Unit of Assessment 27
English Language and Literature

The Department of English Literature engages in research that addresses current social and cultural issues in an open and enquiring way. Our cluster-based research and distinctive Research Centres reflect unique strengths in archival recovery and analysis, in cultural, gender, and racial identities, and in creative publication and creative approaches within critical debates.

• Ranked 6th in the UK for research outputs.
• 57% of research outputs rated 4* (world-leading).

Our three main research clusters are:

• Archives, Texts, and Materialities: focuses on recovery research deriving from conflict zones and writers who have been overlooked within cultural heritage. Our researchers are active in discovering and disseminating original contexts of textual publication through history and considering the processes of creativity through archival enquiry.
• Creativity: produces high-quality new writing in poetry and prose, explores creativity as a driver to ameliorate social trauma and encourages creative approaches towards both debate and practice; and
• Identities: considers the extent to which racial, ethnic, LGBT, and gender interconnections can inform the historical underpinnings of current social and cultural conditions.

Our commitment to embedding Digital Humanities within each of these clusters, including through digital presentation of scholarly editions, has been instrumental in promoting and disseminating our research to a large and diverse audience.

We have led the establishment of three new University Interdisciplinary Research Centres which promote opportunities for research which cross boundaries and genres, including in digital research. These are the Samuel Beckett Research Centre, the Centre for Book Cultures and Publishing, and the Centre for Health Humanities. Our researchers are also members of the Early Modern Research Centre.

Staff and doctoral students

We submitted 29 staff (28 FTE) to REF2021: 9 Professors, 10 Associate Professors and 9 Lecturers, including 1 Early Career Researcher. Over the assessment period, there were 34 doctoral completions and we have an annual average of 40 PhD students at any one time. In 2019/20 doctoral students came from 9 countries including the UK.

We are a member of the AHRC South, West and Wales Doctoral Training Programme. We are also one of three universities to participate in The Felix Scholarship that offers gifted underprivileged students from developing countries the opportunity of furthering their postgraduate education in the UK.

Research centres and partnerships

• The Museum of English Rural Life: we have brokered collaboration with the collections and hosted events and exhibitions in partnership with the MERL.
• Two Rivers Press: active support and collaboration with this local creative publishing house including a celebration of the art and history of Whiteknights.
• Oxford Natural History Museum: Professor Steven Matthews was their inaugural poet-in-residence.
• Berkshire Records Office & Reading Gaol: including collaborations around Oscar Wilde’s time in the Gaol.

Sector recognition

Selected examples of national and international recognition between 2014 and 2020:

• Fellows of the English Association (Professor Bryan Cheyette, Professor Gail Marshall, Professor Peter Robinson)
• President, Samuel Beckett Society (2013-15) (Dr Mark Nixon)
• Leverhulme Research Fellowship (2021-22) (Dr Yasmine Shamma)
• Wellcome Trust University Award (Dr Alanna Skuse)
• Modern Language Association ‘Bibliography, Archive, or Digital Project’ Prize (2018): Beckett Digital Manuscript Project

Examples of the impact our research has had at local, national and global levels.