Expertise

As well as covering all periods of literature in English to the present day, the Department of English is a leader both nationally and internationally in postcolonial studies, the medical humanities, science and literature, performance studies, queer theory, gender theory, life writing, material culture, print and manuscript material artefacts and media and digital theory.

The diversity of our research is crucial to our identity as a department, and we are one of the largest and most diverse departments in the country. In addition to the traditional, period-based approach to research, all staff and research students belong to cross-period, thematic clusters as strategic priorities in the development of future work.

Our exceptional range of departmental research activity is reflected at all levels of our teaching programme and in a wide array of research seminars.

Department of English academic research areas:

The 18th Century and Romantic

Dr Rowan Boyson

Senior Lecturer in English Literature. Co-director for Centre for Enlightenment Studies.
Professor Clare Brant

Professor of Eighteenth-Century Literature and Culture. Co-Director of Centre for Life Writing and Research.
Dr James Grande

Lecturer in Eighteenth-Century Literature and Culture
Dr Emrys Jones

Senior Lecturer in Eighteenth-Century Literature and Culture
Professor Dr Neil Vickers

Co-Director of the Centre for Humanities and Health. Reader in English Literature & Medical Humanities

The 19th Century

Dr Adelene Buckland

Senior Lecturer in Nineteenth-Century Literature
Dr Sarah Crofton

Teaching Fellow in Nineteenth-Century Studies
Dr Ian Henderson

Director, Menzies Australia Institute
Dr Charlotte Jones

Teaching Fellow in Victorian and Modern Literature
Professor Josephine McDonagh

Professor of Nineteenth-century Literature
Dr Brian Murray

Senior Lecturer in Nineteenth-Century Literature
Professor Clare Pettitt

Professor of Nineteenth-Century Literature and Culture
Professor Marion Thain

Executive Dean of the Faculty of Arts & Humanities
Professor Mark Turner

Professor of Nineteenth & Twentieth-Century Literature

Modern British and Irish Literature

Dr John Connor

Lecturer in Literature and Politics
Dr Jon Day

Lecturer in English
Professor Lara Feigel

Professor of Modern Literature and Culture
Dr Clara Jones

Senior Lecturer in Modern Literature
Dr Charlotte Jones

Teaching Fellow in Victorian and Modern Literature
Professor Richard Kirkland

Professor of Irish Literature & Cultural Theory
Dr Luke Roberts

Lecturer in Modern Poetry
Professor Max Saunders

Professor of English: Fellow of the English Association; Director of the Centre for Life Writing and Research.
Professor Anna Snaith

Professor of Twentieth-Century Literature

Contemporary and Postcolonial Literature and Culture

Dr Sita Balani

Lecturer in Contemporary Literature and Culture
Dr Anna Bernard

Senior Lecturer in English and Comparative Literature
Dr Clare Birchall

Reader in Contemporary Culture
Dr Victoria Carroll

Teaching Fellow in Literature and Cultural Theory
Dr Amy De'Ath

Lecturer in Contemporary Literature and Culture
Dr Jane Elliott

Reader in Contemporary Literature, Culture and Theory
Dr Seb Franklin

Senior Lecturer in Contemporary Literature
Professor Ananya Jahanara Kabir

Professor of English Literature
Professor Javed Majeed

Professor of English and Comparative Literature
Dr Zoe Norridge

Senior Lecturer in English and Comparative Literature
Dr Ruvani Ranasinha

Reader in Postcolonial Literature
Professor Anna Snaith

Professor of Twentieth-Century Literature

American Literature

Dr Michael Collins

Senior Lecturer in 20th Century American Literature and Culture
Professor Janet Floyd

Professor of American Literature & Culture
Dr Alan Marshall

Senior Lecturer in American Literature
Dr Edward Sugden

Lecturer in American Studies

Australian Literature

Dr Ian Henderson

Director, Menzies Australia Institute

Creative Writing

Mr Edmund Gordon

Senior Lecturer in Creative Writing
Dr Sarah Howe

Lecturer in Poetry
Professor Ruth Padel

Professor of Poetry
Mr Benjamin Wood

Senior Lecturer in Creative Writing

Early Modern Literature & Shakespeare

Dr Hannah Crawforth

Senior Lecturer in Early Modern Literature
Dr John Lavagnino

Reader in Digital Humanities
Dr Sarah Lewis

Lecturer in Early Modern English Literature
Dr Amy Lidster

Research Assistant – Wartime Shakespeare
Professor Sonia Massai

Professor of Shakespeare & Early Modern Studies
Dr Jemima Matthews

Teaching Fellow in Early Modern English Literature
Professor Gordon McMullan

Professor of English. Director of the London Shakespeare Centre.
Professor Lucy Munro

Reader in Early Modern English Literature (Drama)
Dr Elizabeth Scott-Baumann

Senior Lecturer in Early Modern English Literature
Dr Daniel Starza Smith

Lecturer in Early Modern English Literature (1500-1700)
Professor Rivkah Zim

Professor of Early Modern Literatures

Medical Humanities

Professor Brian Hurwitz

D'Oyly Carte Professor of Medicine and The Arts
Professor Dr Neil Vickers

Co-Director of the Centre for Humanities and Health. Reader in English Literature & Medical Humanities

Medieval Literature

Dr Josh Davies

Lecturer in Medieval Literature
Dr Carl Kears

Lecturer in Medieval Literature
Dr Sarah Salih

Senior Lecturer. Co-Director of the Centre for Late Antique and Medieval Studies.
Professor Lawrence Warner

Professor of Medieval English

Theatre & Performance Studies

Dr Kelina Gotman

Reader in Theatre and Performance Studies
Professor Alan Read

Professor of Drama in the Department of English
Dr Lara Shalson

Senior Lecturer in Theatre & Performance Studies

Life Writing

Professor Clare Brant

Professor of Eighteenth-Century Literature and Culture. Co-Director of Centre for Life Writing and Research.
Professor Max Saunders

Professor of English: Fellow of the English Association; Director of the Centre for Life Writing and Research.

Our News & Events

11 December 2019

English Department hosts Careers in Literature event

The annual ‘Careers in Literature’ event organised jointly by the English department and the Royal…

9 December 2019

#MyFirst50 with Ketki

Explore the King's student experience with Ketki Mahabaleshwarkar, a first-year Classical Studies…

13 Feb

Inaugural Sylvia Wynter Lecture by Kayo Chingonyi

13 February 2020

Delivering the inaugural Sylvia Wynter Lecture, poet, critic, and editor, Kayo Chingonyi, presents a…

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