We are a research-led department which includes cultural and literary historians, textual scholars, cultural and literary theorists, novelists, essayists and poets. Our research output has been deemed by peers to be ‘world-leading’ according to the criteria of the 2014 Research Excellence Framework.
We have remarkable research strengths across the historical breadth of English, and American, Literature. Our community of creative writers, both staff and students, includes those who work at the challenging interface between the creative and the critical, stimulating innovative reflection on practice and finding new readers and audiences. Our researchers are leading in their fields and invite opportunities to work with new research students.
As part of our strategic commitment to the engaged humanities, we also have an outstanding record of public engagement with institutions beyond the academy. For example, we contribute to wellbeing with collaborations with the Maudsley and Addenbrookes Hospitals and to heritage through our work with the Ditchling Museum and Coventry, City of Culture 2021. To support the future of the discipline, we work with schools and exam boards and support ‘English: Shared Futures’, a conference on the future of English in higher education. By working with organisations such as PEN and Liberty, we also foster freedom of speech.
We encourage all research students to participate in specialist Research Groups run by staff; we support research students to attend national and international conferences and to run their own reading groups in College and in the larger community of graduate students in the University of London. Our research is supported by excellent facilities at our Egham Campus and our Central London base and by strong ties with the Institute of English Studies in the School of Advanced Studies at Senate House, University of London. We encourage students to take full advantage of events and facilities available there.
See our Research Profile including a list of Researchers, Publications, Projects, Activities and Statistics.
