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Dr Helen Young

Dr Helen Young

BCA/BA (Hons I) Wollongong, PhD Sydney
ARC Discovery Early Career Researcher Award

Room N329, John Woolley Building A20
http://diversefictions.blogspot.com.au

My research focuses on issues around representations of power and cultural relations, with a particular focus on race and ethnicity. My PhD explored postcoloniality in Middle English romance. It employed modern postcolonial theory as a lens through which to examine ways in which ‘Englishness’ was constructed in vernacular literature. Since graduating in 2007 I have worked on several projects, including explorations of ways ‘England’ is portrayed in Anglo-Norman chronicles, the reception of Anglo-Norman in the modern era, and contemporary medievalism, particularly in fantasy literature. I have taught in Englsh and Communication, and worked as a researcher in education and nursing.

My current project, Imagining Diversity: Race and Ethnicity in Popular Fantasy, examines discourses of diversity and difference in fantasy literature, film, television, games, and in the fan cultures which revolve around them. How does fantasy engage with and represent issues and concepts such as cosmopolitanism, multiculturalism, and hybridity? How do audiences respond? The project approaches fantasy as an element of popular culture which offers space to both reproduce and reconstruct social norms and engage with real world issues.

Research Areas

  • Fantasy genre
  • Popular culture
  • Cultural diversity
  • Medievalism

Current Project

Imagining Diversity: Race and Ethnicity in Popular Fantasy (ARC DECRA 2012-2015)

Publications

Book
  • Young, Helen. Constructing ‘England’ in the Fourteenth Century: a Postcolonial Interpretation of Middle English Romance. Lewiston: Edwin Mellen, 2010.

Book Chapters

  • Young, Helen. “Diverse Lessons: Cosmopolitanism and Fantasy Fiction Inside and Outside the Classroom.” Education Without Borders: Diversity in a Cosmopolitan Society. Ed. Loshini Naidoo. New York: Novascience, 2010. 145-157.
  • Young, Helen. “Remembering, Forgetting, and Rewriting the Vikings in Guy of Warwick.” Viking and Their Enemies: Proceedings of Symposium, Melbourne 24 November 2008. Ed. Katrina Burge. Melbourne: Australian Early Medieval Association, 2008. 49-59.
  • Young, Helen. “Refusing the Medieval Other, and a case study of Pre-modern Nationalism and Postcoloniality in the Middle English St Erkenwald.” The Politics and Aesthetics of Refusal. Ed. Caroline Hamilton, Michelle Kelly, Elaine Minor, and Will Noonan. Newcastle: Cambridge Scholars Publishing. 2007. pp. 146-64.
Journal Articles
  • Young, Helen. “‘Des Gestes des Englays’: England and the English in Piers Langtoft’s chronicle.” Viator 42. 1 (2011), 309-328.
  • Young, Helen. “Diversity and Difference: Cosmopolitanism and Lord of the Rings.” Journal of the Fantastic in the Arts 21. 2 (2010): 351-365.
  • Young, Helen. “Correction to Translation of Piers Langtoft’s chronicle.” Notes and Queries 57.3 (2010): 320-321.
  • Young, Helen. “Approaches to Medievalism: A Consideration of Taxonomy and Methodology through Fantasy Fiction.” Parergon 27.1 (2010): 163-179.
  • Young, Helen. “Wodewoses: the (In)Humanity of Medieval Wild Men.” AUMLA: Journal of the Australian Universities Modern Language Association Special Issue (2009): 37-49.
  • Young, Helen. “Line 33 of St Erkenwald.” Notes and Queries 54. 2 (2007): 124-5.
  • Young, Helen. “Athelston and English Law: Plantagenet Practice and Anglo-Saxon Precedent.” Parergon 22. 1 (2005): 95-118.
  • Young, Helen. “‘Bi contray caryez this knyght’: Journeys of Colonisation in Sir Gawain and the Green Knight.” Philament 1 (2003). n.p. (online).
Co-authored articles
  • Reid, Carol, and Helen Young. “The New Compulsory Schooling Age in NSW, Australia: Ethnicity, Ability, and Gender Considerations.” Journal of Education Policy. Forthcoming. Published online 29 March, 2012.
    DOI: 10.1080/02680939.2012.664287
  • Johnson, Maree, and Helen Young. “The Application of Aronson’s Taxonomy to Medication Errors.” Journal of Nursing Care Quality. 26.2 (2011): 128-135.
  • Johnson, Maree, Duong Thuy Tran, and Helen Young. “Developing risk management behaviours for nurses through medication incident analysis.” International Journal of Nursing Practice. 17.6 (2011): 545-555.
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