I am a writer, researcher and teacher in the environmental humanities, literature and sound studies. I am interested in the relationship between science and the humanities and in investigating questions about nature in poetry, music and other art forms, with a particular focus on listening and sound. I have taught courses and delivered talks in the UK, USA and across Europe on these topics.

I am currently a Research Fellow and Academic Consultant in the School of English, Communication and Philosophy at Cardiff University, having been awarded AHRC-DFG Funding for a project entitled 'The Sound of Nature: Soundscapes and Environmental Awareness, 1750-1950'.

Between 2013 and 2021, I was a Lecturer in English Literature teaching at Cardiff University, having previously completed a Career Development Fellowship at the University of Oxford and a PhD at the University of Cambridge.

Jamie Castell and Nathaniel Mann field recording tawny owls in the Lake District, UK
Jamie Castell giving a lecture at KTH in Stockholm, Sweden.
Jamie Castell constructing, experimenting with and playing a lithophone

Publications

James Castell, “Listening with Wordsworth: some versions of sonic sociability.” Journal of Literature and Science 17.2 (2024): 17-30.

James Castell and Francesca Mackenney, ‘Listening with the Romantics.’ Journal of Literature and Science 17.2 (2024): 50-61.

James Castell, Wilko Graf von Hardenberg, Anne Hehl, Francesca Mackenney & Martin Willis, ‘Introduction: Sound of Nature: Soundscapes and Environmental Awareness, 1750-1950.’ Journal of Literature and Science 17.2 (2024): 1-16.

James Castell, Wilko Graf von Hardenberg, Anne Hehl, Francesca Mackenney & Martin Willis (eds.), Special Issue: ‘Sound of Nature: Soundscapes and Environmental Awareness, 1750-1950.’ Journal of Literature and Science 17.2 (2024).

James Castell, ‘John Clare and Animals’ in The Cambridge Companion to John Clare ed. Sarah Houghton-Walker (Cambridge University Press, 2024), pp. 77-90.

James Castell, ‘Uttering John Clare’s Nonhuman Onomatopoeia’ in Songs of Place and Time: Birdsong and the Dawn Chorus in Natural History and the Arts ed. Mike Collier, Bennett Hogg and John Strachan (Gaia Project Press, 2021), pp. 144-153.

James Castell, ‘John Clare’s Dynamic Animals’ in Palgrave Advances in John Clare Studies ed. Simon Kövesi and Erin Lafford (Palgrave Macmillan, 2020), pp. 157-177.

James Castell, ‘The Nature of Ted Hughes’s Similes’ in Ted Hughes, Nature and Culture ed. Terry Gifford, Neil Roberts and Mark Wormald (Palgrave Macmillan, 2019), pp. 87-106.

James Castell, Keir Waddington & Martin Willis (eds.), Special Issue: ‘Defining ScienceHumanities’ Journal of Literature and Science 10.2 (2017).

Martin Willis, Keir Waddington & James Castell, “ScienceHumanities: Theory, Politics, Practice.” Journal of Literature and Science 10.2 (2017): 6-18.

James Castell, Keir Waddington & Martin Willis, “ScienceHumanities: Introduction.” Journal of Literature and Science 10.2 (2017): 1-5.

James Castell, ‘William Wordsworth’ in Norman Vance and Jennifer Wallace (eds.), Oxford History of Classical Reception in English Literature, 1780-1880 volume (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2015), pp. 325-346.

James Castell, ‘Wordsworth and the ‘Life of Things’’ in Richard Gravil and Daniel Robinson (eds.), Oxford Handbook of William Wordsworth (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2015), pp. 733-746.

James Castell, ‘Wordsworth, silence and the nonhuman’ in The Wordsworth Circle 45.1 (2014), 58-61.

James Castell, ‘Wordsworth and the Society of Birds’ in Richard Gravil (ed.), Grasmere 2010 (Penrith: Humanities-Ebooks, 2010), pp. 65-76.

James Castell, ‘Wordsworth, Peter Bell, and animal life’ in Richard Gravil (ed.), Grasmere ’09 (Penrith: Humanities-Ebooks, 2009), pp. 146-157.