2003)
- BA (Hons) in English (University of Cambridge, 2001)
Honours
- Raymond Williams Research Fellowship (University of Glamorgan, 2003)
Memberships
- MeCCSA, Member (2018-),
- Association for Welsh Writing in English, Member (2012-),
- American Comparative Literature Association, Member (2006-),