Meg Samuelson

Associate Professor Meg Samuelson

Associate Professor

School of Humanities

Faculty of Arts

Eligible to supervise Masters and PhD - email supervisor to discuss availability.

I joined the Department of English & Creative Writing at the University of Adelaide in 2017, after holding positions at the University of Cape Town and Stellenbosch University in South Africa.

My research and teaching interests include: African and South African literatures; Anthropocene thought and the environmental humanities; coastal and maritime literary and cultural studies; critical theory and literary debates; Indian Ocean studies; postcolonial, global south, southern hemisphere and world literatures; women's writing and theories of gender. I work primarily on literary texts, but also have projects that focus on photography and film, and other cultural forms. I welcome enquiries from prospective MPhil and PhD students interested in these or cognate areas.

I currently serve as postgraduate coordinator in the Department of English & Creative Writing and chair of the School of Humanities Research Committee and am a member of the JM Coetzee Centre for Creative Practice and the Fay Gale Centre for Research on Gender at the University of Adelaide. I am also an associate member of the Observatory for the Societies of the Indian Ocean (University of Reunion, Reunion Island, France) and of Oceanic Humanities for the Global South (Wiser, University of Witwatersrand, South Africa) and hold an honorary appointment as associate professor extraordinary in English at Stellenbosch University (South Africa). I serve on the boards of a number of academic journals and book series, and co-edit the Palgrave series on Maritime Literature and Culture.

CURRENT BOOK PROJECTS IN PROGRESS

  • 'South African Literatures: Land, City, Sea'. Manuscript in progress. Under contract: Postcolonial Literature Series, Oxford University Press.
  • 'Amphibian Aesthetics: Writing from the African Indian Ocean Littoral'. Work in progress.
  • 'Photographic Culture in Zanzibar, 1868-2018'. Co-authored with Pamila Gupta. Work in progress. 

CURRENT ARTICLES & BOOK CHAPTERS IN PROGRESS

  • '"An international author, but in a different sense': J.M. Coetzee and 'literatures of the south'". Forthcoming in special issue: World Literature: Postcolonial Perspectives.
  • 'Blueness and Light in the Art of Gail Jones'. Under review for a book collection on Gail Jones.
  • 'Anthropocene South'. Review essay in progress for Contemporary Literature.
  • 'What's Critical about the South?'. Under preparation for the Routledge Handbook on Language and the Global South.
  • 'Literary Scholarship as the Practice of Care'. Under revision for a book collection Literary Humanities in the Global South: The Case of University Pedagogies.

See PUBLICATIONS for my forthcoming and published research

RESEARCH PRESENTATIONS, SELECTED & RECENT

Conference keynote addresses

  • 'Reparative Aesthetics: Enduring Violence and the Practice of Care'. Dissensus in the Postcolonial Anglophone World: History, Politics and Aesthetics. Université de Lille, France. 31 Jan-1 Feb 2019.
  • ‘Coastal Thought: Keywords from 40 Cs’. Indian Ocean: Ecotones, Contact Zones, and Third Spaces. Ecotones 3. Observatory for Indian Ocean Societies, University of Reunion; EMMA (Université Paul Valéry Montpellier 3) & MIGRINTER (CNRS-Université de Poitiers), Saint-Denis, Reunion, France, 14-16 June 2018.
  • ‘From Manichean to Amphibian Aesthetics: Narrating and Framing the Eastern African Indian Ocean Littoral’. Textualities of Space: Connections, Intricacies, and Intimacies. 2nd Eastern African Literary and Cultural Studies Conference. Makerere University and Stellenbosch University, Kampala, Uganda, 20-22 August 2015.
  • ‘The Blue Metropolis: Writing on Water in Contemporary South African Cities’. Cities in Flux: Metropolitan Spaces in South African Literary and Visual Texts. University of Basel, Switzerland, 9-10 June 2015.
  • ‘From Indian Ocean Pasts to African-Asian Presents: Before the Cape, From the Cape, @ the Cape’. Re-Thinking African-Asian Relationships: Changing Realities—New Concepts. AFRASO, Goethe University, Frankfurt, and Confucius Centre, Stellenbosch University, Cape Town, South Africa, 25-27 March 2015.

