Literary Landscapes: Emerging Academics
What connects climate crisis, poetics, and metafiction? Whose voices are contributing to the future of literary academia? Hear from some of UNSW’s English and Creative Writing PhD candidates about their research and the trajectory of literary studies.
This talk is a part of the five-part Literary Landscapes event series developed in collaboration with the UNSW Literary Provocations Hub. This is event three of five (with two more talks in June 2026) aiming to open dynamic social spaces literary engagement and learning.
About the speakers
Shaye Easton is a PhD candidate at the University of New South Wales, researching in the field of narratology. Her PhD thesis is centred on metalepsis—a metafictional literary device—where it intersects with the subject-object relationship in postmodern fiction. Recently, she was awarded the Alan Nadel Prize for the best graduate student essay at the 2025 Narrative Conference in Miami.
Xanthe Muston is a PhD candidate at the University of New South Wales whose research explores a transdisciplinary approach to the ways that narrative and narrative rhetoric is used to represent, communicate, debate the climate crisis in the networked public sphere. Recently, she co-authored a chapter about master narratives of adaptation in social media activism, to be published later this year in the Oxford Intersections: Climate Adaptation series. Xanthe is also an award-winning artist who has exhibited at the Mosman Art Gallery and is happy to be supported by Mosman Council in this new capacity.
Free event, bookings essential.
This talk is a part of the five-part Literary Landscapes event series developed in collaboration with the UNSW Literary Provocations Hub. This is event three of five (with two more talks in June 2026) aiming to open dynamic social spaces literary engagement and learning.
About the speakers
Shaye Easton is a PhD candidate at the University of New South Wales, researching in the field of narratology. Her PhD thesis is centred on metalepsis—a metafictional literary device—where it intersects with the subject-object relationship in postmodern fiction. Recently, she was awarded the Alan Nadel Prize for the best graduate student essay at the 2025 Narrative Conference in Miami.
Xanthe Muston is a PhD candidate at the University of New South Wales whose research explores a transdisciplinary approach to the ways that narrative and narrative rhetoric is used to represent, communicate, debate the climate crisis in the networked public sphere. Recently, she co-authored a chapter about master narratives of adaptation in social media activism, to be published later this year in the Oxford Intersections: Climate Adaptation series. Xanthe is also an award-winning artist who has exhibited at the Mosman Art Gallery and is happy to be supported by Mosman Council in this new capacity.
Free event, bookings essential.
Wednesday 27 May 2026 6:30 PM - 7:30 PM (UTC+10)
Location
Barry O'Keefe Library (Mosman)
Library Walk, 605 Military Road, Mosman NSW 2088
Contact Details