Professor Nigel Leask
- Regius Chair of English Language and Literature (English Literature)
telephone:
01413301920
email:
Nigel.Leask@glasgow.ac.uk
R304 Level 3, School of Critical Studies, 4 University Gardens, Glasgow G12 8QH
https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7839-7034Research interests
Research interests
- Romantic literature and culture
- Robert Burns and Scottish literature 1750-1850
- Romantic Orientalism
- Travel writing and Empire
- Anglo-Indian literature of the Romantic period
Biography
Nigel Leask was appointed to Glasgow's Regius Chair of English Language and Literature in 2004. He was previously Reader in Romantic Literature in the English Faculty at Cambridge University. He has published widely in the area of Romantic literature and culture, with a special emphasis on empire, orientalism, and travel writing, as well as Scottish literature and thought 1750-1850. His book Robert Burns and Pastoral: Poetry and Improvement in Late-18th Century Scotland (Oxford University Press, 2010) won the Saltire Prize for the best Scottish Research Book of 2010. His edition of Robert Burns’s Commonplace Books, Tour Journals and Miscellaneous Prose (2014) was the first published volume in the AHRC-funded Oxford edition of the Collected Works of Robert Burns (general editor, Prof Gerard Carruthers). He is currently completing a monograph entitled ‘Stepping Westward’: Writing the Highland Tour 1720-1830 to be published by Oxford University Press in 2020. He was CI of the AHRC funded Project Curious Travellers: Thomas Pennant and the Welsh and Scottish Tour, 1760-1820 which ran from 2014-2018 http://curioustravellers.ac.uk/en/.
Prof Leask’s first book The Politics of Imagination in Coleridge’s Critical Thought was published by Macmillan in 1988. Subsequently, his British Romantic Writers and the East: Anxieties of Empire (Cambridge University Press 1992) was a pioneering study of the anxieties and instabilities of Romantic representations of the 'Orient' in the writings of Byron, Shelley, De Quincey, Southey, Moore and others. In 1997 he edited Coleridge’s Biographia Literaria for Everyman with a new introduction, text and notes. His Curiosity and the Aesthetics of Travel Writing, 1770-1840: 'From an Antique Land' (Oxford University Press, 2002) was the first study of its kind to explore the Romantic obsession with the 'antique lands' of Ethiopia, Egypt, India and Mexico from a post-colonial perspective, drawing on a wide range of 18th and 19th century travel books, as well as recent scholarship in literature, history, geography and anthropology. He has co-edited (with David Simpson and Peter De Bolla) a collection of essays dedicated to John Barrell entitled Land, Nation and Culture, 1740-1840: Thinking the Republic of Taste (Palgrave 2004), (with Dr Phil Connell) Romanticism and Popular Culture in Britain and Ireland (Cambridge, 2009) and (with Mary-Ann Constantine) Enlightenment Travel and British Identities: Thomas Pennant’s Tours in Wales and Scotland (Anthem, 2017).
In addition to Glasgow and Cambridge, he has held teaching appointments at the University of Bologna, Italy, and UNAM, Mexico City, and has lectured widely in Europe, the Americas, India and New Zealand. He is a Fellow of the British Academy and the Royal Society of Edinburgh, a Centenary Fellow of the English Association, and a Vice-President of the Associations of Scottish Literary Studies.
Websites
Publications
2024
Constantine, M.-A. and Leask, N. (Eds.) (2024) Romanticism, travel and the Celtic languages. Studies in Romanticism. [Edited Journal] (Accepted for Publication)
Constantine, M.-A. and Leask, N. (2024) Introduction: Romanticism, travel, and the Celtic languages. Studies in Romanticism, 63(2), pp. 97-115. (doi: 10.1353/srm.2024.a931777)
Leask, N. and Ó Muircheartaigh, P. (2024) ‘Travelling Gaels’: Coloniality and dislocation in the Gaelic Atlantic. Studies in Romanticism, 63(2), pp. 231-253. (doi: 10.1353/srm.2024.a931783)
2023
Leask, N. (2023) Water. Romanticism on the Net, 80-81,
2022
Leask, N. (2022) Decolonizing Romantic Studies. In: Quayson, A. and Mukherjee, A. (eds.) Decolonizing the English Literary Curriculum. Cambridge University Press. ISBN 9781009299985 (Accepted for Publication)
Leask, N. (2022) 'Penetrat[ing] the Gloom of Britain's Farthest Glens': A response from the Highlands. Studies in Romanticism, 61(2), pp. 305-325. (doi: 10.1353/srm.2022.0021)
Leask, N. and Ó Muircheartaigh, P. (2022) ‘Co-ainm na taca seo an-uiridh’: Dugald MacNicol’s Caribbean Lament for Argyll. Studies in Scottish Literature, 47(2), pp. 43-68.
