Dr Kim Salmons

Head of the School of Liberal and Creative Arts and Associate Professor English Literature

Email: kim.salmons@stmarys.ac.uk
Tel: 020 8240 4199

Biography

Dr Kim Salmons is an Associate Professor in Modern Literature, gaining her PhD from the University of Surrey in 2015 on ‘The Representation of Food in Modern Literature: Thomas Hardy and Joseph Conrad’. She has published two monographs on Hardy and Conrad (Palgrave, 2017) and has co-edited a volume on Migration, Modernity and Transnationalism in Conrad's fiction (Bloomsbury, 2021). Kim is the Co-Director of the Conrad Study Centre at St Mary's, while also teaching on the English Literature and Liberal Arts programmes.

Kim is committed to promoting the importance and centrality of the Liberal and Creative Arts at St Mary’s and has organised numerous events such as the ‘Festival of the Arts and Humanities’ in March 2020; ‘The Spice of Life’ event in November 2020 as part of the Being Human Festival, funded by the School of Advanced Study; and the recent FEAST event - a collaboration with the Bakhita Centre - part-funded by Richmond Arts Services, which featured as one of the main events of the Richmond Arts & Ideas Festival (2023) and combined the language of food with narratives of migration.

Kim is dedicated to promoting St Mary's University and the new School of Liberal and Creative Arts as centres of heritage, culture and artistic endeavour, developing the reputation of its academic and professional expertise through public engagement and outreach. The vision of the new School is to position the arts as central to the development of the whole student while equipping graduates with skills relevant to a modern, technological world through cross-faculty and industry collaboration.

Academic spotlight

I think all lecturers look forward to seeing their students celebrate their amazing achievement. It’s wonderful to see the students’ hard work pay off and gives lecturers a huge sense of satisfaction.

Read the full interview

Research

Research profile

Kim is the Conference Secretary for the Joseph Conrad Society (UK) and the Book Review Editor for Joseph Conrad Today, the journal of the Joseph Conrad Society of America. She is also the author of two monographs: Food in the Novels of Joseph Conrad: Eating as Narrative (Palgrave 2017) and Food in the Novels of Thomas Hardy: Production and Consumption (Palgrave 2017). She has recently co-edited the volume of essays, Migration, Modernity and Transnationalism in the works of Joseph Conrad (Bloomsbury, 2021). Her current research is an investigation into the influence of Conrad’s Catholic Heritage on his fiction.

Monographs

Food in the Novels of Joseph Conrad: Eating as Narrative. Published by Palgrave MacMillan, July 2017.
Food in the Novels of Thomas Hardy: Production and Consumption. Published by Palgrave MacMillan, September 2017.

Edited Collections

Migration, Modernity and Transnationalism in the Works of Joseph Conrad. Co-edited by Kim Salmons and Tania Zulli. London: Bloomsbury, 2021.

Chapters in collected editions

‘Queer Foreign Fish: Food and Migration in Almayer’s Folly and The Secret Agent’ in Migration, Modernity and Transnationalism in the Works of Joseph Conrad. Co-edited by Kim Salmons and Tania Zulli. London: Bloomsbury, 2021.
‘Coffee, Biscuits and Fruit Pies: Hierarchies of Food in Joseph Conrad’s The Nigger of the ‘Narcissu’s: A Tale of the Forecastle in Transgressive Appetites: Deviant Food Practices in Victorian Literature and Culture. Edited by Silvia Antosa, Mariaconcetta Costantini, Emanuela Ettore. Milan: Mimesis/Anglosophia, 2021.
‘Taste in the Modern Novel’ in Affecting Tastes: Atmospheres that Shape How We Eat. London: Routledge, April 2018

Journal articles

'Jam Puffs and White Bread: Habits of Eating and Othering in George Eliot’s The Mill on the Floss and Joseph Conrad’s ‘Amy Foster’ in English Studies Journal, RSV Vol. 49 (June 2020).
‘Cannibalism and The Greely Arctic Expedition: A New Source for Conrad’s “Falk”.’ Published in Short Story Criticism 189 (2014). Edited by Lawrence J. Trudeau. Farmington Hills MI: Gale, Cengage Learning.
‘Anarchic Appetites: Vegetarianism in The Secret Agent’ in The Conradian, 37.2, Autumn 2012.
‘Cannibalism and The Greely Expedition: A New Source for Conrad’s “Falk”.’ Published in The Conradian, Spring 2011, 36.1