Selected other unpublished presentations (since 2015)

  • 'An Indian Ocean Australia? Toward an archipelagic paradigm'. Reading and Writing Australian Literature, ASAL2020 Virtual Conference, 29 June-2 July 2020.
  • 'Thinking with pandemics, pangolins and poets'. The ZOO/m Salon: The Situation We Find Ourselves In. Department of English and Creative Writing, University of Adelaide, 19 June 2020.
  • 'Moving frames and circulating subjects: photographic reflections on Indian Ocean Africa'. Indian Ocean: Circulations and Representations. Conference. NILUS Project and University of Lisbon, Lisbon, 5-6 December 2019. Invited and funded.
  • "Moving frames and circulating subjects: photographic reflections on Indian Ocean Africa”. Photographies in Motion: Explorations Across Space, Time and Media. Workshop. University of Western Australia, 28-29 November. Invited and funded.
  • 'Blueness and Light in the Art of Gail Jones'. Gail Jones: Inner Worlds. University of Western Sydney and 'Other Worlds' ARC Discovery Project, 21 July 2019. Invited and funded.
  • 'Freddie's first photographer...'. Cloth and Paper: Queer Materialities. History Trust and Migration Museum, Adelaide, 16 May 2019. Invited.
  • ‘Writing Southern Worlds: The Case of J.M. Coetzee’. World Literature: Postcolonial Perspectives. University Delhi, University of Potsdam & Thesis Eleven Centre for Cultural Sociology at La Trobe University, Delhi, India, 15-17 March 2018. Invited and funded.
  • ‘Toward the Blue Southern Hemisphere’, Further South. Roundtable. ‘Other Worlds’ ARC Discovery Project & Department of English and Creative Writing, University of Adelaide, Australia, 15 February 2018. Invited.
  • ‘Writing sexual and “slow” violence in dehumanizing and more-than-human times: Lauretta Ngcobo’s And they didn’t die and Karen Jayes’s For the Mercy of Water’. Representations of Gendered Violence in Cultural Texts of the Global South. University of New South Wales, Sydney, Australia, 5-6 December 2017. Invited and funded.
  • ‘Indian Ocean/Southern Ocean: Thinking across the South’. Conference of the Observatory of Indian Ocean Societies, University of Reunion, Saint-Denis, Reunion, 23-24 November 2017. Invited and funded.
  • ‘Blue perspectives on the (post)colonial Anthropocene in two novels from South Africa’. H2O: Life and Death. Symposium. JM Coetzee Centre for Creative Practice, University of Adelaide, Australia, 15-16 September 2017.
  • ‘Thinking from the Cape to the Southern Ocean’. From Ponte to Perth. Another Antipodes Gallery & Thesis Eleven Centre for Cultural Sociology at La Trobe University, Freemantle, Australia, 30 June 2017. Invited and funded.
  • ‘On the (South African) beach: shifting frames’. Writing Place, Pushing Genre: Adventures across South African and Australia. Curtin University & Thesis Eleven Centre for Cultural Sociology at La Trobe University, Perth, Australia, 29 June 2017. Invited and funded.
  • ‘Neoliberal citadels or the city-in-common? From the ‘architecture of fear’ to the practice of care in post-apartheid South African literature’. Mapping the Emotional Cityscape: Spaces, Performances and Emotion in Urban Life, ARC Centre of Excellence for the History of Emotions, University of Adelaide, Australia, 18 September 2017.
  • ‘Literatures of the World and for the Planet—African Positions: An introduction’. Plenary session of panel ‘Literatures of the world and for the planet’, Ideas of Postcolonial Culture: 17th Triennial Conference of the Association for Commonwealth Literature and Language Studies (ACLALS). Stellenbosch University & University of Cape Town, Cape Town, South Africa, 14 July 2016. Organiser.
  • ‘Amphibian aesthetics: an integrative category for cultural analysis of the African Indian Ocean littoral?’ Cosmopolitan Currents in the Indian Ocean: New Conceptual Models for Studying Cultural Integration and Change. New York University Abu Dhabi, Abu Dhabi, UAE, 15-17 March 2015. Invited and funded.
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  • Appointments
    Date Position Institution name
    2019 Associate Professor The University of Adelaide
    2018 Associate Professor Extraordinary Stellenbosch University
    2017 - 2018 Lecturer The University of Adelaide
    2013 - 2017 Associate Professor University of Cape Town
    2009 - 2012 Associate Professor Stellenbosch University
    2007 - 2008 Senior Lecturer Stellenbosch University
    2005 - 2006 Lecturer Stellenbosch University
    2002 - 2003 Visiting Scholar University of California at Berkeley