Leask, N. (2022) “Moral Electricity”: William Daniell’s voyage round Great Britain and early topographical representations of the Isle of Skye and the West Highlands. Romanticism on the Net, 79,
Leask, N. (2022) Travel writing about the Highlands in the nineteenth century. In: Kidd, S. M., McCracken-Flesher, C. and McNeil, K. (eds.) The International Companion to Nineteenth-Century Scottish Literature. Scottish Literature International: Glasgow, pp. 148-155. ISBN 9781908980359
2021
Bonehill, J., Beveridge Dulau, A. and Leask, N. (Eds.) (2021) Old Ways New Roads: Travels in Scotland 1720-1830. Birlinn: Edinburgh. ISBN 9781780276670
Leask, N. (2021) 'Lost in Words': Macpherson's Ossian, translation, and ballad collection in the eighteenth-century Scottish Gàidhealtachd. inTRAlinea Special Issue: Space in Translation,
2020
Leask, N. (2020) Stepping Westward: Writing the Highland Tour, c.1720-1830. Oxford University Press: Oxford ; New York. ISBN 9780198850021 (doi: 10.1093/oso/9780198850021.001.0001)
2019
Leask, N. (2019) Philosophical vagabonds: Pedestrianism, politics and improvement on the Scottish tour. Studies in Scottish Literature, 45(1), 2.
Leask, N. (2019) Philosophical Vagabonds: Pedestrianism, Politics, and Improvement on the Scottish Tour. University of South Carolina Press: Columbia, SC. ISBN 9781099330056
Leask, N. (2019) Eighteenth-century travel writing. In: Das, N. and Youngs, T. (eds.) The Cambridge History of Travel Writing. Cambridge University Press, pp. 93-107. ISBN 9781107148185
Leask, N. , Constantine, M.-A. and Edwards, E. (Eds.) (2019) “Curious Travellers": Dr Johnson and Thomas Pennant on Tour: An Exhibition at Dr Johnson’s House, London, Oct 2018-Jan 2019. University of Wales Centre for Advance Welsh and CelticStudies: Aberystwyth. ISBN 97811907029288
Leask, N. (2019) Radical Orientalism: Rights, Reform, and Romanticism. By Gerard Cohen-Vrignaud. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2015. Keats-Shelley Journal, 66, pp. 174-176. [Book Review]
2018
Leask, N. (2018) Thomas Pennant, national description, and the project of improvement. In: Benchimol, A. and McKeever, G. L. (eds.) Cultures of Improvement in Scottish Romanticism, 1707-1840. Routledge: New York, NY, pp. 95-110. ISBN 9781138482937
2017
Leask, N. (2017) Marilyn Speers Butler 1937–2014. In: Johnston, R. (ed.) Biographical Memoirs of Fellows of the British Academy. Published for the British Academy by Oxford University Press, pp. 85-106. ISBN 9780197266229
Leask, N. (2017) Sir Walter Scott's The Antiquary and the Ossian controversy. Yearbook of English Studies, 47(2017), pp. 189-202.
Constantine, M.-A. and Leask, N. (Eds.) (2017) Enlightenment Travel and British Identities: Thomas Pennant's Tours of Scotland and Wales. Series: Anthem studies in travel. Anthem Press: London. ISBN 9781783086535
Constantine, M.-A. and Leask, N. (2017) Introduction: Thomas Pennant, curious traveller. In: Constantine, M.-A. and Leask, N. (eds.) Enlightenment Travel and British Identities: Thomas Pennant's Tours of Scotland and Wales. Series: Anthem studies in travel. Anthem Press: London, pp. 1-14. ISBN 9781783086535
Hutton, A. and Leask, N. (2017) "The first antiquary of his country": Robert Riddell's extra-illustrated and annotated volumes of Thomas Pennant's Tours in Scotland. In: Constantine, M.-A. and Leask, N. (eds.) Enlightenment Travel and British Identities: Thomas Pennant's Tours of Scotland and Wales. Series: Anthem studies in travel. Anthem Press: London, pp. 123-140. ISBN 9781783086535
Leask, N. (2017) The Weaver's Cottage in Islay. [Website]
Leask, N. (2017) “Writing myself out”: Robert Burns and the 18th century commonplace book tradition. In: Müller, K. P., Schwittlinsky, I. and Walker, R. (eds.) Inspiring Views from "a' the Airts" on Scottish Literatures, Art and Cinema: The First World Congress of Scottish Literatures in Glasgow 2014. Series: Scottish studies international (41). Peter Lang: Frankfurt am Main, pp. 153-174. ISBN 9783631672853
2016
Leask, N. (2016) Fingalian topographies: Ossian and the Highland Tour 1760-1805. Journal for Eighteenth-Century Studies, 39(2), pp. 183-196. (doi: 10.1111/1754-0208.12396)
Deans, A. and Leask, N. (2016) Curious travellers: Thomas Pennant and the Welsh and Scottish tour (1760-1820). Studies in Scottish Literature, 42(2), pp. 164-172.
