PhD in English, Michaelmas Term 2024 USN: 307032629
Kumar, Mr ANKIT Application Number: 10780076
Postgraduate Application Form
Postgraduate Admissions Office
Kumar, Mr ANKIT
Course PhD in English Date submitted 31 Dec 2023
Department Faculty of English Mode of study Full Time
Course start date 01 Oct 2024 (MT 2024) PUF No
Academic History
Oct 2020 - Feb 2023 Master of Arts in English 7.44 Lovely Professional University (India)
(Department of English) - All or
mostly part-time
Immigration Language
Nationality India (1st)
I am planning to book an approved language test and will
Country of birth India
provide the result when it is available.
Currently ordinarily India
resident
Visa Required
Visa type I do not currently have a UK visa
Scholarships
Apply for funding Yes
Apply for Cambridge Trust Yes
Apply for AHRC
Apply for Gates Cambridge No
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** Other university
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PhD in English, Michaelmas Term 2024 USN: 307032629
Kumar, Mr ANKIT Application Number: 10780076
Curriculum Vitae
resume ankit (1) (1) (1).pdf
Career Goals
978/1000 chars
Academic Job Support
The department’s job search advisor helps prepare students for the academic job market the year before they begin
applying for positions. The process involves group meetings and one-on-one consultations about job letters, dissertation
abstracts, and teaching and diversity statements. The Job Search Advisor also coordinates practice interviews and job
talks.
Of course, preparation for the academic job market begins much earlier. The graduate program is designed to prepare
students for all the opportunities and responsibilities of teaching and scholarship. Our pedagogy seminar acquaints
students with theories of pedagogy, while providing practical tools for instruction. Our Graduate Writing Seminar helps
students transition from writing seminar papers to publishable articles. Princeton’s Collaborative Teaching Initiative
encourages students to design and co-teach courses with faculty. Meanwhile, the department’s committee advising
structure.
Additional Information to Support Application
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Course Specific Questions
Core - Project title Literally criticism
English PhD - Research Area Criticism and Culture
Indication
Core - Research summary Basically, any type of criticism that examines the culture in which the work
was written could be defined as Cultural criticism.( Michelle Mclean, 2009) •
The practice of describing, interpreting and evaluating culture. (Morner &
Rausch, 1998) • Investigation of beliefs and assumptions we all hold in
common, contradictions and conflicts that exist in social groups. (Raidel
Martinez,2011). History: • Founded in1964, the field was first defined atthe
Centre for Contemporary Cultural Studiesof Birmingham University in London.
• Thisgraduate programtried toexpand therange of literary study beyond
traditionalapproaches to canonic literaturein order toexplore a broader
spectrum of historical,cultural and political issues. • The most influential
teacher: Raymond Williams (1921-1983), a Welsh socialist. Objectives: To
break down the boundary between highand low culture, and to dismantle
thehierarchy that the distinction implies. • To discover the (often political)
reasons why acertain kind of aesthetic product is morevalued than others. •
To understand the nature of social power as reflected in literary “texts”. • To
identify both the overt (open) and covert(hidden) values reflected in a cultural
practice. CHARACTERISTICS: • More descriptive and less evaluative. • More
interested in relating than rating culturalproducts and events. Theories: Mark
Bauerlein (What is Cultural Studies?) • There is no distinct formalist cultural
studies or historicist cultural studies, but only cultural studies. • It spansculture
at large , not this or that institutionally separated element of culture. • The
term “criticism” has a narrower extensionthan does “studies” admits. “Studies”
preserves a methodological openness that “criticism” closes. • Cultural
studies practise mingles methods from a variety of fields … Vincent B. Leitch
(Poststructuralist CulturalCritique) • A primary objective of cultural criticism
iscultural critique , which entailsinvestigation and assessment of ruling and
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PhD in English, Michaelmas Term 2024 USN: 307032629
Kumar, Mr ANKIT Application Number: 10780076
oppositional aspects: beliefs, categories, practices, etc. • Possesses a set of
commitment and criteria that enable it to engage in the enterprise of cultural
critique. Example of Critique: William Blake’s “The Chimney Sweeper”,
criticized by Camille Paglia : “ Sweep, sweep, sweep!” cried the wandering
crews seeking a day’s employment. But this tiny boy couldn’t even form the
word: weep.