  • Awards and Achievements
    Date Type Title Institution Name Country Amount
    2017 Achievement Internationally Acclaimed Researcher (B2) Rating National Research Foundation of South Africa South Africa ZAR160,000
    2017 Research Award Women's Research Excellence Award The University of Adelaide Australia $5000
    2015 Award Merit Award (Research and Teaching) University of Cape Town South Africa ZAR66,000
    2014 Research Award Young Researcher Award College of Fellows, University of Cape Town South Africa ZAR30,000
    2007 Research Award Rector's Award for Research Excellence Stellenbosch University South Africa —
    2000 Scholarship AW Mellon Fellowship University of Cape Town South Africa —

  • Education
    Date Institution name Country Title
    2005 University of Cape Town South Africa PhD
    1999 University of Leeds United Kingdom MA (Commonwealth and Postcolonial Literatures)
    1997 University of Cape Town South Africa BA (Hons)

Named research project grants:

  • South African Settings and Australian Connections. Faculty Research Active Grant Scheme (FRAGS), Faculty of Arts, The University of Adelaide, 2017. Value: AU$5,000.
  • African Textualities: Mobilities, Translations, Frames. African Collaboration Grant, Programme for the Enhancement of Research Capacity, University of Cape Town, 2014-2016. Value: ZAR175,000.00. 
  • Coastal Cultures, Oceanic Africa & Thinking from the Cape: Literary and Cultural Positions. National Research Foundation (NRF), South Africa. Competitive Programme for Rated Researchers (CPRR), 2014-2016 (Grant Number 87809). Value: ZAR400,000.00 plus ZAR320,000.00 in graduate funding.
  • Intimate Relations between South Africa and South (East) Asia Stellenbosch University Research Grant Award, 2009-2010. Value: ZAR50,000.00.
  • Southern African Subjectivities: Roots and Routes in Literary and Cultural Studies. Thuthuka Programme for emerging researchers, National Research Foundation (NRF), South Africa, 2006-2011. Value: approx. ZAR200,000.00 plus approx. ZAR1.5 million in graduate/staff development funding.

Current

  • ENGL2071-Anthropocene Arts: Nature-Cultures in Crisis. Offered in S1 in even years. 
  • ENGL3106-Writing Southern Worlds. Offered in S1 in odd years.
  • ENGL3050-Ways of Reading (English Major Capstone Course). Offered in S2 annually. 
  • ENGL4001-English Honours Critical Thinking. Offered in S1 annually

Previous

  • ENGL4003-English Honors Thesis (2018)
  • ENGL1016-Landmarks in Literature (2017)
  • ENGL2047-World Literatures in English (2017)
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  • Current Higher Degree by Research Supervision (University of Adelaide)
    Date Role Research Topic Program Degree Type Student Load Student Name
    2020 Co-Supervisor Ladies who Launch: Women in Space in Fictional Film and Television Master of Philosophy Master Full Time Dr Bronwyn Denise Lovell
    2020 Principal Supervisor "… for once that they globe themselves entire": Planetary Figures in Omeros, The Waves, and Others Doctor of Philosophy Doctorate Full Time Matthew Hunter Couper
    2020 Principal Supervisor Creative Criticism Master of Philosophy Master Full Time Mr Terry Peter Hughes
    2019 Principal Supervisor Mapping the Murray: a Bioregional Approach to Character and Narrative Doctor of Philosophy Doctorate Full Time Mr Owen John Everitt
    2019 Principal Supervisor Writing a war from within a war: Explorations in traumatic Bosnian war memory Master of Philosophy Master Full Time Ms Naida Roberts
    2019 Co-Supervisor A Search for Country in Australian Literature Doctor of Philosophy Doctorate Full Time Samuel Jesse Cox
    2019 Principal Supervisor Lee Maracle's Celia's Song & Alexis Wright's Carpentaria: Reading Between Indigenous Authors' Representations of the Dead, the Alive, and the Barely Surviving Doctor of Philosophy Doctorate Full Time Ms Laura Rose Hamilton
    2018 Principal Supervisor 'The Other in Ourselves': The Ethics, Aesthetics, and Epistemologies of Feminist (Auto) Ethnography Doctor of Philosophy Doctorate Full Time Miss Celine Michelle Zerna
    2018 Principal Supervisor Iya Kafayat: A Novel (Creative Component)
    A Grammar of Play in a Postcolongy of a Postcolony (Exegesis)    		 Doctor of Philosophy Doctorate Full Time Mr Olujide Babatunde Adebayo-Begun
    2017 Co-Supervisor Malediction - Creative Writing Doctor of Philosophy Doctorate Full Time Ms Gretta Jade Mitchell
    2017 Principal Supervisor Generational differences in Speculative Perspectives of the Antropocene Doctor of Philosophy Doctorate Full Time Ms Ruby Rose Niemann

