Date of study 

Sophie Parkes-Nield is a writer, PhD candidate and Associate Lecturer at Sheffield Hallam University, researching English calendar customs, the seasonal traditions that occur in our communities, usually organised by the communities themselves and ‘around long enough to have been passed on to successive generations’ (Roud, 2006).

A practice-based PhD programme, Sophie is writing a novel that incorporates a calendar custom, Thankstide, to examine what it reveals about individuals and communities in contemporary England, and how useful it is as a narrative device for the contemporary creative writer.

Sophie’s PhD draws on the expertise of Sheffield Hallam University’s research cluster, the Centre for Contemporary Legend (www.contemporarylegend.co.uk), headed up by her Director of Studies, Dr David Clarke. However, she also has close links with the University’s Humanities department, thanks to her novelist supervisor, Dr Yvonne Battle-Felton.

For more information about Sophie, her writing and her research, please visit www.sophieparkes.co.uk