Zoe Bulaitis

Dr Zoe Bulaitis is an early career researcher working within the field of English Literature and Criticism. Her doctoral research project, undertaken at the University of Exeter, UK was entitled “Articulations of Value in the Humanities: The Contemporary Neoliberal University and Our Victorian Inheritance”. Her thesis traced the shift from liberal to neoliberal education from the nineteenth century to the present day, in order to provide a rich and previously underdeveloped narrative of value in the humanities. Rather than attempting to justify the value of the humanities within presiding economic frameworks or writing a defence against market rationalism, her thesis offered an original contribution through an immersion in social, financial, and literary debates concerning contemporary educational policy.

Zoe's research specialism lies in nineteenth- to twenty-first-century novels concerning economics and education, alongside critical theory that addresses socio-economic, policy-oriented, historicist, and aesthetic values. Her work places contemporary cultures of “crisis” within a historical perspective in order to develop a nuanced articulation of contemporary culture and the value of the humanities.

Zoe has published research in Palgrave Communications (Vol. 3.1) and is currently working on her first monograph which will explore the means and methods with which to value humanities research in the UK under the present funding and policy climates.