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 Rose Boyson

Senior Lecturer in English Literature
Professor Clare Brant

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

Senior 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. Professor of English Literature & the Health Humanities

The 19th Century

Dr Adelene Buckland

Senior Lecturer in Nineteenth-Century Literature
Dr Ian Henderson

Senior Lecturer in Australian Studies
Dr Brian Murray

Senior Lecturer in Nineteenth-Century Literature
Professor Clare Pettitt

Professor of Nineteenth-Century Literature and Culture
Professor Marion Thain

Executive Dean, 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

Senior Lecturer in English
Professor Lara Feigel

Professor of Modern Literature and Culture
Dr Clara Jones

Senior Lecturer in Modern Literature
Professor Richard Kirkland

Professor of Irish Literature & Cultural Theory
Dr Luke Roberts

Senior Lecturer in Modern Poetry
Professor Max Saunders

Visiting Professor
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

Reader in Comparative Literature and English
Dr Clare Birchall

Reader in Contemporary Culture
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

Reader in African and Comparative Literature and Visual Cultures
Professor Ruvani Ranasinha

Professor of Global Literatures
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

Reader in American Literature
Dr Edward Sugden

Senior Lecturer in American Studies

Australian Literature

Dr Ian Henderson

Senior Lecturer in Australian Studies

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

Reader in Early Modern Literature
Dr John Lavagnino

Reader in Digital Humanities
Dr Sarah Lewis

Senior Lecturer in Early Modern English Literature
Dr Amy Lidster

Postdoctoral Research Associate
Professor Sonia Massai

Professor of Shakespeare & Early Modern Studies
Dr Jemima Matthews

Lecturer in Early Modern English Literature
Professor Gordon McMullan

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

Professor of Shakespeare and Early Modern Literature
Dr Elizabeth Scott-Baumann

Reader in Early Modern Literature
Dr Daniel Starza Smith

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

Professor Emeritus 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. Professor of English Literature & the Health Humanities

Medieval Literature

Dr Josh Davies

Senior Lecturer in Medieval Literature
Dr Carl Kears

Lecturer in Medieval Literature
Dr Sarah Salih

Reader
Professor Lawrence Warner

Professor of Medieval English

Theatre & Performance Studies

Professor Kelina Gotman

Professor of Performance and the Humanities
Professor Alan Read

Professor of Theatre
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.
Dr Lisa Gee

Visiting Research Fellow
Professor Max Saunders

Visiting Professor

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International

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Widening Participation

The Department has launched a number of exciting initiatives to widen participation in the study of…

Expertise

Areas of particular academic expertise represented within the King's Department of English