Dr Claire Watt

I am an Early Career Researcher with a PhD in English from the University of Cambridge. My research focuses on performance, music and film studies, particularly in relation to modern and contemporary British and American literature. My PhD considered the influence of MTV music videos on 1980s US poetry, whilst my postdoctoral work has focused on the intersection of British literature, music and film. I have previously undertaken postdoctoral research fellowships at the University of London and the University of Leeds, working extensively with archives. I have published peer-reviewed research articles in academic journals such as Comparative Drama and English Studies in Africa. My chapter on social media paratexts is forthcoming in the Routledge Companion to Book Studies and my first academic monograph, The New York Poetry-Video Revolution, is forthcoming with Edinburgh University Press. My work is interdisciplinary and my interest in music videos led me to my current research on David Bowie. 

Recent publications

Watt, Claire, The New York Poetry-Video Revolution (forthcoming, Edinburgh University Press)

Watt, Claire, “We are actually here’: Refusing Erasure in Amiri Baraka’s Dutchman and ‘We Are Here’, English Studies in Africa 69.1 (2026), pp.46-58

Watt, Claire, “This is a woman’s trip’: Adapting Ntozake Shange’s for colored girls for stage and screen’, Comparative Drama 59.1 (2025), pp. 179-204

Watt, Claire, ‘Social Media as Paratext: The Cases of J. K. Rowling and Taylor Swift’, in The Routledge Companion to Book Studies (forthcoming, Routledge)