About the School of English Literature, Language and Linguistics
The School of English Literature, Language and Linguistics is a highly successful school with a long and prestigious history.
Let our students tell you more about who we are. Follow our student run Instagram (@ncl_english).
We are the highest ranked department for research in Literature and Language in the UK.
That excellence is the bedrock of all our teaching. Everyone eager to learn is welcome in our community. We offer undergraduate and postgraduate degrees in English Literature, English Language, Linguistics, and in Creative Writing. We offer undergraduate degrees in English Literature and History and in Classics and English with the School of History, Classics and Archaeology. Our work is inspired by those who have championed education. literature, language and the arts in our region. Here are three of the inspirational people who have shaped us and our ideas about the importance of literature, language and the arts.
Our Professorship of English Studies, established in 1898, is named in honour of Joseph Cowen.
Cowen was a reforming politician, journalist, and radical who consistently spoke up for the concerns of his working-class constituents. He helped found the first public library in Newcastle and was its first borrower, taking out John Stuart Mill's On Liberty. The School's main prize for Literature, given for an outstanding piece of undergraduate work every year, is named after his friend, Robert Spence-Watson, the Gateshead reformer and advocate of women's education.
We appointed the very first Professor of English Language and General Linguistics in Britain.
In 1964, Barbara Strang was appointed to the professorship, becoming one of the first women to hold such a post anywhere in the world. Her authoritative work on the history of English established a rich strand of research into dialects of English including Geordie. Renowned for her commitment to scholarship of the very highest standards, the Barbara Strang Teaching Centre at Newcastle is deservedly named in her honour.
In 2009, Professor Linda Anderson founds the Newcastle Centre for the Literary Arts from the School.
Linda Anderson's vision shaped many aspects of our School but none greater than when she established the School's degree in English Literature and Creative Writing. This degree recognised the North East's rich history as a place of and for writers, especially poets. The Centre was then founded by her as a place where contemporary writing might be performed and presented to public audiences.
It was opened by Nobel Laureate Seamus Heaney, who composed his poem 'Slack' in honour of the Centre.
The NCLA contributes to the cultural life of the North East by showcasing established and up-and-coming writers, dramatists, film-makers and poets. It offers an annual showcase for our creative writing students to share their work. Its archive preserves the papers of our region's writers including the archive of the Northeast's internationally lauded poetry publisher, Bloodaxe Books.
Who we are
