Dr Alistair Brown

I am an Associate Lecturer, currently tutoring on:

• A112 Cultures
• A334 English Literature from Shakespeare to Austen

In addition to the above, I have previously taught across a wide range of literature modules at the OU. 

Alongside the OU, I am an Associate Professor in Digital Humanities and Modern Literature at Durham University. I have previously lectured on critical theory at the University of Sunderland, and developed distance learning modules for the Singapore Institute of Management University.

I am an Senior Fellow of the UK's Higher Education Academy.

As a researcher I'm especially involved in a field called the "digital humanities." This entails a number of different things. For example, I study video games, narrative design, and their relation to literature; I have fun exploring how we experience literature in virtual reality; I look at how arts and humanities relate to the creative industries; and I do various activities engaging the public with research through social media and other digital channels. More about this stuff here: https://www.durham.ac.uk/staff/alistair-brown/

Publications

Chapters in books

Brown, A. (2018) Is posthuman incest possible? Science fiction and the futures of the body. In M. Leeson (Ed.), Incest in contemporary literature. Manchester University Press

Brown, A. (2014). The Sense of an Ending: The Computer Game Fallout 3 as a Serial Fiction. In R. Allen, & T. van den Berg (Eds.), Serialization in Popular Culture. Routledge

Brown, A. (2014). Renaissance Demons and Posthuman Cyborgs: Ambroise Paré’s On Monsters and Marvels and Donna Haraway’s “Cyborg Manifesto”. In A. Wood, & B. Shillace (Eds.), Unnatural Reproductions and Monstrosity: The Birth of the Monster in Literature, Film, and Media. Cambria

Brown, A. (2011). E-Volutionary Fictions: The Darwinian Algorithm in Literature and Computer Games. In N. Saul, & S. James (Eds.), The Evolution of Literature in European Cultures. Rodopi

Journal Articles

Brown, A., & Marshall, T. (2026). The English Literature Essay Question in the Age of AI: Unlocking the Black Box of AI Responses. English: Journal of the English Association. Advance online publication, Article efag003. https://doi.org/10.1093/english/efag003

Brown, A., Childs, M., & Youdale, J. (2024). Theatre in the round: a study of the effectiveness of 360-degree video and VR to address critical questions in the teaching and learning of drama. International Journal of Performance Arts and Digital Media, 20(3), 507-526. https://doi.org/10.1080/14794713.2024.2434760

Brown, A., Virdee, D., & Shack, A. (2021). Prestige and Gatekeeping in Postgraduate Journals: The Case of Postgraduate English. https://doi.org/10.14324/111.444.2398-4732.1191

Cockshut, L., Brown, A., & Hardey, M. (2020). Social innovation and the university: the impact of intervention for the micro creative economy in North East England. Social Enterprise Journal, 16(2), 203-220. https://doi.org/10.1108/sej-03-2019-0017

Brown, A. (2016). What Game Worlds Can Teach Us About Literary Worlds. Alluvium, 5(2), https://doi.org/10.7766/alluvium.v5.2.01

Brown, A. Communication Technology and Narrative: Letters, Instant Messaging, and Mobile Phones in Three Romantic Novels. Poetics Today: International Journal for Theory and Analysis of Literature and Communication, 36(1-2), https://doi.org/10.1215/03335372-2879838

Brown, A. (2013). Are Videogame Narratives Postmodern?. Alluvium, 2(3),

Brown, A. (2012). Ulysses as a Role Playing Game. Alluvium, 1(5)

Brown, A. (2012). Grand Theft Auto as a Cognitive Map of the Postmodern Condition Brown, A. (2008). Uniting the Two Cultures of Body and Mind in A.S. Byatt’s A Whistling Woman. Journal of literature and science, 1(1)

Brown, A. (2008). Pitchforks at the Library Doors: Literary Studies in the Digital Age

Brown, A. (2008). Rereading Posthumanism in The War of the Worlds and Independence Day. e-sharp, 12,

Other (Digital/Visual Media)

Brown, A. (2019). Creative cities and the future of higher education. [Blog]

Brown, A. (2018). Making Pictures Speak. [Website] Other (Print)

Newspaper/Magazine Article 

Brown, A. (2024, September 4). Four video game adaptations of classic works of literature, from The Hobbit to Hamlet. The Conversation.

Brown, A. (2014). What Makes a Videogame Great? Problems of Videogame Aesthetics (pp. 46-49). Art Pulse.