Dr Chris Pak

Research Highlights

1. Pak, C. (2021). Magic: The Gathering (Wizards of the Coast, 1993–Present) - Author and User in Evolving Worlds. Transmedia Cultures: A Companion (pp. 99-106). Peter Lang

   SU Repository: https://cronfa.swan.ac.uk/Record/cronfa56866

   https://www.peterlang.com/view/9781789971811/html/21_Magic__The_Gathering__Wizards_of.xhtml
2. Pak, C. (2016). Terraforming: Ecopolitical Transformations and Environmentalism in Science Fiction Liverpool University Press.

   https://doi.org/10.5949/liverpool/9781781382844.001.0001, SU Repository: https://cronfa.swan.ac.uk/Record/cronfa44462

   https://liverpool.universitypressscholarship.com/view/10.5949/liverpool/9781781382844.001.0001/upso-9781781382844
3. Sealey, A. & Pak, C. (2018). First catch your corpus: methodological challenges in constructing a thematic corpus. Corpora, 13(2), 229-254.

   https://doi.org/10.3366/cor.2018.0145, SU Repository: https://cronfa.swan.ac.uk/Record/cronfa44459
4. Pak, C. (2014). ‘All energy is borrowed’ – terraforming: a master motif for physical and cultural re(up)cycling in Kim Stanley Robinson’sMarsTrilogy. Green Letters, 18(1), 91-103.

   https://doi.org/10.1080/14688417.2014.890527, SU Repository: https://cronfa.swan.ac.uk/Record/cronfa44464
5. Pak, C. (2017). ‘The shadow of the future made all the difference’: sustainability in Kim Stanley Robinson's Science in the Capital trilogy. Literature and sustainability (pp. 159-176). Manchester University Press

   https://doi.org/10.2307/j.ctt1wn0s7q.15, SU Repository: https://cronfa.swan.ac.uk/Record/cronfa44468
6. Chris Pak, . & Pak, C. (2018). Terraforming and Geoengineering in Luna: New Moon, 2312, and Aurora. Science Fiction Studies, 45(3), 500-514.

   https://doi.org/10.5621/sciefictstud.45.3.0500, SU Repository: https://cronfa.swan.ac.uk/Record/cronfa51935
7. Pak, C. (2019). ‘It Is One Story’: Writing a Global Alternative History in Kim Stanley Robinson’s The Years of Rice and Salt. Sideways in Time: Alternate History and Counterfactual Narratives (pp. 54-70). Liverpool University Press

   SU Repository: https://cronfa.swan.ac.uk/Record/cronfa51934

   https://www.liverpooluniversitypress.co.uk/books/isbn/9781789624328/
8. Pak, C. (2017). “Then Came Pantropy”: Grotesque Bodies, Multispecies Flourishing, and Human-Animal Relationships in Joan Slonczewski's A Door Into Ocean. Science Fiction Studies, 44(1), 122

   https://doi.org/10.5621/sciefictstud.44.1.0122, SU Repository: https://cronfa.swan.ac.uk/Record/cronfa44461
9. Pak, C. (2015). ‘The goal of Martian economics is not “sustainable development” but a sustainable prosperity for its entire biosphere’: science fiction and the sustainability debate. Green Letters, 19(1), 36-49.

   https://doi.org/10.1080/14688417.2014.984316, SU Repository: https://cronfa.swan.ac.uk/Record/cronfa44463
10. Pak, C. (2011). 'A Fantastic Reflex of Itself, An Echo, A Symbol, A Myth, A Crazy Dream': Terraforming as Landscaping Nature's Otherness in H. G. Wells's The Shape of Things to Come and Olaf Stapledon's Last and First Men and Star Maker.

    SU Repository: https://cronfa.swan.ac.uk/Record/cronfa44466

All Research

• ''Am I Normal Yet?' Exploring Disability, Illness, and Normativity in Contemporary YA Fiction'.' (current)

  PhD

  Other supervisor: Prof Kirsti Bohata

• Using Creative Writing to Imagine and Explore a Sustainable, Optimistic Path into the Future«br /» «br /» (current)

  PhD

  Other supervisor: Dr Anne Lauppe-Dunbar

• Nature Versus Nurture and its Place in Writing Character (current)

  PhD

  Other supervisor: Dr Anne Lauppe-Dunbar

• Ink Slinger: exploring body art, tattooing, and alternative subcultures in contemporary literature (current)

  PhD

  Other supervisor: Dr Nicko Vaughan

• Hauntings in 21st Century Fiction (current)

  PhD

  Other supervisor: Dr Sarah Gamble

• Not just sheer pleasure: Critiquing animations and their scope in children's socialisation (awarded 2021)

  MPhil

  Other supervisor: Dr Alice Barnaby

• EN-100 Monsters, Theories, Transformations

  Literary works open up different meanings depending on the questions we ask them and the assumptions we bring to them. Literary meaning is in continual transformation. This module examines some of the ways in which this occurs through critical reading and intertextual revision. The first half of the module looks at two works, Mary Shelley's Frankenstein and Bram Stoker's Dracula, that have been plurally interpreted by critics; the second half of the module considers the transformation of narrative and ideology in the 'intertextual' revision of Charlotte Bronte's Jane Eyre by Jean Rhys's Wide Sargasso Sea. The course looks at how meaning in literature is transformed and how it transforms the ways in which we see the world.

