Research in English Literature
English Literature has a long-established and vibrant research culture encompassing work in many areas of literary and cultural studies. Our interests may be broadly divided into three chronological fields:
- Renaissance Studies (1500-1700)
- Eighteenth-Century, Romantic and Victorian Studies (1700-1900)
- Modernism, Contemporary Literature and Critical Theory (1900-).
We also address cross-period research themes, including Colonial and Postcolonial Studies, American Studies, Irish Studies, Medical Humanities, Translation, Textual Scholarship and Editing, Fantasy, Creative Writing and ecology/energy.
Most colleagues work across these themes, and many engage in interdisciplinary projects within and beyond the School, e.g. as part of the College-wide Glasgow Centre for Medieval and Renaissance Studies, the Andrew Hook Centre for American Studies, or the Glasgow Centre for Burns Studies.
Glasgow was ranked third in the UK, and first in Scotland, for research strength in English Language and Literature in the most recent Research Excellence Framework (REF 2014).
We have a thriving cohort of graduates, with a range of taught and research masters’ degrees and a large constituency of doctoral students. Our Masters courses include Victorian Studies, Modernities, Fantasy and Creative Writing, and we also contribute to Masters degrees in American Studies, Medical Humanities and Medieval and Renaissance Studies. Research and teaching is enriched by a varied programme of distinguished Visiting Speakers – both scholars and creative writers – as well as by the many major conferences hosted by the School.
The quality of our research and conference activities has been confirmed by our success in attracting awards from major funding bodies, including the British Academy, the UK and European Research Councils, the Leverhulme Trust, the Royal Society of Edinburgh, and the Wellcome Trust.