2015
Leask, N.J. (2015) 'Ae spark o’ nature’s fire': Robert Burns and the vernacular muse. In: Robinson, J.C. and Carr, J. (eds.) Active Romanticism: Essays on the Continuum of Innovative Poetry and Poetics from the 18th Century to the Present. Series: Modern and contemporary poetics. University of Alabama Press: Tuscaloosa, AL. ISBN 9780817357849
2014
Constantine, M.-A. and Leask, N. (2014) Curious Travellers. [Website]
Leask, N. (Ed.) (2014) The Oxford Edition of the Works of Robert Burns: Volume I: Commonplace Books, Tour Journals, and Miscellaneous Prose. Oxford University Press. ISBN 9780199603176
2013
Leask, N. (2013) Robert Burns. In: Carruthers, G. and McIlvanney, L. (eds.) The Cambridge Companion to Scottish Literature. Series: Cambridge Companions to Literature. Cambridge University Press, pp. 71-85. ISBN 9780521189361 (doi: 10.1017/CCO9781139045407.007)
Leask, N.J. (2013) Was Burns a labouring-class poet? In: Blair, K. and Gorji, M. (eds.) Class and the Canon: Constructing Labouring-Class Poetry and Poetics, 1750-1900. Palgrave Macmillan: New York, NY, USA, pp. 16-34. ISBN 9781137030320
2012
Leask, N.J. (2012) Robert Burns and Latin America. In: Alker, S., Davis, L. and Nelson, H.F. (eds.) Robert Burns and Transatlantic Culture. Series: Ashgate series in nineteenth-century transatlantic studies. Ashgate: Farnham, UK, pp. 131-148. ISBN 9781409405764
2011
Leask, N. (2011) Robert Burns and Romanticism in Britain and Ireland. In: Pittock, M. (ed.) The Edinburgh Companion to Scottish Romanticism. Series: Edinburgh Companions to Scottish Literature. Edinburgh University Press, pp. 127-138. ISBN 9780748638468
Leask, N. (2011) Their groves o' sweet myrtles': Robert Burns and the Scottish colonial experience. In: Pittock, M. (ed.) Robert Burns in Global Culture, 1759-2010. Bucknell University Press: Lewisburg, PA, USA. ISBN 9781611480306
Leask, N.J. (2011) 'To canter with the Sagitarre': Burns, Byron and the equestrian sublime. Byron Journal, 39(2), pp. 117-133. (doi: 10.3828/bj.2011.17)
2010
Leask, N. (2010) Robert Burns and Pastoral: Poetry and Improvement in Late-18th Century Scotland. Oxford University Press: Oxford, UK. ISBN 9780199572618
2009
Connell, P. and Leask, N. (Eds.) (2009) Romanticism and Popular Culture in Britain and Ireland. Cambridge University Press: Cambridge, UK. ISBN 9780521880121
Leask, N. (2009) Burns and the poetics of abolition. In: Carruthers, G. (ed.) The Edinburgh Companion to Robert Burns. Series: Edinburgh companions to Scottish literature. Edinburgh University Press: Edinburgh, UK, pp. 47-60. ISBN 9780748636488
Leask, N. (2009) 'A degrading species of alchymy': ballad poetics, oral tradition, and the meanings of popular culture. In: Connell, P. and Leask, N. (eds.) Romanticism and Popular Culture in Britain and Ireland. Cambridge University Press: Cambridge, UK, pp. 51-72. ISBN 9780521880121
Leask, N. (2009) Robert Burns and the stimulant regime. In: Rodger, J. and Carruthers, G. (eds.) Fickle Man: Robert Burns in the 21st Century. Sandstone Press: Dingwall, UK, pp. 145-162. ISBN 9781905207275
Leask, N.J. (2009) Romanticism and the wider world: poetry, travel literature and empire. In: Chandler, J. (ed.) The Cambridge History of English Romantic Literature. Series: New Cambridge History of English literature. Cambridge University Press: Cambridge, UK, pp. 271-292. ISBN 9780521790079
2008
Leask, N. (2008) 'His Hero's Story': Dr Currie's Burns, Moore's Byron and Romantic Biography. Centre for Study of Byron and Romanticism, University of Nottingham: Nottingham, UK. ISBN 9780955574009
Leask, N.J. and Riach, A. (2008) Stepping Westward: The Inaugural Lectures of Professor Nigel Leask, Regius Chair of English Language and Literature and Professor Alan Riach, Chair of Scottish Literature, the University of Glasgow: Given on 2nd December 2006. Association for Scottish Literary Studies, University of Glasgow: Glasgow, UK. ISBN 9780948877841
2007
Leask, N.J. (2007) Thomas Muir and the telegraph: radical cosmopolitanism in 1790's Scotland. History Workshop Journal, 63(1), pp. 48-69. (doi: 10.1093/hwj/dbm012)
