Individual and collective research in English covers a wide range of topics, approaches and periods. These can be grouped under five main areas in which the Department has particular strengths:
As can be seen from the staff profiles (follow links below) individual members of staff often work in more than one of these areas. Collaboration between staff is encouraged, as is collaboration with colleagues in other institutions. A strongly interdisciplinary approach and ethos is characteristic of much of our research. The Department has two long-established research groups, the Postcolonial Literatures Research Group, directed by Dr Alex Tickell, and the Book History Research Group, directed by Dr Shafquat Towheed, and more recent additions, the Romantic Period Research Group, directed by Professor Nicola Watson and the Contemporary Cultures of Writing Research Group, directed by Dr Linda Anderson. We currently have six full-time and about twenty part-time research students in the Department, and applications from prospective research students are always welcome.
For details and advice on how to apply, follow the link to postgraduate research.
Dr Richard Danson Brown: Renaissance literature (particularly Spenser and Shakespeare). Publications and further information »
Professor David Johnson: Shakespeare Studies; travel narratives 1600- 1850. Publications and further information »
Dr M. A. (Peg) Katritzky: Early modern literature and culture; English actors in Europe in the early modern period; theatre and medicine. Publications and further information »
Dr Anita Pacheco: early modern women’s writing, in particular the works of Aphra Behn; Restoration literature and politics and Shakespeare. Publications and further information »
Professor Nicola J. Watson: eighteenth century and Romantic literature and culture, women’s writing, literature and national identity; literary tourism. Publications and further information »
Dr Sue Asbee: twentieth century literature in Ireland and the USA. Publications and further information »
Dr Richard Danson Brown: modern poetry, particularly Louis MacNeice and his circle. Publications and further information »
Dr Delia da Sousa Correa: nineteenth century literature, especially connections with music, gender and science; modernism. Publications and further information »
Dr Fiona J Doloughan: contemporary narrative theory and practice. Publications and further information »
Professor Robert Fraser: literature and anthropology; postcolonial aesthetics; biography; migration theory. Publications and further information »
Professor Suman Gupta: twentieth century literature; literature and globalisation; discourse theory. Publications and further information »
Dr Sara Haslam: nineteenth and twentieth century English literature, particularly Ford Madox Ford, Thomas Hardy and modernism; the literature of the First World War. Publications and further information »
Professor Susheila Nasta: Post-colonial literature, particularly Caribbean and South Asian; twentieth-century and contemporary fiction. Publications and further information »
Dr Lynda Prescott: nineteenth and twentieth century fiction, post-colonial literature. Publications and further information »
Dr Florian Stadtler: 19th, 20th Century and contemporary British Fiction, Studies in the Novel, Joseph Conrad, Salman Rushdie. Publications and further information »
Dr Alex Tickell: Colonial and postcolonial literature; South Asian fiction in English; travel writing. Publications and further information »
Dr Shafquat Towheed: History of the Book; Reading Experience Database; nineteenth-century literature and culture; Edith Wharton; Vernon Lee. Publications and further information »
Professor Dennis Walder: Dickens, South African literature, especially Athol Fugard. Publications and further information »
Professor Nicola Watson: eighteenth-century and Romantic literature and culture, women’s writing, literature and national identity; literary tourism. Publications and further information »
Dr Linda Anderson: the novel and short stories; the boundaries between fiction and fact; creativity; practice and teaching of creative writing. Publications and further information »
Dr Fiona J Doloughan: contemporary narrative theory and practice. Publications and further information »
Professor Robert Fraser: theory and practice of life writing. Publications and further information »
Bill Greenwell: practice and teaching of creative writing; poetry; life writing including oral history; elearning. Publications and further information »
Professor Susheila Nasta: theories of autobiography; founding editor, Wasafiri: The Magazine of International Contemporary Writing. Publications and further information »
Dr Derek Neale: practice and teaching of creative writing; the novel and short stories; memory and writing; the creative process. Publications and further information »
Professor Richard Allen: literary relations between Britain and India, literature and gender. Publications and further information »
Professor Robert Fraser: literature and anthropology; postcolonial aesthetics; migration theory. Publications and further information »
Professor David Johnson: Post-Colonial Literature and Theory; travel narratives 1600- 1850. Publications and further information »
Professor Susheila Nasta: Post-colonial literature, particularly Caribbean and South Asian; twentieth-century and contemporary fiction. Publications and further information »
Dr Lynda Prescott: nineteenth and twentieth century fiction, post-colonial literature. Publications and further information »
Dr Alex Tickell: Colonial and postcolonial literature; South Asian fiction in English; travel writing. Publications and further information »
Dr Florian Stadtler: Postcolonial Literature and theory, South Asian Literature in English, Salman Rushdie, East African Fiction, Contemporary Asian British writing, Indian Popular Cinema and Culture. Publications and further information »
Professor Dennis Walder: Dickens, South African literature, especially Athol Fugard. Publications and further information »
Professor Robert Fraser: colonial and postcolonial history of the book. Publications and further information »
Dr Sara Haslam: nineteenth and twentieth century English fiction and poetry, particularly Ford Madox Ford, Thomas Hardy and Modernism. Publications and further information »
Dr Edmund King: Book history and the history of reading, including the Reading Experience Database, Shakespeare editing and textual studies. Publications and further information »
Dr Shafquat Towheed: History of the Book; Reading Experience Database; nineteenth-century literature and culture; Edith Wharton; Vernon Lee. Publications and further information »