Biography
Prior to coming to King’s in 2016, Justine was a Leverhulme Early Career Fellow at the University of Oxford, researching contemporary African, Caribbean, and ancient Greek poetics. She had previously held postdoctoral fellowships at Northwestern University in Illinois and at the Archive of Performances of Greek and Roman Drama (APGRD) at Oxford. She has a BA in Classics from Cambridge, an MPhil in English Literature from Bristol, and a PhD from Royal Holloway, University of London.
She is author of Black Odysseys: The Homeric Odyssey in the African Diaspora since 1939 (OUP, 2013), Derek Walcott and the Creation of a Classical Caribbean (Bloomsbury, forthcoming 2023) and, with Fiona Macintosh, Performing Epic or Telling Tales (OUP, 2020). She has also co-edited four volumes: Ancient Slavery and Abolition: From Hobbes to Hollywood (OUP, 2011), The Oxford Handbook of Greek Drama in the Americas (OUP, 2015), Ancient Greek Myth in World Fiction since 1989 (Bloomsbury, 2016), and Epic Performances from the Middle Ages into the Twenty-First Century (OUP, 2018).
Selected Publications:
- Performing Epic or Telling Tales. Co-authored with Fiona Macintosh. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2020.
- ‘Myth and the Fantastic in the Work of Junot Díaz’, in Ian Moyer, Adam Lecznar, and Heidi Morse (eds.), Classicisms in the Black Atlantic. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2020: 241-265.
- ‘Postcolonial Sparagmos: Toni Morrison’s Sula and Wole Soyinka’s The Bacchae of Euripides: A Communion Rite’, Classical Receptions Journal 8.2 (June 2016): 133-154.
- The Oxford Handbook of Greek Drama in the Americas. Co-edited with Kathryn Bosher, Fiona Macintosh, and Patrice Rankine. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2015.
- Black Odysseys: The Homeric Odyssey in the African Diaspora since 1939. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2013.
Teaching
Justine teaches on the theories and methods of Comparative Literature, Classical Reception, and Postcolonial Literatures, as well as on myth, canonicity, and performance.
Expertise and Public Engagement
Justine has worked with the Almeida Theatre as an Academic Consultant, given pre-theatre talks at the National Theatre and Chicago’s Vintage Theatre Collective, and taken part in a post-show discussion at Southwark Playhouse. She has also curated poetry events featuring artists such as Kae Tempest, Caleb Femi, and Caroline Bird, and appeared in a BBC Radio 4 documentary on literary canons and culture wars.
Research interests
- Caribbean literature
- Classical Reception studies
- Epic and orality
- Performance
- Postcolonial theory
Justine’s research focuses on Caribbean and African diaspora literature of the twentieth- and twenty-first centuries, on ancient Greek literature, and on the interconnections between the two. She is particularly interested in the syncretisation of myth and modes of storytelling and in the way classical literature has often been appropriated as a tool of resistance by writers. She also works on the performance reception of Graeco-Roman epic across a wide range of media, including theatre, film, and spoken word. Justine is happy to discuss PhD proposals relating to any of her areas of interest.
For more details, please see Justine's full research profile.
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McConnell, J., 22 Dec 2021, In: CLASSICAL REVIEW. 72.1, p. 318-320 Research output: Contribution to journal › Book/Film/Article review › peer-review
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McConnell, J., 1 Jan 2021, Caribbean Literature in Transition, 1970-2020. Cummings, R. & Donnell, A. (eds.). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press., p. 132-147 Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceeding › Chapter › peer-review
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McConnell, J., 7 Sep 2020, Handbook of Anglophone World Literatures. Helgesson, S., Neumann, B. & Rippl, G. (eds.). Berlin/Boston: DeGruyter, p. 175-191 Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceeding › Chapter › peer-review
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McConnell, J., 9 Jan 2020, Greeks and Romans on the Latin American Stage. Andújar, R. & Nikoloutsos, K. P. (eds.). London: Bloomsbury, p. 171-183 Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceeding › Chapter › peer-review
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McConnell, J., 21 Jan 2020, Classicisms in the Black Atlantic. Moyer, I., Lecznar, A. & Morse, H. (eds.). Oxford Univerity Press; Oxford, (Classical Presences). Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceeding › Chapter › peer-review
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Macintosh, F. & McConnell, J., Feb 2020, Oxford University Press. 176 p. Research output: Book/Report › Book. DOIs: https://doi.org/10.1093/oso/9780198846581.001.0001
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McConnell, J., 7 Apr 2019, In: Classics for All Reading Room. Research output: Contribution to journal › Book/Film/Article review
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McConnell, J., 26 Apr 2018 Research output: Other contribution
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McConnell, J., 1 Nov 2018, Epic Performances from the Middle Ages into the Twenty-First Century. Oxford Univerity Press; Oxford, p. 404-417 Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceeding › Chapter › peer-review
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Macintosh, F. (ed.), McConnell, J. (ed.), Harrison, S. (ed.) & Kenward, C. (ed.), 1 Nov 2018, Oxford Univerity Press; Oxford. Research output: Book/Report › Book › peer-review