  • Past Higher Degree by Research Supervision (University of Adelaide)
    Date Role Research Topic Program Degree Type Student Load Student Name
    2017 - 2019 Co-Supervisor The Poetic Invitation: Exploring manifold experience in easy poems Master of Philosophy Master Full Time Mr Paul Turley

  • Other Supervision Activities
    Date Role Research Topic Location Program Supervision Type Student Load Student Name
    2018 - ongoing External Supervisor Antagonistic Reading: Vilifying Readers in Modernist and Global Anglophone Fiction. University of Notre Dame (USA) — Doctorate — Eric Williams
    2016 - ongoing External Supervisor Littoral literatures: amphibious politics in South African writings University of Cape Town — Doctorate Full Time Maria Geustyn
    2016 - 2017 Principal Supervisor Stories "lodged in goods": Reading the thing-culture of The Thousand and One Nights University of Cape Town — Master Full Time Sophy Kohler
    2016 - 2017 Principal Supervisor From "sad black stories" to "useful tragedy": Trajectories of hope in Johannesburg in Kgebetli Moele's Room 207 and Perfect Hlongwane's Jozi University of Cape Town — Master Full Time Kathleen Samson
    2016 - 2016 Principal Supervisor Creating an African Literary Canon University of Cape Town — Postdoctorate Full Time Doseline Wanjiru Kiguru
    2016 - 2016 Principal Supervisor Archipelagic fictions: Sindbad the Sailor, Alan Villiers and travel in the Indian Ocean University of Cape Town — Master Full Time Andrew Hofmeyr
    2015 - 2016 Principal Supervisor EcoGothic fiction from Contemporary Urban Africa: Excluded Subjects and Dark Environmentalism University of Cape Town — Master Full Time Esthie Hugo
    2015 - 2016 Principal Supervisor Reading Petrocultures in the Niger Delta: An Eco-Critical Enquiry University of Cape Town — Postdoctorate Full Time Philip Onos Aghoghovwia
    2014 - 2017 Principal Supervisor Return to the Scene of the Crime: Representing Homecoming in Postcolonial Fiction University of Cape Town — Doctorate Full Time Kamil Naicker
    2013 - 2016 Principal Supervisor Power and Transgression: Margins, Crossings and Monstrous Women in Selected Works of Bharati Mukherjee and Angela Carter University of Cape Town — Doctorate Full Time Corinne Abel
    2013 - 2016 Principal Supervisor "My name is Afrika": Setswana Genealogies, Trans-Atlantic Interlocutions, and NOW-Time in Keorapetse Kgositsile's Life and Work University of Cape Town — Doctorate Full Time Portia Uhuru Phalafala
    2013 - 2013 Principal Supervisor Imagining Postcolonial Urban Space in Work by Ivan Vladislavic and other Southern African Writers University of Cape Town — Postdoctorate Full Time Kudzayi Ngara
    2011 - 2015 Principal Supervisor Zimbabwe Women Writers from 1950 to the Present: Re-creating Gender Images University of Stellenbosch — Doctorate Full Time Faith Mkwesha
    2011 - 2013 Principal Supervisor The Art of Looking Sideways: Representations of Slave Subjectivity in Post-Apartheid Fiction University of Stellenbosch — Master Full Time Maria Geustyn
    2011 - 2013 Co-Supervisor The Narrativisation of Post-2000 Zimbabwe in the Shona Popular Song-Genre: An Appraisal Approach University of Stellenbosch — Doctorate Full Time Mickias Musiyiwa
    2011 - 2012 Principal Supervisor Spicing South Africa: Representations of Food and Culinary Traditions in Post-Apartheid Literature, Cookery Books and Art University of Stellenbosch — Master Full Time Esthie de Beer
    2011 - 2012 Principal Supervisor White Women Writing the (Post)Colony: Creolité, Home and Estrangement in Novels by Marguerite Duras, Jean Rhys and Marlene van Niekerk University of Stellenbosch — Master Full Time Caren van Houwelingen
    2010 - 2014 Principal Supervisor Writing Women in Uganda and South Africa: Emerging narratives from post-repressive states University of Stellenbosch — Doctorate Full Time Lynda Gichanda Spencer
    2010 - 2013 Principal Supervisor Confession, Ethics and Embodiment in the Poetry of Joan Metelerkamp and Antjie Krog University of Stellenbosch — Doctorate Full Time Christine Weyer
