I joined Stirling in January 2019 as Lecturer in French and Francophone Studies, having previously taught at Durham and Warwick. My research examines textual responses to violence and instability in the Francophone world. Primarily this work is concerned with how writers of fiction explore the contexts and aftermaths of different kinds of extreme events. The novels I look at deal with colonialism, dictatorship, epidemics, conflict and genocide. I am especially interested in depictions of survival, and how we might understand notions of vulnerability and strength against pervasive discourses of resilience. These questions come together in my current project on débrouillardise (a kind of wily resourcefulness) in postcolonial novels.
The other main branch of my research is in written testimonies. I study personal stories that emerge from experiences of disaster and the process of constructing those narratives in its wake. From 2016-2018 I worked on an AHRC-funded project called Rwandan Stories of Change. I collated and researched stories of people who lived through the Genocide against the Tutsi, focusing on themes of community, recovery and growth. These are published in a volume of translated testimonies After the Genocide in Rwanda (I.B.Tauris, 2019). I am especially interested in how testimonies are embedded in multiple overlapping narratives that are social, cultural and political. This exploration of interrelating discourses was the basis of Rwanda since 1994: Stories of Change (Liverpool University Press, 2019), a volume of interdisciplinary essays on Rwanda’s transformations over the past 25 years.
I teach across all years of our undergraduate programme at Stirling, acting as module coordinator for FREU9A1, FREU9A2, FREU9CT and LANU9LE. I am a co-director of Postcolonial Studies at Stirling and a member of the Extreme Events research programme. Beyond the university, I sit on the organising committees for two international research groups: Resilio and RwandaMap 2020.
Francophone African fiction; postcolonial studies; conflict & crisis; migration; testimony; memory studies.
Article
Room to Manoeuvre: Moving Beyond the Grotesque in Tierno Monénembo's Convivial Space
Grayson H (2020) Room to Manoeuvre: Moving Beyond the Grotesque in Tierno Monénembo's Convivial Space. Irish Journal of French Studies, 20 (1), pp. 98-123. https://doi.org/10.7173/164913320830841728
Conference Proceeding
Violences, stratégies adaptatives et résiliences: le cas du Rwanda
Grayson H (2020) Violences, stratégies adaptatives et résiliences: le cas du Rwanda. In: Mazurek H (ed.) Pratiques Basées sur la Résilience. AMU, IRD, LPED. 4ème Congrès Mondial sur la Résilience, Marseille, France, 28.06.2018-30.06.2018. Marseille, France: Aix Marseille Université, pp. 141-147. https://hal.archives-ouvertes.fr/hal-02465380/document
Edited Book
After the Genocide in Rwanda: Testimonies of Violence, Change and Reconciliation
Grayson H, Hitchcott N, Blackie L & Joseph S (eds.) (2019) After the Genocide in Rwanda: Testimonies of Violence, Change and Reconciliation. London: Bloomsbury Publishing. https://www.bloomsbury.com/uk/after-the-genocide-in-rwanda-9781788318280/
Edited Book
Rwanda Since 1994: Stories of Change
Grayson H & Hitchcott N (eds.) (2019) Rwanda Since 1994: Stories of Change. Francophone Postcolonial Studies, 10. Liverpool: Liverpool University Press. https://www.liverpooluniversitypress.co.uk/books/id/51708/
Book Chapter
Grayson H, Hitchcott N, Blackie L & Joseph S (2019) Introduction. In: Grayson H, Hitchcott N, Blackie L & Joseph S (eds.) After the Genocide in Rwanda: Testimonies of Violence, Change and Reconciliation. London: I.B. Tauris, pp. 1-26. https://www.bloomsbury.com/uk/after-the-genocide-in-rwanda-9781788318280/
Authored Book
Grayson H & Hitchcott N (2019) Rwanda since 1994. Francophone Postcolonial Studies, 10. Liverpool: Liverpool University Press.
Book Chapter
Introduction: Fictions of African Dictatorship
Baker C & Grayson H (2018) Introduction: Fictions of African Dictatorship. In: Baker C & Grayson H (eds.) Fictions of African Dictatorship: Cultural Representations of Postcolonial Power. Race and Resistance Across Borders in the Long Twentieth Century, 4. Berlin: Peter Lang International Academic Publishers, pp. 1-10. https://doi.org/10.3726/b11381
Edited Book
Fictions of African Dictatorship: Cultural Representations of Postcolonial Power
Grayson H & Baker C (eds.) (2018) Fictions of African Dictatorship: Cultural Representations of Postcolonial Power. Race and Resistance Across Borders in the Long Twentieth Century, Volume 4. Oxford, Bern, Berlin, Bruxelles, New York, Wien: Peter Lang. https://www.peterlang.com/view/title/61975
Article
Articulating Growth in Rwandan Terms: Adapting the Posttraumatic Growth Inventory
Grayson H (2018) Articulating Growth in Rwandan Terms: Adapting the Posttraumatic Growth Inventory. Studies in Testimony, 1 (1), pp. 4-30. https://studiesintestimony.co.uk/issues/volume-one-issue-one/articulating-growth-in-rwandan-terms/
Article
Digital Archives in a Changing Rwanda
Grayson H & Rukesha P (2018) Digital Archives in a Changing Rwanda. African Research and Documentation, 131, pp. 15-23. https://scolma.org/african-research-and-documentation-131-2017-contents/
Article
The Movers of the Text: Monénembo’s nomad subjects
Grayson H (2018) The Movers of the Text: Monénembo’s nomad subjects. Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies, 81 (3), pp. 513-531. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0041977X18001039
Article
The Space of dictatorship: Monénembo, hidden transcripts, and a metonymy of violence
Grayson H (2018) The Space of dictatorship: Monénembo, hidden transcripts, and a metonymy of violence. Research in African Literatures, 49 (3), pp. 153-177. https://doi.org/10.2979/reseafrilite.49.3.10
Article
A place for individuals: positive growth in Rwanda
Grayson H (2017) A place for individuals: positive growth in Rwanda. Eastern African Literary and Cultural Studies, 3 (2-4), pp. 107-130. https://doi.org/10.1080/23277408.2017.1374052