Leask, N.J. (2007) Robert Burns and Scottish common sense philosophy. In: Budge, G. (ed.) Romantic Empiricism: Poetics and the Philosophy of Common Sense, 1780-1830. Series: The Bucknell Studies in Eighteenth-Century Literature and Culture. Bucknell University Press: Lewisburg, USA. ISBN 9780838757123
Leask, N.J. (2007) Scottish literature of empire and emigration 1700-1900. In: Clancy, T.O. and Pittock, M. (eds.) The Edinburgh History of Scottish Literature. Edinburgh University Press: Edinburgh, UK. ISBN 9780748624812
Leask, N.J. (2007) 'The shadow line': James Currie's 'life of Burns' and British romanticism. In: Lamont, C. and Rossington, M. (eds.) Romanticism's Debatable Lands. Palgrave Macmillan: Basingstoke, UK. ISBN 9780230507852
2006
Leask, N. (2006) ‘Travelling the Other Way’: The travels of Mirza Abu Talib Khan (1810) and romantic Orientalism. In: Franklin, M.J. (ed.) Romantic Representations of British India. Series: Routledge studies in romanticism (7). Routledge, pp. 220-237. ISBN 0415378273
Leask, N.J. (2006) Kubla Khan and orientalism: the road to Xanadu revisted. In: O'Neill, M. and Sandy, M. (eds.) Romanticism: Critical Concepts in Literary and Cultural Studies. Series: Critical concepts in literary and cultural studies, 2. Routledge: London, UK, pp. 1-21. ISBN 9780415247245
Leask, N.J. (2006) A Yankee in Yucatan: John Lolyd Stephens and the lost cities of America. In: Youngs, T. (ed.) Travel Writing in the Nineteenth Century: Filling the Blank Spaces. Series: Anthem nineteenth century studies. Anthem Press: London, UK. ISBN 9781843312185
2005
Leask, N.J. (2005) Burns, Wordsworth and the politics of vernacular poetry. In: Bolla, P. and Simpson, D. (eds.) Land, Nation and Culture, 1740-1840: Thinking the Republic of Taste. Palgrave MacMillan, pp. 202-222. ISBN 9781403920478
Leask, N.J. (2005) Byron and the eastern Mediterranean: Childe Harold II and the 'polemic of Ottoman Greece'. In: Bone, D. (ed.) The Cambridge Companion to Byron. Cambridge University Press: Cambridge, UK. ISBN 9780521781466
Leask, N.J. (2005) Easts. In: Roe, N. (ed.) Romanticism: An Oxford Guide. Oxford University Press: Oxford, UK. ISBN 9780199258406
2004
De Bolla, P., Leask, N.J. and Simpson, D. (Eds.) (2004) Land, Nation and Culture, 1740-1840: Thinking the Republic of Taste. Series: Palgrave studies in the Enlightenment, romanticism and cultures of print. Palgrave Macmillan: Basingstoke, UK. ISBN 9781403920478
Leask, N.J. (2004) Bruce, James, of Kinnaird (1730–1794), traveller in Africa. In: Matthew, H.C.G. and Harrison, B.H. (eds.) Oxford Dictionary of National Biography: In Association with the British Academy: From the Earliest Times to the Year 2000. Oxford University Press: Oxford, UK, pp. 303-306. ISBN 9780198614111 (doi: 10.1093/ref:odnb/3734)
Leask, N.J. (2004) Lawrence, James Henry [known as Chevalier Lawrence] (1773–1840), writer. In: Matthew, H.C.G. and Harrison, B.H. (eds.) Oxford Dictionary of National Biography: In Association with the British Academy: From the Earliest Times to the Year 2000. Oxford University Press: Oxford, UK, p. 832. ISBN 9780198614111 (doi: 10.1093/ref:odnb/16180)
Leask, N.J. (2004) Lewis, Matthew Gregory [called Monk Lewis] (1775–1818), novelist and playwright. In: Matthew, H.C.G. and Harrison, B.H. (eds.) Oxford Dictionary of National Biography: In Association with the British Academy: From the Earliest Times to the Year 2000. Oxford University Press: Oxford, UK, pp. 635-639. ISBN 9780198614111 (doi: 10.1093/ref:odnb/16597)
Leask, N.J. (2004) Maurice, Thomas (1754–1824), oriental scholar and librarian. In: Matthew, H.C.G. and Harrison, B.H. (eds.) Oxford Dictionary of National Biography: In Association with the British Academy: From the Earliest Times to the Year 2000. Oxford University Press: Oxford, UK, pp. 465-466. ISBN 9780198614111 (doi: 10.1093/ref:odnb/18387)
Leask, N.J. (2004) Polidori, John William (1795–1821), physician and writer. In: Matthew, H.C.G. and Harrison, B.H. (eds.) Oxford Dictionary of National Biography: In Association with the British Academy: From the Earliest Times to the Year 2000. Oxford University Press: Oxford, UK, pp. 743-745. ISBN 9780198614111 (doi: 10.1093/ref:odnb/22466)
2003