Core - Research Proposal Provisional Title: Visual Perception and the Visual Imagination in the Poetry of
Jo Shapcott, Selima Hill and Lavinia Greenlaw In Edward Larrissy's Reading
Twentieth Century Poetry: The Language of Gender and Objects, only two
female poets, Marianne Moore and Sylvia Plath, are analysed in a study of
perception that spans from Ezra Pound to John Ashbery. More recent
criticism has similarly undervalued women poets' contribution to the scope of
the visual in contemporary poetry. Ian Gregson's study 'Post/Modernist
Rhythms and Voices'1 is indicative of the trend for exploring matters of voice
over vision in women's writing, particularly in the influx of criticism on dramatic
monologues,2 whilst even Deryn Rees-Jones' chapter on science and
objectivity in Consorting With Angels focuses on the quest for a gendered
writing self rather than the poets' interest in the mechanics of perception.3
This thesis aims to act as a corrective to this critical neglect, analysing the
poetry of Jo Shapcott, Selima Hill and Lavinia Greenlaw and the ways in
which they engage with contemporary theory on visual perception, the
relationship between 'eye' and 'I', and the gendered implications of observing
and being observed. This research will begin by exploring how each poet
represents the science of seeing, drawing on neurological studies such as
Oliver Sack's The Mind's Eyes to reveal areas of overlap between
contemporary visual theory and each poet's oeuvre. This chapter will argue
that Margaret Livingstone's assertion that 'the most primitive or necessary
visual information about a scene is found in luminance variations'5 finds its
counterpart in Greenlaw's Night Photograph and A World Where News
Travelled Slowly in which studies of light and radiance suggest an intense
focus upon the minutia of visual experience. Moreover, I will suggest that
Shapcott's Electroplating the Baby and Hill's The Accumulation of Small Acts
of Kindness utilise scientifically accurate portrayals of vision in order to
mediate between objectivity and a more destabilising surrealism, allowing
these poets to document both the physical world and the landscape of the
psyche. Chapter 2 will focus on the way these poets expand upon techniques
learned from Elizabeth Bishop, whose detached, 'objective' eye and capturing
of the 'mind-in-action'6 have been a defining influence on each poet's
presentation of vision. Like Bishop, Hill interrogates what Linda Anderson has
called the 'complicated rhetoric of seeing', 7 as well as similarly drawing on
the 'Surrealism of everyday life'8 to explore vision in relation to mental illness,
romantic relationships and memory. I will compare Hill's approach to that of
Greenlaw, who in Minsk eschews Bishop's surrealism in favour of her
forebears' examination of ' 'the blank space' where vision falters' and [...] the
eye's capacity for blurred or 'distorted' vision'.9 Greenlaw's awareness of the
limits of vision contrasts with Shapcott's approach in Of Mutability in which
shifting, uncertain perspectives become a form of liberation rather than
confinement, providing release from restrictive modes of looking at the world.
Chapter 3 will explore the ways these poets manipulate the gender/ power
relations implicated in looking and being observed. John Berger in Ways of
Seeing has commented that: A woman must continually watch herself[...]And
so she comes to consider the surveyor and the surveyed within her as the two
constituent yet always distinct elements of her identity as a woman.10 This
description is particularly relevant to Hill's collections 'The Accumulation...'
and Aeroplanes of the World in which notions of looking and being looked at
are entwined with anxieties regarding failed relationships and an unstable
sense of self. In contrast, I will argue that in Shapcott's poems 'I'm
Contemplated by a Portrait of a Divine' and 'Venus Observes Herself ', the
poet harnesses James A. Hefferman's notion that ekphrastic literature creates
'a dual between male and female gazes'11, creating a playful antagonism
between male and female modes of looking rather than allow for a single
objectifying 'male gaze'. Building from this discussion of gender and
ekphrasis, Chapter 4 will examine the 'visual imagination' of each poet by
viewing the poetry as engaged in a dialogue with painting and the visual arts.
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PhD in English, Michaelmas Term 2024 USN: 307032629
Kumar, Mr ANKIT Application Number: 10780076
An analysis of Hill's Portrait of my Lover as a Horse will explore Fiona
Sampson's assertion that the collection encapsulates 'the way that lovers see
the entire world through their beloved in order to reconfigure that world',12 an
assertion also relevant to Shapcott's animal and vegetable poems. Moreover,
this chapter will discuss the ways in which Greenlaw's research into Dutch
seventeenth-century painting has impacted her use of defamiliarising
techniques, as well as suggest that her interest in the art of Kazimir Malevich
has influenced the more abstract approach to visual perception seen in the
later collection The Casual Perfect. Finally, this thesis will consider the extent
to which these poets undertake a literal interpretation of Adrienne Rich's
concept of 'Re-Vision'. Rather than simply revising myths about womanhood,
these poets use the 'transformative power of metaphor'13 to suggest new
modes of vision, particularly evident in Shapcott's mad cow poems and those
in which she inhabits the bodies of classical female figures. This chapter will
argue that Hill's distinctive metaphors can be illuminated by Wittgenstein's
theories on aspect perception and 'seeing as' in the Philosophical
Investigations, whilst suggesting that Greenlaw's use of 'inverse metaphor'
becomes a means of articulating a Wittgensteinian scepticism regarding the
ways in which language 'always turns away from what it represents'. 14 This
research thus aims to undermine the trend for dismissing both the importance
of vision in contemporary women's poetry and their poetic output in general.