    2010 - 2013 Principal Supervisor Imagining the Zimbabwean City: 1950 to 2010 University of Stellenbosch — Doctorate Full Time Kizito Z. Muchemwa
    2010 - 2013 Principal Supervisor Diasporic Imaginaries: Memory and Negotiation of Belonging in East African and South African Indian Narratives University of Stellenbosch — Doctorate Full Time James Ocita
    2010 - 2011 Principal Supervisor Marginality in Post-TRC Texts: Storytelling and Representational Acts University of Stellenbosch — Master Full Time H. Grace Kim
    2010 - 2010 Principal Supervisor Bearing Witness to Trauma: Representations of the Rwandan Genocide', Stellenbosch University University of Stellenbosch — Master Full Time Karin Samuel
    2009 - 2009 Principal Supervisor Re-visiting History, Re-discovering Identity in Black British Fictions of the 21st Century: Caryl Phillips's A Distant Shore and Buchi Emecheta's The New Tribe University of Stellenbosch — Master Full Time Sydoine Moudouma
    2008 - 2018 External Supervisor Speaking Others-Speaking the Self: A Study of the Textual Construction of Selfhood in Three South African Texts Linnaeus University — Doctorate Part Time Jenny Simeus
    2008 - 2010 Principal Supervisor Romantic Children, Brazen Girls? An Exploration of the Girl-child's Representation in and around Nabokov's Lolita and Three Derivative Novels University of Stellenbosch — Master Part Time Sandra Visser
    2008 - 2010 Co-Supervisor An Examination of Prison, Criminality and Power in Selected Contemporary Kenyan and South African Narratives University of Stellenbosch — Doctorate Full Time Isaac Ndlovu
    2008 - 2009 Principal Supervisor Becoming the Third Generation: Negotiating Modern Selves in Nigerian Bildungsromane of the 21st Century University of Stellenbosch — Master Full Time W. Jaco Smit
    2008 - 2009 Principal Supervisor Grace and The Township Housewife: Excavating Black Women's Magazines from the 1960s University of Stellenbosch — Master Full Time Nicolette Louw
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  • Committee Memberships
    Date Role Committee Institution Country
    2019 - ongoing Member The JM Coetzee Centre for Creative Practice Management Committee The University of Adelaide Australia
    2019 - ongoing Chair School of Humanities Research Committee The University of Adelaide Australia
    2019 - ongoing Member Faculty of Arts Research Committee The University of Adelaide Australia
    2019 - ongoing Member Higher Degree Research Committee Faculty of Arts, University of Adelaide Australia
    2016 - 2017 Member University Book Award Committee University of Cape Town South Africa
    2016 - 2017 Member Hosting a Conference Committee University of Cape Town South Africa
    2016 - 2017 Chair Departmental Research Committee University of Cape Town South Africa
    2016 - 2016 Member Panel of Judges-UJ Prize for South African Writing University of Johannesburg South Africa
    2016 - 2016 Member Specialist Committee for Evaluation and Rating: Literary Studies, Languages and Linguistics National Research Foundation South Africa
    2014 - 2016 Member Faculty Staffing Committee University of Cape Town South Africa
    2014 - 2015 Chair Departmental Advisory & Management Committee University of Cape Town South Africa
    2014 - 2015 Member Dean's Advisory Committee University of Cape Town South Africa
    2013 - 2016 Member Faculty Masters Dissertation Examination Committee University of Cape Town South Africa
    2013 - 2013 Chair Departmental Research Committee University of Cape Town South Africa
    2010 - 2011 Member Graduate School Coordinating Committee Stellenbosch University South Africa
    2010 - 2010 Member Faculty Creative Outputs Committee Stellenbosch University South Africa
    2009 - 2011 Member Faculty Research Committee Stellenbosch University South Africa
    2008 - 2011 Member Departmental Postgraduate Committee Stellenbosch University South Africa