Leask, N.J. (2003) Darwin's Second Sun: Alexander von Humboldt and the Genesis of the Voyage of the Beagle. In: Tait, T. and Small, H. (eds.) Literature, Science and Psychoanalysis, 1830-1970: Essays in Honour of Dame Gillian Beer. Oxford University Press, pp. 13-36. ISBN 0199266670
2002
Leask, N.J. (2002) Irish republicans and gothic Eleutherarchs: Pacific utopias in the writings of Theobald Wolfe Tone and Charles Brockden Brown. In: Maniquis, R.M. (ed.) British Radical Culture of the 1790's. Huntington Library: San Marino, USA, pp. 91-111. ISBN 9780873281966
Leask, N.J. (2002) Curiosity and the aesthetics of travel writing, 1770-1840: from an antique land. Oxford University Press. ISBN 0199247005
2001
Leask, N.J. (2001) Salons, alps and cordilleras: Helen Maria Williams, Alex von Humboldt and the discourse of romantic travel. In: Eger, E., Grant, C., O'Gallchoir, C. and Warburton, P. (eds.) Women, Writing, and the Public Sphere: 1700-1830. Cambridge University Press: Cambridge, UK, pp. 217-236. ISBN 9780521771061
Articles
Constantine, M.-A. and Leask, N. (2024) Introduction: Romanticism, travel, and the Celtic languages. Studies in Romanticism, 63(2), pp. 97-115. (doi: 10.1353/srm.2024.a931777)
Leask, N. and Ó Muircheartaigh, P. (2024) ‘Travelling Gaels’: Coloniality and dislocation in the Gaelic Atlantic. Studies in Romanticism, 63(2), pp. 231-253. (doi: 10.1353/srm.2024.a931783)
Leask, N. (2023) Water. Romanticism on the Net, 80-81,
Leask, N. (2022) 'Penetrat[ing] the Gloom of Britain's Farthest Glens': A response from the Highlands. Studies in Romanticism, 61(2), pp. 305-325. (doi: 10.1353/srm.2022.0021)
Leask, N. and Ó Muircheartaigh, P. (2022) ‘Co-ainm na taca seo an-uiridh’: Dugald MacNicol’s Caribbean Lament for Argyll. Studies in Scottish Literature, 47(2), pp. 43-68.
Leask, N. (2022) “Moral Electricity”: William Daniell’s voyage round Great Britain and early topographical representations of the Isle of Skye and the West Highlands. Romanticism on the Net, 79,
Leask, N. (2021) 'Lost in Words': Macpherson's Ossian, translation, and ballad collection in the eighteenth-century Scottish Gàidhealtachd. inTRAlinea Special Issue: Space in Translation,
Leask, N. (2019) Philosophical vagabonds: Pedestrianism, politics and improvement on the Scottish tour. Studies in Scottish Literature, 45(1), 2.
Leask, N. (2017) Sir Walter Scott's The Antiquary and the Ossian controversy. Yearbook of English Studies, 47(2017), pp. 189-202.
Leask, N. (2016) Fingalian topographies: Ossian and the Highland Tour 1760-1805. Journal for Eighteenth-Century Studies, 39(2), pp. 183-196. (doi: 10.1111/1754-0208.12396)
Deans, A. and Leask, N. (2016) Curious travellers: Thomas Pennant and the Welsh and Scottish tour (1760-1820). Studies in Scottish Literature, 42(2), pp. 164-172.
Leask, N.J. (2011) 'To canter with the Sagitarre': Burns, Byron and the equestrian sublime. Byron Journal, 39(2), pp. 117-133. (doi: 10.3828/bj.2011.17)
Leask, N.J. (2007) Thomas Muir and the telegraph: radical cosmopolitanism in 1790's Scotland. History Workshop Journal, 63(1), pp. 48-69. (doi: 10.1093/hwj/dbm012)
Books
Leask, N. (2020) Stepping Westward: Writing the Highland Tour, c.1720-1830. Oxford University Press: Oxford ; New York. ISBN 9780198850021 (doi: 10.1093/oso/9780198850021.001.0001)
Leask, N. (2019) Philosophical Vagabonds: Pedestrianism, Politics, and Improvement on the Scottish Tour. University of South Carolina Press: Columbia, SC. ISBN 9781099330056
Leask, N. (2010) Robert Burns and Pastoral: Poetry and Improvement in Late-18th Century Scotland. Oxford University Press: Oxford, UK. ISBN 9780199572618
Leask, N. (2008) 'His Hero's Story': Dr Currie's Burns, Moore's Byron and Romantic Biography. Centre for Study of Byron and Romanticism, University of Nottingham: Nottingham, UK. ISBN 9780955574009
Leask, N.J. and Riach, A. (2008) Stepping Westward: The Inaugural Lectures of Professor Nigel Leask, Regius Chair of English Language and Literature and Professor Alan Riach, Chair of Scottish Literature, the University of Glasgow: Given on 2nd December 2006. Association for Scottish Literary Studies, University of Glasgow: Glasgow, UK. ISBN 9780948877841