• EN-120 English Essentials

  This is a skills-based module which will equip students with the technical and critical expertise that is necessary for their academic journey in English Literature and Creative Writing. It is designed to support the transition from post-16 study to undergraduate study and to show students *how* to become successful scholars of English. How should we read texts? How do we write essays? Focusing on an exciting anthology of texts selected by the English academics at Swansea, this team-taught module uncovers the power of written language. We will explore how writers inspire and challenge their readers, how to think critically, how to close-read, how to construct powerful arguments and how to produce written work that is rigorous, academic and convincing. This module empowers students to think, write, and persuade.

• EN-3031 Dissertation - English Literature

  The Dissertation is an optional, two-semester, 40-credit module designed to develop high-level academic skills and intellectual independence in the students. A first-semester skills-building programme will include: research skills, summary skills, bibliographic skills, ability to synthesise succinctly, planning and organisational skills, correct presentation of a thesis and bibliography, presentational skills and public speaking. Students conduct research on a subject of their choice, devised in consultation with a member of the English literature staff. The topic will be devised to fall within staff research and teaching specialisms, broadly defined. Students attend group sessions on research skills in Semesters 1 and 2, and have individual meetings with supervisors in Semester 2.

• EN-3055 Graphic Novel

  What are graphic novels, and how do they relate to their component terms, ¿graphic¿ and ¿novel¿? How do we read graphic novels? What are their antecedents, and how do contemporary works speak to the development of the form? Through an examination of two key texts, Bryan Talbot¿s Alice in Sunderland and Carol Swain¿s Gast, this module combines a focus on the literary and visual to equip students with the skills to analyse and understand how graphic novels signify, and how they explore and challenge a range of themes and ideas. In addition to an attention to form and the visual, students will apply critical and theoretical approaches to consider themes and concepts such as distinctions between ¿high¿ and ¿low¿ art, storytelling, identity, history and psycho-geography.

• EN-M31 Dissertation

  Individual project devised and defined in discussion between supervisor and student.

• EN-M41 Research Practice in English / Contemporary Writing / Welsh Writing in English

  Supervised project on research methodology in practice. Students build a detailed bibliographical plan for their MA dissertation project.

• EN-M80 Practising Ideas: Advanced Research Skills in English / Contemporary Writing / Welsh Writing in English

  This module is designed to introduce you to key practical and conceptual tools necessary for scholarship at Master¿s level and beyond. The aim is for you to gain the competencies and confidence to complete and enjoy the degree. In a seminar and occasional workshop format, you will practise a range of core professional research skills. You will be encouraged to reflect on your own learning and academic development to become a more independent and self-directed lifelong learner. You will produce a Portfolio of assessed work. These activities will support your work in other MA modules, particularly EN-M41 Research Practice and your EN-M31 Dissertation, while also equipping you with a set of transferable skills that are highly valued by many employers.

• MS-100 Introduction to Media Communication

  The module will consider approaches to the study of media and communication which focus variously on institutions, technologies, texts, audiences and policy issues. It will also introduce discussion of what power or powers are wielded through use of media in our culture The module builds to an examination of the effects of new media technologies on 'co-present' and interpersonal communication. The module provides a detailed consideration of media institutions, media 'texts' and media audiences. Here it will focus on issues surrounding the analysis of the power of media institutions; the interpreting or 'reading' of media 'texts'; the study of how media are used and interpreted by audiences/consumers; and attempts by the state and other policy agencies to use, control and censor the media. Finally, basic issues in the implications of the 'new media'/media convergence will be addressed. Please note, students are also expected to attend four film screenings.

• MS-M10 Dissertation or Project

  An innovative practice-based alternative to a Masters dissertation. Students are encouraged to develop projects across more than one area of media practice and to do so with dual supervision that embraces both theory and practice. Work produced should be at a professional level, accompanied by a reflective essay and presentation exploring the contextual, theoretical and practical issues raised by the project.

• MS-M11 MA Project and Dissertation Preparation

  This core module comprehensively prepares students for their Master¿s project or dissertation, which is an integral part of the requirements for the degree. It incorporates several key themes and issues across the communications, media practice and PR industries. It is a challenging, and stimulating module ¿ both for professional practitioners and those new to communications and media practice. The module encourages students to unite theory and practice in productive ways. It introduces students to a number of important research and project management methods essential for undertaking a successful project or dissertation.