  • Memberships
    Date Role Membership Country
    2018 - 2022 Member Oceanic Humanities for the Global South, University of Witwatersrand South Africa
    2017 - ongoing Member JM Coetzee Centre for Creative Practice, University of Adelaide Australia
    2017 - ongoing Member Fay Gale Centre for Research on Gender, University of Adelaide Australia
    2017 - ongoing Member DIRE (Déplacements, Identités, Regards, Ecritures) Research Centre, Observatory for the Societies of the Indian Ocean, University of Reunion Réunion

  • Consulting/Advisories
    Date Institution Department Organisation Type Country
    2019 - 2019 Yale-NUS College English School or college Singapore

  • Editorial Boards
    Date Role Editorial Board Name Institution Country
    2018 - 2022 Board Member ariel: A Review of International English Literature University of Calgary; Johns Hopkins University Press Canada
    2017 - ongoing Editor Palgrave Studies in Maritime Literature and Culture Palgrave MacMillan United Kingdom
    2015 - ongoing Board Member Bloomsbury's Literature as World Literature Book Series Bloomsbury United States
    2013 - ongoing Board Member Boydell & Brewer's African Articulations Book Series Boydell & Brewer United Kingdom
    2012 - ongoing Board Member Journal of African Cultural Studies SOAS, University of London; Taylor & Francis United Kingdom
    2012 - ongoing Board Member Eastern African Literary and Cultural Studies Taylor & Francis United Kingdom
    2012 - 2017 Board Member Social Dynamics-A Journal of African Studies University of Cape Town; Taylor & Francis South Africa
    2011 - ongoing Board Member English in Africa Rhodes University South Africa
    2009 - 2019 Board Member Imbizo University of South Africa; Taylor & Francis South Africa
    2009 - ongoing Board Member Current Writing University of KwaZulu Natal; Taylor & Francis South Africa
    2007 - ongoing Board Member English Studies in Africa University of the Witwatersrand; Taylor & Francis South Africa
    2007 - 2011 Editor-In-chief Social Dynamics-A Journal of African Studies University of Cape Town; Taylor & Francis South Africa
    2007 - 2010 Associate Editor English Academy Review: Southern African Journal of English Studies Taylor & Francis; University of the Witwatersrand South Africa

  • Offices Held
    Date Office Name Institution Country
    2019 - ongoing Postgraduate Coordinator (English and Creative Writing) The Univeristy of Adelaide Australia
    2018 - ongoing Research Theme Leader (Transnationalism)--JM Coetzee Centre for Creative Practice The University of Adelaide Australia
    2016 - 2017 PhD Convenor (Department of English) University of Cape Town South Africa
    2014 - 2015 Head of the Department of English University of Cape Town South Africa
    2014 - 2015 Project Manager: Man Booker International 2015 at the University of Cape Town University of Cape Town South Africa
    2013 - 2013 Postgraduate Convenor (Department of English) University of Cape Town South Africa
    2010 - 2011 Research Theme Leader (Transitions & Translations)--Flagship Project, Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences , and PANGeA Africa-wide network Stellenbosch University South Africa
    2008 - 2010 Research Coordinator (English Department) Stellenbosch University South Africa
  • Position: Associate Professor
  • Phone: 83135613
  • Email: meg.samuelson@adelaide.edu.au
  • Campus: North Terrace
  • Building: Napier, floor 6
  • Room: 6 09
  • Org Unit: English and Creative Writing
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