Leask, N.J. (2002) Curiosity and the aesthetics of travel writing, 1770-1840: from an antique land. Oxford University Press. ISBN 0199247005
Book Sections
Leask, N. (2022) Decolonizing Romantic Studies. In: Quayson, A. and Mukherjee, A. (eds.) Decolonizing the English Literary Curriculum. Cambridge University Press. ISBN 9781009299985 (Accepted for Publication)
Leask, N. (2022) Travel writing about the Highlands in the nineteenth century. In: Kidd, S. M., McCracken-Flesher, C. and McNeil, K. (eds.) The International Companion to Nineteenth-Century Scottish Literature. Scottish Literature International: Glasgow, pp. 148-155. ISBN 9781908980359
Leask, N. (2019) Eighteenth-century travel writing. In: Das, N. and Youngs, T. (eds.) The Cambridge History of Travel Writing. Cambridge University Press, pp. 93-107. ISBN 9781107148185
Leask, N. (2018) Thomas Pennant, national description, and the project of improvement. In: Benchimol, A. and McKeever, G. L. (eds.) Cultures of Improvement in Scottish Romanticism, 1707-1840. Routledge: New York, NY, pp. 95-110. ISBN 9781138482937
Leask, N. (2017) Marilyn Speers Butler 1937–2014. In: Johnston, R. (ed.) Biographical Memoirs of Fellows of the British Academy. Published for the British Academy by Oxford University Press, pp. 85-106. ISBN 9780197266229
Constantine, M.-A. and Leask, N. (2017) Introduction: Thomas Pennant, curious traveller. In: Constantine, M.-A. and Leask, N. (eds.) Enlightenment Travel and British Identities: Thomas Pennant's Tours of Scotland and Wales. Series: Anthem studies in travel. Anthem Press: London, pp. 1-14. ISBN 9781783086535
Hutton, A. and Leask, N. (2017) "The first antiquary of his country": Robert Riddell's extra-illustrated and annotated volumes of Thomas Pennant's Tours in Scotland. In: Constantine, M.-A. and Leask, N. (eds.) Enlightenment Travel and British Identities: Thomas Pennant's Tours of Scotland and Wales. Series: Anthem studies in travel. Anthem Press: London, pp. 123-140. ISBN 9781783086535
Leask, N. (2017) “Writing myself out”: Robert Burns and the 18th century commonplace book tradition. In: Müller, K. P., Schwittlinsky, I. and Walker, R. (eds.) Inspiring Views from "a' the Airts" on Scottish Literatures, Art and Cinema: The First World Congress of Scottish Literatures in Glasgow 2014. Series: Scottish studies international (41). Peter Lang: Frankfurt am Main, pp. 153-174. ISBN 9783631672853
Leask, N.J. (2015) 'Ae spark o’ nature’s fire': Robert Burns and the vernacular muse. In: Robinson, J.C. and Carr, J. (eds.) Active Romanticism: Essays on the Continuum of Innovative Poetry and Poetics from the 18th Century to the Present. Series: Modern and contemporary poetics. University of Alabama Press: Tuscaloosa, AL. ISBN 9780817357849
Leask, N. (2013) Robert Burns. In: Carruthers, G. and McIlvanney, L. (eds.) The Cambridge Companion to Scottish Literature. Series: Cambridge Companions to Literature. Cambridge University Press, pp. 71-85. ISBN 9780521189361 (doi: 10.1017/CCO9781139045407.007)
Leask, N.J. (2013) Was Burns a labouring-class poet? In: Blair, K. and Gorji, M. (eds.) Class and the Canon: Constructing Labouring-Class Poetry and Poetics, 1750-1900. Palgrave Macmillan: New York, NY, USA, pp. 16-34. ISBN 9781137030320
Leask, N.J. (2012) Robert Burns and Latin America. In: Alker, S., Davis, L. and Nelson, H.F. (eds.) Robert Burns and Transatlantic Culture. Series: Ashgate series in nineteenth-century transatlantic studies. Ashgate: Farnham, UK, pp. 131-148. ISBN 9781409405764
Leask, N. (2011) Robert Burns and Romanticism in Britain and Ireland. In: Pittock, M. (ed.) The Edinburgh Companion to Scottish Romanticism. Series: Edinburgh Companions to Scottish Literature. Edinburgh University Press, pp. 127-138. ISBN 9780748638468
Leask, N. (2011) Their groves o' sweet myrtles': Robert Burns and the Scottish colonial experience. In: Pittock, M. (ed.) Robert Burns in Global Culture, 1759-2010. Bucknell University Press: Lewisburg, PA, USA. ISBN 9781611480306
Leask, N. (2009) Burns and the poetics of abolition. In: Carruthers, G. (ed.) The Edinburgh Companion to Robert Burns. Series: Edinburgh companions to Scottish literature. Edinburgh University Press: Edinburgh, UK, pp. 47-60. ISBN 9780748636488
