Projects per year
Personal profile
Research Interests
Margaret Topping is Professor of French Literary and Visual Cultures. She completed her undergraduate and postgraduate studies at Oxford University, gaining a Joint Honours degree in French and Spanish (1994), an M.St. (1995), and a D.Phil. (1998). She has previously taught at Oxford University, the University of Wales Bangor, and Cardiff University. She joined Modern Languages at Queen's in 2011.
Her research trajectory has developed from an early disciplinary focus on one of France's canonical writers, Marcel Proust, to a firmly interdisciplinary approach to debates linked to travel, tourism and migration, and to the ethics and aesthetics of cross-cultural representation. Particular focal points are the ethical role and responsibilities of public spaces such as museums and archives in negotiating diversity, as well as the possibilities for creating enhanced connectivity, cohesion and social wellbeing in post-conflict or postcolonial societies through community-based initiatives such as cultural festivals or urban art projects. Increasingly, what unites and drives her research interests is a passion to communicate better the public value of the arts and humanities.
Current research includes an AHRC-funded project with Dr Michael Pierse (ICRH) on urban cultural festivals with a particular emphasis on Féile an Phobail (www.qub.ac.uk/sites/FeileBelfastHistory). With Dr Ros Silvester (French, QUB) and Dr Isabel Hollis (ICRH), she also coordinates a research network on Mobilities: Cultural Exchange Beyond Borders (http://blogs.qub.ac.uk/mobilities/), and is co-editor with Dr Rachael Langford (Cardiff University) and Dr Giuliana Pieri (RHUL) of the University of Wales Press series, Studies in Visual Culture. She is also a member of the editorial board for the journals Studies in European Cinema and Assuming Gender.
External roles include her Executive Board membership of the Irish Humanities Alliance (www.irishhumanities.ie) her position as Honorary Treasurer for the Association of University Professors and Heads of French (www.auphf.ac.uk), and her role on the Executive Committee for the Society for French Studies (www.sfs.ac.uk) which includes a particular responsbility for chairing the international panel which awards the prestigious Malcolm Bowie Prize.
Margaret Topping is currently lead or co-supervisor for eight PhD students, one of whom is undertaking an AHRC Collaborative Doctoral Studentship with the Public Record Office of Northern Ireland (www.proni.gov.uk). In her role as Dean of the Graduate School, she is closely involved in research and good practice networks on postgraduate education and research, including the UK Council for Graduate Education's (www.ukcge.ac.uk) Directors and Deans of Graduate Schools group.
Expertise related to UN Sustainable Development Goals
In 2015, UN member states agreed to 17 global Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) to end poverty, protect the planet and ensure prosperity for all. This person’s work contributes towards the following SDG(s):
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- 1 Similar Profiles
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R6565MOL: Supporting Pioneer doctoral Researchers through 3i Knowledge partnerships
Topping, M. (PI)
08/05/2017 → …
Project: Research
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R1283MOL: Phototextual journeys: Francophone travel literature and the photographic gaze
Topping, M. (PI)
01/08/2010 → …
Project: Research
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R1794AEL: The Féile Journey at 30: Translating Culture through Community Festivals
Mac Ionnrachtaigh, F. (PI), Pierse, M. (CoI) & Topping, M. (CoI)
05/09/2017 → 30/11/2018
Project: Research
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R1454MOL: From Dark Tourism to Phoenix Tourism: The Ethics of Cultural Translation in Urban Festivals
Topping, M. (PI), Ell, P. S. (CoI) & Pierse, M. (CoI)
05/09/2014 → 01/05/2017
Project: Research
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R1416MLA: Collaborative Doctoral Awards - Preserving the Past, Transforming the Future: Ethics and the Archive in a Post-Conflict Society
Topping, M. (PI)
15/04/2014 → 30/09/2017
Project: Research
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Exploding myths of female desire for the twenty-first century: the bacchantes of Euripides, Proust, and Minard
Topping, M., 18 Oct 2023, (Early online date) In: Women's Studies: an interdisciplinary journal. 17 p.Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review
Open AccessFile60 Downloads (Pure) -
Fighting Food Poverty through Film: Or Why Global Challenge Research Needs the Arts and Humanities
Topping, M., 17 Sept 2020, In: Humanities. 9, 3, 26 p., 114.Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review
Open AccessFile1 Citation (Scopus)116 Downloads (Pure) -
Phototextual Journeys: Ethics and Aesthetics
Topping, M., Jun 2020, (Submitted) Routledge.Research output: Book/Report › Book
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Fighting Food Poverty through Film: The Case of Agnès Varda
Topping, M., 2019, (Submitted) In: Environmental Humanities .Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review
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Seeing
Topping, M., 14 Jul 2019, The Routledge Research Companion to Travel Writing. Pettinger, A. & Youngs, T. (eds.). London: Routledge, p. 193-207 15 p.Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceeding › Chapter (peer-reviewed) › peer-review
Prizes
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Following award of Fellowship to the Chartered Management Institute, I was nominated as, and awarded the status of, Companion to the CMI
Topping, M. (Recipient), 2018
Prize: Fellowship awarded competitively
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Higher Education Academy, TechDis HEAT scheme for projects related to curriculum accessibility
Topping, M. (Recipient), 2007
Prize: Prize (including medals and awards)
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Stakeholder of the Year - Social Enterprise NI Annual Awards
Topping, M. (Recipient), 2019
Prize: Prize (including medals and awards)
Activities
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Ministry of Education
Topping, M. (Visitor)
Dec 2020Activity: Visiting an external institution types › Visiting an external academic institution
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Power International Holdings
Topping, M. (Visitor)
Dec 2020Activity: Visiting an external institution types › Visiting an external academic institution
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College of the North Atlantic
Topping, M. (Visitor)
Dec 2020Activity: Visiting an external institution types › Visiting an external academic institution
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Military Education Campus
Topping, M. (Visitor)
Dec 2020Activity: Visiting an external institution types › Visiting an external academic institution
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Qatar Armed Forces Language Institute
Topping, M. (Visitor)
Dec 2020Activity: Visiting an external institution types › Visiting an external academic institution
Press/Media
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Article in Andersonstown News on AHRC-funded project on Feile an Phobail
08/08/2015
1 item of Media coverage
Press/Media: Research
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Comment on AHRC-Funded project, for which I am PI and Michael Pierse is CI, by Jim Gibney in the Irish News
05/08/2015
1 item of Media coverage
Press/Media: Research
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Outreach activity with Feile an Phobail Board members to local community, as part of AHRC-funded project
01/01/2015
1 Media contribution
Press/Media: Public Engagement Activities
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