Arian Rice has described the poems in Shapcott's My Life Asleep as 'slight
and occasional, even workshop- ish',15 whilst criticism of Hill has often failed
to look beyond a superficial concern with playful juxtaposition to engage with
the what she has called her "ruthlessly accurate"16 vision. In Consorting With
Angels, Rees-Jones places Hill in the chapter 'Myth, Fairytale and Feminism
after the Women's Movement' rather than considering her alongside
Shapcott's and Greenlaw in a discussion of 'Science, Nature, Femininity and
the Poetic Process'; a categorisation mirrored by Sampson in Beyond the
Lyric who sees Hill as a poet of 'Post- surrealism and Deep Play' rather than
the 'Expanded Lyric' of Greenlaw. This thesis aims to reverse the tendency to
see Hill as a poet divorced from the concerns of her contemporaries, using
close-readings from each of these poet's collections to reveal their prolonged
interrogation of 'objective' and 'subjective' ways of seeing, the relationship
between visual art and the physical world, and the language used to
document visual perception.
Sample of work (max. 5) -research-proposal.pdf
English - PhD Supervisor None
Core - Research experience
Application Information
Academic Awards
No awards entered
Employment History
May 2023 - Dec 2023 Trainer White stone pvt ltd (Kashipur
uttarakhand, India)
Dec 2023 - Trainer Planet overseas (Kashipur, India)
Other Applications Made
No other applications entered
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PhD in English, Michaelmas Term 2024 USN: 307032629
Kumar, Mr ANKIT Application Number: 10780076
Personal Information
Identifying Information
Full name Kumar, Mr ANKIT Date of birth 10 Jul 1995
Previous name Legal gender Male
Contact
Skype address Vpo Uchana Near Karan Lake Karnal
Contact address Vpo Uchana Near Karan Lake Karnal, Home address Same as contact address
Karnal, Karnal, Haryana, 132001, Valid until
India
Valid until
Dependants
Partner WILL NOT bring partner Child WILL NOT bring children
Disability
Disability No
Further information
Adjustment for Interview
Adjustment required No
Details
College Preferences Current Membership
College No College preference College Not College member
Visa Requirement
Visa type I do not currently have a UK visa
Study Visas
Applicant previously HAS NOT STUDIED in the UK
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PhD in English, Michaelmas Term 2024 USN: 307032629
Kumar, Mr ANKIT Application Number: 10780076
Funding Application
Cambridge Trust
You will automatically be considered by the Trust for any awards for which you are eligible.
No identified awards.
Gates Cambridge Scholarships (Overseas)
Apply for Gates Cambridge No
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Harding Scholarship
Based on the information you have provided, you are eligible to apply for these awards.
Harding Distinguished Postgraduate Scholars Programme
You have applied for Harding Distinguished Postgraduate Scholars Programme
Mastercard Foundation
You have not applied for any funding in this section
UKRI
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Department Funding
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Stephen Toope Studentship
There is no direct application to this funding. Departments will nominate their preferred candidate. Please speak to your
department.
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PhD in English, Michaelmas Term 2024 USN: 307032629
Kumar, Mr ANKIT Application Number: 10780076
College Funding
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Professors C H Lee & M Perutz Studentship in Applied Medical Biotechnology
Applications must be made online at https://www.pet.cam.ac.uk/graduate-studentships-competition. Applications and all
supporting documents must be received by 5pm on Friday 5 January. Successful candidates are informed by 9 April and
take up their awards at the beginning of the academic year.
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take up their awards at the beginning of the academic year.
Wolfson College & Rowan Williams Cambridge Studentship
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To be considered for this studentship, applicants should complete and return a separate application form to the Trust,
which has been designed to assist the Trust in the identification of eligible candidates. The Rowan Williams Cambridge
Studentship application form is available at https://www.cambridgetrust.org/our-scholarships/highlighted-
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PhD in English, Michaelmas Term 2024 USN: 307032629
Kumar, Mr ANKIT Application Number: 10780076
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Ethnicity Asian - Indian or Indian British Sexual Orientation Prefer not to say
Religion/Belief Hindu
Secondary Education
2nd Education No Care Leaver
Postcode at 17 Caring Responsibilities
Free Meals Parents HE
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Start/Expiry date 07 Sep 2018 / 06 Sep 2028
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