Leask, N. (2009) 'A degrading species of alchymy': ballad poetics, oral tradition, and the meanings of popular culture. In: Connell, P. and Leask, N. (eds.) Romanticism and Popular Culture in Britain and Ireland. Cambridge University Press: Cambridge, UK, pp. 51-72. ISBN 9780521880121
Leask, N. (2009) Robert Burns and the stimulant regime. In: Rodger, J. and Carruthers, G. (eds.) Fickle Man: Robert Burns in the 21st Century. Sandstone Press: Dingwall, UK, pp. 145-162. ISBN 9781905207275
Leask, N.J. (2009) Romanticism and the wider world: poetry, travel literature and empire. In: Chandler, J. (ed.) The Cambridge History of English Romantic Literature. Series: New Cambridge History of English literature. Cambridge University Press: Cambridge, UK, pp. 271-292. ISBN 9780521790079
Leask, N.J. (2007) Robert Burns and Scottish common sense philosophy. In: Budge, G. (ed.) Romantic Empiricism: Poetics and the Philosophy of Common Sense, 1780-1830. Series: The Bucknell Studies in Eighteenth-Century Literature and Culture. Bucknell University Press: Lewisburg, USA. ISBN 9780838757123
Leask, N.J. (2007) Scottish literature of empire and emigration 1700-1900. In: Clancy, T.O. and Pittock, M. (eds.) The Edinburgh History of Scottish Literature. Edinburgh University Press: Edinburgh, UK. ISBN 9780748624812
Leask, N.J. (2007) 'The shadow line': James Currie's 'life of Burns' and British romanticism. In: Lamont, C. and Rossington, M. (eds.) Romanticism's Debatable Lands. Palgrave Macmillan: Basingstoke, UK. ISBN 9780230507852
Leask, N. (2006) ‘Travelling the Other Way’: The travels of Mirza Abu Talib Khan (1810) and romantic Orientalism. In: Franklin, M.J. (ed.) Romantic Representations of British India. Series: Routledge studies in romanticism (7). Routledge, pp. 220-237. ISBN 0415378273
Leask, N.J. (2006) Kubla Khan and orientalism: the road to Xanadu revisted. In: O'Neill, M. and Sandy, M. (eds.) Romanticism: Critical Concepts in Literary and Cultural Studies. Series: Critical concepts in literary and cultural studies, 2. Routledge: London, UK, pp. 1-21. ISBN 9780415247245
Leask, N.J. (2006) A Yankee in Yucatan: John Lolyd Stephens and the lost cities of America. In: Youngs, T. (ed.) Travel Writing in the Nineteenth Century: Filling the Blank Spaces. Series: Anthem nineteenth century studies. Anthem Press: London, UK. ISBN 9781843312185
Leask, N.J. (2005) Burns, Wordsworth and the politics of vernacular poetry. In: Bolla, P. and Simpson, D. (eds.) Land, Nation and Culture, 1740-1840: Thinking the Republic of Taste. Palgrave MacMillan, pp. 202-222. ISBN 9781403920478
Leask, N.J. (2005) Byron and the eastern Mediterranean: Childe Harold II and the 'polemic of Ottoman Greece'. In: Bone, D. (ed.) The Cambridge Companion to Byron. Cambridge University Press: Cambridge, UK. ISBN 9780521781466
Leask, N.J. (2005) Easts. In: Roe, N. (ed.) Romanticism: An Oxford Guide. Oxford University Press: Oxford, UK. ISBN 9780199258406
Leask, N.J. (2004) Bruce, James, of Kinnaird (1730–1794), traveller in Africa. In: Matthew, H.C.G. and Harrison, B.H. (eds.) Oxford Dictionary of National Biography: In Association with the British Academy: From the Earliest Times to the Year 2000. Oxford University Press: Oxford, UK, pp. 303-306. ISBN 9780198614111 (doi: 10.1093/ref:odnb/3734)
Leask, N.J. (2004) Lawrence, James Henry [known as Chevalier Lawrence] (1773–1840), writer. In: Matthew, H.C.G. and Harrison, B.H. (eds.) Oxford Dictionary of National Biography: In Association with the British Academy: From the Earliest Times to the Year 2000. Oxford University Press: Oxford, UK, p. 832. ISBN 9780198614111 (doi: 10.1093/ref:odnb/16180)
Leask, N.J. (2004) Lewis, Matthew Gregory [called Monk Lewis] (1775–1818), novelist and playwright. In: Matthew, H.C.G. and Harrison, B.H. (eds.) Oxford Dictionary of National Biography: In Association with the British Academy: From the Earliest Times to the Year 2000. Oxford University Press: Oxford, UK, pp. 635-639. ISBN 9780198614111 (doi: 10.1093/ref:odnb/16597)
