Born in 1967, I was educated at Gosforth High School, the University of Oxford and the University of York before joining the OU in 1998.
My research centres on Renaissance and twentieth-century poetry. I have published monographs on Spenser (The New Poet: Novelty and Tradition in Spenser’s Complaints [1999]) and most recently MacNeice (Louis MacNeice and the poetry of the 1930s [2009]). As well as editing several anthologies of OU teaching material, I have published articles and book chapters on Spenser, the complaint mode in Renaissance literature, and twentieth-century poetry. My most recent article is a specially commissioned piece on John Marston’s Jacobean play, The Dutch Courtesan, for a research website to accompany a new production of the play at the University of York: www.dutchcourtesan.co.uk/such-ungodly-terms/.
I am currently working on two books on the literary forms of The Faerie Queene, both forthcoming with Manchester University Press. I’ve had some of my own poems published in several magazines. I am an editor of The English Review, a peer reviewed magazine aimed at sixth form students, in which I have published a wide range of articles.
At the OU, I have taught on a wide range of modules. My major achievement has been as Chair of AA100, The Arts Past and Present during the production. It was a privilege to lead a brilliant and creative team of individuals in the creation of this module, which continues to open the door to students to studying the Arts with the OU. I’ve made significant contributions to AA306, Shakespeare; text and performance; A300, Twentieth-Century Literature; Texts and Debates; A230, Reading and Studying Literature; and the now defunct AA305, The Renaissance in Europe: A Cultural Enquiry. I am currently deputy chair on the new A334, English Literature from Shakespeare to Austen, due for first presentation in 2015. In 2010, I received an OU teaching award in recognition of my outstanding commitment to the teaching of the Arts and Humanities.
In the past eight years, I have been Director of Level 1 Teaching, and latterly Associate Dean (Curriculum) and Programme Director for the Arts and Humanities.
See also Open Research Online for further details of Richard Danson Brown’s research publications.
