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
Professor Clare Brant

Professor of Eighteenth-Century Literature and Culture
Dr James Grande

Lecturer in Eighteenth-Century Literature and Culture
Dr Emrys Jones

Lecturer in Eighteenth-Century Literature and Culture
Professor Neil Vickers

Reader in English Literature & Medical Humanities

The 19th Century

Dr Adelene Buckland

Senior Lecturer in English 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

Lecturer in Nineteenth-Century Literature
Professor Clare Pettitt

Professor of Nineteenth-Century Literature and Culture
Professor Marion Thain

Professor of Literature and Culture
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
Dr Lara Feigel

Reader in Modern Literature
Dr Clara Jones

Lecturer in Modern Literature
Dr Charlotte Jones

Teaching Fellow in Victorian and Modern Literature
Professor Richard Kirkland

Professor of Irish Literature
Dr Alisa Miller

Post-doctoral Research Associate, Ego-Media and Beyond Enemy Lines
Dr Luke Roberts

Lecturer in Modern Poetry
Professor Max Saunders

Professor of English: Fellow of the English Association; Director of the Arts & Humanities Research Institute (AHRI)
Professor Anna Snaith

Professor of Twentieth-Century Literature

Contemporary and Postcolonial Literature and Culture

Dr Sita Balani

Lecturer in Contemporary Literature and Culture
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 Paul Gilroy

Professor of American and English 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

American Literature

Dr Michael Collins

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

Professor of American Literature & Culture
Professor Paul Gilroy

Professor of American and English Literature
Dr Alan Marshall

Senior Lecturer in American Literature
Dr Hannah Murray

Teaching Fellow in Early American Studies
Dr Edward Sugden

Lecturer in American Literature

Australian Literature

Dr Ian Henderson

Director, Menzies Australia Institute

Creative Writing

Mr Edmund Gordon

Lecturer in Creative Writing
Dr Sarah Howe

Lecturer in Poetry
Professor Ruth Padel

Professor of Poetry
Mr Benjamin Wood

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 Shakespeare Studies
Dr Amy Lidster

Postdoctoral Research Associate
Professor Sonia Massai

Professor of Shakespeare Studies
Dr Jemima Matthews

Teaching Fellow in Early Modern English Literature
Professor Gordon McMullan

Professor of English
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

Professor of Medicine & the Arts
Professor Neil Vickers

Reader in English Literature & Medical Humanities

Medieval Literature

Dr Josh Davies

Lecturer in Medieval Literature
Dr Carl Kears

Lecturer in Old and Middle English before 1400; Study Abroad Lead (semester two, 2017-18)
Dr Sarah Salih

Senior Lecturer
Dr Lawrence Warner

Reader in Medieval English

Theatre & Performance Studies

Dr Kelina Gotman

Senior Lecturer in Theatre and Performance Studies
Professor Alan Read

Professor of Theatre
Dr Lara Shalson

Lecturer in Theatre & Performance Studies

Life Writing

Professor Clare Brant

Professor of Eighteenth-Century Literature and Culture
Professor Max Saunders

Professor of English: Fellow of the English Association; Director of the Arts & Humanities Research Institute (AHRI)

Our News & Events

Professor Ananya Jahanara Kabir presented with award

5 April 2019

Professor Ananya Jahanara Kabir wins Humboldt Research Award

This prestigious award is conferred in recognition of the winner's entire academic record to date.

14 March 2019

The Holberg Prize names Professor Paul Gilroy as 2019 Laureate

Professor of American and English Literature at King’s College London, Paul Gilroy, has been…

14 Jun

The Early Modern Inns of Court and the Circulation of Text

14 June 2019

This two-day event offers Inns-related papers, performances, professional speakers and an…

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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