Leask, N.J. (2004) Maurice, Thomas (1754–1824), oriental scholar and librarian. In: Matthew, H.C.G. and Harrison, B.H. (eds.) Oxford Dictionary of National Biography: In Association with the British Academy: From the Earliest Times to the Year 2000. Oxford University Press: Oxford, UK, pp. 465-466. ISBN 9780198614111 (doi: 10.1093/ref:odnb/18387)
Leask, N.J. (2004) Polidori, John William (1795–1821), physician and writer. In: Matthew, H.C.G. and Harrison, B.H. (eds.) Oxford Dictionary of National Biography: In Association with the British Academy: From the Earliest Times to the Year 2000. Oxford University Press: Oxford, UK, pp. 743-745. ISBN 9780198614111 (doi: 10.1093/ref:odnb/22466)
Leask, N.J. (2003) Darwin's Second Sun: Alexander von Humboldt and the Genesis of the Voyage of the Beagle. In: Tait, T. and Small, H. (eds.) Literature, Science and Psychoanalysis, 1830-1970: Essays in Honour of Dame Gillian Beer. Oxford University Press, pp. 13-36. ISBN 0199266670
Leask, N.J. (2002) Irish republicans and gothic Eleutherarchs: Pacific utopias in the writings of Theobald Wolfe Tone and Charles Brockden Brown. In: Maniquis, R.M. (ed.) British Radical Culture of the 1790's. Huntington Library: San Marino, USA, pp. 91-111. ISBN 9780873281966
Leask, N.J. (2001) Salons, alps and cordilleras: Helen Maria Williams, Alex von Humboldt and the discourse of romantic travel. In: Eger, E., Grant, C., O'Gallchoir, C. and Warburton, P. (eds.) Women, Writing, and the Public Sphere: 1700-1830. Cambridge University Press: Cambridge, UK, pp. 217-236. ISBN 9780521771061
Book Reviews
Leask, N. (2019) Radical Orientalism: Rights, Reform, and Romanticism. By Gerard Cohen-Vrignaud. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2015. Keats-Shelley Journal, 66, pp. 174-176. [Book Review]
Edited Books
Bonehill, J., Beveridge Dulau, A. and Leask, N. (Eds.) (2021) Old Ways New Roads: Travels in Scotland 1720-1830. Birlinn: Edinburgh. ISBN 9781780276670
Leask, N. , Constantine, M.-A. and Edwards, E. (Eds.) (2019) “Curious Travellers": Dr Johnson and Thomas Pennant on Tour: An Exhibition at Dr Johnson’s House, London, Oct 2018-Jan 2019. University of Wales Centre for Advance Welsh and CelticStudies: Aberystwyth. ISBN 97811907029288
Constantine, M.-A. and Leask, N. (Eds.) (2017) Enlightenment Travel and British Identities: Thomas Pennant's Tours of Scotland and Wales. Series: Anthem studies in travel. Anthem Press: London. ISBN 9781783086535
Leask, N. (Ed.) (2014) The Oxford Edition of the Works of Robert Burns: Volume I: Commonplace Books, Tour Journals, and Miscellaneous Prose. Oxford University Press. ISBN 9780199603176
Connell, P. and Leask, N. (Eds.) (2009) Romanticism and Popular Culture in Britain and Ireland. Cambridge University Press: Cambridge, UK. ISBN 9780521880121
De Bolla, P., Leask, N.J. and Simpson, D. (Eds.) (2004) Land, Nation and Culture, 1740-1840: Thinking the Republic of Taste. Series: Palgrave studies in the Enlightenment, romanticism and cultures of print. Palgrave Macmillan: Basingstoke, UK. ISBN 9781403920478
Edited Journals
Constantine, M.-A. and Leask, N. (Eds.) (2024) Romanticism, travel and the Celtic languages. Studies in Romanticism. [Edited Journal] (Accepted for Publication)
Website
Leask, N. (2017) The Weaver's Cottage in Islay. [Website]
Constantine, M.-A. and Leask, N. (2014) Curious Travellers. [Website]
Supervision
- Cairns, Sophie
Exploration, Imperial Discourse & Romantic Landscape Aesthetics: British Travel Accounts of the Indian-Himalaya, Hudson’s Bay Company Territory & West Africa, 1770-1860 - Gallagher, Alexandra
Soulful Breathing: Examining S. T. Coleridge’s Embodied Dramas and Contemporary Conceptualisations of the Breath. - Hassall, Lee
More Than a Passing Pleasure: Performing Transmatic Landscapes in Dorothy Wordsworth’s 1803 Tour Of Scotland. - Maxwell Stuart, Laurence
'A Species of Reaction': Towards a Poetics of the Sublime... - Toumara, Georgia
Travelling in the Byronic Aura: Cliché and Imaginary Geographies in Late Romantic and Victorian Travelogues to Greece and Italy
Research datasets
2021
Constantine, M.-A., Leask, N. , Mair Jones, F., Edwards, E., Deans, A., Williams, V., McHugh, K., Guariento, L. and Evans, R. P. (2021) Curious Travellers. [Data Collection]