Conference and Seminar Papers

September 2021: ‘Kurtz and the Gift from God: The End of St Paul’s ‘Charism’ and the Rise of Secular Charismatic Leadership in Joseph Conrad’s “Heart of Darkness”.’ PAN Conference, Joseph Conrad Society of France, Paris.
March 2021: ‘Joseph Conrad and the Carmelites: Faith, Food and Imagination in "Amy Foster”.’ St Mary’s Research Webinar.
June 2020: “‘Queer Foreign Fish’: Food and Migration in Joseph Conrad’s Almayer’s Folly & The Secret Agent.” St Mary’s Research Webinar:
February 2020: ‘A Taste of Literature’, St Mary’s Research Seminar Series, St Mary’s University.
November 2019: ‘Jam Puffs and White Bread: Habits of Eating and Othering in George Eliot’s The Mill on the Floss and Joseph Conrad’s ‘Amy Foster’. CUSVE Victorian Studies Conference, D’Annunzio University, Chieti, Italy.
October 2019: ‘”Without phosphorus, no thought": The importance of a good diet in “Amy Foster”’. Foodways and Identity Conference, Denmark.
February 2019: ‘Food in Literature’ talk at The Exchange Twickenham.
July 2018: ‘Without Phosphorus, No Thought’: The Importance of a Healthy Diet in Joseph Conrad’s “Amy Foster”.’ JC International Conference Writtle University.
November 2017: ‘Coffee, Biscuits and Fruit Pies: Hierarchies of Food in Joseph Conrad’s The Nigger of the “Narcissus”.’ Transgressive Appetites Conference, Chieti Pescara University, Italy.
July 2016: ‘“Railway Time”: Representations of the Train in the Early Fiction of Joseph Conrad’. Joseph Conrad International Conference, Edinburgh Napier University.
March 2016: ‘“FEAST”: Modern day Slavery at St Mary’s University, Twickenham
July 2015: ‘Food as Cultural Narrative in Joseph Conrad’s Almayer’s Folly. International Conference of the Joseph Conrad Society, UK, held at POSK, London.
June 2015: ‘Coffee, Tea and Biscuits: Hierarchies of Food in Joseph Conrad’s The Nigger of the ‘Narcissus’’ at ‘Eating as Narrative’ conference at King’s College, University of London.
April 2015: ‘The Rise and Fall of the Corn King: Thomas Hardy’s The Mayor of Casterbridge’ at ‘Digesting Modernity: An Interdisciplinary Study of Food’ held at St Mary’s University.
May 2014: ‘Funeral Baked Meats: The Coffin Pie in Hamlet and Ulysses at ‘Tasting Modernism’ Conference, Leuven University, Belgium.
July 2013: ‘The Three Culinary Lives of Joseph Conrad’ at the International Conference of the Joseph Conrad Society, UK, held at University of Roma, Italy.
July 2013: ‘The Three Culinary Lives of Joseph Conrad’ at the International Conference of the Joseph Conrad Society, UK, held at University of Roma, Italy.
July 2012: ‘An Insubstantial Diet: Bread and Liberty in Joseph Conrad’s Under Western Eyes at the International Conference of the Joseph Conrad Society, UK, held at Bath Spa University, Bath, UK
July 2011: ‘Cannibalism and The Greely Arctic Expedition: A New Source for Conrad’s “Falk”’ at the International Conference of the Joseph Conrad Society, UK, held at University of Versailles, Paris.
July 2010: POSK ‘Anarchic Appetites: Vegetarianism in Joseph Conrad’s The Secret Agent’ at the International Conference of the Joseph Conrad Society, UK, held at POSK, London

Academic reviews

Virginia Woolf and The Politics of Language in The Virginia Woolf Bulletin of Great Britain, Issue No. 36, January 2011
Review of Virginia Woolf, Fashion and Literary Modernity by R. S. Koppen in The Virginia Woolf Bulletin of Great Britain, Issue No. 35, September 2010
Virginia Woolf’s Bloomsbury, Vol 2 in The Virginia Woolf Bulletin of Great Britain, Issue No. 35, September 2010.
Numerous TV and Radio Previews in the Observer Newspaper; Article on ‘The Brilliant Club’ in the Times August 2013.

Academic conference papers

July 2018: ‘“Without Phosphorus, there is no thought”: The Importance of a Good Diet in ‘Amy Foster’”. Joseph Conrad International Conference, Writtle University College, Chelmsford
November 2017: ‘Coffee, Tea and Biscuits: Hierarchies of Food in Joseph Conrad’s The Nigger of the ‘Narcissus’’ at ‘Transgressive Appetites’ conference at Chieti University, Pescara Italy.

Conferences organised

May 2021 TEDxStMarysUniversityTwickenham.
November 2020 ‘The Spice of Life: Discovering New Worlds through Taste’ Being Human Festival funded by School of Advanced Study.
July 2020 Joseph Conrad International Conference On-line via St Mary’s webinar.
March 2020 Festival of Humanities and Liberal Arts, St Mary’s University.
July 2019 Joseph Conrad International Conference at St Mary’s University, Twickenham.
July 2018 Joseph Conrad International Conference at Writtle University, Essex.
March 2016 ‘“FEAST”’: Modern Day Slavery in the Food Supply Chain’ St Mary’s University, Twickenham, London.
April 2015. ‘Digesting Modernity: An Interdisciplinary Study of Food’ held at St Mary’s University. The conference was one day and included speakers from Italy, France, Ireland and Liverpool. Funding of £1400 was secured through the A&H Research and Funding Committee, St Mary University.
PRIZES
- Winner of the Horace Walpole Prize for Innovation and Research, for a research project on embedding academic skills into the Arts and Humanities curriculum, St Mary’s University, London, (2011) £250
- Juliet McLaughlin Essay Prize awarded by the Joseph Conrad Society of Great Britain for the paper, ‘Anarchic Appetites: Vegetarianism in The Secret Agent’ (2011): £200
- Early Career Research Prize awarded by St Mary’s University for the paper, ‘Anarchic Appetites: Vegetarianism in The Secret Agent’ (2013): £1000

Media enquiries

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