Dr Ria Cheyne Profile Page

• Associate of the Higher Education Academy
• Cultural Disability Studies Research Network
• International Network of Literary Disability Scholars

• MA (Hons) English Literature and Mathematics, University of Glasgow
• PhD in English Literature, Royal Holloway, University of London
• Postgraduate Certificate in Skills of Teaching to Inspire Learning, Royal Holloway, University of London

Ria Cheyne studied English Literature and Mathematics at the University of Glasgow where she was awarded the Lorimer Bursary (English Literature), the Dougall Prize (Mathematics), and the Henry Chalk Memorial Prize (Classical Civilisation).  Her doctoral research on science fiction was funded by the Thomas Holloway Research Studentship, and she spent the second year of her doctoral work at the University of California, Riverside.  In January 2007 she was awarded the Science Fiction Foundation Bursary to develop her research. 

Before joining Liverpool Hope University she taught at Liverpool John Moores University and Edge Hill University.  She has also worked part-time for several years supporting disabled students in higher education.  

Articles and Book Chapters

• “Touching the Other: Alien Contact and Transgressive Touch in Torchwood.” In lluminating Torchwood: Essays on Narrative, Character and Sexuality in the BBC Series.  Ed. Andrew Ireland. Jefferson, NC: McFarland, 2010.
• “Created Languages in Science Fiction.” Science Fiction Studies 35.3 (2008): 386-403.
• “Ursula K. Le Guin and Translation.” Extrapolation 47.3 (2006): 457-70.

• Forthcoming: Review of Sheri S. Tepper, The Margarets.  Foundation: The International Review of Science Fiction. 
• Forthcoming: Review of Istvan Csicsery-Ronay, Jr., The Seven Beauties of Science Fiction.  Foundation: The International Review of Science Fiction. 
• Forthcoming: “Literary, Cultural and Disability Studies: A Tripartite Approach to Postcolonialism.” Journal of Literary & Cultural Disability Studies.  Seminar report.
• “Literary, Cultural and Disability Studies: A Tripartite Approach to Poststructuralism.” Journal of Literary & Cultural Disability Studies 3.3 (2009): 295-98.  Seminar report.
• “Theorising Culture and Disability: Interdisciplinary Dialogues.” Journal of Literary & Cultural Disability Studies 3.1 (2009): 101-04.  Conference report/essay.
• Review of Michael Davidson, Concerto for the Left Hand: Disability and the Defamiliar Body.  Journal of Literary & Cultural Disability Studies 3.1 (2009): 105-06.
• “Rethinking Genre: The Politics of Cultural Form.”  Popular Narrative Media 1.2 (2008): 235–6. Conference report.

• “‘We are both maimed’: Disability and Trauma in Historical Romance.” Present Difference: The Cultural Production of Disability.  Manchester Metropolitan University, January 2010. 
• "'She was born a thing': Disability, the Cyborg and the Posthuman in Anne McCaffrey's The Ship Who Sang."  Present Difference: The Cultural Production of Disability.  Manchester Metropolitan University, January 2010. 
• “Voyages of Self-Transformation: Corporeal Change and the Journey.”  Eaton Science Fiction Conference, University of California, Riverside, May 2009.
• “Genre Fiction and Disability Theory.” Rethinking Genre: The Politics of Cultural Form, Royal Holloway, University of London, June 2008.
• “Genre, Disability and Science Fiction.”  National Popular Culture Association/American Culture Association Conference, San Francisco, California, March 2008.
• “Absence and the Alien: Conceptualising the Alien Other in Science Fiction.”  American Comparative Literature Association Conference, Princeton, New Jersey, March 2006.
• “Linguistic Science Fiction.”  World Science Fiction Convention (Academic Track), Glasgow, August 2005.
• “Ursula K. Le Guin and Translation.” Science Fiction Research Association Conference, Las Vegas, Nevada, June 2005.
• “Native Tongues?  Alien Languages and the Linguistics of Biology.”  Eaton Science Fiction Conference, Seattle, Washington, May 2005.

Presentations – Regional Conferences and Symposia

• “Alternative Corporealities: Disability and Science Fiction.”  Disability and Popular Fiction: Reading Representations, Liverpool John Moores University, May 2009.
• “Teaching Disability and the Internet.”  Disability and the Internet: Access, Mediation, Representation.  LJMU, December 2008.
• “Literary Disability: Why Genre Matters.” Cultural Locations of Disability: Situating a Cultural Disability Studies, University of Leeds, February 2008.